Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Southwest Research Institute

Michigan State University

Yilun Luo

Chandra S Namuduri

Junghoon Kim

Khorshed Mohammed Alam

Rashmi Prasad

Muhammad Hussain Alvi

Suresh Gopalakrishnan

Scott R Hotz

Brian A Welchko

Benjamin S Ngu

Sanjeev Manubhai Naik

Terrence Francis Alger, Ii

Graham Thomas Conway

Brad David Moore

Mohammad Faizul Momen

Minh-Khai Nguyen

Michael Z Pieszala

Azadeh Narimissa

Christopher Suhocki

Ronnie E Randolph

Thomas W Nehl

John A Diemer

Patrick S Portell

Mohammad N Anwar

Evangelyn C Alocilja

Terrence F Alger, Iii

William T Ivan

Christopher James Chadwell

Jack M Gayney

Peng Peng

Luciano Nunziato Di Perna

Mohamed Kamel

Renato Amorim Torres

Hong Wai Nguyen

Mazharul Chowdhury

Douglas Arthur McKee

Eric Bernard Gach

Muhammad A Zahid

Saranraj Karuppuswami

Ioan Suciu

Robert T Coppersmith, Iii

Terry Alger

A motor vehicle includes a multiphase AC electric motor having a stator wound with a first stator winding set including three phases and a second stator winding set including three phases, the three phases of the first stator winding set and the three phases of the second stator winding set wound oppositely to one another in the stator. Additionally, the motor vehicle includes a source of stored electrical energy and an inverter coupled to the source of stored electrical energy and to the electric motor to provide switched electrical energy to the first stator winding set and the second stator winding set. In addition, the motor vehicle includes a driver configured to simultaneously switch a relatively high side of the inverter to a first phase of the first stator winding set and a relatively low side of the inverter to a corresponding first phase of the second stator winding set.

Electric motor control

An electric machine with reconfigurable rotor poles. The machine may include a stator including a plurality of stator windings configured for generating a rotating magnetic field (RMF) and a rotor configured for rotating within the stator according to a torque induced by the RMF. The rotor may include a plurality of rotor windings wrapped around a plurality of circumferentially spaced rotor protrusions. The electric machine may include a rotor power transfer circuit operable for reconfiguring electrical excitation of the rotor windings according to a plurality of excitation modes.

Electric machine with reconfigurable rotor poles

An electric motor including a motor casing, a shaft having an axis of rotation, a first end and a second end, a first main bearing for rotatably supporting the shaft at the first end within the motor casing, a second main bearing for rotatably supporting the shaft at the second end within the motor casing, and a grounding bearing for conducting a bearing current between the shaft and the motor casing.

Electric motor shaft grounding apparatus

A system includes an inverter configured to output multiphase alternating current (AC) currents to an electric motor, the multiphase AC currents including a first phase current and a second phase current, the inverter including a set of switches for each phase current. The system also includes a switching controller operably connected to each set of switches, the switching controller configured to control a gate driver connected to a switch of the set of switches, the switching controller configured to determine a time difference between a first switching event of a first phase and a second switching event of a second phase during a switching cycle, and control a switching speed of the switch based on the time difference.

Control of switching speed in a multiphase inverter

A conversion system includes a conversion device including a multilevel inverter configured to generate two alternating current (AC) output currents, a current sensor configured to sample a current through the multilevel inverter, or from the multilevel inverter, during a switching cycle, and a processor configure to estimate both of the two AC output currents based on the sampled current from the current sensor.

Multilevel inverter current sensing

An electric motor configuration includes a dual output multilevel inverter. The inverter includes a first and second set of alternating current (AC) phase outputs. The first set of AC phase outputs provide a current, each phase output of the first set of AC phase outputs corresponds to a phase output of the second set of AC phase outputs, and each phase output of the first set of AC phase outputs is offset from the corresponding phase output of the second set of phase outputs by 180 degrees. An electric motor includes a first and second set of antiparallel motor windings. The first set of motor windings is connected to the first set of AC phase outputs and the second set of motor windings are connected to the second set of AC phase outputs. The electric motor includes a mechanical rotation output.

Common mode noise cancelling electric motor system

Aspects of the disclosure include a symmetric direct current (DC) link capacitor having a low parasitic equivalent series L-inductance (ESL). An exemplary capacitor can include one or more positive-dielectric-negative (PDN) stacks having a positive layer, a negative layer, and a dielectric layer between the positive layer and the negative layer. A first contact layer is electrically coupled to the positive layer on a sidewall of the one or more PDN stacks and a second contact layer is electrically coupled to the negative layer on the sidewall of the one or more PDN stacks. A positive terminal is electrically coupled to the first contact layer and a negative terminal is electrically coupled to the second contact layer.

Low parasitic equivalent series L-inductance (ESL) symmetric direct current (DC) link capacitor

A multi-phase power inverter for an electric propulsion system includes a plurality of X-type multilevel power converters arranged between a high-voltage direct current (DC) power supply and an electric machine. Each of the plurality of X-type multilevel power converters is a solid-state integrated circuit (IC) that includes a positive DC power bus, a negative DC power bus, a neutral bus, and a plurality of semiconductor switches disposed in a stacked arrangement. The plurality of semiconductor switches is interconnected via the positive DC power bus, the negative DC power bus, and the neutral bus.

System for mutual inductance cancellation for X-type multilevel converters

A vehicle system includes a first battery pack connected to a second battery pack via multi-level inverter. A motor is connected to the multi-level inverter. A controller is connected to the motor and the multi-level inverter. The multi-level inverter is a neutral point clamped inverter. The controller includes a memory storing instructions configured to cause the controller to control the multi-level inverter as a direct current (DC)-DC converter such that a circulating current passes through the motor, the first battery pack and the second battery pack.

Using a multilevel neutral point clamped inverter

A choke device for an electric machine system is provided. The choke device includes a common-mode choke including a magnetic core configured in cross-section as a geometric shape including a hollow center. The choke device further includes a plurality of electric transmission lines configured for transmitting electrical energy in alternating current, wherein the plurality of electric transmission lines is routed through the hollow center. The geometric shape includes a number of sides based upon a number of the electric transmission lines present and is configured for minimizing or reducing an overall flux length of the magnetic core.

Choke device for an electric machine system

An electric motor control system includes an alternating current (AC) electric motor having a first phase input, a second phase input, and a third phase input, and an AC electrical energy source having a first phase output, a second phase output and a third phase output. The system also includes conductors coupled between the phase outputs of the AC electrical energy source and the phase inputs of the AC electric motor. The electric motor control system also has circuitry that further includes a rectifier with phase inputs coupled to the conductors. The rectifier produces a rectified voltage between a positive rectifier output and a negative rectifier output. The system additionally includes an energy storage element coupled across the positive rectifier output and the negative rectifier output and a voltage limiting diode coupled to the positive rectifier output to limit a voltage of the positive rectifier output.

Overvoltage mitigation system

An electric vehicle includes a drive system that performs a method of transferring power between a vehicle and an external location. The drive system includes a battery, a rectifier, and a processor. The rectifier is one of a two-level rectifier and a multi-level rectifier. The processor is configured to connect the rectifier between an alternating current (AC) port of an outlet of an external location and the battery. The rectifier is configured to convert between an AC power at the AC port on an external side of the rectifier and a direct current (DC) power at a vehicle side of the rectifier in order to transfer power bi-directionally between the external location and the battery.

Method and apparatus for integrated bi-directional charging

A multi-level inverter control system includes a power storage system having a high voltage terminal, a low voltage terminal, and an intermediate voltage terminal. The intermediate voltage terminal is at a voltage between the high voltage terminal and the low voltage terminal. A multi-level inverter includes a plurality of switches, a high voltage input connected to the high voltage terminal, a low voltage input connected to the low voltage terminal, and an intermediate voltage input connected to the intermediate voltage terminal. A controller is controllably coupled to the multi-level inverter. The controller includes at least a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions configured to cause the controller to operate the multi-level inverter in a three-level inverter mode, a full power two-level inverter mode, a first partial power two-level inverter mode and a second partial power two-level inverter mode.

Multilevel direct current power source powering multilevel inverter

A method for control of an alternating current (AC) electric motor through a voltage inverter having a plurality of electric switches with on-off states that collectively define a plurality of non-zero vectors angularly disposed about a common origin includes through one or more controllers, calculating a rotating voltage reference vector to apply to the AC electric motor through the voltage inverter. The method also includes through one or more controllers, calculating voltage inverter switching times using a first subset of the plurality of non-zero vectors, the first subset including fewer than all of the plurality of non-zero vectors and including no adjacent non-zero vectors, to synthesize the rotating voltage reference vector. Additionally, the method includes through the voltage inverter, applying the rotating voltage reference vector to the AC electric motor.

A variable slew rate gate drive system for powering an electric machine. The system may include a gate driver operable for controlling each of a plurality of hybrid switch power modules between opened and closed states to facilitate powering the electric machine. The gate driver may be operable for selecting slew rates and controlling ON and OFF states of first and second semiconductor switches included as part of each power module to optimize powering of the electric machine by varying the slew rates as a function of performance characteristics of the first and second semiconductor switches.

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Yilun Luo