In conventional direct torque controlled (DTC) permanent magnet synchronous motor drive, there is usually undesired torque and flux ripple. The existing literature have proposed some methods to reduce torque and flux ripple by optimizing the duty ratio of the active vector. However, these methods are usually complicated and parameter dependent. This paper first compares the performances of three duty determination methods in detail and then proposes a very simple but effective method to obtain the duty ratio. The novel method is superior to the existing methods in terms of simplicity and robustness. By appropriately arranging the sequence of the vectors, the commutation frequency is reduced effectively without performance degradation. To further improve the performance of system, a low-pass filter-based voltage model with compensations of amplitude and phase is employed to acquire accurate stator flux estimation. The proposed scheme is able to reduce the torque and flux ripple significantly while maintaining the simplicity and robustness of conventional DTC at the most. Simulations and presented experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes in this paper.

Recent advances in solid-state semiconductors have led to the development of medium-voltage power converters (e.g., 6-36 kV) which could obviate the need for the step-up transformers of renewable power generation systems. The modular multilevel cascaded converters have been deemed as strong contenders for the development of medium-voltage converters, but the converters require multiple isolated and balanced dc supplies. In this paper, a high-frequency link multilevel cascaded medium-voltage converter is proposed. The common high-frequency link generates multiple isolated and balanced dc supplies for the converter, which inherently minimizes the voltage imbalance and common mode issues. An 11-kV system is designed and analyzed taking into account the specified system performance, control complexity, cost, and market availability of the power semiconductors. To verify the feasibility of the proposed system, a scaled down 1.73-kVA laboratory prototype test platform with a modular five-level cascaded converter is developed and explored in this paper, which converts a 210 V dc (rectified generator voltage) into three-phase 1 kV rms 50 Hz ac. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed. It is expected that the proposed new technology will have great potential for future renewable generation systems and smart grid applications.