2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
Sensorless Brushless DC Motor Drive fed by Cuk
Converter
Merin Jacob
M.Tech Student, Power Electronics
TocH Institute of Science and Technology
Arakkunnam, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
merinjacob26@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper deals with sensorless brushless DC
motor drive fed by a Cuk converter as a cost-effective solution
for low-power applications. The single phase supply is fed to
uncontrolled bridge rectifier, which is followed by a Cuk
converter used to control the voltage of DC link capacitor that
feds the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI). Voltage of the DC link
capacitor of Cuk converter is controlled to achieve the speed
control of BLDC motor. The rotor position sensors are
eliminated by using sensorless control. Electronic commutation of
the VSI is done by detecting the zero crossing points (ZCP) of the
back EMF voltage difference in order to avoid phase delay
circuits. A mathematical model of the drive system is simulated
with MATLAB/SIMULINK.
Keywords—Brushless DC (BLDC) motor; Continuous
Conduction Mode (CCM); Cuk Converter; Sensorless Control;
Electromotive Force (EMF); Power Quality (PQ)
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years BLDC motors are widely used because of
their high torque to weight ratio, high efficiency, high flux
density per unit volume, increased reliability, reduced noise,
low electromagnetic interference problems, high ruggedness,
wide range of speed control, faster dynamic response and
lower susceptibility to mechanical wear [1,2]. Due to these
advantages, they find applications in numerous areas such as
household applications-CD/DVD players, small cooling fans;
transportation- electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, radio con-
trolled cars; aerospace that focus on the design of electric
drive for flight control actuation system; heating, ventilation
and air conditioning; motion control systems like robotics, etc.
Brushless dc motor is a kind of permanent magnet
synchronous motor, having permanent magnets on its rotor
with trapezoidal back EMF [6]. With the help of power
devices BLDC motors energizes its stator phase windings. In
motors incorporating position sensors, the switching
sequences are determined from the same [7]. The phase
current of BLDC motor is synchronized with the back EMF to
produce constant torque at a constant speed [8]. In BLDC,
mechanical commutator of the brush dc motor is replaced by
electronic switches. . Voltage of the DC link capacitor of Cuk
converter is controlled to achieve the speed control of BLDC
motor as the converter has features as low-noise level, proper
energy transfer through capacitors, wide range of input and
978-1-5090-1277-0/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Aishwarya V
Assistant Professor, EEE Department
TocH Institute of Science and Technology
Arakkunnam, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
aishwaryatist@gmail.com
output voltage, small size, natural protection against inrush
current and high overall conversion efficiency [3].
These brushless dc motors are generally controlled using a
three-phase inverter which requires a rotor position sensor for
starting and providing the proper commutation sequence to
control the inverter [8]. These position sensors can be Hall
sensors or absolute position sensors [9]. Those sensors will
increase the cost and the size of the motor and thus a special
mechanical arrangement needs to be made for mounting the
sensors. These sensors, particularly Hall sensors, are
temperature sensitive, and limit the operation of the motor to
below about 75 degree Celsius [9]. Because of the components
and wiring, they could reduce the system reliability. In many
cases, it even may not be possible to mount any position
sensor on the motor [10]. Therefore, BLDC motor with
sensorless control has been receiving great interest in recent
years.
This paper provides a sensorless method for controlling
BLDC motor drives. During the last two decades, a lot of
research on sensorless control technique for BLDC motors
have been conducted [4-10]. As the conventional control has
been improved with sensorless control, the performance and
reliability of BLDC motor drivers have been improved. The
zero crossing of the back EMF voltage difference has been
used to implement the sensorless control technique.
The organization of this paper is as follows. Section II
presents the conventional BLDC motor drive system with
position sensors. Section III presents the proposed topology
which eliminates the need for position sensors through
sensorless technique. Section IV includes mathematical
modeling of the BLDC motor and operation of the Cuk
converter is depicted in Section V. Section VI presents the
simulation results and Section V draws the conclusion.
II. CONVENTIONAL TOPOLOGY
Fig.1 shows a Cuk converter based VSI fed BLDC motor
drive using a voltage follower approach [1]. A high frequency
metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is
used in the Cuk Converter, whereas insulated gate bipolar
transistors (IGBTs) are used in the voltage source inverter for
its low frequency operation [1]. In order to reduce the
switching losses, the BLDC motor is commutated
electronically to operate the IGBTs of VSI in the fundamental
 2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
frequency. In this topology the Hall signals are used to dic
determine the rotor positions to implement its control. Vc = Ric + ( L − M ) + Ec (3)
dt

Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of BLDC motor drive fed by Cuk converter using
voltage follower approach.
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of sensorless BLDC motor drive fed by Cuk
converter using a voltage follower approach.
III. PROPOSED TOPOLOGY
Fig.2 shows the proposed system which is a sensorless Va, Vb, Vc - terminal phase voltages (V), Ea, Eb, Ec – motor
BLDC motor drive fed from a Cuk converter. The speed of the back emf voltages (V), R- resistance of each phase of BLDC
motor is set to the reference speed with the help of a closed motor (Ÿ), L- inductance of each phase of BLDC motor (H).
loop control. Here, back EMF difference is used to determine
the commutation points and thus the electronic commutation is These equations are derived based on certain assumptions
done at the ZCP itself. Thus the optimal performance is as mentioned below:
guaranteed by using this signal for commutation. The ZCP of • Magnetic circuit saturation is ignored.
the terminal voltage difference is identical to the ZCP of the
back EMF difference and thus it can be used as commutation • Stator resistance, self and mutual inductance of all
signal directly without phase compensation. Using this phases are equal and constant.
scheme, the conventional starting procedure is not required • Hysteresis and eddy current losses are eliminated.
theoretically since the back emf can be sensed as soon as the
motor rotates. The speed of the motor is set to the reference • All semiconductor switches are ideal.
speed with the help of a closed loop control.
In the 3-phase BLDC motor, the back-EMF of each phase has
IV. MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF BLDC MOTOR 120 phase angle difference and the back-EMF is related to a
function of rotor position giving the following equations:
Modeling of a BLDC motor is similar to a three-phase
synchronous machine. Some dynamic characteristics are
different as there is a permanent magnet mounted on the rotor. E a = k w f (θ e )ω (4)
Flux linkage from the rotor depends upon the material with 2π
which the magnet is made. Hence, saturation of magnetic flux Eb = k w f (θ e − )ω (5)
linkage is typical for this kind of motors. As any typical three- 3
phase motors, one structure of the BLDC motor is fed by a 2π
Ec = k w f (θ e + )ω (6)
three-phase voltage source which is not necessarily to be 3
sinusoidal. Square wave or other wave-shape can be applied as kw – back emf constant of one phase [V/rad.s-1] , ߠe - electrical
long as the peak voltage does not exceed the maximum rotor angle [degree electrical], Ȧ- rotor speed [rad.s-1].
voltage limit of the motor and thus the model of the armature From equations (1), (2) & (3) the following equations of
winding for the BLDC motor is expressed as follows: line voltages can be derived:
dia d (ia − ib )
Va = Ria + ( L − M ) + Ea (1)
Vab = R(ia − ib ) + ( L − M ) + E ab (7)
dt dt
di d (i − i )
Vb = Rib + ( L − M ) b + Eb (2)
Vbc = R(ib − ic ) + ( L − M ) b c + Ebc (8)
dt dt
 2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
Since ia+ ib+ ic = 0 and neglecting mutual inductance M gives:
dia R 2 1
= − ia + (Vab − E ab ) + (Vbc − Ebc ) (9)
dt L 3L 3L
dib R 1 1
= − ia − (Vab − E ab ) + (Vbc − Ebc ) (10)
dt L 3L 3L
The electrical rotor angle is equal to mechanical rotor
angle multiplied by the number of pole pairs given by:
p
θe = θm (11)
2 Fig. 3. Operation of Cuk converter in CCM during Ist interval.
ߠm - mechanical rotor angle [rad.], p-number of rotor poles.
Total torque output is represented as summation of that of
each phase. Equation (12) represents the total torque output
and equation (13) represents the mechanical part.
E a ia + Eb ib + Ec ic
Te = (12)
ω
dω
Te − Tl = J + Bω (13)
dt
Te- total torque output [Nm], Tl- load torque [Nm], J-inertia
of rotor and coupled shaft [kgm2], B-friction constant
[Nms.rad.-1] Fig. 4. Operation of Cuk converter in CCM during IInd interval.

V. OPERATION OF CUK CONVERTER

A. Circuit Working
The operation of the Cuk converter in the continuous
conduction mode (CCM) can be described as follows:

1) During Ist interval:The switch Sw is turned ON. During

this inductor Li stores energy while capacitor C1 discharges
and transfers its energy to dc-link capacitor Cd as depicted in
Fig.3. Input inductor current IL1 increases while the voltage
across the intermediate capacitor VC1 decreases as shown in
Fig.5.
2) During IInd interval: The switch Sw is turned OFF.
During this the energy stored in inductor Lo is transferred to
dc-link capacitor Cd and inductor Li transfers its stored energy Fig. 5. Waveforms showing the operation of Cuk converter in Ist and IInd
to the intermediate capacitor C1 as shown in Fig.4. The intervals.
designed values of inductors and capacitors are large enough
such that a finite amount of energy is always stored in these
components in a switching period. Fig.5 represents the gate B. Voltage Follower Approach for the Cuk Converter
pulse, current through inductors Li, voltage across In this approach , a reference voltage (Vdc*) corresponding
intermediate capacitor C1, current through inductor Lo and to a particular reference speed (N*) is [1] :
voltage across dc-link capacitor Cd respectively. *
Vdc = kb N * (14)

kb represents the voltage constant of the BLDC motor and N*

is the reference speed. This reference voltage is compared to
the sensed DC-link voltage (Vdc) to generate a voltage error
(Ve). The voltage error Ve at any instant “k” is given by:
*
Ve (k ) = Vdc (k ) − Vdc (k ) (15)
 2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
This voltage error is given to the voltage PI controller to
generate a controlled output as:
Vcd (k ) = Vcd (k − 1) + k pv{Ve (k ) − Ve (k − 1)} + kivVe (k )
(16)
Kpv and kiv are the proportional and integral constants of the PI
controller respectively. Finally, the controller output (Vcd) is
compared with the high frequency saw-tooth waveform to
generate the PWM signal to be given to the converter switch
as:
md (t ) < Vcd (t ) then S w = 1, else S w = 0
Sw denotes the switching signals as 1 and 0 for MOSFET to
switch ON and OFF respectively. Fig. 8. Simulation diagram of voltage to current conversion block.

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS

The proposed systems are modeled and simulated in
MATLAB R2014a and the waveforms are plotted using
Simplot. Both BLDC motor drives with position sensor and
sensorless BLDC with back emf zero crossing technique are
simulated separately to have a comparative study of the same.
For this speed, electromagnetic torque, stator current and back
EMF are used.

Fig. 9. Simulation diagram of back emf generation subsystem

Fig. 6. Simulation diagram of BLDC motor model.

Fig. 10. Simulation diagram of speed generation subsystem

Fig. 7. Simulation diagram of electrical subsystem.

 2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]

Fig. 15. Torque curve of the BLDC motor drive with sensor.

Fig. 11. Simulation diagram of Cuk converter fed BLDC motor drive with
sensor

Fig. 12. Stator current waveform of the BLDC motor drive with sensor

Fig. 16. Simulation diagram of Cuk converter fed sensorless BLDC motor
drive.

Fig. 13. Back emf waveform of the BLDC motor drive with sensor.

Fig. 17. Stator current waveform of the sensorless BLDC motor drive.

Fig. 14. Speed curve of the BLDC motor drive with sensor.

Fig. 18. Back emf waveform of the sensorless BLDC motor drive.
 2016 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
crossing points of back EMF voltage difference is to get six
discrete rotor position signals in each electrical cycle from
which the commutation information is obtained by the logical
switch circuit , and the sensorless operation is implemented. It
is verified that the proposed BLDC motor drive with sensor
and the modified sensorless BLDC motor drive are similar in
nature. The stator current, back EMF, speed outputs for both
were the same and significant reduction in the torque ripple is
achieved with sensorless topology. Performance and reliability
of BLDC motor drivers have been improved because the
Fig. 19. Speed curve of the sensorless BLDC motor drive.
conventional control sensing techniques have been improved
through sensorless technology. If low cost is a primary
concern and low-speed motor operation is not a requirement,
and the motor load is not expected to change rapidly,
sensorless control is the best choice. Moreover, if the THDs
are considered, sensorless BLDC motor drives proved to have
a lower THD compared to the one with position sensors. This
result is verified using the FFT analysis in MATLAB.

APPENDIX

Fig. 20. Torque curve of the sensorless BLDC motor drive. TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE BLDC MOTOR

S. No. Parameters Values

1. No. of poles (p) 8
2. Rated power (P) 300 W
3. Rated DC link voltage (Vrated) 200 V
4. Rated torque (Trated) 1.2 Nm
5. Rated speed (Ȧrated) 1000 rpm
6. Back emf constant (kb) 146.6077 V/krpm
7. Torque constant (kt) 1.333 Nm/A
8. Phase resistance (Rph) 2.28750 Ÿ
Fig. 21. THD analysis of source current of the BLDC motor drive system with 9. Phase inductance (Lph) 8.5 mH
position sensor.
10. Moment of inertia (J) 0.8 X 10-3 Nm/s2

TABLE II. DESIGN PARAMETERS OF CUK CONVERTER

S. No. Specifications Values

1. Supply voltage (Vs) Rated: 220V
2. DC-link voltage (Vdc) Rated: 200V(40V-200V)
3. Power (P) Rated: 300W(70W-350W)
4. Switching frequency (fs) 20 kHz
5. Inductor Li 2.5 mH
6. Inductor Lo 4.3 mH
Fig. 22. THD analysis of source current of the sensorless BLDC motor drive 7. Capacitor C1 0.66 μF
system.
8. Capacitor Cd 2200 μF

VII. CONCLUSION
A sensorless BLDC motor drive has been designed for
numerous low-power applications. To reduce the switching [1]
losses, the BLDC motor is commutated electronically to
operate the IGBTs of VSI in the fundamental frequency. The [2]
speed of the BLDC motor drive has been controlled by
varying the dc-link voltage of VSI. In this method the zero
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