1

How a Brushless Motor Operates

How a Brushless Motor Operates


By
Alice Cash
Dominic Jones
Courtney Galli
Dustin Tea

Bachelors of Science degree in EECT


Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
ET3280 Electrical Machines and Energy


ITT Technical Institute Clovis, CA
04/14/2014


2
How a Brushless Motor Operates
Brushed DC motors have been in commercial use since 1886 Brushless motors, on the other
hand, did not become commercially viable until 1962. You understand AC motor operation, even a DC
motor is relatively easy to figure out. However brushless motor operation is still medieval science. The
following will lead you out of the dark ages and into todays modem world the use of brushless
technology. Theory is all the same brushless motor rotation relies on the identical theory as for AC and
DC motors. That is, two magnetic fields interact, which result in movement. In the case of AC motors,
the stator winding sets up one magnetic field while inducing the second interacting field onto the
squirrel cage rotor. With DC motors, the permanent magnet stator sets up the first magnetic field, and
the rotor windings produce the second field. These two magnetic fields interacting, results in rotation. In
the DC motor, the two fields try to align. However the commutator continually switches power from
winding to winding. Thus, maintaining the two magnetic fields at a 90 degree relationship. If they did
indeed align, motor rotation would not occur.
Brushed DC motors develop a maximum torque when stationary, linearly decreasing as velocity
increases. Some limitations of brushed motors can be overcome by brushless motors; they include
higher efficiency and a lower susceptibility to mechanical wear. These benefits come at the cost of
potentially less rugged, more complex, and more expensive control electronics. Compared to DC motors,
brushless technology has been termed an inside out design. That is, the permanent magnets are on
the rotor, and the stator consists of windings. The design still consists of two magnetic fields interacting.
To begin to understand how brushless motor operate Power is applied to winding R and current flow
sets up a north pole which the permanent magnet will react to, and begin movement. This movement
will cease when the south pole of the magnet aligns it. Then the rotor continues to move. Again at the
appropriate time, shut off and turned on. By continuation of this timing sequence, complete rotation
occurs. What is occurring is that the field set up by the stator is being switched, and the rotor tries to
catch up to it. In this example, the explanation was simplified by exciting only one winding at a time. In
3
How a Brushless Motor Operates
reality, the stator consists of a three phase Yconnected winding, and two or three windings are actually
energized. This makes efficient use of windings and development of higher motor torques. A typical
brushless motor has permanent magnets which rotate and a fixed armature, eliminating problems
associated with connecting current to the moving armature. An electronic controller replaces the
brush/commutator assembly of the brushed DC motor, which continually switches the phase to the
windings to keep the motor turning. The controller performs similar timed power distribution by using a
solid-state circuit rather than the brush/commutator system.
Current is being switched from winding to winding (which is an identical function of the
mechanical commutator in a DC motor) and this action of switching current in the brushless motor has
been termed electronic commutation. The next question arises is, how does the motor know when to
switch current, or commutate? Actually the motor does none of the electronic commutation, it is
accomplished by the control, which is running the motor. The brushless motor consists of a stator
assembly with a three phase Yconnected winding. A rotor assembly consists of a four-pole permanent
magnet, and a smaller sensor magnet. This sensor magnet will turn Hall devices on and off. The Hall
devices thus provide shaft position and provide information about location of the rotor magnet.
The control consists of logic circuitry and a power stage to drive the motor. The controls logic
circuitry is designed to switch current at the optimum timing point. It receives information about the
shaft/magnet location (signals from the Hall devices), and outputs a signal, to turn on a specific power
device, to apply power from the power supply (not shown) to specific windings of the brushless motor.
Depends on timing Sequencing of operation. The Hall devices 1, 2, and 3 turned on and off as they
rotate thru one mechanical revolution. The on and off signals correspond to a binary code output. This
turns on specific power stage devices, resulting in current flow. For example, a binary code output of 5
turns on power stage devices #3 and #2, and current will flow thru motor windings.
4
How a Brushless Motor Operates
The rotor moves (also the Hall devices), causing the signal into the logic circuitry to change.
When this occurs, the binary decoder changes its output signal to a; this turns on power stage devices
#2 and #5, and current continues to flow. Figure 4 shows what is occurring. Once again from the
beginning, the binary circuitry looks at the signals from the Hall devices and outputs the specific binary
code 5. This turns on power devices #3 and #2. Follow the current flow from the power supply, through
power device #3, through the stator winding and winding IC, and finally through power device #2 to
ground.
As the rotor turns and the Hall device changes their signals, the binary decoder output changes
to a Power devices #2 and 95 are turned on. Current flow is from the power supply, through power
device #2, through stator winding IC and, through power device #5 to ground. This sequencing of events
continues, and the motor continues to rotate until the run command is removed. Keep in mind, that as
power is applied to motor windings, that pulse width modulation (PWM) power design techniques are
employed. This aids the design by keeping temperature of the devices down, allowing for use of smaller
components. The method described above, with Hall devices simplifies the explanation. In industry
today, there are other feedback devices which are also used with the application of brushless motors.
Many manufacturers use either resolver or encoder feedback with their control design, however the
electronic commutation concept remains the same: feedback from a device informs the control when to
electronically switch power, resulting in brushless motor operation.
Brushless motors offer several advantages over brushed DC motors, including more torque per
weight, more torque per watt (increased efficiency), increased reliability, reduced noise, longer lifetime
(no brush and commutator erosion), elimination of ionizing sparks from the commutator, and overall
reduction of electromagnetic interference (EMI). With no windings on the rotor, they are not subjected
to centrifugal forces, and because the windings are supported by the housing, they can be cooled by
5
How a Brushless Motor Operates
conduction, requiring no airflow inside the motor for cooling. This in turn means that the motor's
internals can be entirely enclosed and protected from dirt or other foreign matter.

Because the controller must direct the rotor rotation, the controller requires some means of
determining the rotor's orientation/position (relative to the stator coils.) Some designs use Hall effect
sensors or a rotary encoder to directly measure the rotor's position. Others measure the back EMF in
the undriven coils to infer the rotor position, eliminating the need for separate Hall effect sensors, and
therefore are often called sensorless controllers.

A typical controller contains 3 bi-directional outputs (i.e. frequency controlled three phase
output), which are controlled by a logic circuit. Simple controllers employ comparators to determine
when the output phase should be advanced, while more advanced controllers employ a microcontroller
to manage acceleration, control speed and fine-tune efficiency.

Controllers that sense rotor position based on back-EMF have extra challenges in initiating
motion because no back-EMF is produced when the rotor is stationary. This is usually accomplished by
beginning rotation from an arbitrary phase, and then skipping to the correct phase if it is found to be
wrong. This can cause the motor to run briefly backwards, adding even more complexity to the startup
sequence. Other sensorless controllers are capable of measuring winding saturation caused by the
position of the magnets to infer the rotor position.
Brushless motors can be constructed in several different physical configurations: In the
'conventional' (also known as inrunner) configuration, the permanent magnets are part of the rotor.
6
How a Brushless Motor Operates
Three stator windings surround the rotor. In the outrunner (or external-rotor) configuration, the radial-
relationship between the coils and magnets is reversed; the stator coils form the center (core) of the
motor, while the permanent magnets spin within an overhanging rotor which surrounds the core. The
flat or axial flux type, used where there are space or shape limitations, uses stator and rotor plates,
mounted face to face. Outrunners typically have more poles, set up in triplets to maintain the three
groups of windings, and have a higher torque at low RPMs. In all brushless motors, the coils are
stationary.
There are two common electrical winding configurations; the delta configuration connects three
windings to each other (series circuits) in a triangle-like circuit, and power is applied at each of the
connections. The Wye (Y-shaped) configuration, sometimes called a star winding, connects all of the
windings to a central point (parallel circuits) and power is applied to the remaining end of each winding.
A motor with windings in delta configuration gives low torque at low speed, but can give higher top
speed. Wye configuration gives high torque at low speed, but not as high top speed.
Although efficiency is greatly affected by the motor's construction, the Wye winding is normally
more efficient. In delta-connected windings, half voltage is applied across the windings adjacent to the
driven lead (compared to the winding directly between the driven leads), increasing resistive losses. In
addition, windings can allow high-frequency parasitic electrical currents to circulate entirely within the
motor. A Wye-connected winding does not contain a closed loop in which parasitic currents can flow,
preventing such losses. From a controller standpoint, the two styles of windings are treated exactly the
same.

Brushless motors fulfill many functions originally performed by brushed DC motors, but cost and
control complexity prevents brushless motors from replacing brushed motors completely in the lowest-
7
How a Brushless Motor Operates
cost areas. Nevertheless, brushless motors have come to dominate many applications particularly
devices such as computer hard drives and CD/DVD players. Small cooling fans in electronic equipment
are powered exclusively by brushless motors. They can be found in cordless power tools where the
increased efficiency of the motor leads to longer periods of use before the battery needs to be charged.
Low speed, low power brushless motors are used in direct-drive turntables for gramophone records














8
How a Brushless Motor Operates
References
El-Sharkawi, M. A., El-Samahy, A. A., & El-Sayed, M. I. (1994). High performance drive of DC brushless
motors using neural network. Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on, 9(2), 317-322.
Iizuka, K., Uzuhashi, H., Kano, M., Endo, T., & Mohri, K. (1985). Microcomputer control for sensorless
brushless motor. Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on, (3), 595-601.
Whited, J. S. (1984). U.S. Patent No. 4,447,771. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.