Data Sheet
MP6500 – 35V, 2.5A STEP MOTOR DRIVER W/ INTERNAL CURRENT SENSE 
MP6500 Rev. 1.0  www.MonolithicPower.com  13 
6/22/2017  MPS Proprietary Information. Patent Protected. Unauthorized Photocopy and Duplication Prohibited. 
  © 2017 MPS. All Rights Reserved. 
Blanking Time 
There  is  usually  a  current  spike  during  the 
switching  transition  due  to  the  body  diode’s 
reverse-recovery  current  and  the  distributed 
winding capacitance of the motor. This current 
spike  requires  filtering  to  prevent  it  from 
erroneously shutting down the HS-FET.  
After the  PWM cycle begins, the  output of the 
current sense comparator is ignored for the fixed 
blanking  time.  This  blanking  time  results  in  a 
minimum on time for the PWM cycle. 
Automatic Decay Mode 
The MP6500 uses a fully automatic decay mode 
to provide accurate current regulation. 
Initially,  slow decay  is used.  At the  end of the 
fixed  off  time,  if  the  current  is  above  the  I
TRIP 
threshold, then fast decay mode  is initiated by 
reversing the state of the H-bridge outputs. 
Once  the  current  level  during  this  fast  decay 
period  drops  below  the  I
TRIP
  threshold,  slow 
decay  is again engaged  for another  fixed off 
time.  After the completion of this second fixed 
off time, a new PWM cycle begins. 
Figure 3 below shows the automatic decay mode 
operation during a current reduction as a result 
of a step input. 
t
OFF
I
OUT
I
TRIP
Slow Decay During t
OFF
 Unless 
I
OUT
 > I
TRIP
 at end of t
OFF
t
OFF
t
OFF
t
OFF
t
OFF2
t
OFF
t
OFF
t
OFF
Fast 
Decay
I
TRIP
Change
Slow 
Decay
Figure 3: Slow Decay During t
OFF
 unless I
OUT
 > 
I
TRIP
 at end of t
OFF 
In some cases, specifically high voltage and low 
inductance  or  the  regulation  of  very  small 
currents, the minimum on time of the PWM cycle 
(set by the blanking time described above) can 
cause  the  current  to  rise  very  quickly.  In  this 
case, both  slow and fast  decay are used  (see 
Figure 4). 
t
OFF
I
OUT
I
TRIP
Current regulation of low 
current / low inductance
t
OFF
Fast 
Decay
t
OFF2
t
OFF
t
OFF2
t
OFF2
Slow 
Decay
t
ON_MIN
Figure 4: Current Regulation of Low Current/Low 
Inductance 
Microstep Selection (MS1, MS2) 
The step mode is selected by applying logic high 
and low voltages to the MS1 and MS2 (see Table 
1).  The  MP6500  supports  full-,  half-,  quarter-, 
and eighth-step  modes  for  progressively  finer 
step resolution and control. 
Table 1: Stepping Format 
MS2 
MS1 
STEP Mode 
L 
L 
Full step 
L 
H 
Half step 
H 
L 
Quarter step 
H 
H 
Eighth step 
Full-step mode has four states with each motor 
winding driven with either 70.7% of the maximum 
positive  current  or  70.7%  of  the  maximum 
negative  current.  This  provides  four  steps  per 
electrical rotation. Half-step mode creates eight 
steps per electrical rotation. Quarter- and eighth-
step modes provide 16 and 32 steps per rotation 
respectively. 
Table 2 and Figure 5 show the relative current 
level sequence for different settings of MSx. 
The MSx pins have internal pull-down resistors. 
SLEEP, nENBL Operation 
Driving nSLEEP low puts the device into a low-
power sleep state. In this state, the gate  drive 
charge pump is stopped, and all the internal 
circuits  and  H-bridge  outputs  are  disabled.  All 
inputs are ignored when nSLEEP is active low. 
When  waking  up  from  sleep  mode, 
approximately 1ms of time must pass before a 
STEP  command  can  be  issued  to  allow  the 
internal circuitry to stabilize. nSLEEP has an 
internal pull-down resistor. 










