Space vector and sinusoidal PWM techniques comparison keeping in account the secondary effects

A review of the sinusoidal pulse-width-modulation (SPWM) and the space vector PWM (SVPWM) techniques for AC motor drives is reported, taking into account secondary effects such as the digital quantization, the dead time, and the dwell time. Simulation results show close agreement with the measured harmonics caused by an experimental digital-signal-processor (DSP)-controlled inverter operating in the same conditions. The SPWM waveforms have cleaner spectra than the SVPWM, but the quality factors are higher with respect to the SVPWM, having the same peak value of the voltage reference. As a consequence, if the switching frequency is high enough, the losses due to the harmonics can be almost neglected, and the SVPWM seems to be the best solution in terms of output voltage, harmonic losses, and number of switchings per cycle.