Resonant Motor Drive for Electrified Aircraft: Algorithms and Controls

Motor drives for electrified aircraft applications require high performance and lightweight filtering compared to motor drives for terrestrial applications. This point is exacerbated for drives paired with cryogenically-cooled machines, where drive-induced heat loads can overwhelm the motor's thermal management system. The Auxiliary Resonant Commutated Pole (ARCP) inverter topology can be used to increase the switching frequency, thereby decreasing filter mass, without incurring additional switching losses. This paper presents details for the techniques used to accurately and robustly control the timing of the ARCP circuit to achieve soft-switching.