Power electronics: will our current technical vision take us to the next level of AC drive product performance?

As drive manufacturers continue to enhance specific power conversion products, a major question arises: will drive manufacturers be able to make the technological breakthroughs to achieve the promise that early in the 21st Century, power electronics will be recognized as a true enabling technology? The purpose of this paper is to identify where true breakthroughs will be needed to achieve a higher level of maturity in AC motor drives. This paper begins by defining the state of the art in AC motor drives by using functional characteristic measures in several key technology areas