Reduced structure inverter fed electric motor drives: An attempt to improve the cost-effectiveness, the compactness and the reliability of hybrid propulsion systems

The paper deals with an approach to improve the cost-effectiveness, the compactness and the reliability of hybrid propulsion systems, in an attempt to enhance their capability to be competitive with the thermal propulsion systems. This could be achieved thanks to the substitution of the conventional three-leg inverters by reduced structure ones. Of particular interest are four-switch and three-switch-delta inverters. These could be suitably associated to brushless DC and induction motors. This paper develops this idea.