Principle and Basic Characteristic of MATRIX Motor with Variable Parameters Achieved through Arbitrary Winding Connections

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) have been used in high-performance applications owing to their high efficiency and high power density. In particular, an integrated system of a PMSM and power electronics equipment is attractive for high power density applications because the integrated system is lighter and smaller than the conventional separated system. In this paper, the concept of a new integrated machine named the MATRIX motor is proposed. This motor consists of not only an integrated inverter but also, multi-layer windings and additional switches. These winding connections can be changed arbitrarily on the basis of a matrix. Through winding configurations, variable parameters such as turn number and winding factor can be determined, and the connection method can be changed between series and parallel arrangements. These variable parameters can change motor characteristics such as the maximum output torque, base speed, and operating region. This paper describes the characteristics of a prototype model of the MATRIX motor. The characteristics of the winding rearrangement and its variable machine parameters are analyzed and verified through experiments. In addition, the online winding reconfiguration method is proposed and experimentally verified.