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ST and Mikroe Collaborate on “Click Boards” for STSPIN Motor Driver ICs in Embedded Systems

Suelte en : 22 oct. 2019

The recently announced Click boards extend the reach of ST's STSPIN motor driver ICs into the Mikroe ecosystem.

ST’s STSPIN motor control ICs are well-known industry-wide for their utility in motor control designs. Now, in a collaboration with Mikroe (shortened from MikroElektronika), ST has developed four Click boards that extend their utility to users of Mikroe prototyping boards, and for systems containing a mikroBUS socket.

The STMicroelectronics' STSPIN Motor Driver ICs

The ICs involved in the collaboration are the STSPIN220, STSPIN250, STSPIN820, and STSPIN233.

All four of these boards feature:

  • Low standby power consumption
  • Full protection set:
    • Non-dissipative overcurrent protection
    • Short-circuit protection
    • Thermal shutdown

 

  Operating Voltage Max. Output Current RDSONHS+LS Package
STSPIN220 1.8 to 10 V 1.3 ARMS 0.4 Ω typ. VFQFPN 3 x 3 x 1.0 mm
STSPIN250 1.8 to 10 V 2.6 ARMS 0.2 Ω typ. VFQFPN 3 x 3 x 1.0 mm
STSPIN820 7 to 45 V 1.5 ARMS 1 Ω typ. QFN 4 x 4mm
STSPIN233 1.8 to 10 V 1.3 ARMS 0.4 Ω typ. QFN 3 x 3 mm

 

The three STSPI2XX devices feature a typical standby current of 10 nA. 

The STSPIN220, STSPIN250, and the STSPIN820 feature a microstepping resolution of up to 1/256th of the step. The is STSPIN230 differs from the other three ICs in that it is targeted at 3-phase BLDC motors rather than steppers.

Mikroe Click Boards

Mikroe is an ST partner that has produced hundreds of boards with the purpose of interfacing microcontrollers to peripherals such as transceivers and sensors. They also can serve as development boards. These boards all conform to the mikroBUS standard that the company has developed and is widely endorsed by industry leaders.

Now, mounted on plug-and-play Click boards, the four ST motor driver ICs can be used without any hardware configuration. ST is also working with Mikroe to support the creation of MikroSDK libraries and code examples.

These four new STSPIN Click boards are handily named after four STSPIN motor driver ICs that form their core.

 

All four Click boards. Images from ST

 

STMicroelectronics provides on the four new Click boards: 

  • The STSPIN220 Click board
  • The STSPIN250 Click board
  • The STSPIN820 Click board
  • The STSPIN233 Click board

The first three, aimed at ST’s stepper motor ICs, are available now. The STSPIN233 Click board, based on the STSPIN233 brushless motor controller, is anticipated for later in Q4.

The mikroBUS Standard

The mikroBUS standard is an open standard. Adding a mikroBUS socket to a board allows designers to incorporate an expanding universe of Click boards into their products. These include transceivers, sensors, wireless transceivers, and, of course, ST motor drivers. 

The mikroBUS socket is a proprietary configuration that consists of two 1 x 8 female headers. The socket, and a Click board that can be mounted on it, are illustrated below.

 

The mikroBUS socket: Image (modified) from Mikroe

 

The image below shows a mikroBUS click board mounted on a PCB, by means of the mikroBUS socket illustrated above.

 

Mikroe mikroBUS socket

Image from Mikroe

 

Aside from ST, there are many other leading companies that use MikroBUS. These include Microchip, NXP, Fujitsu and many others. As of this writing, there are over 200 MikroBUS boards available.