For standard BLDC motors, a power stage with a 3-phase inverter is used.

Control is provided by
applying
PWM waveforms to the MOSFETs of the 3-phase inverter. However, there are small high-speed BLDC
motors with very low inductance. If PWM is applied to the MOSFETs of the 3-phase inverter of such a
motor, the current waveform will copy the PWM voltage waveform. Such a current waveform will
rapidly
and frequently magnetize and demagnetize the metal causing huge thermal losses due to magnetic
hysteresis. Therefore, these BLDC motors require a special power stage with DC-DC Converter or AC-
Variable DC Converter. The basic schematic is shown below.

The amplitude of the applied voltage is adjusted by DC-DC Converter
using pulse width modulation. The required speed is controlled by a speed controller.
The speed and voltage controllers can be implemented as conventional PI controllers. The difference
between the actual and required speed (voltage) is the input to the PI controller. Using this difference,
the
PI controller controls the duty cycle of PWM pulses fed to the le DC-DC Converter,
corresponding to the voltage amplitude required to keep the desired speed.

This converter
Topology is an attractive choice for low cost variable speed
drive applications employing a PMSM drive system.



A common control algorithm for a permanent-magnet BLDC
motor is PWM current control. It is based on the assumption of
linear relationship between the phase current and the torque,
similar to that in a brushed dc motor. Therefore, by adjusting
phase current, the electromagnetic torque can be controlled
to meet the requirement. The general structure of a current
controller for a BLDC motor is shown in Fig. 5. Instantaneous
current in the motor is regulated in each phase by a hysteresis
regulator, which maintains the current within adjustable limits.
The rotor position information is sensed to enable commutation
logic, which has six outputs to control the upper and lower
phase leg power switches [22]. The current reference is determined by a PI regulator, which maintains
the rotor average
speed constant

In this mode, the applied voltage across the motor windings is changed by varying
the magnitude of the bus voltage. For that usually a boost converter is added after the
diode bridge rectifier. Apart from the DC bus voltage control, power factor correction
can also be achieved. Since there is no high frequency switching involved, the strategy is
quite simple and efficient.

The average voltage applied across the motor stator windings can also be changed
by modulating the switch duty cycle within the conduction interval. In this case the DC
bus voltage is kept constant while the winding current is determined by low frequency
component of the inverter output voltage. Hence the output current is more or less
similar to that shown in figures 3.2 and 3.3, with a switching frequency ripple. Switching
output voltage can be realized either by switching only one of the two switches per leg or
switching both the switches. Usually
120 degree switching used. In this case, only one switch switches per leg while the
other one conducts as shown in figure 3.8. Usually the high side switch is the one which
modulates the duty cycle while the low side switch conducts current continuously for 120
degree [29],

Direct Torque Control scheme was first proposed for induction motor. More recently, application of DTC
scheme is extended to BLDC motor
drives to minimize the torque ripples and torque response time as compared to
conventional PWM current controlled BLDC drives.
Fig. 3 shows a schematic of a DTC BLDC drive, which is essentially the same as that for a DTC BLAC drive,
except for the
switching table and torque estimation. By sampling the stator
phase currents and voltages and employing a stationary reference transformation, the stator flux linkage
in the stationary reference frame can be obtained. The rotor flux linkage in the stationary reference
frame can be calculated from (21) and (22),
while the magnitude of the stator flux linkage and the electromagnetic torque can be obtained from (19)
and (12), respectively. The
speed feedback derived from rotor position sensors is compared
to the speed command to form the torque command from the proportionalintegral (PI) speed
regulator. The stator flux-linkage
and torque commands are obtained from hysteresis controllers by
comparing the estimated electromagnetic torque and stator flux
linkage with their demanded values. The switching pattern of the inverter can be determined according
to the stator flux-linkage and torque status from the outputs of two
regulators shown in Fig. 3, and the sector in which the stator flux
linkage is located at that instant of time.

The drive system is dependent on the position and current sensors for control.
Elimination of both the sensors is desirable in many applications, particularly in the
low-cost but high-volume applications from the cost and compact packaging points
of view. Between the two sensors, the current sensor is easier to accommodate in the
electronics part of the system whereas the position sensor requires a considerable
labor and spatial volume in the motor for its mounting. That makes it all the more
important to do without the position sensor for the control of the PMBDCM drive
system. Many methods are possible to estimate the commutation signals and they
are described briefly in the following

Estimation using machine model: The induced emf can be sensed from
the machine model using the applied currents and voltages and machine
parameters of resistance, self-inductance, and mutual inductance. The
advantage of this method is that an isolated signal can be extracted as the
input variables of currents and voltages are themselves isolated signals.
The voltages can be extracted from the base or gate drive signals and the
dc link voltage. The variations in the dc link voltage can be estimated
from the dc link filter parameters and the dc link current. Parameter sensitivity, particularly that of the
stator resistance, will introduce an error in
the induced emf estimation, resulting in inaccurate commutation signals
to the inverter.
2. Induced emf from sensing coils: Sensing coils in the machine can be
installed inexpensively to obtain the induced emf signals. The advantages
of this method are that the signals are fairly clean, parameter insensitive,
and galvanically isolated. The disadvantages are in the manufacturing process and additional wire
harness from the machine. The latter, for example,
is not acceptable in refrigerator compressor motor drives due to the hermetic sealing requirements.

Sensing emfs from inactive phases
In this method, position information is
extracted by integrating the back-EMF of the silent phase. Integration starts when the
open phase's back-EMF crosses zero. A threshold is set to stop the integration that
corresponds to a commutation instant. This method also has a problem at low speeds
because of the error accumulation problem

Many techniques have been introduced to minimize the
torque ripples of BLDC Motor.







Design, implementation, and performance analysis of fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) for various
applications such as dc servomotor, BLDC motor, gas-turbine
plant, servo systems, etc., are presented in [4], [10][12], [27],
[28]. The genetic algorithm-based method for the determination of the PID controller parameters for
achieving improved
performance is discussed in [13]. The robust adaptive and optimal control scheme to compensate for
parametric and dynamic
uncertainties in the BLDC motor drives is investigated in [14],
[25], and [30]. The design of BLDC motor controller for electric
vehicle application and BLDC motor drives is described in [15]
and [16]. The pulse width modulated (PWM) and digital control schemes for the BLDC motor drives are
discussed in [17]
and [18]. Design and implementation of adaptive controllers for improving the performance of dc
motors and BLDC drives
under different operating conditions are discussed in [20][22]




Drive systems employ the cascade control systems which necessitate a feedback from the rotational
speed of the motor The speed controller utilizes the signal of the speed error
to determine a current reference for the current controller. In
the discrete control systems, the values of the current reference
signal are computed according to the occurrence of successive
speed measurements. Therefore, if a measurement
is inaccurate or is performed with a low frequency, it subsequently results in the fluctuation of the
motor current and, consequently, in a fluctuation in its driving torque. The measurement
should therefore be performed with a high frequency and a high
accuracy. This is of particular importance in drives where the
speed is determined from the signals obtained from the position
sensors in the shaft-mounted rotor. The inaccuracy and misalignment in the mounting of the sensor
system
means that the speed which is determined based on the sensor
signals oscillates around the actual values. These deviations are
amplified by the speed controller and transferred further onto
the motor current and its torque. Such drawback can be particularly dangerous in systems which utilize
a high gain proportional controller. In the proportional-integral controllers, such
oscillation is partially filtered. Usually a separated encoder is used for precise calculation of speed. []
presents a method to calculate speed from hall signals itself. Its more precise compared to other
methods which extracts speed from hall signals, since its updating speed 6 times in a electrical cycle.

As shown in Fig. 1, the period of the signal from the
position sensors corresponds to the period of the
back EMF . Hence, the rotational speed of the motor
can be determined from the period of these signals. The rotational speed value determined in such way
may then be used
as a feedback signal in the speed control system. Determining
the speed of the motor from the period of a single position
sensor allows to obtain one measurement result per rotation [6].
The frequency of measurements can be doubled by measuring
half-period of the signal from the position sensor (independently
determining the low and high state durations). Misalignment
of the sensor and an imprecise assembly may cause the signal
duty factor to differ from 50%. Therefore, the speed determined
during the low state is different from that determined during the
high state. Despite the assembly imperfection, the complete rotation period of the rotor equals the sum
of durations the position
sensor signal is in the low and high states. Thus, summing up the two consecutive measurements of half
rotation time (i.e., the
present result and the result of the preceding measurement), we
can obtain the exact value of the rotation period of the rotor with
a double measurement frequency.

In order to determine the speed of rotation of a BLDC motor,
it is necessary to determine the period of the signal from the
sensor of rotor position. In order to achieve this, the signals
from the position sensors of low and high states should be determined independently. Thiscan be
accomplished by utilizing
a counter that counts clock pulses of a known and constant frequency (Fig. 5). The counter iscleared at
each change of
signal level from the sensor of the rotor position . Before the
counter reset the count result is copied to the register ,the
value of which is proportional to the duration of a given leve of the sensor signal. The rotation period of
the rotor is
determined from the sum of the duration of the last level
and duration of the previous level. Upon determining the period , the number proportional to the
duration of the last
level is copied to the memory register.
The block diagram of this algorithm is shown in Fig. 5.
The algorithm shown in Fig. 5 determines the rotation period using a pulse from one of the sensors. In
order to achieve
a higher measurement frequency, the algorithm should be executed independently for each sensor. The
waveforms in Fig. 6
illustrate the implementation of the speed measurement algorithm based on the analysis of signals from
three sensors.


The algorithm (1) for determining the rotation period does
not distinguish between the directions of rotation. Since the signals from the position sensors are
shifted with respect to each
other by 2/3 of the period and their sequence depends on the
direction of rotation, the rotation direction can be determined
using D-type flip-flops. A signal from an arbitrary chosen sensor
(connected to the clock input) triggers the flip-flop, whereas the
signal from the subsequent sensor is connected to the D input.


Fig. 3 shows an example application of a D-type flip-flop
[Fig. 3(a)] and the waveforms of the position sensor signals
for both directions of rotation. In such application, the flip-flop
output state is determined by the direction of the rotation of the
rotor (if, for one direction, the output state is high, it assumes
the low state for the opposite direction). In some drive systems,
it is important to be able to detect a change in the direction of
rotation as fast as possible (e.g., in order to detect the speed zero
crossing or to stop the drive).
In such cases, determining the direction of rotation from just
one phase signal is insufficient. In the extreme cases the detection of reversal of the direction of
rotation will occur only after
one complete rotation of the rotor. An earlier detection of direction reversal (after 1/3 of rotation) is
possible using the logical
circuit shown in Fig. 4.
The logical circuit for determining the direction of rotation
(Fig. 4) employs three D-type flip-flops, each of them assigned
to a different phase. In this solution the motor reversal will
change the output state of one of the flip-flops after 1/3 of the rotation. Flip-flop outputs are connected
to the three-input logical
functions OR and AND. The OR gate detects the change from the
low to a high state of one flip-flop and the AND gate responds to
the opposite change of state. In the steady state (when the motor
rotates in one direction) the output states of OR and AND gates
are identical, and the XOR function output assumes the low state.
Upon the change of the direction of rotation the outputs of the
OR and AND gates assume opposite states (during 2/3 of the rotation), whereas a short pulse occurs at
the output of the XOR
Function (with a duration of 1/6 of the rotation). This pulse may
inform the control system about the reversal of the direction of
rotation or the motor stopping.


The described implementation, employing signals from the
rotor position sensor, ensures a high-accuracy and high-frequency speed measurement in
acommutatorless dc machine.
The rotor position signal comes from the external position
sensors or from a sensorless method for determining the
commutation points. Furthermore, this application enables a
precise control of the motor and provides a method for rapid
assessment of the direction of the motor rotation.
The proposed solution is characterized by a high accuracy
(any potential inaccuracies and misalignment in the mounting of
the position sensors do not affect thefinal measurement result)
and good dynamics (offering at least six measurements per rotation).




PM brushless dc machines with ideal trapezoidal induced emfs fed with rectangular currents of electrical
120 duration have a constant torque with no torque ripples. Deviation
from ideal conditions introduces torque ripples.
It is not possible to generate ideal rectangular currents due to the time delay inherent
in the machine. Therefore the currents become more or less trapezoidal, which produces a large
commutation torque ripple as much as 10%15% of the rated torque
The desired current waveform is rectangular and 120 wide in each half cycle for the
PM brushless dc motors (PMBDCM) drive. Due to the leakage inductance, Ll
, the
stator currents take a finite time to rise and fall, thus distorting the ideal rectangular
waveforms into trapezoidal shapes. The effect of this is the torque ripple generated at
the current transitions. For a three-phase machine, there will be six torque ripples for
every 360 electrical degrees as there are six current transitions. They will also reduce
the average torque if the conduction time is maintained at electrical 120 whereby
the constant current region is reduced below electrical 120.



Ideally, a BLDC motor, with a trapezoidal back-electromotive-force (EMF) waveform whose
amplitude is constant over
120

elec., will produce ripple-free torque when supplied with rectangular 120

elec. phase-current waveforms. However, in a
practical BLDC drive, significant torque pulsations may arise due to the back-EMF waveform departing
from the ideal, as well
as phase current ripple resulting from commutation events, pulse width modulation (PWM). Fig. 4
shows the current paths
during commutation between phases b and c. At the instant of phase current commutation, the three
phase back-EMFs are

=
,


= and


=, where E is the peak value of the Back-EMF waveform . The back-EMFs are assumed to be constant
during the phase-current commutation.

The discussed method is simple but effective in reducing commutation torque ripple

During commutation
periods at high rotational speeds, it automatically combines
two- and three-phase switching modes by minimizing the error
between the commanded torque and the estimated torque.
It differs from other methods in the fact that the exact duration of the threephase switching mode is not
required, since it is automatically
determined by comparing the commanded torque with the
estimated torque