Patent ID: 8415904

Claim:
An integrated motor drive and battery recharge apparatus, comprising: a battery; an electric motor having N separate motor windings each having a first and a second leg; a contactor having a plurality M of poles, each pole having a first side and a second side; a 2N pole bridge inverter, the inverter having 2N switching poles and a capacitor each of the 2N switching poles coupled in parallel with the battery; a capacitor coupled in parallel with the battery; a recharge port coupled to the second sides of the contactor poles; PWM control circuitry configured to control the state of each switching pole, wherein each leg of each motor winding is coupled to a phase node of a corresponding inverter switching pole, at least two of the motor winding legs are coupled to the corresponding first sides of the contactor poles, a power source/sink is coupled to the corresponding second sides of the contactor poles, and a capacitor is coupled between each pair of contactor poles and wherein the apparatus is configured so that: in a recharge-mode the contactor is closed and electrical current from the recharge port flows through the motor windings to the inverter and from the inverter to the battery, and in a drive-mode the contactor is open and electrical current from the battery flows through the inverter to the motor windings and is blocked from flowing to the recharge port by the open contactor.