Six-phase AC drive system with reduced common-mode voltage

This paper investigates a six-phase machine drive configuration that permits to reduce the common-mode voltage. The drive system consists of a six-phase inverter feeding a six-phase induction motor, which is adequate to develop a high power system with current rating restrictions. Several pulsewidth modulation techniques for generating gate signals to command the power switches of the six-phase inverter are presented. The proposed strategies permits to reduce either the mean value or the instantaneous value of the common-mode voltage. Simulation and experimental results demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed solution.