New Industry Products

Current Control Provides Ultra-Smooth, Quiet Operation for Step Motors

October 12, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Performance Motion Devices, Inc. announced today the new Juno® Step Motor Control Integrated Circuit (IC) in a small 56-pin VQFN package. The new Juno Step Motor Control IC is the latest addition to the Juno® Velocity and Torque Control IC family, the industry's first family of compact ICs with full four quadrant motion control, direct input quadrature encoder, profile generation and advanced current control.

Juno ICs are targeted for designs with limited space, that need to control noise, vibration and power consumption. Juno ICs are easy to deploy with embedded motion commands and on-board intelligence.

The Juno IC family is designed for a wide range of applications including precision liquid pumping, packaging and lab automation, pick and place machines, flow rate control, XYZ tables, and many other robotic, scientific, and industrial applications.

The Juno Step Motor Control IC 56-pin VQFN package has the highest pwm frequencies ever offered by Performance Motion Devices and the smallest IC parts, measuring 7.2mm x 7.2mm. Juno Step Motor Control IC's are available both with encoder input and without.

In addition, the Juno Step Motor Control IC comes with numerous safety features including stall detection, over- and under-voltage sense, overcurrent detection, over-temperature, and i2 t current foldback which provide OEMs with significant performance advantages and reduced risk. Coupled with compact MOSFETs, the Juno Step Motor Control IC can replace older step motor amplifiers and dramatically reduce the size and heat output.

"Juno Step Motor Control ICs offer embedded motion and utilize a proprietary current control technique that results in ultra-smooth, quiet, and efficient motion of the step motor," said Chuck Lewin, CEO of Performance Motion Devices.

"By driving step motors more quietly and rapidly, existing step motor-based systems can get a performance boost and avoid an expensive transition to a brushless dc motor. In short this IC lets step motor users upgrade the controls but keep the motor and still get a big jump in machine performance,” Lewin concluded.