Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

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Engineering Science and Technology,

an International Journal
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jestch

Full Length Article

Design and fabrication of a new hybrid stepper motor with significant

improvements in torque density
Mohammadreza Hojati a, Amir Baktash b,⇑
a
Department of Mechatronics, Arak University, Arak, Iran
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A stepper motor is an actuator widely used in different areas for various purposes such as robots and CNC
Received 28 February 2020 machines. This motor has 3 different types and the hybrid type is the most common and useful one. This
Revised 15 October 2020 paper has presented a new structure for conventional hybrid stepper motors (HSMs) that has improved
Accepted 26 January 2021
the torque density dramatically and more than 200% compared with the conventional ones. This motor
Available online 27 February 2021
firstly is modeled on the computer and has been analyzed with a 3D finite element method (3D FEM)
software. Then the results have been compared with the conventional motors and after the proof of its
Keywords:
superiority, it is fabricated and the results of theoretical and practical tests are compared. These results
Holding torque
Hybrid stepper motor
confirm the advantages of the new structure for HSMs.
Torque analysis Ó 2021 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
Torque density BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The stepper motor can be considered as a synchronous motor
that rotates discretely and step-by-step. These actuators are ideal
options for the places that accurate position control is desired.
Moreover, compared with other synchronous motors, they have
high torque but low speed which is due to their structure and
are used in various applications such as robots and CNC machines.
Stepper motors are in 3 types including variable reluctance, per-
manent magnet, and hybrid stepper motor. The variable reluctance
stepper motor has a toothed light rotor and a toothed stator. Per-
manent magnet stepper motor has no teeth on its rotor which is
made up of magnetic materials. HSMs have a toothed rotor with
magnets inside it. This type has high torques and small steps [1].
There have been published many papers about stepper motors;
however, almost all of them are about different methods of analyz-
ing stepper motors or different ways of controlling their speed or
rotor position and very few studies have been done on the motor
structure.
Jenkins et al. [2] have worked on optimization of produced
magnetic flux on rotor and stator in stepper motors. They have
used the equivalent magnetic circuit of the motor to achieve the
desired results. Matsui et al. [3] have analyzed the working torque
of a HSM. They have divided the air gap between the rotor and the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: amir.baktash@pel.iaun.ac.ir (A. Baktash).
Peer review under responsibility of Karabuk University.
stator into 5 separate sections and with the use of magnetic circuit
and permeability for each section, have calculated the motor
torque.
Kosaka et al. [4] have tried to increase the 3D FEM speed by
using a nonlinear magnet analysis method for hybrid stepper
motors. Lim et al. [5] have investigated a 5-phase HSM character-
istics considering the saturation effects. They have used the neural
network method to estimate unknown parameters to be applied to
the equivalent magnetic circuit of the motor. Kang et al. [6] have
analyzed a 5-phase HSM torque using 2D FEM and a parametric
magnetic circuit. Lin et al. [7] have simulated and experimented
of a sensorless controller for a hybrid stepper motor using the
DSP method. Bendjedia et al. [8] also have worked on controlling
sensorless HSMs using DSP systems. Jung et al. [9] have worked
on holding torque optimization of permanent magnet stepper
motors. Their work was focused on some key parameters in the
motor such as the teeth forms and the number of the wire-turns.
To do this, they used the 3D FEM and the design of experiment
(DOE) methods.
Le-Huy et al. [10] have designed a versatile and comprehensive
MATLAB model for stepper motors. Using this model, they could
calculate different parameters of a stepper motor. Stuebig et al.
[11] compared different methods to calculate hybrid stepper
motors parameters. They combined FEM and analytical methods
and achieved a faster method for calculating the parameters. Rao
et al. [12] have investigated the effects of different topologies
and geometric designs such as uniform and non-uniform air gap
and their effects on the performance of permanent magnet HSMs.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2021.01.016
2215-0986/Ó 2021 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Hojati and A. Baktash Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

Butcher et al. [13] have prepared an electrical model for hybrid

stepper motors that can be used in intelligent drives for real-
time control and observations. Lu et al. [14] have designed a new
stepper motor in which some permanent magnets were applied
to the stator structure. They claim that their motor has a better
performance compared with conventional stepper motors.
Zhang et al. [15] have done a study about stepper motors
motion control using a microcontroller unit (MCU). Lv et al. [16]
have worked on controlling HSMs with the use of sliding mode
control approach. Gaan et al. [17] and Oo et al. [18] have used
MATLAB to study stepper motors and their control. Zhou et al.
[19] have presented a new method to control hybrid stepper
motors with the use of a low-cost Magnetic Rotary Position Sensor.
Kavitha et al. [20] have proposed a disk-type HSM that uses coils in
the rotor instead of the magnets. They believe that this arrange-
ment can produce more magnetic flux and therefore, better motor
performance is achievable. Ionica et al. [21] have modeled a hybrid
Fig. 1. Schematic of the hybrid stepper motor components, 1: Stator, 2: Coil, 3: Up
stepper motor and have used the numerical method to calculate
rotor, 4: Magnet, 5: Down rotor.
the motor torque.
Based on the previous studies mentioned above, almost all of
the papers about stepper motors speak about different methods
of analyzing and controlling them and very few papers are about
the motor structure for improving its torque density. Therefore,
in this paper, a new structure for HSMs is introduced that has
improved the torque density significantly. In section 2, the funda-
mentals of the conventional hybrid stepper motors are explained
and a real one is modeled and the results of the simulation and
practical experiments are presented. In section 3, the new struc-
ture is introduced and its fundamentals are explained, and in sec-
tion 4, the simulation and practical results of the new motor are
presented. Also, in this section, the results of the conventional
and the new motor are compared.

Fig. 2. Schematic of the flux path through the stepper motor.

2. Conventional hybrid stepper motor fundamentals

In contrary to other types of electric motors, hybrid stepper
motors have toothed rotor and stator. The rotor in this motor has
two half-rotors -which have non-alignment arrangement with
each other, and a cylindrical magnet between them that makes
one of the half rotors the N-pole and the other one the S-pole;
and the stator has several poles with a coil/coils on each of them.
For the 2-phase stepper motors with 1.8° steps, the rotor has 50
teeth on each half-rotor and the stator has 8 poles- 4 poles for each
phase with 90° of mechanical phase difference. Coils in adjacent
poles within the same phase have opposite directions making
opposite magnetic poles. Fig. 1 illustrates the hybrid stepper motor
components and their arrangements.
Based on the motor structure, to be able the motor to rotate at
each time step, one phase is excited. By excitation of the coils in
each phase, two poles of the phase become N poles and the other
two poles become S poles, therefore, the magnetic flux will pass
a quarter of the stator to flow through the stator and reach the
rotor. Besides, since the two half-rotors are in non-alignment
arrangement, half of each stator pole is in attraction mode with
one of the half-rotors and the other part of the stator pole is in
repulsion mode with the other half-rotor. Fig. 2 shows the sche-
matic of the flux path in hybrid stepper motors and Fig. 3 illus-
trates the flux path and attraction and repulsion parts of the
stator poles.
Conventional HSMs have a main problem that is about the mag-
netic flux path. As explained, the flux in the stator should pass a
quarter of it to reach the rotor which means more reluctance
amount in the motor. In addition, the middle zone in each excited
pole is in transient mode between attraction and repulsion; there-
fore, it is a waste of energy. But to solve these problems, firstly a
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conventional stepper motor should be analyzed. Therefore, a 2-
phase stepper motor was chosen and modeled and solved in the
Ansys Maxwell software. Fig. 4 shows this motor and Table 1 pre-
sents its technical specifications.
To examine the accuracy of the prepared computer model for
the conventional HSM, the motor holding torque was tested with
several coil excitation currents and these results were compared
with the results of the simulated model. This comparison proved
the accuracy of the computer model. Fig. 5 illustrates the testing
bed, Table 2 represents the practical test results, and Fig. 6 shows
the comparison between the real motor and the simulated model.
3. Designing the new motor
As mentioned in the previous section, due to the problems in
the motor‘s structure, the magnetic flux is weakened and a better
structure for the motor is necessary so that the flux faces less reluc-
tance through its path. The new design has solved this problem.
The rotors of both motors have three parts including two half-
rotors and a magnet between them but contrary to the conven-
tional motors, the teeth of two half-rotors in the new motor are
aligned. The stator also is different. It has two half-stators and
every one of them has eight poles for both phases. Each pole in
the upper half-stator has a corresponding pole in the lower one
at the same cross-section, but the coils in them have the opposite
wire-turn directions making a pair of magnetic poles. The effect of
this arrangement is the reduction of the magnetic flux path in the
stator to the minimum possible; therefore, the motor can reach the
same excitations as the conventional stepper motors but with
lower currents. Fig. 7 illustrates the schematic of the stator in the
M. Hojati and A. Baktash Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

Table 1
The conventional stepper motor specifications.

Motor outer diameter 56.5 mm

Motor body height 52 mm
Stator outer diameter 54.1 mm
Stator inner diameter 30 mm
Number of teeth in each stator pole 5
Stator teeth depth 1.25 mm
Stator height 23 mm
Air gap 0.1 mm
Rotor outer diameter 29.8 mm
Half-rotors height 10 mm
Distance between 2 rotors 3 mm
Number of teeth in each rotor 50
Rotor teeth depth 1.5 mm
Magnet diameter 20.8 mm
Magnet height 13 mm
Number of wire-turns per coil 32
Wire diameter 0.6 mm
Stator and rotors material Steel 1008
Magnet material NdFe35
Stator and rotors teeth fillet radius 0.125 mm
Maximum nominal current 3A
Angle per step 1.8°

Fig. 5. Stepper motor test-bed, (a) Front view, (b) Back view, 1: Stepper motor, 2:
Weights carrier arm, 3: Arduino and LCD shield, 4: Load cell, 5: Weights.

Table 2
Stepper motor experiment results.
Fig. 3. Magnetic flux path in a conventional hybrid stepper motor, (a) half of the
stator, (b) magnetic flux on the stator. Current [A] Weights mass [gr] Torque [mN.m]
1.05 218 130.8
1.53 297 178.2
1.96 373 223.8
2.35 433 259.8
2.73 477 286.2

Fig. 4. Conventional hybrid stepper motor, (a) Whole motor, (b) Rotor, (c) Stator.
design has just 26 turns of wire in each pole. Hence, the rotor in
the new motor is 1.35 times the rotor in the conventional one.
Table 3 represents the new motor specifications.
To measure the amount of torque improvement by the new
motor, both motor models were simulated with 1.5 A coils excita-
tion and their output torque was analyzed through the 3D FEM
method by Ansys Maxwell. Fig. 10 demonstrates the results.

new motor and the magnetic flux path through it, Fig. 8 represents
the magnetic flux in a cross-section of the new motor, and Fig. 9
demonstrates the new HSM.
Since in the new structure the flux path has reduced signifi-
cantly, with fewer wire-turns in the coils the air gap flux reaches
the amount as in the conventional hybrid stepper motor. Fewer
wire-turns mean occupying less space; therefore, by shrinking
the stator poles, the rotor can be enlarged leading to increasing
the produced torque by the motor. The sample conventional step-
per motor has 32 turns of wire in each pole whereas the new
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4. Manufactured motor and the results comparison
To check the new motor performance and the amount of differ-
ence in the torque production between the conventional motor and
the new motor, the 2 computer models were analyzed for several
test points. Fig. 11 illustrates the output torque for two motors
from 0.5 A to 4.5 A.
As it is clear from the graph, not only the output torque in the
conventional stepper motor is less the half of the new motor, but
M. Hojati and A. Baktash Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

Fig. 9. New designed motor, (a) total, (b) rotor, (c) stator.

Table 3
New motor specifications.

Motor outer width 56.4 mm

Motor body height 50 mm
Fig. 6. Real motor and simulated model holding torque. Stator outer width 56.4 mm
Stator inner diameter 40.2 mm
Number of teeth in each stator pole 5
Stator teeth depth 0.75 mm
Stator height 2*21 mm
Air gap 0.1 mm
Rotor outer diameter 40 mm
Half-rotors height 17.5 mm
Distance between 2 half-rotors 3 mm
Number of teeth in each rotor 50
Rotor teeth depth 1.25 mm
Magnet diameter 35 mm
Magnet height 25 mm
Number of wire-turns per coil 26
Wire diameter 0.6 mm
Stator and rotors material Steel 1008
Magnet material NdFe35
Stator and rotors teeth fillet radius 0.125 mm
Maximum nominal current 4.5 A
Angle per step 1.8°

Fig. 7. Schematic of half of the stator and the flux path through the virtual magnets
made in each pole couple, 1: Up stator, 2: Down stator, 3: coil, 4: Flux path.

Fig. 10. Comparison between conventional stepper motor and the new designed
stepper motor at 1.5 A coils excitation.

also it starts to saturate around 3 A whereas the new motor has not
reached the saturation point even after 4.5 A.
To investigate the influence of the stator structure exclusively,
the conventional and the new-designed motors were analyzed
with the exact conditions, which means the same coil wire-turn
numbers (26 turns), the same coil excitations (1.5 A) and the same
rotor diameters. First, two motors were analyzed with 30 mm for
the rotors diameter. The results demonstrated that for this condi-
Fig. 8. Magnetic flux path in the new model. tion, two motors have the same output torques- neglecting that
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M. Hojati and A. Baktash Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

put torque of the conventional stepper motors. This is because in

the conventional stepper motors, as mentioned before, the mag-
netic flux passes a quarter of the stator to reach the rotor but in
the new structure, this path has reduced to the minimum,

Fig. 11. Two motors’ output torque and saturation effects on their performance.

the new-designed motor had a better torque wave. However, for

the analysis with 40 mm for the rotors diameter, the output torque
for the new-designed motor was significantly higher than the out-
Fig. 14. response time for 1.8° (one full step) rotor rotation in both motors.

Fig. 12. Stator structure comparison between the conventional and the new-
designed stepper motors when rotor diameter is 30 mm.

Fig. 13. Stator structure comparison between the conventional and the new-
designed stepper motors when rotor diameter is 40 mm. Fig. 15. The new motor, (a) The rotor, (b) The stator, (c) The whole motor.

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M. Hojati and A. Baktash Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 24 (2021) 1116–1122

therefore, the new structure can accept rotors with higher diame-
ters whereas conventional stepper motors cannot accept these
rotor diameters and face saturation problems even in low coil cur-
rents. Figs. 12 and 13 represent these comparisons.
Another substantial characteristic in stepper motors is rotor
stabilization. The rotor moment of inertia is very influential to
motor performance. This parameter for the above-mentioned con-
ventional stepper motor is about 1.15e-5 Kgm^2 while for the new
motor with the bigger rotor, it is 7.27e-5 Kgm^2. This parameter
for the new motor is more than 6 times the conventional motor;
however, as it is clear from Fig. 14, the settling time for the new
motor is only 3 times that of the conventional stepper motor.
Hence, the produced torque increase overweighs the longer set-
tling time problem. Moreover, it should not be overlooked that
since the new motor can produce higher levels of torque, this
new motor definitely is smaller than a conventional motor with
the same level of producing torque. Therefore, its settling time
would certainly be less if it is compared with a conventional step-
per motor with the same output torque. Fig. 18. Speed/Torque curvature for the conventional and the new stepper motors.

After investigating the new motor simulation’s performance,

the motor was fabricated. The rotor and stator were made by
Another comparison between these two motors is the Speed/
st37 sheets which has comparable properties as steel 1008. This
Torque curvature. From Fig. 18, it is clear that the new structure
motor is handmade by simple workshop tools and is not perfectly
has enhanced not only the holding torque but also the working tor-
made. Therefore, the results are lower than the simulation. Fig. 15
que of the hybrid stepper motor.
demonstrates the fabricated motor and Fig. 16 represents the com-
From this picture, this is obvious that due to the moment of
parison between the simulation and the fabricated motor and
inertia, by increasing the pulse rate, the motor torque increases.
Fig. 17 illustrates the conventional motor and the new motor
But this is limited and after a point, increasing the pulse rate has
together for comparing their sizes.
a reverse effect on the motor working torque.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, a new structure for the hybrid stepper motors is

introduced. This structure contains a 3-section rotor and a 2-
section stator. The working fundamentals and procedures are the
same but this structure can accept higher coils excitations and
higher rotor diameters compared with the conventional hybrid
stepper motors and these advantages have resulted in the signifi-
cant torque density increase. However, since it has more parts,
its assembly is harder to some extent, but the advantages of this
motor have made this problem neglectable.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-

cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

Fig. 16. Comparison between the fabricated motor and its 3D FEM simulation. References

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