A ZVS-resonant bifilar drive circuit for SRM with a reduction in stress voltage of switches

Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) are widely used in high-speed and low voltage applications because of their attractive features such as robustness and simplicity. No winding on the rotor of this type of motors allows reaching high speed which is desired for many applications. Drive circuits of SRMs also play an important role in their performance and operation. In this paper, a new bifilar drive circuit for this type of motors has been proposed. This novel configuration has been tested and investigated by PSIM software. Results show that the new bifilar drive circuit highly reduces the voltage stresses on semiconductor switches, and also considerably reduces the switching losses which are very important in low voltage applications. Finally, a comparison between this new drive circuit and some other common configurations is presented.