A reduced switch-count SEPIC-based inverter for asymmetrical dual three-phase induction machines

The interest in multiphase drives has been steadily growing during the last decade due to the promising potentials offered by multiphase machines over conventional three-phase counterpart. In this context, six-phase induction machines are preferably used in many diversified high-power applications. Generally, thanks to its improved flux distribution, the asymmetrical six-phase winding topology fed from two three-phase voltage source inverters (VSIs) is commonly employed with isolated neutral points to prevent the flow of zero sequence currents and to limit the number of current controllers to four instead of five when neutral points are connected. In this paper, an innovative design of a six-phase dc-ac inverter is proposed for such type of six-phase ac machines based on the single-ended primary-inductance converter (SEPIC) topology. The proposed topology employs only four active-legs with eight switches with the same output voltage magnitudes as in conventional VSIs and without the mandatory dead-time between switches in the same-leg. Also, it naturally delivers a pure sinusoidal waveform at the output stage. The principle of operation of the proposed inverter topology is investigated in details and assessed through a detailed simulation study of an open-loop control system.