Realizing Trade‐OFFs in Virtual Voltage Vector Based Model Predictive Control of 3 ∅$$ \varnothing $$ to 6 ∅$$ \varnothing $$ MC to Suppress the Common Mode Voltage

ABSTRACT The impact of common mode voltage (CMV) on induction motor life is significant under non‐sinusoidal terminal voltage. In the advent of matrix converters for multi‐phase drives pose a challenge not only to reduce CMV but also to maintain the load current total harmonic distortion (THD) within the acceptable limits. Hence, the matrix converter (MC) performance is attributed to CMV reduction, load current THD minimization and supply side UPF maintenance which together is difficult to attend without any trade‐off. This paper presents a three‐phase to six‐phase matrix converter ( MC) with virtual vector‐based predictive control. In the classical predictive control selective utilization of the available voltage vectors, could lead to CMV reduction at the cost of the increase in the load current THD. The proposed predictive control is derived with selective virtual voltage vector formation to reduce the CMV while maintaining the load current THD within the limits. The trade‐off between CMV and THD is achieved by using a decisive weighting factor in the cost function. The performance of the MC, such as efficiency improvement with supply side unity power factor (UPF) is also achieved. This control algorithm is executed using a low‐cost dsPIC processor and verified experimentally to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.