Chapter 2

BRUSHLESS DC MOTOR FUNDAMENTALS

2.1 Introduction

Breathless DC motors are getting popular rapidly. These are used in appliances automotive
aerospace consumer industrial automation equipment instrumentation and medical equipment.
BLDC motors are electronically commutated instead of using brushes for commutation. BLDC
motors are advantageous over brushed DC motors and induction motors. Following are some of
those advantages.
 Better speed versus torque characteristics
 High dynamic response
 Greater efficiency
 Greater operating life
 Less noise during operation.
 Greater speed ranges.
In addition, as compared to the size of the motor the torque delivered is higher, which is useful in
saving space and reducing weight where weight and space are critical factors. Here we will
discuss the construction, working principle, characteristics, and typical applications of BLDC
motors.

2.2 Construction and Operating Principle

BLDC motors are synchronous motors. It means the stator's magnetic field and the rotor's
magnetic field rotate at the same frequency.
A BLDC motor can be a single phase, two phase and three phase. The stator has the same
number of windings corresponding to its type. The three phase BLDC motors are more widely
used. We will focus on three phase motors in these application notes.
2.2.1 Stator
In BLDC motors, the stator is made up of stacked steel laminations and windings placed in the
slots that are cut axially along the inner periphery. This stator is just like of an induction motor;
however, the distribution of winding is different. Most of the time, in BLDC motors, three stator
windings are connected in Star fashion. Each winding is constructed with numerous coils
interconnected to form a winding. One or more coils are placed in the slots, and they are
interconnected to make a winding. Over the stator periphery each of these windings is distributed
to form an even number of poles.

FIGURE 1: STATOR OF A TYPICAL BLDC MOTOR

Two types of Twitter winding variants are as follows.

These different types are due to the back EMF. Trapezoidal Motors give back EMF in
trapezoidal fashion and sinusoidal motors give back EMF in sinusoidal manner, As shown in
figure 1 and 2. The phase current also has trapezoidal and sinusoidal variations respectively. The
talk output by a sinusoidal motor is smoother than the trapezoidal motor. However, there is more
copper used in the sinusoidal motors as the sinusoidal motors take extra winding in the
connections because of the coil distribution. Motor with different current voltage rating of the
stator can be chosen depending upon the control power supply capability. 48 or less voltage rated
motors are used in automotive, small arm movements, robotics etc. motors with more than
hundred volts are use in appliances, industrial applications, and automation.

TRAPEZOIDAL BACK EMF

2.2.2 Rotor

FIGURE 2: ROTOR OF A TYPICAL BLDC MOTOR

The rotor is made up of permanent magnet and can be from 2 to 8 pole, with alternate north and

South Poles. The magnetic material is chosen on the basis of required magnetic field density.

Most of the time ferrite magnets are used. Real Earth alloy magnets are also becoming popular.

Ferrite magnets are cheap, but they have low flux density for given volume. Whereas the alloy

material has high magnetic density for volume which helps compress the rotor size for the same

torque. These alloy magnets also improve size to weight ratio which results in higher torque for

the same size of motor. Neodymium (Nd), Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) and the alloy of

Neodymium, Ferrite and Boron (NdFeB) are examples of rare Earth alloy magnets. Continuous

research and study are going to improve the flux density to further compress the size of the rotor.

Different arrangements of magnets in a rotor are shown below.

2.3 Hall Sensors

A BLDC motor is controlled by electronical commutation. To rotate the motor, the status
windings are energized in a sequence. To understand which winding will be energized we have
to know the location of the rotor. Hall effect sensors are embedded into the status to sense the
rotor's position.
Most BLDC motors have three hall sensors embedded on the non-driving end of the motor. High
or low signal is given whenever the rotor magnetic poles pass near the hall sensor. Based on the
input from these three hall sensors, the exact sequence of commutation can be determined.

FIGURE 4: HALL SENSORS

Above figure shows 3 hall sensors on a BLDC motor with the rotor that has an alternate North
and South permanent magnets. Embedding the hall sensors into the stator is complex process
because any misalignment with respect to rotor magnets will result in an error in determining the
position of the stator. To simplify the process some motors, have hall sensor magnets on the rotor
in addition to the main rotor magnets. These are a scaled down replica version of the rotor. That
is why whenever the rotor rotates hall sensor gives the same effect as the main magnets.
There are two versions of output based on the physical position of hall sensors. The whole
sensors may be at 60-degree or 120-degree phase shift to each other. Based on this the
manufacturer of the motor predefines the commutation sequence, which is to be followed for
controlling the motor.
2.4 Theory of Operation

. Each commutation sequence has one of the windings energized to positive power which means
current enters the winding the second winding is negative which means current exits the winding
and the third is the non-energized. The torque is generated because of the interaction between the
rotor's and the stator's magnetic fields. To achieve the peak torque the angle between these two
magnetic fields should be of 90-degrees. To keep the motor running the magnetic field of the
winding should shift position at the rotor moves to catch up the stator's magnetic field.

2.4.1 Torque/Speed Characteristics

Figure shows an example of torque/speed characteristics. There are two torque perimeters peak
torque and rated torque. During continuous operations the motor can be loaded up to the rated
torque. In BLDC motors the torque is constant till the rated speed. The motor can run up to 150%
of the rated speed but the torque does not remain constant and is dropped.

In applications where we have frequent starts and stops and reversals with Lord on the motor, we
need to have more torque than the rated torque. This is required for a brief period, especially
when motor runs from stand still and during acceleration. During this period the extra torque is
required to overcome the inertia of the load. The motor can deliver a higher torque maximum up
to the peak torque if it is following the speed torque curve.

FIGURE 5: TYPICAL TORQUE – SPEED CHARACTERISTICS OF BLDC MOTOR

FIGURE 6: AN EXAMPLE OF HALL SENSOR SIGNALS WITH RESPECT TO BACK EMF

Every 60 electrical degrees of rotation, the state of one of the hall sensors is changed. Electrical
cycle is completed in 6 steps. With every 60 electrical degrees the phase current shifting should
be updated. One electrical cycle may not correspond to a complete mechanical revolution of the
motor. The rotor pole pairs determine the number of electrical cycles to be repeated to complete
a mechanical rotation. For one rotor pole pairs one electrical cycle is completed. So, the number
of electrical cycles equals the rotor pole pairs.
 FIGURE 7: TYPICAL COMMUATION CIRCUIT

Table 3 and 4 show the sequence in which these power switches should be switched depending
on the input from the hall sensors a b and c. Table 3 is for clockwise rotation and table 4 is for
counterclockwise rotation.

FIGURE 8: HALL