Summer Documentation

DC Motors:
Let us start with the Motor. DC motors rely on the fact that current running through
loops of wires produce magnetic field. That generated magnetic field in turn then
produces a torque on a magnet (permanent or electromagnetic) causing it to turn.
The wires are wound in such a way, and current supplied in the right order that the
motor continues to spin round and round. This process is called commutation.
Brushed DC Motor:
A brushed DC motor is called as such because the commutation process (the correct
order of applying DC current to cause rotation) is typically done through carbon
brushes pressed up against the commutator pads on the rotor of the motor. The
current is supplied by a constant DC source. This process is also called internal
commutation. While this process is initially inexpensive, reliable, and relatively
simple, the brushes wear out over time and cause maintenance and repair down the
road. Controlling speed is as simple as varying the voltage of the constant supply
connected to the brushes and in turn increasing current. Below is an example of a
basic brushed DC motor.

Brushless DC Motor: Brushless DC motors are also called electrically commutated

motors. This is because the commutation process is done entirely by electronic
control and not mechanically. Typical brushless DC motors use a rotating permanent
magnet in the rotor, and a stationary electrical current / coil magnets on the motor
housing for the stator. However sometimes the motor housing can be the permanent
magnet rotor and surround the electrical winding's in the stator. This type of motor
configuration is called an outrunner motor, as opposed to the former configuration
which is an inrunner. The outrunner configuration allows for higher torque while the
inrunner counterpart has higher rpm capabilities. Since the windings carrying current
from the power source are not rotating the same method of commutation as a
brushed motor will not work. Instead now controller circuitry is needed to know when
to apply the correct voltages to the windings.

Brushless motors offer several advantages over brushed DC motors, including more
torque per weight, higher efficiency, increased reliability, reduced noise, less lifetime
maintenance, as well as the elimination of ionizing sparks from the commutator.

Control Methodologies:
The controller is in charge of directing the rotor rotation, but the controller requires
some means of determining the rotor's orientation/position (relative to the stator
coils.) Some designs use Hall effect sensors or a rotary encoder to directly measure
the rotor's position. Others measure the back EMF in the undriven coils to infer the
rotor position, eliminating the need for separate Hall effect sensors, and therefore are
often called sensor-less controllers.
Controllers that sense rotor position based on back-EMF have extra challenges in
initiating motion because no back-EMF is produced when the rotor is stationary. This
is usually accomplished by beginning rotation from an arbitrary phase, and then
skipping to the correct phase if it is found to be wrong. This can cause the motor to
run briefly backwards, adding even more complexity to the startup sequence. Other
sensor-less controllers are capable of measuring winding saturation caused by the
position of the magnets to infer the rotor position.
3 Phase H-Bridge and Power Electronics: A typical controller contains 3 bi-directional
outputs (i.e. frequency controlled three phase output), which are controlled by a logic
circuit (in our case a microcontroller.) These three bi-directional outputs are
controlled by switches.
A MOSFET is an electronic switch and is turned on and off by applying a voltage
differential across a certain portion of its structure causing an electrical change in the
silicon and causes electricity to conduct. A MOSFET is a three terminal device and

typically voltage bias is applied to the gate with respect to ground, while current flows
from drain to source or source to drain.

Schematic symbol and MOSFET packaging

Below is a typical 3 phase bi-directional MOSFET switch setup for a 3 phase load or
in this case a BLDC motor. This configuration is often called a 3 phase H-Bridge.

3 phase transistor based H-Bridge

There are also two types of MOSFET's N-Channel and P-Channel. N-Type
MOSFETS have lower "ON State Resistance" and will consume less power when
sourcing current to the motor.
Gate Drivers: A neat characteristic of MOSFET's is that they do not require much
current or power to stay in the conducting or non-conducting state. The only power
being consumed by the transistor is the load current running through the small
amount of resistance between the drain and source Rds(on).
They do however consume current and power when in the "In between" stage while
switching on or off. This is due to the fact that there is a small amount of capacitance
at the gate that needs to be charged or discharged to change from the nonconducting (cutoff) region to the conducting (saturation) region and vice-versa.
This current is fed through the gate by whatever device or circuit is applying the bias
to turn the transistor on and off. Depending on the design of the MOSFET, and the
speed at which the MOSFET is being switched, the current can vary from a few
micro amps to hundreds of miliamps and even amps of current.
Often times it is desirable to switch a MOSFET from the GPIO of a microcontroller,
but these devices cannot source the required current to charge the gate capacitor.
This can result in slow switching speeds, damaging of devices, and unwanted switch
on and switch off. Therefore often times a special circuit called a "Gate Driver" is
used. A "Gate Driver" aptly named because the gate pin is the driven / biased pin on
a MOSFET. A gate driver circuit is able to source much more current to the gate
capacitor, can itself be turned on and off by a microcontroller, and is a great buffer
between control logic and the power transistor.
Additionally in the event of having two N-channel MOSFETs in series with each other
as in the case of the three phase H-Bridge, if the lower transistor is switched off the
source of the higher transistor becomes floating. In this case in order to get the gate
properly biased in order to turn on the transistor the voltage needs to be biased
positively with respect to the DC rail. In order to accomplish this, a charge
pump circuit is often used to provide higher DC voltages with respect to the supply
rail. Another method that can be used is a Gate Driver Transformer (GDT) that
Isolates the supplies from each other through a ferrite core. The GDT cannot be used
at low frequencies though. I will be using a charge pump method due to simplicity.

When the center of the bridge goes low (lower FET is on) the capacitor is charged
via a bootstrap diode, and this charge is used to later drive the gate of the high side
FET a few volts above the source pin's voltage so as to switch it on.
Sensors: the timing and sensing logic.
Back EMF:

Back EMF control schema

The Back-EMF sensing technique is based on the fact that only two phases of a DC
Brushless motor are connected at a time, so the third phase can be used to sense
the Back-EMF voltage. The un-driven phase can be sampled through an ADC and
when the Back-EMF crosses through 0 volts this represents the natural commutation
point and the next commutation phase can. A disadvantage of a Back-EMF system is
that when the motor is at a standstill there is no way to detect what the next
commutation should be because there is no Back-EMF yet.
Hall Effect Sensors:

Hall Effect Sensor control schema

The most common type of sensor used in BLDC motors is the Hall effect sensor. The
Hall effect sensor is a sensing switch that outputs a logic level based on the
detection of a magnetic field. Hall effect sensors are economical and because of the
permanent magnets inside a BLDC motor are easy to install inside the motor. The
important thing to remember is that there are 6 commutation steps for
one ELECTRICAL rotation, not mechanical rotation. Sometimes those can be the
same. Because of the six-step control scheme, there is no need for a high resolution
output from the sensor. The thing we need to know is if the rotor advanced 60. This
can be known with three Hall effect sensors (one for each phase) and the output
combinations they generate. The below figures show for every 60 there is a specific
combination output from the three Hall effect sensors.

Hall sensor positions and commutation values

Voltage values per phase based on progress through 1 electrical rotation.

Regulation Methods:

The Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Mode:

The supply voltage is chopped at a fixed frequency with a duty cycle depending on
the current error.
Therefore, both the current and the rate of change of current can be controlled. The
two phase supply duration is limited by the two phase commutation angles. The main
advantage of the PWM strategy is that the chopping frequency is a fixed parameter;
hence, acoustic and electromagnetic noises are relatively easy to filter. The PWM
frequency is held constant while speed is controlled vial the duty cycle of the "ON"
portion of the transistors.

PWM current regulation method

The Hysteresis Mode:

In the hysteresis-type current regulator, the power transistors are switched off and on
according to whether the current is greater or less than a reference current. The error
is used directly to control the states of the power transistors. The hysteresis controller
is used to limit the phase current within a preset hysteresis band. As the supply
voltage is fixed, the result is that the switching frequency varies as the current error
varies. Therefore, the current chopping operation is not a fixed chopping frequency
PWM technique. This method is more commonly implemented in drives where motor
speed and load do not vary too much, so that the variation in switching frequency is
small.

Hysteresis current control method

DC link shoot through:

If both the gates of the same phase are closed at any given point of time then One of
the phase gets shorted, This is known as DC link shoot through. Hence the PWM
complementary to what is applied to the upper MOSFETS are applied on the lower
MOSFETS so that, DC link shoot through can be avoided. It is better if a dead time is
given, so that this failure does not occur.

Transient gate current/Gate resistance in a power MOSFET:

In a MOSFET generally the gate current is taken to be zero but

this is not the case in transient conditions. There exists some
capacitance in the gate of the MOSFET. There is some minimum
current required to turn the MOSFET fully on at the gate
voltage. The gate also has some intrinsic resistance but still we
need to insert an external resistance which is nearly equal to

twice the intrinsic gate resistance (IRF 540n has internal gate
resistance of 25Ohms) so that the capacitance in series with
stray inductance does not cause the gate voltage to oscillate.
Increasing the gate resistance will increase in the switch time,
at the same time cause decrease in voltage spike during the
transient conditions.

Why is a gate driver being used?

A gate driver is being used because the voltage and current out of a GPIO pin is not
enough to switch the MOSFET fast enough.
MOTOR CONTROL
Speed in a BLDC motor is directly proportional to the voltage applied to the stator.
The speed at which the actual rotor is forced to the next position is determined by the

strength of an applied magnetic force, and this is determined by the voltage applied
to the stator windings. By using PWMs at a higher frequency than the commutations,
the amount of voltage applied to the stator can be easily controlled , therefore the
speed of the motor can be controlled.
A typical six-step PWM controller uses one of two PWM techniques:
1.

Unipolar PWM switching - This technique refers to motor phases being

switched in such a way that one of the phases returns current while the PWM
modulation is happening in another phase, this is unipolar.

2.

Bipolar PWM switching - This technique refers to the voltage passing through
the two phases as being modulated with the PWM, both the input and output of
current are being modulated.
Unipolar and bipolar approaches refer to the relationship of the two phases being
switched.
Unipolar and bipolar switching have specific advantages. Unipolar switching reduces
electromagnetic noise and the DC bus ripple because there is less switching. Bipolar
switching is better suited for sensorless approaches where it is necessary to sense
back electromagnetic forces (BEMF). The bipolar approach has the zero volt point at
a 50% duty cycle, therefore there is more time to sense the BEMF.
Both unipolar and bipolar approaches can be either independent or complementary.

1.

Independent PWM Mode - the top and bottom switches of a phase are
operated independently over a commutation period. If a top switch performs a PWM,
the bottom switch is off, and vice versa. In this mode, the drive can operate in two
quadrants; again bipolar independent and unipolar independent switching are
available.

2.

Complementary PWM mode - the top and bottom switches of a phase are
operated inversely; if one switch is on, the other is off and vice versa. This mode
must be used if four quadrant drive operation is required. This mode needs dead
time insertion (DTI) between the top and bottom switches to avoid any phase shortcircuit. Unipolar complementary switching leads to lower switching losses and
current ripple. However, from a back-EMF "sensorless" perspective, the bipolar
complementary switching is the better choice as explained above.
The complementary or independent approaches refer to the relationship of the two
signals controlling one of the phases.

The independent approach applies to the PWM only on one side of the phase. The
complementary approach modulates both sides of an individual phase. The
complementary and independent approaches allow the control to address either a 2
or 4-quadrant.

Four Quadrants of Motor Operation

Dead Time Insertion (DTI)

In the complementary PWM control method, there should be no "shared" on time as
it will create a short circuit from power to ground (DC-link shoot through). This effect,
even for short a duration causes large current spikes, which increases thermal
output, and when switching a few thousand times a second quickly wears out the
MOSFET. There are again a few different approaches to how to tackle this.
1.

One option is to use RCD delay circuits (resistor in parallel with a diode,
feeding a capacitor hooked to the input of your gate driver). This circuit will delay turn
on of our switch but not turn off so we'll have dead-time inserted in hardware. This
method is a little imprecise due to variances in resistor values and capacitor values.

2.

Another common option is using an MCU with a PWM peripheral that has
integrated dead time. This is usually easily configured by a few registers and eats up
very few clock cycles. This is a great solution for applications with a lot of H-Bridges.
Only disadvantage is this requires a specific subset of MCU's.

3.

A third commonly used solution is to insert a dedicated DTI IC between the

PWM control signals and the gate driver. Some chips themselves are the gate driver,
some take one PWM in and split it into the two complementary signals, while others

take two independent signals. Some take digital commands to adjust the dead-time,
and some have fixed deadtimes.
4.

A fourth solution is to know our MCU's clock speed, and count the number of
clock cycles to interject the appropriate amount of dead-time. In common single core
MCU architectures we can use up-down counting and add half the deadtime to the
compare register for the high side switch, and subtract from the compare register for
the low side switch (or vice versa if we're using negative logic.

5.

Another solution is using a gate driver that has DC link shoot through
prevention circuitry inbuilt. IRS2336 gate driver shuts off both the power MOSFETS if
both the MOSFETS are turned on at the same time.
Explanation:
a MOSFET is limited in it's speed to switch on and off by the amount of time that it
takes to charge and discharge the small amount capacitance found in its structure.
This charge and capacitance information is usually found in the MOSFET data sheet
under the "Dynamic Characteristics. A MOSFET turns "ON" once the voltage
between the gate and source rises above it's threshold voltage (Vth) or turns "OFF"
once it goes below.

Gate to Source Voltage Charging and Discharging

Vgs as a function of Gate Charge

Once we understand what is happening in a MOSFET when it is charging and
discharging, we can begin to create a model that will allow us to best estimate those
turn-on and turn-off times. Once we have a "worst case" scenario for how long it will
take one transistor to turn on and the other to turn off, we will know the absolute
minimum dead-time that will be needed to ensure safe operation. The below image
shows a simplified gate drive circuit and is used as the base model for calculating the
needed dead-time.