This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850017, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications

Improved Switching Strategy for a Single-Phase

Brushless Direct Current Fan Drive and its Impact
on Efficiency
Hannes Gruebler1,2 , Graduate Student Member, IEEE, Stefan Leitner1,2 , Graduate Student Member, IEEE,
Annette Muetze1,2, Fellow, IEEE, and Gerhard Schoener3
1
Christian Doppler Laboratory for Brushless Drives for Pump and Fan Applications, Graz, Austria
2
Electrical Drives and Machines Institute, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
3
Mechatronic Systems GmbH, Wies, Austria

Abstract—Advancing the turn-off angle of the phase current
of brushless direct current (BLDC) motors is a common control
practice to improve the operating behavior and energy conversion
efficiency of such drives by, e.g., reduction of current peaks,
copper losses, and breaking torques. This paper investigates a
refined switching strategy for a single-phase BLDC motor with
bifilar winding to increase the energy conversion efficiency of the
system. In addition to advancing the phase current turn-off angle,
the turn-on angle is delayed to improve the drive’s performance
and increase the efficiency even further. This efficiency increase
of up to 20.6 % is verified experimentally for a speed range from
3000 to 8000 rpm, translating into a reduction of copper losses of
up to 37.4 % or a decrease of current peaks by 27.4 %. The focus
is on sub-fractional horsepower single-phase BLDC motors with
bifilar winding which, concerning this matter, have not drawn
much attention in the literature yet. The findings show that the
improved switching strategy can reduce current peaks, breaking
torques, copper losses, and therefore increase efficiency over the
speed range of interest for fan applications.
Keywords—bifilar winding; BLDC; commutation angle; effi-
ciency; sub-fractional horsepower; variable speed.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Owing to their advantages, brushless direct current (BLDC)
motors are progressively substituting established motor con-
cepts in many applications. Nowadays, BLDCs are employed
in office automation, household appliances, and especially in
the automotive sector and aerospace industry [1]. Examples are
given by LED car headlights [2], electric brake boosters [3],
electric oil pumps for gearbox lubrication [4], electric servo
steerings [5], and many other auxiliary electric drives [6];
replacing well-known solutions in the automotive sector. The
high degree of integration in such applications often brings
forth additional, stringent requirements, for example on effi-
ciency (e.g., additional heat in an already highly integrated
application), acoustic noise (e.g., household appliances or
The financial support by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Re-
search, and Economy and the National Foundation for Research, Technology,
and Development is gratefully acknowledged.
drives in the passenger compartment), tight standards regard-
ing electromagnetic interference (especially for automotive
applications), volume (e.g., integration of a drive application
in an already existing application), robustness (e.g., extreme
temperature range from -40 to 120 ◦ C, vibrations, lifetime of
10 years and more), drift of parameters (e.g., bearing wear-
out), cost-efficiency, and producibility (e.g., few and easy
mountable parts), e.g., illustrated by [7]. BLDCs are known
for high efficiency, high power density, low rotor inertia and
weight, good controllability, and for low-maintenance [8].
On the downside, position sensors, e.g., encoders or Hall
effect sensors, are required for effective control of BLDC
motors. There are also estimation-based, i.e., sensorless control
strategies which, on the one hand, reduce the component count
but, on the other hand, are more complex and often lack
precision [8]–[10].
BLDC motors are essentially permanent magnet (PM) syn-
chronous motors and are manufactured in many different
designs (inner or outer rotor, surface or interior magnets, etc.).
In low-cost and sub-fractional horsepower applications, the
single-phase stator often houses a concentrated winding which
can be either of unifilar or bifilar type. These motors are
combined with an inverter circuit responsible for the electronic
commutation [10]. The equivalent circuit diagram of a BLDC
motor is shown in Fig. 1. The inverter (not shown in Fig. 1)
often applies a pulse-width modulated phase voltage up to the
motor so that the phase current ip and the back electromotive
force (EMF) uEMF produce a constant torque. Joule losses are
modeled with a resistor R and main and leakage inductances
are represented by Lm and Lσ , respectively.
Ideally, the back-EMF of BLDC motors is trapezoidal,
requiring rectangular phase current waveforms to produce
constant torque [11] (see Fig. 2). Due to the inductive and
resistive components of the stator winding, the phase current
waveform also differs from an ideal rectangular one. Applying
a constant phase voltage to the stator winding, the phase
current rises according to an exponential function with the
time constant τ = L/R, where L = Lm + Lσ . These nonideal
waveforms are discussed in detail in Sections IV and V.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850017, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
ip R Lm L✁
up uEMF
Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit diagram of a single-phase BLDC motor with unifilar
winding.
Fig. 2. Ideal waveforms of the phase current ip and the back-EMF uEMF .
In order to improve the performance, and notably the
efficiency, of BLDC motors, strategies such as advancing the
phase current turn-off by a certain angle [12]–[17], or model-
based control strategies [18]–[22], have been proposed and
applied in many drive applications. Thereby, breaking torques
can be eliminated and current peaks can be reduced to some
extent, improving the motor performance. As proposed and
simulated in [23], delaying the turn-on angle of the phase
currents notably reduces current peaks and increases efficiency.
This paper elaborates on the preliminary results presented
in [24], extending this approach from one operating point
to the whole speed range of interest, both with simulation
and experimentally. The focus is on sub-fractional horsepower
motors with bifilar stator winding for fan applications, which
have not raised much attention in the literature yet. Most
importantly, the results show that, by finding the optimal
commutation angle combination,
• copper losses can be further reduced,
• breaking torques can be prevented, and generally
• the motor behavior can be improved (e.g., lower acoustic
noise, lower self-heating).
This applies over the whole speed range the drive is op-
erating at. Even though seemingly simple, the performance
improvements are significant, with up to 12 % reduction in
copper loss and associated 6.8 % improvement in efficiency at
rated speed, compared to a conventional optimized commuta-
tion approach.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section
II discusses the proposed switching strategy and Section III
describes the example case drive. Simulation case studies are
presented in Section IV. Section V provides reports on the
experimental validation, and finally Section VI summarizes
the findings and draws conclusions.
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II. I MPROVED BLDC S WITCHING S TRATEGY
This section describes the proposed improved switching
strategy applicable to BLDC drives with bifilar stator winding
and outer PM rotor. At large, BLDC drives are controlled by a
maximum torque per ampere strategy, where the phase current
is aligned with the back-EMF [25].
Yet, commutation exactly at back-EMF zero-crossings
causes high current spikes which can result in increased copper
losses and breaking torques (e.g., see simulation results in
Fig. 6(a)). To reduce these adverse effects, advanced-angle
control, in which the current is turned off at a certain angle
ELMOS2017 prior to the zero crossing points of the back-
EMF, has been proposed in [16] (e.g., see αp in Fig. 6(b)).
This paper’s approach also includes a delayed phase current
turn-on (e.g., see αd in Fig. 6(c)) to further improve the
motor behavior. It should be noted that, in the neighborhood
of back-EMF zero crossings, the copper losses produced by
the phase current outweigh its torque contribution, as shown
in Section IV. Introducing this delay angle αd ensures phase
current flow for intervals of sufficiently high back-EMF values
(detected with a hall sensor) only. This way phase current
spikes can be reduced and, for the optimal angle pair αp + αd ,
a rectangular-like phase current waveform can be achieved.
Theoretically, it does not matter if the turn-off angle is
varied with the delay angle, or vice versa. However, since
a turn-off angle of zero, or close to zero, leads to very large
current spikes, such approach may put the equipment at risk,
and comes at the price of reduced accuracy, because of the
significant losses introduced by the small turn-off angle. As
a matter of fact, the influence of changing the turn-on angle
can hardly be identified in the presence of the significant loss
introduced by the large current spikes.
III. E XAMPLE C ASE D RIVE
The example case motor comprises a four-pole outer PM
rotor and a four-slot stator with concentrated bifilar winding.
It is designed to provide a rated mechanical output power of up
to 1 W at a rated mechanical operating speed of n = 5000 rpm
[26]. The system parameters are listed in Table I, where,
due to the good coupling of the bifilar winding, the leakage
inductance Lσ is estimated to be below 10 % of the main
inductance Lm , see Section V-B.
Fig. 3 shows a sketch of the motor winding topology, where
Li1 + Li2 + Li3 + Li4 = Lm,i + Lσ,i and i represents phases
A and B of the bifilar winding. Fig. 4 shows the electronic
circuit necessary for the commutation of the phase currents.
The electronic circuit comprises: a constant supply voltage
UDC ; a diode D which prevents breaking energy from flowing
back into the source; a DC link capacitance C; commutation
switches SA and SB ; and the equivalent circuit diagram of
a bifilar winding with phases A and B (comprised of two
coupled unifilar circuits displayed in Fig. 1). Characteristic for
a bifilar winding is the good coupling between both phases
represented by Lm . This setup was chosen over one with
a unifilar winding because it was provided by the example
case machine application. Further discussions why a unifilar
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Transactions on Industry Applications

Simulation and control of the FEA motor simulation with

BLDC fan model with JMAG.
MATLAB/Simulink.

LA1 LB1

LA4 LB2 Simulation of inverter circuit

and motor coils with
GeckoCIRCUITS. Legend:

LB4 LA2 online data exchange

offline data exchange

LA3 LB3 Fig. 5. Flow chart of the multi-domain simulation model [26].

waveforms from finite element analysis software JMAG R

[27]
R
fed into (ii) a coupled MATLAB/Simulink [28] model,
Fig. 3. Single-phase BLDC motor with bifilar stator winding and outer PM
rotor. realizing control and the modeling of the mechanical sys-
tem as well, while the (iii) circuit simulation software
i GeckoCIRCUITS R
[29] takes care of simulating the driver
circuit including the motor coils. All angles presented in
D uEMF,A
this paper are mechanical angles (αel = p · αmech , where
uEMF,B
p is the number of pole pairs, p = 2). Fig. 6 shows the
simulation results of selected quantities from the circuit in
Rcu,A Rcu,B Fig. 4. Presented are the induced back-EMF and phase current
up,A up,B waveforms for both phases A and B, as well as the output
UDC C torque Mout , all for three different commutation strategies.
L✁,A L✁,B
iA iB A. Straightforward and Conventional Commutation Ap-
proaches
Lm,A Lm,B
Fig. 6(a) shows the back-EMF, phase current, and output
torque waveforms when the phase current is commutated based
SA SB on back-EMF zero-crossing (αp = αd = 0◦ ). Phase A is
conducting during 0◦ < ϕ < 90◦ and 180◦ < ϕ < 270◦,
while phase B is conducting during 90◦ < ϕ < 180◦ and
270◦ < ϕ < 360◦ . The waveform of the back-EMF is
Fig. 4. Inverter circuit of the single-phase BLDC motor with bifilar stator asymmetric due to an asymmetric air gap caused by the stator
winding and outer PM rotor.
poles, which is necessary to provide sufficient starting torque.
As discussed in Section I, the phase current waveform differs
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF E XAMPLE C ASE D RIVE .
from an ideal rectangular shape (exponential rise). Notably,
having reached a certain “plateau,” the current increases again.
Parameter Value Parameter Value This can be explained with the help of the equivalent circuit
Rcu,A 8.5 Ω Rcu,B 8.5 Ω diagram displayed in Fig. 1. As can be seen in (1), the phase
Lσ,A 260 µH Lσ,B 260 µH current ip rises when the back-EMF uEMF drops (for constant
Lm,A 2.8 mH Lm,B 2.8 mH R, Lm , Lσ , and up ).
C 16.6 µF UDC 12 V
up − uEMF
ip = (1)
R + jωel (Lm + Lσ )
winding might be a better choice, especially in the light of When, e.g., the phase current iA is turned off at ϕ = 90◦ ,
recent advances in the field of application, are presented in an attenuated negative current iB flows, causing breaking
Section VI. torques (see circles in Fig. 6(a)) in phase B, since the
back-EMF is already positive.
IV. S IMULATION C ASE S TUDIES To prevent breaking torques, the turn-off angle αp is already
A multi-domain simulation model (see Fig. 5) is used to introduced in the literature, [16], [13]. The simulation results
simulate the behavior of the BLDC drive. The multi-domain using this approach (αp = 17◦ , αd = 0◦ ) are shown in
model includes (i) no-load back-EMF and cogging torque Fig. 6(b), where current spikes are reduced and the breaking

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Transactions on Industry Applications
Fig. 6. Simulation results for different commutation strategies: (a) straightforward approach with αp = αd = 0◦ , (b) conventional approach with αp =
17◦ , αd = 0◦ , (c) proposed approach with αp = 17◦ , αd = 7.5◦ (uEMF imported from finite element analysis realized with JMAG
R
Fig. 7. Difference of copper losses Pcu and torque-producing power PT with
respect to an arbitrarily chosen range of back-EMF uEMF .
torque is eliminated.
B. Proposed Switching Strategy
For an improvement of the well known existing switching
strategies, this paper introduces the turn-on angle αd , where
after the zero-crossing of the back-EMF, the circuit is not
commuted immediately, but delayed for the turn-on angle αd
to boost the efficiency of the drive. In general, nonzero phase
current ip in the neighborhood of the zero-crossing points of
back-EMF uEMF does not produce much torque, see the output
torques Mout in Fig. 6. Considering
∼
PT = T ωmech = uEMF ip ,
PCu = RIp2 ,
where T is the produced torque, ωmech = 2πfmech is the
mechanical angular frequency, PT is the torque-producing
power, and PCu represents the copper losses, for small values
of uEMF , the copper losses outweigh the torque because of the
square of the phase current. To give some better understanding
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[27]).
for this statement, Fig. 7 shows the subtraction of (3) from
(2) on the ordinate in respect to an arbitrarily chosen range of
uEMF on the abscissa. R and Ip are assumed to be constant and
are given a value of one each, for the sake of convenience. It
is shown that current flow is only useful for certain values
of uEMF ; hence, the commutation angle has a significant
influence thereof. It is theoretically evident, that delaying the
phase current turn-on angle can further reduce copper losses
and thereby improve drive efficiency, which is proven with
subsequent simulations and experiments on a prototype of the
simulated fan drive.
Fig. 6(c) shows the simulation results of the proposed
improved switching-strategy, i.e., for advanced phase current
turn-off and delayed phase current turn-on (αp = 17◦ , αd =
7.5◦ ). Both angles are varied until the current peaks are of
equal height, resembling a rectangular like shape. Compared
with Fig. 6(b), by additionally delaying the phase current turn-
on by an angle αd , current peaks can be further reduced,
a more rectangular current waveform is obtained, and the
efficiency is increased.
As a matter of fact, by shortening the conduction time of
the phase currents, the time interval during which the motor
delivers power to the load is shortened as well. However,
since the current shows a smoother waveform, the output
torque Mout in Fig. 6(c) does not decrease as fast as the one
in Fig. 6(b). Although the interval of positive output torque
is shorter, the mean torques of this simulation only differ
by 0.4 %, which is considered negligible. Furthermore, the
investigated drive is an outer rotor topology where, compared
to an inner rotor topology, a large amount of rotational energy
(2) is stored in the rotor’s mass moment of inertia, significantly
(3) reducing possible speed ripples that result from the non-
constant output torque.
V. E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATION
For reasons of electromagnetic compatibility, the motor is
driven without the use of pulse-width modulation (PWM), as
fast rising and falling voltage edges can cause electromagnetic
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Transactions on Industry Applications

Rapid Control Prototyping System

✁mech ✁mech*
Encoder
uHall uHall*
iA iA*
iB Data Recorder iB* Inputs
BLDC Fan up,A
up,B Control
Logic

SA
Gating Signals
SB Driver Circuit Outputs

Fig. 8. Block diagram of the experimental test setup.

VI Fig. 10. Measured back-EMF of phase A and position signal of the magnetic

VII encoder.

with two GEN610B cards, from HBM R

R
II-IV
I V
Fig. 9. Picture of the experimental test setup.
interference. Only slight differences between simulated and
measured optimal angles are observed (Fig. 6 versus Table
III), where the differences are likely originating from, e.g.
deviations of the magnet. Depending on the rotor position,
the switches SA and SB are turned on and off with the use
of a rapid control prototyping system from dSPACE
R
[30].
Performed are experimental case studies, varying angles αp
and αp + αd at different mechanical speeds, to determine the
optimal angle combination with minimum copper losses for
constant output power.
The experimental results are presented in Tables II, III, and
IV and Figs. 12–14.
A. Test Setup
Figs. 8 and 9 show the block diagram and a picture
of the experimental test setup, respectively. It comprises a
data recorder (I), a BLDC motor (II), an encoder (III), a
driver circuit (IV), current transducers (V), a rapid control
prototyping system (VI), and a DC power supply (VII).
The circuit quantities defined in Fig. 4, the rotor position ϕ,
and the signal of the Hall effect sensor are measured with the
data recorder and processed with the rapid control prototyping
system. The Hall sensor is mounted close to the rotor-magnet
to properly detect the back-EMF zero crossings to control the
switches of the BLDC drive. To this aim, the magnetic encoder
is synchronized with this Hall signal and measures the relative
rotor position from the zero-crossing positions. The data are
collected with a high precision data recorder Gen3i, equipped
[31], three IT 60-
R
S current transducers from LEM [32], and an AEAT-601B
magnetic encoder from Broadcom
[33].
B. Estimation of the Leakage Inductance Lσ
The phase coupling of a bifilar winding, is estimated by
comparing the current spike amplitudes in phases A and B.
When the phase current is turned off, the magnetic energy is
transferred in-between the bifilar windings; in theory 100 %
of the energy shall be transferred. Losses and the leakage
inductance reduce this to below 100 %.
To estimate the leakage inductance, the spikes of the
currents in phases A and B are measured at the moment
the current in phase A is turned off. These two points are
marked in Fig. 11(b) with i and ii, respectively. The ratio of
the current spikes of iA,i = 338.7 mA and iB,ii = 306.8 mA is
assumed to be proportional to the ratio between the main and
the leakage inductance in good approximation, resulting in a
stray inductance of Lσ = 260 µH which translates into 9.4 %
of the main inductance.
 
iB,ii
Lσ = Lm 1 − =
i
 A,i  (4)
306.8 mA
= 2.8 mH 1 − = 260 µH
338.7 mA
C. Implementation of Conventional Commutation Strategies
Fig. 10 shows the measured back-EMF of phase A and the
signal of the magnetic encoder when no current is flowing
in the stator winding and the rotor is driven externally. At
back-EMF zero-crossings, commutation angles are added to
the current rotor position for accurate commutation.
Fig. 11(a) shows the phase current waveforms when the
commutation is based on solely applying an advanced turn-
off angle αp . In comparison to the phase current waveforms
in Fig. 11(b), significant current peaks occur, similar to those
presented in Section IV, causing higher copper losses. How-
ever, compared to commutation at the zero-crossing, this early

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Fig. 11. Measured phase currents iA and iB at n = 5000 rpm, (a) with solely applied earlier turn-off at αp,opt , and (b) with both, delayed turn-on and earlier
turn-off at αd,opt and αp,opt , respectively.

turn-off prevents breaking torques, resulting when signs of TABLE II

freewheeling current and back-EMF differ. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS FOR VARIATIONS OF αP AND n.
For many applications, an encoder might only be available No. n αp,opt αd σi data points Irms ipeak Pin
in the laboratory environment. However, sensorless control – rpm ◦
mech
◦
mech mA – mA mA W
has already been implemented successfully, even for single- 1 3000 12.6 0 6.3 27 147.9 232.7 0.41
phase BLDC fan operation (e.g., [34]). Therefore, the proposed 2 4000 14.5 0 6.9 27 201.8 305.9 0.88
control approach may also be realized when no Hall sensor is 3 5000 15.9 0 7.6 27 270.8 369.5 1.57
4 6000 17.5 0 9.1 35 352.4 479.4 2.58
available. Additionally, analysis of the current waveform may 5 7000 19.4 0 24.3 45 458.6 644.6 4.38
provide additional information whether the optimal switching 6 8000 20.3 0 14.2 33 597.1 946.4 7.1
angles have been achieved, as, for example, proposed in [13].
TABLE III
D. Variation of the Turn-Off Angle αp at Different Speeds n E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS FOR VARIATIONS OF αP + αD AND n.
In this case study, the phase current is turned off prior to No. n αp,opt αd,opt σi data points Irms ipeak Pin
the back-EMF zero-crossing by the angle αp . For αd = 0◦ , – rpm ◦
mech
◦
mech mA – mA mA W
the angle αp is varied between 5◦ < αp < 30◦ , covering the 1 3000 12.6 13 3.6 41 117 169 0.34
entire speed range of interest, to obtain the minimum of the 2 4000 14.5 10.2 21.6 31 176.7 245.3 0.78
rms phase current Irms . The results are presented in Fig. 12(a) 3 5000 15.9 7 18.3 29 254 333.4 1.47
4 6000 17.5 5.1 11.1 25 338.7 442.8 2.47
and Figs. 13(a) and (c), showing an overview of the different 5 7000 19.4 2.8 30.6 19 449.9 604.1 4.19
operating points, the optimal angle αp,opt in respect to the 6 8000 20.3 0.4 26 21 592.3 890.2 6.95
different speeds n, and the phase current rms values with a
fitted curve for the actual measured data points. Table II shows
exemplary results of the most significant quantities, containing n where the total motor current Irms reaches its minimum, as
the optimal angle αp,opt , the standard deviation of the residues shown in Fig. 12(b).
of the curve fit σi , the number of the measured data points
The results are presented in Fig. 12(b) and Figs. 13(b) and
for each experiment, the rms value of the total motor current
(d) showing an overview of the different operating points, for
Irms , the total motor current peak value ipeak , and the electrical
the optimal angle pairings αp,opt + αd,opt in respect to different
input power of the drive Pin = UDC ·i, where i is the arithmetic
speeds n, and the phase current rms values with a fitted
average of the current i.
curve for the actual measured data points. The minima for the
different operating conditions are again successfully identified,
E. Variation of Turn-On Angle αd at Different Speeds n
as shown in Fig. 12(b). Table III lists, similar to Table II,
In this case study, for the obtained optimal angles αp,opt an excerpt of the most significant quantities, containing the
in Table II, the angle αd is introduced and varied between optimal angle parings αp,opt + αd,opt , the standard deviation of
0◦ < αd < 20◦ , covering the entire speed range of interest, to the residues of the curve fit σi , the number of the measured
obtain the optimal angle pairing αp,opt + αd,opt for each speed data points for each experiment, the rms value of the total

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Fig. 12. (a) Variation of the turn-off angle αp at different speeds n, (b) variation of the turn-on angle αd respectively at the obtained optimal commutation
angles αp,opt at different speeds n.

Fig. 13. αd,p -n plane (a)-(b) with detailed position of the optimal commutation angles αp,opt and αp,opt + αd,opt in terms of speed n, (c)-(d) show measured
currents Irms with their respective fitted curves, where (c) shows the results of an arbitrarily chosen experiment with n = 3000 rpm and (d) at a higher speed
of n = 7000 rpm.

motor current Irms , the total motor current peak value ipeak ,
and the electrical input power of the drive Pin .
A decrease of the optimum turn-on angle αd,opt for in-
creasing n can be seen from Fig. 13(b) (opposite to the
increase of αp,opt for increasing n in Fig. 13(a)). This can
be explained by (1), showing the inductive characteristic of
the electric motor. With increasing speed and thus electrical
frequency, the impedance of the inductance and hence the
phase angle increase, both linearly. Therefore, the current has
to be turned on earlier than at lower speeds, see Fig. 15. A
detailed description of this behavior is proposed in [13].
F. Post-Processing Methodology to Find the Optimal Turn-On
and Turn-Off Angles
The optimal turn-off angle αp,opt is obtained by fitting a
quadratic polynomial curve into the measured data points and
finding its minimum. This is done by applying a robust linear
least-squares fitting method (MATLABs “fit”) and from there
on, the minimum is found by curve sketching of the returned
2nd order polynomial function. The same procedure is applied
when identifying αd,opt in Section V-E. The high measurement
quality is reflected by the standard deviation σi of the residues

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Transactions on Industry Applications

Fig. 14. Speed-dependent optimal commutation angles αp,opt and αp,opt + αd,opt , (a) average peak current ipeak , (b) rms input current Irms , (c) electrical input
power Pin , and (d) relative difference between measured and set rotational speed ∆n.

of the curve fits, calculated for both experiments and shown

in Tables II and III.
G. Comparison of the Commutation Approaches in Sec-
tions V-D and V-E
The phase current waveforms for a speed of n = 5000 rpm
◦
and an optimal angle αp,opt = 15.9 mech and an optimal angle
pair of αp,opt = 15.9 mech and αd,opt = 7 ◦mech are shown
◦

in Figs. 11(a) and (b), respectively. Comparing Figs. 11(a)

and (b), both phase current peaks and freewheeling current
spikes are significantly reduced. As can be seen, the optimal
commutation angles can ensure a desirable rectangular-like
phase current waveform. Introducing the advanced turn-on
angle αd , the overall drive behavior can be improved by
reducing current peaks and freewheeling current spikes.

Fig. 15. Measured uEMF for two different speeds as a function of the rotor
position, with indicated optimal switching angles.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850017, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications

TABLE IV especially automotive applications are operated in extreme

C OMPARISON OF S ELECTED R ESULTS . temperature conditions, e.g., -40 to 120 ◦ C, particularly in
n ∆ipeak ∆Irms ∆PCu ∆η the upper temperature range so called derating-curves apply,
rpm % % % % giving special importance to a decrease of the current to
3000 -27.4 -20.9 -37.4 20.6 guarantee stable operation, even under extreme conditions. In
4000 -19.8 -12.4 -23.3 12.8 addition, with BLDC motors in the sub-fractional horsepower
5000 -9.8 -6.2 -12 6.8 range, the relative amount of copper for the windings is high
6000 -7.6 -3.9 -7.6 4.5
compared to the stator-iron.
7000 -6.3 -1.9 -3.8 4.5
8000 -5.9 -0.8 -1.6 2.2 A single-phase BLDC motor with bifilar winding was used
in this paper as it was provided by the example case machine
application. As proposed in [35], a unifilar winding may come
The relative change of the selected quantities in Table IV with the advantage of lower copper loss. The availability of
can be calculated as follows: integrated driver circuits with logic and driver within one
package further reduces the need to aim for minimum switch

ipeak,p+d,opt
 count, e.g., [36]–[38]. The proposed method can also be
∆ipeak = − 1 · 100%, (5) applied to machines with unifilar winding, which indeed might
i
 peak,p,opt be the better winding choice for this machine topology.
Irms,p+d,opt

∆Irms = − 1 · 100%, (6) To enhance control strategies implemented with modern
Irms,p,opt advanced control systems, the linear relationship between the
!
2
Irms,p+d,opt optimal control angles and the speed could be identified as
 
Pcu,p+d
∆Pcu = − 1 · 100% = 2 − 1 · 100%, part of an automated machine identification procedure. The
Pcu,p Irms,p,opt
obtained information could then be forwarded to the control
(7)
 algorithm.
ηp+d
 
Pin,p

∆η = − 1 · 100% = − 1 · 100%, (8)
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bldc-moto.html
Hannes Gruebler (GS’18) received the B.Sc. de-
gree and the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engi-
neering from Graz University of Technology, Graz,
Austria, in 2012 and 2016, respectively. He currently
pursues the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at
the Electric Drives and Machines Institute at Graz
University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
His research interests include the system-design
of small electric drives and their optimization. He is
a member of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for
Brushless Drives for Pump and Fan Applications.
Stefan Leitner (S’16–GS’17) received the B.Sc.
degree and the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engi-
neering from Graz University of Technology, Graz,
Austria, in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He currently
pursues the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at
the Electric Drives and Machines Institute at Graz
University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
He spent an academic year at the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, USA, in 2014–15, via the
International Student Exchange Program (ISEP). He
was a visiting scholar at Washington State Univer-
sity, Pullman, WA, USA, and a recipient of the Marshall Plan Scholarship
in 2016. He was awarded Oesterreichs Energie-Preis 2017 for his Master’s
Thesis. His research interests include the design of fractional horsepower
drives, finite element analysis, and microgrids. He is a member of the Christian
Doppler Laboratory for Brushless Drives for Pump and Fan Applications.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850017, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications

Annette Muetze (S’03–M’04–SM’09–F’16) re-

ceived the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering
from Darmstadt University of Technology, Darm-
stadt, Germany, in 1999, the Diploma degree in gen-
eral engineering from the École Centrale de Lyon,
Écully, France, in 1999, and the Dr.-Ing. degree in
electrical engineering from Darmstadt University of
Technology in 2004.
She is currently a Professor with Graz University
of Technology, Graz, Austria, where she heads the
Electric Drives and Machines Institute and the Chris-
tian Doppler Laboratory for Brushless Drives for Pump and Fan Applications.
Prior to joining Graz University of Technology, she was an Assistant Professor
with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, and an Associate Professor with the School
of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K. In 2004, she received
the NSF CAREER award.

Gerhard Schoener received the PhD degree in ex-

perimental physics from University of Graz in 1983.
After a postdoctoral position at TACAN Corp. in
Carlsbad, California, USA in the field of fibre optic
sensors, he worked on different sensor applications
and passive electronic components in Austria. He is
with Mechatronic Systems GmbH in Wies, Austria.

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