Micro Step vs. Full Step - A Quantitative Competition

Stepper motors are used in a wide range of automotive applications. High reliability at low cost, low power dissipation, and low noise are the main requirements for those applications. Compared to full stepping, micro stepping has better performance concerning reliability, accuracy, low-noise, and also on wear out. With micro stepping, a low resolution low cost stepper motor may have the same or better performance then a more expensive stepper motor with higher resolution with full stepping. To decide either to realize micro stepping or full stepping, quantitative criteria are required for the competition. This article gives those criteria based on the physics of the stepper motor.