Reduced sensor configuration of brushless DC motor drive using a power factor correction-based modified-zeta converter

This study deals with the design and development of a power factor (PF) correction-based modified-zeta converter fed brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive. A single-phase supply followed by a diode bridge rectifier and a modified-zeta converter operating in discontinuous inductor current mode (DICM) is used to feed a voltage source inverter (VSI) driving a BLDC motor. The modified-zeta converter operating in DICM acts as an inherent PF pre-regulator. A single-voltage sensor is used for the DC-link voltage control, which is used to control the speed of the BLDC motor. This facilitates the operation of VSI in fundamental frequency switching for reducing the switching losses in VSI. The proposed BLDC motor drive is designed and its performance is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment for achieving an improved power quality at AC mains for wide range of speed control. The obtained power quality indices are under the recommended limits of international power quality standard IEC 61000-3-2. Finally, the performance of the proposed drive is validated with test results obtained on a developed prototype of the proposed BLDC motor drive.