New technical trends on adjustable speed AC motor drives

Adjustable speed AC Motor drives have been used extensively in modern industry and transportation which calls for electrical and mechanical energy conversion with wide output power range applications. Because of its modularity and scalability, the drive system can be extended to many different application areas. More recently, adjustable speed AC motor drive applications are spreading not only in industry applications, but also sky and the marine. In this paper, after summarizing the history of adjustable speed AC motor drives and applications, the main issues of AC drive technologies are reviewed and investigated in the paper. Technical issues of adjustable speed AC motor drives including its standardization are surveyed and analyzed for more advancement. Finally, the paper provides the latest technical trends on adjustable speed AC motor drives technologies, and discusses the development of high speed high power PM motor.