A GaN-Based Integrated Modular Motor Drive for Open-Winding Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Application

The objective of this paper is to design a GaN-based integrated modular motor drive (IMMD) for an open-winding symmetrical six-phase surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). Firstly, the IMMD's inverter topology, and field oriented control (FOC) scheme were proposed. Secondly, the design methods to minimize the volume of converter, namely a carrier phase-shift PWM strategy in six-phase H-bridge topology, device selection, as well as loss and thermal analysis were analyzed. Furthermore, the IMMDs respectively using discrete silicon and GaN devices were designed. Then, two versions of IMMDs were evaluated in terms of their loss and thermal performance. Finally, with the experimental and evaluation results of two versions of IMMDs, conclusions were achieved.