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DSP Based Sensorless Control of A BLDC Motor with Direct Back EMF
Detection Method

Article · January 2007

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International Conference on Control, Instrumentation and Mechatronics Engineering (CIM '07),
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, May 28-29, 2007

DSP Based Sensorless Control of A BLDC Motor with Direct Back EMF
Detection Method

1
Nagadeven, 2Soib Taib, 3K. S. Rama Rao
1
Solectron Technology Sdn Bhd, 14100, Seberang Perai Tengah, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
2
School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal,
Malaysia
3
Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, 31750
Tronoh, Malaysia
[email protected], [email protected], ksramarao @petronas.com.my

Abstract harmonics and improves dynamic behavior in all speed

ranges of BLDC motor. Overall, these improvements
This paper proposes a scheme for sensorless resulted in a reduction of system cost and better
control of brushless dc (BLDC) motor by a direct back reliability [4].
EMF detection method. The terminal voltage of the The BLDC motor is inherently electronically
motor is proportional to the phase back EMF on the controlled and requires rotor position information for
floating phase, the DSP ADC feature can be utilized to proper commutations of current. Many sensorless drive
sense the back EMF. Digital control of the system solutions have been offered to eliminate the costly and
ensures the detection of rotor electrical position when fragile position sensor for BLDC motors with
the open terminal voltage equals half the applied trapezoidal back-EMFs. The virtual neutral point
voltage A mathematical model of the drive system is sensing [5], third harmonic back-EMF sensing [6],
analyzed. The simulated and experimental results from back-EMF integration [7], flux estimation [8], and
a prototype BLDC drive system using a digital signal detection of the freewheeling diodes conduction [9],
processor are verified. Experimental waveforms of are the main categories of past sensorless solutions for
phase back EMF and current from a 3-phase, 200 W, BLDC motors. A virtual neutral point sensing method
4-pole, BLDC drive system are validated with of back EMF requires both filtering and attenuation,
simulation results. and tends to have poor signal to noise ratio at low
speeds, such as at startup, and significant commutation
delays at high speeds.
1. Introduction The back EMF integration, and third harmonic
voltage integration approaches have the advantage of
Large, medium, small as well as micro BLDC reduced switching noise sensitivity but accuracy
motors are extensively used for applications in many problem at low speed. An indirect sensing of phase
types of motion control apparatus and systems. The back EMF zero crossing by detecting the conducting
availability of smart power electronics devices and state of the freewheeling diodes in the unexcited state
their optimal topologies has accelerated unprecedented is complicated and expensive, while the low-speed
growth of cost effective and reliable power electronic operation continues to be a problem.
controllers. This improvement brings greater efficiency
in materials and functionality to the point of making 2. Sensorless BLDC motor control
the BLDC a preferred solution in a broad range of
applications using adjustable speed drives [1-3]. A three-phase star connected BLDC motor is
The high performance of digital signal processors normally driven by a three-phase inverter using 6-step
(DSPs) allows the BLDC drive to perform high- commutation. In order to produce maximum torque,
resolution control and minimize control loop delays. the inverter should be commutated every 60 electrical
An efficient digital controller reduces torque ripples, degrees so that current is in phase with the back EMF.

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International Conference on Control, Instrumentation and Mechatronics Engineering (CIM '07),
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, May 28-29, 2007

The conducting interval for each phase is 120 electrical From Equations (2) and (3),
degrees, or two steps. The commutation timing is
VDC (U IA + U IB )
determined by the rotor position, which can be UO = − (4)
determined every 60 electrical degrees by detecting 2 2
when the back EMF on the floating phase crosses the
Assuming a balanced three-phase system, and
zero potential point, or “zero crossing.” As only two neglecting the third harmonics,
phases conduct current at any step, one phase is always
available to measure back EMF as shown in Fig.1[10, UIA +UIB +UIC = 0 (5)
11].
From Equations (4) and (5),
VDC (U IC )
UO = − (6)
2 2
and the terminal voltage U C ,

3U IC VDC
U C = U IC + U O = + (7)
2 2

Fig. 1. Commutation sequence for BLDC

Motor.

3. Back EMF detection method

The proposed back-EMF detection method
successfully avoids using the neutral point voltage.
The back-EMF voltage can be extracted directly from
the motor terminal voltage referred to ground. An
inverter motor-drive model shown in Fig. 2 is used in Fig. 2. Inverter motor-drive model.
this paper to conduct the analysis and simulation.
The back-EMF sensing technique is based on the
As observed from equations (1) to (7), the PWM the
fact that only two phases of a BLDC motor are
terminal voltage of the floating phase is directly
connected at a time, and the third phase is available to
proportional to the back EMF voltage plus the half of
sense the back-EMF voltage. Assuming at a particular
step, phase C as floating, from Fig. 2
VDC
dc bus voltage. By comparing U IC with , the
2
U C = U IC + U O (1)
zero crossing of the back EMF can be achieved. It is
where U C is the terminal voltage of the floating phase also important to note that this terminal voltage is not
C, U IC is the phase back EMF and U O is the neutral referred to the floating neutral point. So, the neutral
point voltage information is not needed to detect the
voltage of the motor. From phase A, the expression for
back EMF zero. As a result there are no common-
neutral voltage is given as,
mode voltage issues. Since the true back EMF is
di extracted from the motor terminal voltage, the zero
U O = VDC − VMOS − Ri − L − U IA (2) crossing of the phase back EMF can be detected very
dt
precisely.
From phase B, the equation become, 4. Hardware Implementation
di
U O = VMOS + Ri + L − U IB (3) The motor drive is powered from a standard wall
dt socket and controlled by a digital signal processor
utilizing pulse width modulation to control the speed
Where VMOS is the voltage drop on MOSFET.
of the motor. The circuit board has three sections:

162
International Conference on Control, Instrumentation and Mechatronics Engineering (CIM '07),
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, May 28-29, 2007

control, power inverter and power supply. The power

circuit for the drive is an MOSFET based inverter with
gate driver circuit. The control section consists of
dsPIC30F3010, protection circuit, and back EMF
signal conditioning circuit. The dsPIC30F3010, has
specialized hardware peripherals, like the power
control PWM, high-speed ADC, motion control
feedback, integrated EEPROM and the power
supervisory function, that are required for efficient
motor control [12].
For the over current protection circuit a shunt
resistor connected in the DC return path converts the Fig. 3. MATLAB simulation circuit.
combined three-phase motor current into voltage. In
addition to this, the amplified voltage is compared to a The simulated operating waveforms of the BLDC drive
voltage reference using an op amp comparator. The system are presented in Figs. 4 to 7. The rotor speed
voltage reference is set using a potentiometer. Back from standstill to a speed of 500 rpm is shown in Fig.
EMF (BEMF) signals are used for the sensorless 4, while Fig. 5 shows the rotor speed at 1500 rpm. The
control of the BLDC motor speed. Based on zero PI speed controller comes into action and tracks the
crossing of BEMF signals, motor commutation is reference speed.
decided in the firmware. The dsPIC30F3010 device
uses its fast ADC to sense the zero-cross point. Having
sensed the zero-cross point, it can predict the time
required for the next commutation phase.

5. Software Implementation
Remaining parts of the drive system are
implemented in the assembly language of
dsPIC30F3010. The software design, consist of few
blocks such as speed module, speed controller, current
controller, PWM generator, and fault monitoring [13].
Each block in the diagram represents a separate
module to be implemented. It consists of reference Fig. 4. Motor speed waveform at low speed
speed magnitude and direction sensing. Actual speed (500 rpm).
magnitude and direction are calculated from zero
crossing of BEMF signals. Pulse width of these signals
is proportional to the speed of the motor. The error in
reference and actual speed is processed in PI speed
controller and output of speed controller is termed as
reference torque and is limited to a set value. The
dsPIC30F3010 device uses its fast ADC to sense the
zero-cross point, and also predicts the time required for
the next commutation phase. The current controller
compares the actual and reference currents and
generates the switching signals to MOSFET devices.

6. Results and discussion Fig. 5. Motor speed waveform at high speed

(1500 rpm).
The simulation of the proposed BLDC motor
controller shown in Fig. 3 was implemented in
MATLAB software [14].

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International Conference on Control, Instrumentation and Mechatronics Engineering (CIM '07),
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, May 28-29, 2007

Fig. 6. Phase current waveforms.

Fig. 8. Back EMF waveforms for phases A,

phase B and phase C.

The experimental output phase currents of the

prototype BLDC drive are shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 7. Phase back EMF waveforms.

The simulated three-phase current and generated back

EMF signals are presented in Figs. 6 and 7,
respectively. Comparing Figs. 6 and 7, the sequence
from back EMF zero crossing to commutation is
clearly demonstrated. It is observed that the
commutation takes place approximately 30 electrical
degrees after zero crossing of the back EMF.
A prototype control driver circuit is constructed for a
200 W BLDC sensorless motor, and some key
experimental waveforms are presented in this section.
The experimental waveforms for back EMF
waveforms and comparison between the phases are
shown in Figs. 8. The phase back EMF of the floating
winding is extracted from the winding of the terminal
voltage.
Fig. 9. Phase current waveforms for phase A,
phase B and phase C.
The sequence from back EMF zero crossing to
commutation is clearly demonstrated in Fig. 10. To
avoid clutter, only the terminal A waveform, as would
be observed on an oscilloscope is displayed and is
denoted as back EMF. It is observed that the terminal
voltage waveform is flattened at the top and bottom

164
 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation and Mechatronics Engineering (CIM '07),
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, May 28-29, 2007

because at those points the terminal is connected to the detection is verified successfully as shown from the
drive voltage or ground. simulation and experimental results on a 3-phase, 200
W, 4-pole, BLDC motor.

8. References
[1] Ion Boldea and S.A Nasar, Electric Drives, CRC Press,
1999.
[2] M.H Rashid, Power Electronics Prentice Hall, 1993.
[3] Krishnan.R, Electric Motor Drives: Modeling Analysis,
and Control, Prentice Hall, 2001.
[4] Ward Brown, Brushless DC Motor Control Made Easy,
Application Note Microchip Technology Inc, 2002.
[5] GE, Control system, method of operating an
electronically commutated motor, and laundering
apparatus, U.S Patent 654 566, 1987.
[6] J. Moreira, “Indirect sensing for rotor flux position of
permanent magnet ac motors operating in a wide speed
range,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Application vol. 32, pp. 401–
407, Nov./Dec. 1996.
[7] R. C. Becerra, T. M. Jahns, and M. Ehsani, “Four-
Fig. 10. Sequence of zero crossing of back quadrant sensorless brushless ECM drive,” in Proc.
EMF and phase commutation. IEEE APEC’91 Conf., 1991, pp.202-209.
[8] N. Ertugrul and P. Acarnley, “A new algorithm for
It may be noticed that the BEMF waveform passes sensorless operation of permanent magnet motors,”
through a voltage that is exactly half of the applied IEEE Trans. Ind. Application, vol. 30, pp 126–133,
voltage, which coincides with the zero crossing of the Jan./Feb. 1994.
BEMF waveform. This implies that it is possible to [9] S. Ogasawara and H.Akagi, 1991, An approach to
determine the rotor electrical position by detecting position sensorless drive for brushless dc motor. IEEE
when the open terminal voltage equals half the applied Transaction on Industry Application, Vol.27, 1991, 928-
voltage. Also it is shown that the commutation takes 933.
[10] Tay Siang Hui, K.P Basu, V. Subbiah, Permanent
place approximately 30 electrical degrees after zero
Magnet Brushless Motor Control Techniques, National
crossing of the back EMF. Thus it is clearly Power and Energy Conference (PECon) Proceedings,
demonstrated that the hardware and software digital 2003,133-138.
control of the system results obtained match the [11] Jianwen Shao, Dennis Nolan, Maxime Teissier and.
theoretical as well as the simulation results. David Swanson, A Novel Microcontroller-Based
Sensorless Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor Drive for
7. Conclusion Automotive Fuel Pumps, IEEE Transaction on Industry
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[12] Charlie Elliott (Smart Power Solution, LLP) and Steve
The experimental results obtained using the Bowling (Microchip Technology Inc), Using the
proposed BLDC drive system has proved the dsPIC30F for Sensorless BLDC Control Literature
simplicity of the application of dsPIC30F3010 Note, Microchip Technology Inc, 2004.
microcontroller for sensorless speed control. In [13] dsPIC30F Datasheet, Motor Control and Power
general, the back EMF sensing technique which does Conversion Family, Microchip Technology Inc, 2004.
not depend on actual or simulated neutral voltage for [14] Simulink SimPowerSystems User’s Guide, Version 4,
BLDC drives was successfully implemented. The http://www.mathworks.com, October 2004.
implemented back EMF sensing method has superior
performance and provided much wider motor speed
range with low cost. The validity of the developed
sensorless BLDC drive system using back EMF

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