Comprehensive PM Motor Controller Design for

Electrically Assisted Turbo-Charger Systems

SeHwan Kim Jul-Ki Seok
Power Conversion Lab. Power Conversion Lab.
Yeungnam University Yeungnam University
Gyeongsan, Korea Gyeongsan, Korea
ksh_8508@ynu.ac.kr doljk@ynu.ac.kr http://yupcl.yu.ac.kr


AbstractA hybrid position sensorless motor control
strategy is developed to meet the challenges of electrically
assisted turbo-charger (EATC) systems integrated into an
automotive engine plant. The proposed controller has a
straightforward structure with properties that combines the
conventional current vector controller (CVC) and the proposed
hexagon voltage modulation controller (HVMC). The proposed
HVMC accomplishes the maximum available voltage utilization,
allowing a larger motor torque generation per ampere than that
of current control alone in the 2
nd
flux weakening region. This
feature leads to a higher PM flux linkage of the motor design,
which lets us capture the reliable back-EMF information at the
starting speed. In addition, setting a lower bound of the base
speed can be achieved to avoid non-ideal current regulation
problems at higher speeds. The proposed structure can offer
further flexibilities in motor design and drive control, beyond a
conventional turbo-charger.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electrically assisted turbo-chargers (EATC) enabled by
ultra-high speed air compressors, high efficiency electric
motors, and controllers provide the means for a clean,
efficient, and environmentally friendly urban transportation
system [1-2]. The electric motors run at speeds in excess of
120,000 r/min and generate electricity at up to 98.5%
electrical efficiency when used as generators. This
technology also virtually eliminates turbo lag and enables
engine downsizing without compromising engine
performance. The ultra-high speed electric motors generally
utilize permanent magnets (PMs) that have a higher
efficiency than standard induction motors. The maintenance
and installation difficulties lead to the elimination of a
mechanical shaft position sensor of the PM synchronous
motor (PMSM) [3-4]. The position sensorless operation starts
around 5,000 r/min because the energy in the exhaust gas
turns the turbine connected to the motor at lower speed
ranges. As a result, an EATC equipped engine can save up to
30% on CO
2
emissions and fuel economy compared to an
equivalent naturally aspirated engine.

Two main challenges are still posed for the development of
the PMSM controller for EATC applications. First, prompt
realization of the maximum torque demand should be ensured
up to the beginning speed of the 2
nd
flux weakening region [5]
(120,000 r/min), especially during transient driving, without
the position information measurement. On the other hand, the
motor with this high onset speed requirement provides
insufficient back-EMF information at low speeds and the
back-EMF tracking-based sensorless technique is not viable
in the vicinity of 5,000 r/min due to the lack of observability
for rotor quantities. This implies that tradeoffs between the
base speed and starting speed of the sensorless operation
must be considered. Second, non-ideal current regulation
problems [6-7] arise due to feedback sampling delay and
limited sampling frequencies at elevated speeds because the
inverter switching frequency cannot be made sufficiently
high, compared to the fundamental frequency (for example,
3.3kHz corresponding to 200,000 r/min for a 2-pole motor).

This paper presents a comprehensive PMSM controller
design and implementation for the EATC system integrated
into an automotive engine plant. A hybrid motor control
strategy is proposed to meet the aforementioned challenges
by combining the conventional current vector controller
(CVC) and proposed hexagon voltage modulation controller
(HVMC). The current regulation is performed under the base
speed and the motor control is handed over to the proposed
HVMC in the flux weakening region. The proposed HVMC
accomplishes the maximum available voltage utilization,
allowing a larger motor torque generation per ampere than
that of current control alone in the flux weakening region.
This feature leads to a higher back-EMF constant of the
motor, which lets us capture the reliable back-EMF
information around 5,000 r/min. Thus, the EATC system
satisfies the starting speed requirement of the back-EMF
tracking-based sensorless operation. In addition, setting a
lower bound of the base speed can be achieved to avoid non-
ideal current regulation problems at higher speeds. The
proposed structure can offer further flexibilities in motor
design and drive control, beyond a conventional turbo-
charger.
II. PRINCIPLE OF PROPOSED PMSM CONTROL FOR EATC
SYSTEMS
A. EATC System Description
A turbo-charger comprises of a turbine and a compressor
connected by a common shaft supported on a bearing system,
as shown in Fig. 1. The turbo-charger converts waste energy
from an engine's exhaust gases into compressed (intake) air,
which pushes the engine.
860 978-1-4799-0336-8/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE



Fig. 1. Cross-section view of the EATC system.

The system uses a PMSM to bring the turbo up to
operating speed quicker than is possible using available
exhaust gases. This forces the engine to burn more fuel
producing more power and improves the overall efficiency of
the combustion process. Turbo-chargers start producing boost
only when a certain amount of kinetic energy is present in the
exhaust gasses. In the testing system, the boost threshold
begins in the vicinity of 50,000 r/min while position
sensorless control is required at 5,000 r/min, as shown in Fig.
2. The motor delivers 136% of the rated torque from 50,000
to 120,000 r/min and the torque falls steadily up to 120,000
r/min, where the allowable torque is limited by the available
voltage (the 2
nd
flux weakening region starts).

B. Motor Controller Design
Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of the proposed PMSM
control strategy for an EATC system using a complex vector
representation. Here,
r
dq
v and
r
dq
i are the d-q axis stator
voltage and current vector in the rotor reference frame,
respectively.
s
R represents the stator resistance,
r
is the
electrical rotor angle,
r
is the rotor angular velocity,
T
K indicates the torque constant, and

=
0 1
1 0
J . The
stator inductance and the magnet flux linkage can be defined
as

=
s
s
s
L 0
0 L
L and

=
0
pm
pm
, (1)
where
s
L is the stator inductance and
pm
is the PM flux
linkage. In this paper, the superscript ^ represents the
corresponding variables are estimated and the superscript s is
used to denote a stationary reference frame.

[
r
/
m
i
n
]

r
p
m
[
p
.
u
.
]

T
e
1.36
50k
150k
5k
r

[s] Time
rpm

e
T
120k
Fig. 2. Speed-torque map of the developed EATC system.

At high speeds, the stator voltage can be simplified as
i L v
r
qs s r
r
ds
. (2)
The q-axis current command can be obtained as
s r
* r
d * r
q
L
v
i = . (3)
Then, the motor torque command can be described as a
function of the rotor speed and the d-axis voltage command
as follows:

= =
s r
r*
ds
pm
r*
qs pm
*
e
L
v

2
P
2
3
i
2
P
2
3
T , (4)
where P denotes the number of poles.
Increasing the motor speed forces
*
CVC _ dq
v to approach
the linear voltage limit boundary. In this paper, the hexagon-
*
i
r
dq
r
dq
i
r

*
v
r
dq_CVC
*
v
r
dq_HVMC
*
v
r
dq
r
dq
v
r
dq
i *
e
T
PI_CVC
+

s
1
L
s
R
r
J
pm r
J

dt
T
K

j
e
r

j
e
r

*
v
s
dq
s
dq
i
*
e
T

Fig. 3. Proposed hybrid controller for hexagon voltage utilization.
861

shaped boundary is considered as a voltage limit for
achieving the efficiency enhancement or the maximum
voltage utilization over a wide operating region.
-40 -20 0 20 40
-40
-20
0
20
40
axis[V] d
a
x
i
s
[
V
]
q

(a) Voltage trajectories in HVMC mode in the d-q Volt plane.

[V] v
r
d
[V] v
r
q
Constant torque
trajectory
* r
dq_HVMC
v
r

(b) Torque control principle in the HVMC mode
Fig. 4. Graphical representation of stator voltage solutions in the HVMC
mode.

Fig. 4(a) shows a graphical representation of the stator
voltage solutions between torque lines and rotating hexagon
in the synchronously rotating d-q volt plane. In the proposed
HVMC method, the intersection of the torque line and the
rotating hexagon becomes the command voltage vector at the
next sampling instant. A selected voltage vector at the
intersection can be obtained as
pm
*
e s r * r
d_HVMC
3P
T L 4
v = , (5a)
n
pm
*
e s r n * r
q_HVMC
B
3P
T L 4M
v + = , (5b)
where
n
M and
n
B are constant values given by the each
hexagon sector [8].
With this algorithm, the motor torque was regulated around
a desired torque line by selecting
* r
HVMC _ dq
v (marked in red
dot in Fig. 4(b)). This may cause fluctuations in the generated
torque, which might not be severe or problematic, for EATC
applications requiring the maximum voltage excitation,
because high-order harmonics are almost filtered out at these
high speeds.
-40 -20 0 20 40
-40
-20
0
20
40
axis[V] d
a
x
i
s
[
V
]
q

Fig. 5. Flux weakening operation at different rotor speeds.

It is interesting to investigate how the HVMC performs the
flux weakening operation as the rotor speed increases
(labeled
2 r
and
3 r
). It can be noticed from (4) that the
torque line moves along the negative d-axis direction with
increasing speed, as shown in Fig. 5. Then, the selected d-
axis voltage component is ever-increasing to the negative
direction, while the q-axis counterpart keeps shrinking with
the speed elevation. This implies that the automatic flux
weakening operation and the maximum voltage utilization
can be achieved without requiring any extra control functions
and tuning parameters to be adjusted.
In the flux weakening region, a step change in the torque or
rotor speed drives a torque command to lie outside the
voltage limit (labeled
1 r
). Here, it is not possible to
achieve a torque response for the desired value and the
generated motor torque should be decreased at a given rotor
speed, where the 2
nd
flux weakening operation starts.
862

[A] i
r
d
[A] i
r
q
Current
limit circle
Constant torque
trajectory
HVMC
mode
current
CVC
mode
current
r

Fig. 6. Current trajectory between CVC and HVMC mode in the d-q current
plane.

Fig. 6 shows the stator current vector trajectories in the d-q
current plane for a given torque requirement when the motor
is operated under the voltage limited condition. The stator
current vector in the CVC mode slides on the constant torque
line during the control mode transition while its magnitude is
reduced in the HVMC mode owing to the maximum voltage
utilization. This implies that the proposed HVMC approach
can offer minimum copper loss operation in the flux
weakening region.
[A] i
r
d
[A] i
r
q
>
s
pm
L

Fig. 7. Torque generation comparison between CVC and HVMC mode in the
2
nd
flux weakening region.

As shown in Fig. 7, it is evident that the proposed HVMC
(Point A) allows a larger motor torque generation per ampere
than that of current control alone (Point B) in the 2
nd
flux
weakening region. This feature leads to employ a higher
back-EMF constant of the motor, which lets us capture the
reliable back-EMF information at low speeds. In addition,
non-ideal current regulation problems at extremely high
speeds can be avoided by setting a lower bound of the base
speed. This benefit of limiting the CVC operating region also
enables a low PWM switching frequency to improve the
inverter efficiency.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Validation of the theoretical developments presented above
was performed on a 3.5 kW PMSM, as described in Table I,
through a simulation. For the reliable back-EMF information
acquisition at 5,000 r/min, the motor was designed to create
the back-EMF voltage as high as possible while maintaining
the same physical size. The dc-bus voltage was set to 48 V
and the current sampling period was assumed to be 25 sec
(
s
f =20 kHz). The rotor speed was given by an external speed
generator block while 136% of the rated torque was regulated
in the tested PMSM. The test was performed when the rotor
speed travels to 150,000 r/min (
r
f =2.5 kHz), which is
equivalent to a fundamental frequency
r
f of 2.5 kHz and a
r
f /
s
f of 8. These tests were based on ideal parameters and
the PWM generation delay compensation [7]. The rotor
position was estimated using a simple state filter in the
stationary reference frame [9].

50k
100k
150k
0
1.36
-1.1
0
1.1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
*
e
T e
T
r
q
i
r
d
i
[r/min]

rpm
[p.u.]
T & T
e
*
e
[p.u.]

r
dq
i
[p.u.]

[s] Time
(a) Motoring operation.
-40 -20 0 20 40
-40
-20
0
20
40
axis[V] d
a
x
i
s
[
V
]
q

(c) X-y plot of the stator voltage.
Fig. 8. Simulated test results of CVC mode alone.
863

TABLE I
Ratings and Nominal Parameters of 3.5kW PMSM
Ratings and Parameters Value Unit
Rated torque 0.22 Nm
Number of poles 2
Base speed@48 V
dc
90000 r/min
s
L 23.28 H
pm

2.184 mWb
System inertia 2110
-4
kgm
2

[r/min]

rpm
[p.u.]
T & T
e
*
e
[p.u.]

r
dq
i
[p.u.]

[s] Time
50k
100k
150k
0
1.36
-1.1
0
1.1
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
*
e
T e
T
r
q
i
r
d
i
(a) Motoring operation.
-40 -20 0 20 40
-40
-20
0
20
40
axis[V] d
a
x
i
s
[
V
]
q

(b) X-y plot of the stator voltage.
Fig. 9. Simulated test results of the proposed hybrid control.

The simulated test results of the conventional PI current
control method are depicted in Fig. 8, where the estimated
rotor speed, air-gap torque command/controlled torque, d-q
axis stator current, and stator flux linkage magnitude are
displayed [Fig. 8(a)] from the top to bottom. Here, the
voltage feedback-based flux weakening control scheme was
applied above the base speed and the advent of the 2
nd
flux
weakening occurs at 122,000 r/min. It can be observed from
the x-y plot of Fig. 8(b) that the stator voltage moves along
the voltage limit circle ( 3 / V
dc
) in the flux weakening
region. As the rotor speed approaches 150,000 r/min, the
highly oscillatory responses can be observed in the controlled
torque and feedback currents due to the low
r
f /
s
f . This may
cause a system instability problem, depending on the
mechanical system condition and the control bandwidth.
The same simulated test was repeated using the proposed
hybrid controller, as shown in Fig. 9. The hybrid structure
provides a smooth transition from the CVC to the proposed
HVMC mode by deactivating the current regulator in the flux
weakening region, as shown in Fig. 9(a). The waveforms of
the air-gap torque and the stator flux show that a smooth
transition from CVC to HVMC mode occurs at 85,000 r/min
(at t = 0.075 s). In this test, the drive enters the 2
nd
flux
weakening region at around 126,000 r/min, which represents
an increase of 4,000 r/min compared to the CVC result. The
torque was well regulated in the HVMC mode because the
voltage vector slides on the constant torque line, as explained
in Fig. 4(b). The result indicates that the developed controller
satisfies the speed-torque generation requirements of Fig. 2.
The x-y locus [Fig. 9(b)] shows that the resulting controller
remains within the maximum voltage bound in the voltage
limited condition.

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
0.5
1
1.5
e_HVMC
T
e_CVC
T
[s] Time
[p.u.]
Torque

Fig. 10. Comparison of torque response between the PI current control mode
and the proposed hybrid control.

Fig. 10 shows the comparative result of the torque response
between the CVC alone (in blue) and the proposed method
(in red). The proposed HVMC presented herein has two
important advantages over the alternative technique. The first
advantage is its ability to generate a larger motor torque per
ampere than that of current control alone in the 2
nd
flux
weakening region, as discussed in Fig. 7. This is particularly
important to EATC systems relying on the limited battery
power. The second advantage is the fact that the open-loop
HVMC performance is not much affected by the sampling-to-
fundamental frequency ratio that would incite vibration in the
closed-loop PI controller.
Note that the precise torque regulation in the HVMC mode
can be achieved provided there is no drift of the motor
864

parameter of (4) and (5). In practice, however, this is not
always the case, and the motor parameters should be
estimated and updated in real situations [10-11].
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The basic feasibility of the proposed hybrid controller was
verified on a 600 W general-purpose PMSM, which is
coupled to a 1.0 kW servo motor. The coupled servo drive
was operated in speed-control mode while 35% of the rated
torque was regulated in the tested PMSM. A precise torque
sensor from Lorenz Messtechnik GMBH with a 1 kHz
bandwidth was installed between PMSM and servo motor to
measure the real torque. Multidimensional map data tables
were prepared to achieve accurate torque control based on
steady-state measurements of motor physical quantities [11].

[p.u.]
rpm
p.u.] [ T
e
[p.u.]
r
dq
i
[p.u.]

s
1
0
0
2
0.35
0
2
2
55 . 1
0
[1s/div] Time

Fig. 11. Test results of the proposed control performance.


[5ms/div] Time
[50V/div]

* s
dq
v
0
200
200
[50V/div] v
* s
d
[
5
0
V
/
d
i
v
]





v
*
sq

Fig. 12. Selected d-q command voltage waveforms.


TABLE II
Ratings and Nominal Parameters of 600W PMSM
Ratings and Parameters Value Unit
Rated torque 2.9 Nm
Number of poles 8
s
L 4.59 mH
pm

0.065 Wb

The test result in motoring operation is depicted in Fig. 11,
where the estimated rotor speed, the measured torque, the
measured d-q stator current, and the estimated stator flux
linkage are illustrated from the top to bottom. In this test, the
dc-link voltage was set to 150 V and the PMSM drive was
operated from 0 to 200% of the base speed. A smooth
transition was achieved without any discontinuity at the
control mode switching instant. The torque was controlled
precisely under the motor parameter variation because the
built-in map data provide a realtime compensation.
Fig. 12 shows the selected d-q command voltage
waveforms of (5) in the stationary reference frame at the
maximum speed. No additional distortion was found in the
output phase voltage waveform. It can be confirmed from the
x-y locus that the resulting HVMC achieves the maximum
voltage utilization under the voltage limited condition.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a comprehensive PMSM controller
design and implementation for the EATC system integrated
into the automotive engine plant. The developed algorithm
has a hybrid structure of the variable configuration subject to
operating frequencies. The proposed HVMC accomplishes
the maximum available voltage utilization, allowing a larger
motor torque per ampere than that of CVC alone in the flux
weakening region. This feature makes us limit the CVC
operating region as narrow as possible and provide increasing
flexibility in motor design. As a result, non-ideal current
regulation problems due to the CVC operation can be avoided
at extremely high speeds and the reliable back-EMF tracking-
based sensorless operation is achieved at lower speeds. With
this algorithm, the automatic flux weakening operation can be
achieved without requiring extra control functions and any
tuning parameters to be adjusted. The proposed structure can
offer further flexibilities in motor design and drive control,
beyond a conventional turbo-charger.
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