Overview of Hybrid Excitation in Electrical Machines

Hybrid excitation is a technology that combines the advantages of field windings and permanent magnets for inducing magnetic flux. This article studies the benefits of hybrid excitation and provides an outlook on their possible applications, such as wind power generators and electric vehicle motors. Compared to permanent magnet-based machines, hybrid excitation gives a variable flux while still using the advantage of the permanent magnets for a portion of the flux. This article also looks into some different categories of machines developed for hybrid excitation. The categories are based on the reluctance circuit, the relative geometrical location of the field windings relative to the permanent magnets, or the placement of the excitation system.