L297 Stepper Motor Controller IC

The L297 Stepper Motor Controller IC designed with four phase drive signals for two phase bipolar and four phase unipolar step motors in microcomputer-controlled applications. This motor has the capacity to drive in half step, normal and wawe drive modes.  And also the two on-chip PWM chopper circuits permit switch-mode control of the current in the windings. This device requires only clock, direction and mode input signals. As the phase generated internally the load on the microprocessor, and the programmer,  reduced greatly .

L297 Stepper Motor Controller IC easily mounted in DIP20 and SO20 packages.  The L297 Stepper Motor Controller primarily intended for use with an L298N or L293E bridge driver. Or with discrete transistors and darlingtons in stepper motor driving applications. This IC accepts the control signals from the system’s controller, usually a microcomputer chip. And provides all the necessary drive signals for the power stage.

The L297 driver combination offers a wide range of advantages such as it requires only a few components. As a result,  assembly costs remains low, reliability high, and little space required, also software development simplified and the burden on the micro reduced. Moreover, the choice of a two-chip approach gives a high degree of flexibility.  L297 widely used with any power stage, including discrete power devices that provides 20mA drive for this purpose. The heart of the L297 is a block called the translator that generates suitable phase sequences for half step, one-phase-on full step and two-phase-on full-step operation. This block controlled via two mode inputs – direction (CW/ CCW) and HALF/ FULL – and a step clock that advances the translator from one step to the next.