Multilevel inverters for switched reluctance motor drives

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Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) have gained considerable attention in recent years, especially in the automotive industry (vehicle electrification), due to its advantages regarding cost, power density, simple construction, high efficiency, and high reliability. The SRM drives are the key components to ensure the proper, efficient, and safe operation of the SRMs. Due to the advantages of the 800V system EVs (compared to the current low-voltage 400V systems), such as higher efficiency, lower weight, lower volume, and faster charging time, there have been significant efforts by manufacturers such as Porsche and Audi to push toward higher voltage systems. The conventional SRM topologies such as asymmetric bridge inverters are two-level topologies, which would face higher voltage stress with the increase of the system voltage. This can lead to higher power loss, weight and cost. As such, multilevel inverters have been considered as an attractive solution for higher voltage applications due to their advantages such as low device stress, lower power loss, and higher power quality. The main focus of this project is on multilevel inverters for switched reluctance motor drives with the subprojects titled "New modulation and control techniques for DC-link capacitor minimization", "busbar design and packaging", "advanced gate driver for IGBTs". This will benefit Enedym Inc. in terms of developing low-cost, high-performance multilevel SRM drives that can eventually lead to wider adoption of EVs in Canada.