Impact of the number of phases on losses of a multiphase inverter for electric vehicle drive

This paper investigates the impact of the number of phases of an inverter used in an electric vehicle. Multiphase inverters present several advantages for the drives, specifically on the power electronics side. In the objective of optimizing the power density, a complete study is presented, investigating the effect of the number of phases for a given power. According to the gradient-based optimization strategy reminded in this paper, the analysis is carried out in an "imaginary world", using continuous design variables, such as device area instead of discrete current rating.