Abstract:
A flux regulated permanent magnet brushless motor has a stator having an inner peripheral bore. A permanent magnet rotor is mounted within the inner peripheral bore. A control winding is supplied to a DC current to regulate flux of the machine. A small AC current is also supplied and an output is sensed to determine a position of the permanent magnet rotor.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This application relates to a permanent magnet flux regulated motor, wherein no sensor is necessary to provide position feedback of the location of the rotor. 
         [0002]    In the field of electric motors, permanent magnet motors are known, as are motors utilizing coils for their rotors. Recently, a permanent magnet brushless motor design has been developed, which uses direct flux regulation to provide better control. The stator may include slots which are closed by ferromagnetic wedges. The wedges are provided with control coils fed with current. By controlling the current through the control coils, the overall magnetic flux can be controlled. 
         [0003]    To use the overall control of magnetic flux, precise position feedback for the permanent magnet rotor is required. A sensor could be provided; however, a sensor would add to the cost and weight. 
         [0004]    Various sensorless control techniques are known, such as detection of back EMF, detection of the stator third harmonic voltage, and detection of the conducting interval of free-wheeling diodes connected in antiparallel with solid state switches. 
         [0005]    Another method of sensorless control is to sense the inductance variation along the quadrature and direct axes, known as the d and q axes. The direct axis is the center axis of the poles of the permanent magnets, while the quadrature axis is shifted by 45°. Co-pending application Ser. No. 12/100,452, filed Apr. 10, 2008 and entitled Direct Flux Regulated Permanent Magnet Brushless Motor Utilizing Sensorless Control discloses such a method. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    A flux regulated permanent magnet brushless motor has a stator having an inner peripheral bore. A permanent magnet rotor is mounted within the inner peripheral bore. A control winding is supplied to a DC current to regulate flux of the machine. A small AC current is also supplied and an output is sensed to determine a position of the permanent magnet rotor. 
         [0007]    These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a partial cross-sectional view through a stator of a known motor. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  shows a control circuitry that is added onto the motor stator of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 3A  shows a first control coil. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3B  shows a second control coil. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0012]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , in a known permanent magnet brushless motor, direct regulation of the magnetic flux is provided. A rotor  21 , shown as a cutaway in  FIG. 1 , is a permanent magnetic rotor, and the stator  20  is slotted. Stator slots are provided with stator coils. The electromagnetic wedges  22  are provided with control coils  24 . The control coils may receive a DC or an AC current. The coils  24  may be connected in series to create a control winding. In a disclosed embodiment of this invention, the control coils receive a DC current. 
         [0013]    The electromagnetic wedges  22  behave as shunts for a magnetic flux produced by the permanent magnet motor. If the reluctance of the wedges is low, a portion of the magnetic flux is shunted by the wedges.  FIG. 1  shows a stator with double layer AC winding distributed in slots closed with wedges  22  (magnetic flux diverters). The stator AC winding can also be made as a single layer winding. Stator teeth  23  are positioned between the slots with AC windings. 
         [0014]    The wedges  22  may be made of laminated ferromagnetic alloys or sintered magnetic powders. The magnetic wedges with the control coils can be inserted directly into conventional stator slots. Instead of round conductors ( FIG. 3A ), the control coils  24  can also be wound with rectangular conductors or foil conductors ( FIG. 3B ). Alternatively, slot wedges can be stamped together with the stator teeth and after inserting the stator windings into the slots, a wound star-shaped stator core can be pressed into a ring-shaped stator ferromagnetic yoke. 
         [0015]    The reluctance of a ferromagnetic material is inversely proportional to its magnetic permeability. If the control current in the control coils  24  is zero, the reluctance of the magnetic shunt provided by the wedges  22  is low because their magnetic permeability is high. Almost the total air gap magnetic flux produced by the permanent magnets will pass through the slot wedges. 
         [0016]    Conversely, when the control current is greater than zero, the slot wedges  22  partially saturate and their magnetic permeability decreases. Their reluctance increases and only a portion of the magnetic flux is shunted by the wedges. 
         [0017]    As the magnetic flux linked with the stator windings increases, so does the back EMF induced in the stator windings and the electromagnetic torque. Thus, by controlling the control current, the electromagnetic torque can be controlled as well as the EMF. 
         [0018]    Increasing the control current further reduces the slot wedge reluctance and its relative magnetic permeability approaches unity. A fully saturated slot wedge behaves as a free space. Almost the whole air gap magnetic flux excited by the rotor permanent magnets will penetrate through the stator teeth and yoke and excites a maximum EMF in the stator winding, and also a maximum electromagnetic torque. 
         [0019]    The rotor magnetic flux can induce some AC voltage in the control winding. This voltage can be cancelled by connecting the same terminals (i.e., beginning with beginning and end with end of neighboring shunt coils). Such connection can typically only be done with DC control current. 
         [0020]    To properly operate the proposed machines as set forth above, precise position feedback of the rotor is necessary. 
         [0021]      FIG. 2  shows an AC control circuit  100  that with the stator control coils  24  illustrated in  FIG. 1  provides position feedback. Only some of the control coils  24  are numbered, but it should be understood each of the other locations illustrates a similar coil  24 . A DC controlled current source supplies the DC current to the control coils  24  as mentioned above. 
         [0022]    In addition, a high frequency AC current is added. As an example, a 100 kHz oscillation can be applied to the control coils. As illustrated, the source  102  supplies the current through connections  104  (terminal S 2 ),  105  (terminal S 1 ) and to branch lines  108  to separate sets of the coils  24 . Stator coils  24  are in turn connected by jumper lines  110  such that there are distinct sets of stator coils  24  associated with each of the four branch lines  108 . As illustrated, there are equal numbers of poles in each of the sets. Connections  106  (terminal CT 1 ) and  109  (terminal CT 2 ) communicate back to a synchronous detector  114 . The magnitude of the AC signals at the terminals CT 1  and CT 2  varies as a function of the rotor magnets position. The synchronous detector  114  provides selection of these signals and delivers both a cosine  118  and sine  116  signals as a function of rotor angle. These quadrature components of the rotating vector are processed by a position decoder  119 . The sine and cosine function provide the position detector  119  with the ability to detect the position of the permanent magnet rotor  21  (again shown in cutaway in  FIG. 2 ) relative to the stator. 
         [0023]    This invention thus provides sensorless operation and precise feedback on the exact position of the rotor. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the control coils  24  are connected in series into their four groups. That is, supply  106  communicates with two groups and supply line  104  communicates with two groups, each through branch line  108 . Of course, other numbers of groups and other numbers of coils within each group would come within the scope of this invention. 
         [0024]    Control coils of this embodiment do not require any special shape for the stator core, and need not be wound on salient poles. Instead, the control coils can be simply wound on a ferromagnetic wedge and inserted into stator slots. 
         [0025]    The control signal is low, and in the range of mA, and the cross-section of the control coil conductors can be small also. Thus, the stator slot space occupied by the armature winding is not reduced significantly. Further, the present disclosed embodiment will enable position detection either with or without the applied DC excitation, e.g., during a windmilling engine start. 
         [0026]    As shown in  FIG. 3A , in one embodiment  120 , the control coil  126  wrapped around the wedge  124  can be round wire. As another alternative,  FIG. 3B  shows an embodiment  127  wherein foil ribbon  128  is utilized for the control coil. 
         [0027]    Although an embodiment of this invention has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention. For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.