An Integrated Drive for Two PMSMs Involved Automotive Applications and Development of Current Reference Expanded Two Arm Modulation Technique

A five leg inverter (FLI) control is incorporated to drive two independent rated permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) for automotive applications. Literature evidences many attempts of employing the FLI for controlling two general purpose/special motors, where variety of modulation techniques has been practiced for performance enhancement. Also in these cases one leg of inverter is common to both the motors. The expanded two arm modulation (ETAM) has been generally engaged in FLI. In ETAM the percentage voltage utilization factor (VUF) is calculated based on “αmax”, where “αmax” is the maximum modulation index and equal to and hence it restricts the VUF to 50%. This makes the FLI drives to use the dc link in inefficient way, which is due to the fact that conventional ETAM works with voltage reference. This paper modifies the ETAM in an ingenious way to improve the VUF further through current reference. In addition, the developed current reference expanded two arm modulation (CRETAM) minimizes the current harmonics and torque ripple as well. A detailed comparison of the CRETAM with the conventional ETAM and the competent digital counterpart, space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM), is also presented. The enhancement in VUF, torque ripple minimization and current total harmonic distortion (THD) reduction are found in the MATLAB based simulation results.