Progresses for a Last Decade and Perspectives in Applications Specific Electric Motors and Drives in Japan

Regarding integrated circuits as wheat or rice in industry, electric motor drives would be muscles. As application specific integrated circuits have been accepted, application specific electric motors (ASEMs) have been widely spread in a variety of industrial applications. ASEMs are objectively designed and meet necessary functions taking into account of cost, size, converter rating, battery performances, reliability and so forth. From a viewpoint of design freedom to adjust the operating characteristics to a target application, interior permanent magnet synchronous motors play the leading part among all electric machines. In this paper, progresses for a last decade in ASEMs and their drive technologies in Japan are reviewed referring to the associated technology of magnet and manufacturing process. After the review, what lies in the future of ACEMs and their drives are summarized.