A review of drive techniques for multiphase machines

Multiphase machines are gaining increasing popularity because of their distinct advantages over three-phase counterparts, such as reduced per phase power rating, improved reliability and increased degrees of freedom. This paper overviews the development history of multiphase machines and drive techniques in Section II. Three kinds of drive algorithms, including Field-Oriented Control (FOC), Direct Torque Control (DTC) and Model Predictive Control (MPC), are introduced in Section III. Then two types of fault-tolerant methods are compared in Section IV, which are the Vector Space Decomposition (VSD) strategy and Optimal Current Control (OCC) method. Furthermore, different types of existing multiphase converter topologies are listed in Section V, and various kinds of multiphase PWM methods are discussed in Section VI. Finally, based on the review, developing trends of multiphase drive techniques are forecasted.