Optoelectronics

Optocouplers For Variable Speed Motor Control Electronics In Consumer Home Appliances White Paper

1st July 2013
ES Admin
0
In addition to industrial applications of variable-speed motor drives, the home appliance market is another major area where three-phase pulse width modulated motor control drives are finding increasing application. Innumerable motors can be found in a typical home. Indeed, the quality of life enjoyed today may be directly attributable to the existence of the electric motor. By Jamshed N. Khan, Optocoupler Applications Engineer, Avago Technologies.
Thus, the design of a low-cost, reliable, efficient, variable speed three-phase motor has become a prime focus for both appliance designers and electronic component manufacturers. The components needed for the three-phase motor electronics include IGBTs, gate drivers, inverters, microcontroller units, analog current and voltage sensors, among others. Modern, state-of-the-art, low cost, reliable optocouplers (optoisolators) are becoming designers’ preferred component for optically isolated gate drivers and optically isolated analog current and voltage sensors.

Three-Phase Variable-Speed Motor Control Topology

Modern three-phase variable-speed motor control architecture can be divided into subsystems or components. The key components of this topology include IGBT/ MOSFET three-phase inverters (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6), single-phase or three-phase rectifier diode bridge, gate drivers, analog current and voltage sensors, isolated and ground-referenced power supplies, and of course, the microcontroller unit.

Because of the presence of high power, high voltages, and high currents in the design of a motor, it is necessary, and often mandated by safety and regulatory agencies, that people operating the motors and low power digital electronics are protected through some form of safe galvanic isolation.

Download the full White Paper below.

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