Loss evaluation of interior permanent-magnet synchronous Machine drives using T-type multilevel converters

This paper studies the effect of using T-type multilevel converters on the power loss of interior permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (IPMSM) drives. The effect of the T-type converters is compared to two-level converter and conventional multilevel converters. The study is performed at different switching frequencies to show its effect on the drive loss. The iron and magnet losses of the studied IPMSM are computed numerically by means of the Finite Element Method. On the other hand, the converter loss is calculated for the different used switching schemes using the manufacturer data of the converter switches. For the considered application, the present study shows the effectiveness of using the T-type converters over the conventional ones, i.e. the overall drive loss is reduced about 33% for the five-level T-type compared to the diode clamped converter. Therefore, the results presented in the paper reveal the usefulness of using the proposed T-type multilevel converters.