A Novel PWM Scheme for Position Sensorless Control

of BLDC Motor Drives Based on Back EMF

Zicheng Li, Zhouping Yin, and You-lun Xiong

State Key Lab of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology,

Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
430074, Wuhan, China
lizich@sohu.com

Abstract. The method based on back electromotive force (EMF) of brushless

direct current (BLDC) motor is one of the major approaches for rotor position
estimation because of the advantages of simple and reliable detection. However,
the position estimation precision is affected by different pulse width modulation
(PWM) strategies. This paper presents a novel PWM strategy for position
detection based on the zero-crossing of back EMF. Five traditional kinds of
PWM strategies for BLDC motor are analyzed and compared. Through the
analysis to the diode freewheeling currents in the unexcited phase on non-
commutation period, the applicable PWM strategies are obtained corresponding
to above rotor position identification methods. On the basis, a novel PWM
scheme is proposed for position sensorless control of BLDC motor drives and it
can reduce the diode freewheeling current. Simulation and experimental results
show the good performance for the proposed PWM scheme in position
estimation for sensorless BLDC motor drives.

Keywords: Brushless direct current motor, Position sensorless, Pulse width

modulation, Rotor position estimation.

1 Introduction

BLDC motor is widely used in various applications of electromechanical systems such

as computer, aerospace position and speed control, industrial and household products
[1-3]. For three phase motors with six-step commutation, position information is
indispensable and the BLDC motor requires rotor position sensor, such as resolver or
three hall sensors. However, the sensors increase the cost and size of the motor drive
system. Because of above reasons, sensorless algorithms have been widely developed in
order to energize the correct phase of windings at the exact commutation position [4,5].
Sensorless position control strategies for BLDC motor have been proposed for
obtaining the rotor position and speed [6-8]. The method based on back EMF of the
motor is one of the major approaches for sensorless BLDC motor drives. For this
method, estimating the rotor position is indirectly obtained by using the zero-crossing
point detection from the terminal voltage of the unenergized phase winging. Some
researchers have proposed several methods to detect the exact rotor position based on

J. Lee et al. (Eds.): ICIRA 2013, Part II, LNAI 8103, pp. 545–554, 2013.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
546 Z. Li, Z. Yin, and Y.-l. Xiong

the zero-crossing of back EMF [9]. Shao originally proposed the method of sensing
back EMF to build a virtual neutral point, and then the voltage difference between the
virtual neutral and the voltage at the floating terminal is sensed [10]. A new rotor
position estimation method based on the zero-crossing of line back EMF of the motor
is also presented in [11]. These methods have disadvantages to monitor both current
and voltage.
For sensorless control of BDLC motor drives, different PWM schemes may
involve the detection error of a rotor position due to the switching noise, and results in
the reduction of maximum electromagnetic torque and efficiency of the BLDC motor.
This paper presents a novel PWM strategy for position estimation based on the
zero-crossing detection of back EMF. Five traditional kinds of PWM strategies for
BLDC motor with six-step commutation are analyzed and compared. Through the
analysis to the diode freewheeling currents in the unexcited phase on non-
commutation period, the applicable PWM strategies are obtained corresponding to
above rotor position identification methods. On the basis, a novel PWM scheme is
proposed for position sensorless control of BLDC motor drives. It can reduce the
diode freewheeling current and the zero-crossing of back EMF can be detected
accurately. Simulation results show the good performance for the proposed PWM
scheme in position estimation for sensorless control for BLDC motor drives. It also
develops a sensorless BLDC motor driver to implement the proposed method based
on DSP and the experimental results verified its effectiveness.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2: Zero-crossing of back-EMF model,
Section 3: The optical PWM scheme for back-EMF sensing technique, Section 4:
Simulation results, Section 5: Experimental results, and section 6: Conclusion.

2 Zero-Crossing Detection Method of Back EMF

2.1 Model of BLDC Motor

Generally, BLDC motor is driven by a three-phase inverter with six-step commutation

as Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Inverter configuration for BLDC motor