TMC2209 DATASHEET (Rev. 1.03 / 2019-JUN-26) 14
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An effect which might be perceived at medium motor velocities and motor sine wave peak currents
above roughly 2A peak is a slight sine distortion of the current wave when using SpreadCycle. It
results from an increasing negative impact of parasitic internal diode conduction, which in turn
negatively influences the duration of the fast decay cycle of the SpreadCycle chopper. This is, because
the current measurement does not see the full coil current during this phase of the sine wave,
because an increasing part of the current flows directly from the power MOSFETs’ drain to GND and
does not flow through the sense resistor. This effect with most motors does not negatively influence
the smoothness of operation, as it does not impact the critical current zero transition. The effect does
not occur with StealthChop.
3.6 Low Power Standby
Battery powered applications, and mains powered applications conforming to standby energy saving
rules, often require a standby operation, where the power-supply remains on, but current draw goes
down to a low value. The TMC2209 supports standby operation of roughly 2mW (at 12V supply), or
<1mW at 5V supply using a dedicated pin STANDYBY. Pull up STANDBY to VCC_IO to go to low power
standby. VCC_IO may be dropped down to 1.5V during standby. A high level on STANDBY will disable
the internal 5V regulator and at the same time switches off all internal units. Prior to going to
STANDBY, stop the motor, and allow it to enter standstill current, or switch off the motor completely.
When in STANDBY, inputs ENN and VREF have to be driven to a low level. VCC_IO shall remain active
in standby mode. All driver registers are reset to their power-up defaults after leaving standby mode.
3.7 Driver Protection and EME Circuitry
Some applications have to cope with ESD events caused by motor operation or external influence.
Despite ESD circuitry within the driver chips, ESD events occurring during operation can cause a reset
or even a destruction of the motor driver, depending on their energy. Especially plastic housings and
belt drive systems tend to cause ESD events of several kV. It is best practice to avoid ESD events by
attaching all conductive parts, especially the motors themselves to PCB ground, or to apply electrically
conductive plastic parts. In addition, the driver can be protected up to a certain degree against ESD
events or live plugging / pulling the motor, which also causes high voltages and high currents into
the motor connector terminals. A simple scheme uses capacitors at the driver outputs to reduce the
dV/dt caused by ESD events. Larger capacitors will bring more benefit concerning ESD suppression,
but cause additional current flow in each chopper cycle, and thus increase driver power dissipation,
especially at high supply voltages. The values shown are example values – they may be varied
between 100pF and 1nF. The capacitors also dampen high frequency noise injected from digital parts
of the application PCB circuitry and thus reduce electromagnetic emission. A more elaborate scheme
uses LC filters to de-couple the driver outputs from the motor connector. Varistors in between of the
coil terminals eliminate coil overvoltage caused by live plugging. Optionally protect all outputs by a
varistor to GND against ESD voltage.