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Software-defined electric motor

  • US 10,411,532 B2
  • Filed: 10/27/2014
  • Issued: 09/10/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An electric motor configured so as to be capable of being electronically switched in rapid succession between operation in a high torque mode and operation in a low torque mode, a torque output of the motor higher in the high torque mode than in the low torque mode, the motor comprising:

  • a stator having first and second sets of armature windings, wherein the first set of armature windings comprise synchronous reluctance windings and the second set of armature windings comprise switched reluctance windings; and

    a rotor having first and second sets of flux barriers, each set of flux barriers adapted to shape a magnetic flux distribution generated by a corresponding one of the first and second sets of armature windings upon excitation of the windings;

    wherein excitation of the switched reluctance windings causes the motor to operate as a switched reluctance motor with a high pole number in the high torque mode of operation and wherein excitation of the synchronous reluctance windings causes the same motor to operate as a synchronous reluctance motor in the low torque mode of operation and wherein to switch the motor between the high torque and low torque modes a first inverter and a first controller are connected to the switched reluctance windings and a second inverter and a second controller are connected to the synchronous reluctance windings, the first controller and the second controller controlling the excitation of their respective windings so that the switching time between the motor operating as the switched reluctance motor in the high torque of operation and the motor operating as the synchronous reluctance motor in the low torque mode of operation is within a few milliseconds; and

    a plurality of teeth circumferentially spaced apart around a rotation axis of the motor, wherein each of the switched reluctance windings is wrapped around a corresponding single tooth and each of the synchronous reluctance windings is wrapped around a corresponding plurality of adjacent teeth.

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