IC's and transistors used for driving stepper motor

The IC's and transistors which are used for driving stepper motor is as follows, the selection of the IC's or transistors is based on the current requirement of the stepper motor. For the stepper motor which requires low current less than 500mA ULN2003 could be used. For the stepper motor which requires high current greater than 500mA transistors like TIP120, TIP 121 and TIP122 can be used.

• ULN2003 - used to drive stepper motor which has current rating less than 500mA. current rating can be improved by piggybacking two ULN2003.

• TIP120, TIP121, TIP 122 - used to drive stepper motor which has higher current rating greater than 500mA. Diodes must be used to avoid back emf from affecting the control circuit. Heat sink is required for obtaining the maximum current. More economic and easy to use for driving stepper motors.

• SLA7032M, SLA7033M - two phase stepper motor unipolar driver IC's which provides output current of about 1.5A and 3A.
  
• SLA7070M, SLA7071M, SLA7072M and SLA7073M - motor driver IC's for unipolar devices which provides output current of 1A, 1.5A, 2A and 3A.
• L297/A/D - stepper motor controller IC generates four phase drive signals for two phase bipolar and four phase unipolar stepper motors in microcomputer-controlled applications. The motor can be driven in Half step, normal and wave drive modes. The direction of rotation can also be switched.
• SLA7024M, SLA7026M and SMA7029M - High-current PWM, Unipolar stepper motor controllers/drivers. They provide an output current of about 1.5A, 3.0A and 1.5A.
• You can even use mosfet transistors and some other power transistors for driving the stepper motor.
• Mostly i prefer using ULN2003 and TIP122 for driving the stepper motors because they are easily available in Ritchie street.