46 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 43, NO.

1, JANUARY 2007

Drive of Single-Phase Brushless DC Motors

Based on Torque Analysis
Lizhi Sun, Qi Feng, and Jing Shang

Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

The high torque peaks commonly found in single-phase brushless dc motors can be compressed by different driving methods, which
are proposed and studied based on finite-element analysis (FEA). It is concluded that one dead-zone can be added into the driving signals
to improve current waveforms and torque envelope. The test results show that the noise level and performances are greatly improved
when one proper dead zone is implemented.
Index Terms—Motor drives, permanent-magnet motors, torque.

I. INTRODUCTION

S INGLE-PHASE brushless DC (BLDC) motors have been

widely used in small power applications under low dc volt-
ages, such as some fan motors, etc. In these motors, one impor-
tant feature is the adoption of the asymmetric air gap, to gen-
erate one reluctance torque component as the starting torque to
eliminate the zero-torque zone. There are many references in-
vestigating extensively the motor topologies, including tapered
air gap [1], [2], stepped air gap [1], [3], asymmetric pole tip [1], Fig. 1. Flux distribution in single-phase BLDC motor.
[3], slotted teeth [1], additional auxiliary poles [4], and axial
topology [5], [6] in surface-mounted magnet motors, but publi-
cations are usually restricted to the issue of starting torque ca- the current peak will affect motor performance and cause high
pability and the related design parameters [1]–[6]. acoustic level.
However, in single-phase BLDC motors, the electromagnetic As the torque envelope is related to both the cogging torque
torque can be separated into two components, including cogging and the stator current, the proper design of crucial motor param-
torque, generated by the permanent magnet magnetomotive eters and corresponding suitable driving methods are of great
force (MMF) functioning with the varied air-gap reluctance importance to single-phase BLDC motors. Though there are
plus the magnetic hysteresis component; and the excitation some references studying the cogging torque problem, like [7],
torque [1], generated by the stator MMF functioning with the which introduced one motor structure of using the combination
permanent-magnet MMF and the varied air-gap reluctance. of equal and unequal air-gap shapes to reduce cogging torque,
At certain rotor positions there will be high cogging torque few can be found addressing both the cogging torque and the
peaks in the commonly adopted asymmetric air-gap structures; drive methods, and the correlation between them. In this paper,
the cogging torque peak will distort the torque envelope and based on the two-dimensional (2-D) static electromagnetic ro-
cause large torque ripple [1], [6]. Moreover, high peaks can tating field analysis and the field-circuit coupling calculation,
also be commonly found in the current waveforms of these the design of one single-phase brushless motor with higher mag-
motors, owing to the back-EMF increasing from almost zero netic loading are discussed, and the cogging torque features are
at the time of changing current direction. These current peaks analyzed and the driving methods are evaluated.
will generate the excitation torque peaks and contribute to the
increase of torque ripples. II. TORQUE CALCULATION AND ANALYSIS
The torque ripple will be large especially in the case of larger One single-phase BLDC motor is constructed and is analyzed
power or higher voltage source like ac supplies. In these cases, by using 2-D finite element method (FEM), as shown in Fig. 1.
permanent magnets with higher energy product are generally The tapered air-gap structure is used, which will result in a
used like bonded or sintered NdFeB material, to make motors smoother cogging torque waveform than other common struc-
reach higher efficiency and higher power density level. With the tures [1]. And one four-pole isotropic bonded NdFeB magnet
increase of flux density in air gap, the cogging torque peak and ring is used and is radially magnetized.
The crucial air-gap parameters influencing the cogging torque
include slot opening , maximum air-gap height , min-
imum air-gap height , and the curve form on the stator inner
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2006.886965 surface between and , as shown in Fig. 1.
0018-9464/$25.00 © 2006 IEEE
SUN et al.: DRIVE OF SINGLE-PHASE BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS 47

Fig. 2. Reluctance torque under different slot openings.

Fig. 4. Cogging torque measured.

roughly the same to obtain a smoother torque characteristic.

In this case the maximum air-gap height is selected as 2, i.e.,
1 mm.
The cogging torque component of the sample motor is mea-
Fig. 3. Reluctance torques under different air-gap shapes. sured as shown in Fig. 4. Curve 2 indicates that there are four
peaks on the reluctance torque curve per revolution. The cog-
ging waveform is roughly the same with the calculation.
The minimum air-gap height should be selected as small
as possible to increase main flux. From mechanical considera- III. TORQUE SMOOTHING AND DRIVING METHODS
tion, the value of 0.5 mm is adopted and is taken as a base value Except the structural factors mentioned above, the torque
for the latter analysis. First, both the max. air-gap height envelope is also closely related with the stator current and
and the slot open are selected as 4 (unit value); the cogging the motor driving methods. Owing to the asymmetric air-gap
torque are calculated in different stator inner surface shapes by structure, the back-EMF waveform, the current waveform and
solving the 2-D static electromagnetic rotating field. The results the excitation torque coefficient will change irregularly versus
show that the curve forms have little influence on the cogging rotor position. Therefore, one field-circuit coupling calculation
torque waveforms in the tapered air-gap structure. In the latter method and time-stepping FEM are adopted to calculate the
analysis the proportional curve is used, that is the air-gap height motor characteristics at different rotor positions [8]. First,
increased linearly beginning from . 2-D static electromagnetic field is calculated to get flux ,
Then the cogging torques are calculated under different slot inductance , and torque ; second, circuit equations and the
openings and different air-gap shapes , as mechanical equation are solved to obtain the current , speed
shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The calculations start from the point , and next position after certain time span; third, static field is
that stator and rotor poles are overlapped together, as shown in calculated again.
Fig. 1. Basically there are two types of circuit topology in driving
From Fig. 2, it can be observed that there will be high torque single-phase BLDC motor, including H-bridge circuit and bi-
peaks around the overlapping points of stator and rotor poles. filar-type circuit [9]–[11]. In this calculation the circuit equa-
And the slot opening will affect the location of the zero-reluc- tions are given following H-bridge case, as expressed below:
tance-torque point. With the increase of the slot opening width,
the cogging torque peak will increase and the positive torque
conducting
zone will become smaller. In other words, smaller slot opening
freewheeling (1)
means smaller torque peak value and wider positive reluctance
torque, which is beneficial both for start-up capability and the
torque ripple level. where is the bridge voltage, 160 VDC is assumed. is the
In Fig. 3, it is shown that the maximum air-gap height has rotating angle. The phase resistance is taken as 68 Ohm in
little influence on the zero-cogging-torque points when the max- the calculation.
imum air-gap height is over two times the minimum value. But
the amplitude of the reluctance torque will vary in accordance A. Drive Method 1—Square Voltage or Voltage PWM
with the change of maximum air-gap height. The common drive method is to simply switch the phase
From the above analysis and mechanical considerations, the voltage according to the back EMF polarity. Then there will
slot opening can be decided as 4 in this case. Then maximum be one square-wave voltage or voltage PWM waveform applied
air-gap height should be determined by making the cogging on the phase winding. Fig. 5 shows the calculated results; the
torque peak value and the electromagnetic torque capability base values for voltage and currents are the bridge voltage and
48 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY 2007

Fig. 7. Torques in current PWM drive mode.

Fig. 5. Torques in square voltage drive.

Fig. 8. Torques in add-in dead-zone control mode.

Fig. 6. Current waveform in square voltage drive. One absolute rotor position sensor or encoders of high resolu-
tion should be implemented in order to realize this drive method,
and a high-performance control chip like DSP should be used to
the rating current, 0.46 A, respectively. Fig. 6 shows the corre- complete the elaborate calculation and table look-up. These may
sponding measured current waveform. seem too much for this kind of motor as it is generally used in
In this case, as the voltage amplitude will keep constant while low-cost applications.
the back-EMF will not, there will be peak currents, which con-
tribute to high excitation torque peak. Together with the cogging C. Driving Method 3—Add-In Dead-Zone Drive
torque, the excitation torque peak will finally lead to high peak
on the total torque curve. One simple drive method can be adopted to add one proper
Actually, around the overlapping positions of stator and rotor dead-zone into the driving voltage. Fig. 8 shows the calculated
poles the back-EMF will approach zero, which results in phase results. Fig. 9 is the current waveform measured. In this mode,
current peaks and the excitation torque peaks. In other words, still one square voltage is applied to the phase winding, but there
the current does not produce any useful torque around the over- will be a dead zone added where only cogging torque functions.
lapping points, also the switching point. It is clear that there will be no high peak current and peak torque
occurring, so noise will be lowered and efficiency will be in-
creased. Though there are some torque pulsations, it is accept-
B. Drive Method 2—Current PWM Drive able in most cases as this motor is generally used to stimulate in-
In order to avoid high peak torques, current PWM drive can ertia loads like fan. And this drive method can be realized based
be implemented to reduce torque ripple. That is, the current on either one or two switching position sensors plus simple logic
reference signal is generated according to the back-EMF value circuits.
and the cogging torque waveform, to make the excitation torque
compensate the irregular cogging torque to get one smooth IV. TESTING RESULTS
torque envelope. Fig. 7 shows the calculated results. It should
be pointed out that complete smoothness is not practical, be- One motor sample is made with the parameters mentioned
cause the excitation torque coefficient at the switching points above. The voltage switching and add-in dead-zone drive
is small. methods are used and compared.
SUN et al.: DRIVE OF SINGLE-PHASE BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS 49

Fig. 9. Current waveform in add-in dead-zone mode.

Fig. 11. Motor performances tested in different driving mode. (a) Performances
tested in voltage switching mode. (b) Performances tested in 24 deg dead-zone
angle case.

V. CONCLUSION
In single-phase brushless motors, there exists high torque
peaks due to the adoption of asymmetric air gap. Except the
influence of the structural factors such as the slot opening and
the air-gap shape, the motor torque envelope is also closely
related with the driving methods. In order to get rid of high
peak torques, one proper dead zone can be added into the
driving signals. The test results show that the acoustic A-level
in voltage-switching mode is 57.8 dB, whereas the acoustic
level is only 45.2 dB when 24 deg dead-zone angle is added.
Fig. 10. Acoustic levels in different driving mode. (a) Acoustic level in voltage The performances can also be greatly raised in the latter case.
switching mode. (b) Acoustic level in 24 deg dead-zone angle case.

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Magn., vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 1307–1310, Apr. 2006. Currently she is a postgraduate at Harbin Institute of Technology, majoring
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Jing Shang was born in Harbin, China, in 1968. She received the B.Eng., M.Sc.,
Manuscript received February 1, 2005; revised October 19, 2006. Corre- and Ph.D. degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 1990, 1992,
sponding author: L. Sun (e-mail: [email protected]). and 2002, respectively, all in electrical engineering.
Since 2003, she has worked at Harbin Institute of Technology and was pro-
Lizhi Sun was born in Neimenggu, China, in 1970. He received the B.Eng. moted to Professor in 2006. Her current research focuses on electrical machines
degree from Harbin University of Science and Technology, China, in 1993 and and electromagnetic field calculations.