Multilevel inverters for switched reluctance motor drives

开关磁阻电动机（SRMs）由于其成本低、功率密度大、结构简单、效率高、可靠性高等优点，近年来，特别是在汽车工业（汽车电气化）中获得了相当大的关注。SRM驱动器是保证SRM正常、高效、安全运行的关键部件。由于800V系统电动汽车（与目前的低压400V系统相比）具有更高的效率、更轻的重量、更小的体积和更快的充电时间等优势，保时捷和奥迪等制造商一直在努力推动更高电压系统的发展。非对称桥式逆变器等传统SRM拓扑结构为两电平拓扑结构，随着系统电压的升高，其电压应力会增大。这可能导致更高的功耗、重量和成本。因此，多电平逆变器由于其低器件应力、低功率损耗和高功率质量等优点，已被认为是高电压应用的有吸引力的解决方案。该项目的主要重点是用于开关磁阻电机驱动的多电平逆变器，子项目名为“直流链路电容最小化的新调制和控制技术”，“母线设计和封装”，“igbt的先进栅极驱动器”。这将有利于Enedym公司开发低成本、高性能的多级SRM驱动器，最终推动电动汽车在加拿大的广泛采用。

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.