Automotive Motor Controller Based On Semikron Power Module

The invention of the automobile has changed the world. Automobile has changed theway people live and also made the transportation more convenient. However, with thefast development of automotive industry and the increasingly large number ofautomobiles in use around the world we also faces problems that we can’t ignore.The deteriorating air quality, global warming issues, and depleting petroleumresources are becoming serious threats to modern life. Many countries around theworld are doing research and development on new energy vehicles; some of themhave put new energy vehicles into production and on sale now.Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) as the main streamof new energy vehicle are invented almost the same time with conventional innercombustion engine (ICE) vehicle but not in widely use due to many reasons likecovering range and stability, until recently the concerns on the deteriorating air quality,global warming issues, and depleting petroleum resources has come true and moreserious. In this article we first analyze the basic structure and classification of newenergy vehicles, focusing on electric motor and motor control technology which iscore technology of new energy vehicles. Then we analyze different type motor’s prosand cons, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) as automotive motor withhigh power density, high efficiency, wide speed range, high starting torque andexcellent low speed control ability, has been in relatively wide range use in newenergy vehicles. Nowadays quite a lot of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicleshave installed PMSM in automotive power trains.In the next chapter, we introduce the structure and mathematical model of the PMSM,and then we give more words on introduction of Field Oriented Control (FOC)strategy of PMSM. Then the article introduces coordinate transformation of FOCwhich is also an important theoretical foundation of FOC.We use Semikron’s SKAI asynchronous motor control module as basic hardware. Then we modify the circuit and design new control strategy in order to make themodule an automotive PMSM control module. In this chapter it first introducesSemikron module hardware features and then introduces the circuit improvement. Weadd a position sensor module with which we can fulfill field oriented control ofPMSM, and also a new protection module. Next, the article introduces PMSM fieldoriented control algorithms, with this algorithm the motor can export given torque.Here we introduce the PID and SVPWM module in FOC algorithm.Finally, we put these on test rig and test the whole control module and control strategy.In the test results we can see, both control module and control strategy works well. Inthe last is the summarize of the article, it point out that FOC strategy works only inmedium speed control area and there are still several steps that we need to doincluding field weakening control and sensorless control strategy.