Motor overvoltage mitigation on SiC MOSFET drives exploiting an open-end winding configuration

Voltage wave reflection phenomena along power cables are particularly threatening on ac motor drives equipped with silicon carbide power MOSFETs due to very short switching times and high switching frequency. Overvoltage suppression resistance inductance capacitance (RLC) networks are usually added but leading to extra cost and a lower efficiency. A completely different overvoltage mitigation approach is presented in this paper exploiting an open-end winding motor configuration. Overvoltage occurring on the terminals of motor phase windings are, in fact, mitigated by simply coordinating the operations of the two inverters; thus, no passive RLC networks are required. The proposed approach is intended as a mean to provide a further valuable feature to open-winding systems at no extra cost, but it can be also valued as an alternative to conventional bridge inverters equipped with overvoltage mitigation devices.