Electric motor driver and drive control system thereof

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

0001The present invention relates to an electric motor driver and a drive control system for controlling a drive of an electric motor such as a brushless DC motor at any rotation number.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

0002Recently, in constructing a motor driver for driving an electric motor such as a compressor for use in an air-conditioning system, it becomes increasingly necessary to reduce a power consumption in view of global environmental protection. As a power-saving technology in a motor driver, an inverter is widely used for driving a high efficient electric motor such as a brushless DC motor at any rotation number.

0003Furthermore, as a motor driving technology, a sinusoidal-wave driving technology using a sinusoidal waveform current is remarked because of having a high efficiency and a low noise, in place of a rectangular-wave driving technology using a rectangular-waveform current.

0004In the case where an electric motor such as a compressor is used in an air-conditioning system, since it is difficult to mount a sensor for detecting a rotation position of a rotor of the electric motor, there has been employed a position-sensorless type of a sinusoidal-wave driving technology which drives the electric motor by estimating a rotation position of the rotor by a method without using a rotation position sensor. In addition, as a method of estimating a rotation position of a rotor, there is used a known method of estimating an induced voltage of an electric motor. (See, for example, Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-350489)

0005Fig. 9 illustrates a system construction which implements a position-sensorless type of a sinusoidal wave driving technology. In Fig. 9, reference numeral 1 designates a DC power supply, 2 designates an inverter, 3 designates a brushless motor, 4 designates a stator, 5 designates a rotor, 6 designates a controller, and reference numerals 7v and 7w designate current sensors. In this construction, the brushless motor 3 comprises the stator 4 and rotor 5, where the stator 4 has three phase windings 4u, 4v and 4w which are Y-connected at a neutral point as their centering point, and the rotor 5 has a magnet mounted thereon. A U-phase terminal 8u, a V-phase terminal 8v and a W-phase terminal 8w are connected to a non-connection end of the U-phase winding 4u, a non-connection end of the V-phase winding 4v and a non-connection end of the W-phase winding 4w, respectively.

0006The inverter 2 has three series circuits for a U phase, a V phase and a W phase, which are connected in parallel. Each of the series circuits includes a pair of switching elements connected in series on the upper and lower streams of a current. A DC voltage output from the DC power supply 1 is applied to the three series circuits. The series circuit for the U phase has a switching element 12u on the upstream side and a switching element 13u on the downstream side. The series circuit for the V phase has a switching element 12v on the upstream side and a switching element 13v on the downstream side. The series circuit for the W phase has a switching element 12w on the upstream side and a switching element 13w on the downstream side.

0007Furthermore, freewheel diodes 14u, 14v, 14w, 15u, 15v and 15w are connected in parallel to the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w, respectively. The terminals 8u, 8v and 8w of the brushless motor 3 are respectively connected to an interconnection point between the switching elements 12u and 13u, an interconnection point between the switching elements 12v and 13v, and an interconnection point between the switching elements 12w and 13w of the inverter 2.

0008The currents flowing through the phase windings 4v and 4w in the brushless motor 3 are detected by the current sensors 7v and 7w and the detected current values are supplied to the controller 6. The controller 6 estimates an induced voltage based on the supplied current values and outputs a control signal for controlling the drive of the inverter 2. Thus, the control in driving the brushless motor 3 is performed in the above circuit constitution.

0009As described above, in the conventional position-sensorless type of a sinusoidal wave driving technology implemented by estimating the induced voltage, at least two current detectors such as current sensors must be used to detect phase currents of an electric motor to be driven, which increases a cost in constituting a motor driver.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

0010The present invention is made to solve the above problem and it is an essential object of the present invention to provide an electric motor driver and a drive control system which can detect a phase current with high precision in an inexpensive constitution and excellently drive an electric motor in a low-speed rotation region to a high-speed rotation region, having a high speed stability in the low-speed region.

0011In order to achieve the object mentioned above, a first aspect of the present invention provides an electric motor driver for driving a three-phase electric motor under controlling a drive based on each phase current flowing through each phase winding of the three-phase electric motor.

0012The electric motor driver includes: an inverter for converter a DC voltage to a three-phase AC voltage to drive the three-phase electric motor; a current detecting means for detecting a current appearing on an inverter busbar to determine each phase current flowing through each phase winding of the three-phase electric motor; an induced voltage estimating means for estimating an induced voltage of the electric motor from the voltage value output of the inverter and the phase current value determined by the current detecting means; a rotation position/speed detecting means for estimating a rotation position and a rotation speed of a rotor of said electric motor based on the estimated induced voltage value; position/speed PI calculating means for calculating rotation position/speed correction values through a proportional-plus-integral (PI) calculation based on the estimated rotation position/speed of the rotor with application of a target speed; a PWM signal generating means for generating a PWM signal for controlling said inverter based on the correction values obtained by the speed PI calculating means; and a duty correcting means for correcting a duty of the PWM signal generated by said PWM signal generating means.

0013In this construction, the duty correcting means corrects the duty without changing the PWM signal during detection of the inverter busbar current by the current detecting means.

0014Preferably, a speed proportional gain (KP) of the speed PI calculating means is variable in a multistep manner according to a speed in a low-speed region of the electric motor.

0015A second aspect of the present invention provides a drive control system for controlling a drive of a three-phase electric motor. The drive control system includes: an inverter for converter a DC voltage to a three-phase AC voltage to drive the three-phase electric motor; a current detecting means, which is provided on an inverter busbar, for detecting a current appearing on the inverter busbar to determine each phase current flowing through each phase winding of the three-phase electric motor; an induced voltage estimating means for estimating an induced voltage of the electric motor from the voltage value output of the inverter and the phase current value determined by the current detecting means; a rotation position/speed detecting means for estimating a rotation position and a rotation speed of a rotor of said electric motor based on the estimated induced voltage value; angular/speed PI calculating means for calculating angular/speed correction values through a proportional-plus-integral calculation based on the estimated rotation position/speed of the rotor with application of a target speed; a PWM signal generating means for generating a PWM signal for controlling the inverter based on the correction values obtained by the angular/speed PI calculating means; and a duty correcting means for correcting a duty of the PWM signal generated by the PWM signal generating means.

0016In this construction, the corrected duty information of the PWM signals outputted from the duty correcting portion is applied to the current detector so that the current detector determines which phase current of the three phases is appearing on the inverter busbar with reference to the corrected duty information while detecting the inverter busbar current.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0017These and other objects and features of the present invention will be readily understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals and in which: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li>Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a system construction of an electric motor driver according to an embodiment 1 of the present invention;</li><li>Fig. 2 illustrates an example of time-related variations of phase current conditions of an electric motor;</li><li>Fig. 3 illustrates an example of variations of a PWM signal;</li><li>Fig. 4 illustrates current conditions flowing in the electric motor and an inverter when the PWM signal is varied as shown in Fig. 3;</li><li>Fig. 5 illustrates an example of variations of the PWM signal;</li><li>Fig. 6 illustrates current conditions flowing in the electric motor and an inverter when the PWM signal is varied as shown in Fig.5;</li><li>Fig. 7 illustrates an example of variations of the PWM signal;</li><li>Fig. 8 illustrates set values of a speed proportional gain KP by a speed PI calculating means; and</li><li>Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing a conventional example.</li></ul>

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

0018Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Embodiment 1)

0019Fig. 1 shows a system construction implementing an embodiment 1 of the present invention which is a combination of an electric motor driver and an electric motor. In Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a DC power supply, 2 designates an inverter, 3 designates a brushless motor, 4 designates a stator, 5 designates a rotor, and reference numeral 6 designates a controller. The brushless motor 3 comprises the stator 4 and the rotor 5, where the stator 4 has three phase windings 4u, 4v and 4w which are Y-connected at a neutral point as their centering point, and the rotor 5 includes a magnet mounted thereon and the magnet has magnetic poles N and S. A U-phase terminal 8u is connected to a non-connection end of the U-phase winding 4u, that is, to the side opposite to the neutral point. Similarly, a V-phase terminal 8v and a W-phase terminal 8w are connected to the non-connection end of the V-phase winding 4v and the non-connection end of the W-phase winding 4w, respectively.

0020The inverter 2 has three series circuits connected in parallel for the U phase, the V phase and the W phase, each of which includes a pair of switching elements connected in series on the upper and the lower streams of a current. A DC voltage output from the DC power supply 1 is applied to these series circuits of the inverter 2 through a voltage detector 16 which detects a voltage value applied to the inverter. The series circuit for the U phase includes a switching element 12u on the upstream side and a switching element 13u on the downstream side.

0021Similarly, the series circuit for the V phase includes a switching element 12v on the upstream side and a switching element 13v on the downstream side. In addition, the series circuit for the W phase includes a switching element 12w on the upstream side and a switching element 13w on the downstream side. Furthermore, freewheel diodes 14u, 14v, 14w, 15u, 15v and 15w are connected in parallel to the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w, respectively.

0022The terminals 8u, 8v and 8w of the brushless motor 3 are connected to an interconnection point between the switching elements 12u and 13u, an interconnection point between the switching elements 12v and 13v, and an interconnection point between the switching elements 12w and 13w of the inverter 2, respectively.

0023The DC voltage applied from the DC power supply 1 to the inverter 2 is converted to a three-phase AC voltage by the series circuits comprised of the switching elements in the inverter 2 to thereby drive the brushless motor 3. In order to implement a target speed applied from the outside, a correction value is calculated based on a difference between the target speed and a present speed, and in order for the inverter to output a calculated voltage to be applied to the brushless motor, a PWM signal is generated in the controller 6 for controlling the drive of the switching elements in the inverter 2.

0024The controller 6 includes a PWM signal generating portion 9 for generating a PWM signal (PWM) to drive-control the switching elements of the inverter 2, and a duty correcting portion 19 for correcting the PWM signal which is converted to a drive signal (DRV) by a base driver 10 for electrically driving the switching elements. Then, the drive signal is applied from the base driver 10 to the inverter 2 to drive the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w.

0025Further, the controller includes a current detector 11, which is provided on an inverter busbar, for detecting an inverter busbar current to determine a phase current (iu, iv, iw rpresented by "is") of the brushless motor 3, and an induced voltage estimating portion 17 for estimating an induced voltage (eu, ev, ew represented by "es") of the brushless motor 3.

0026Furthermore, the controller 6 includes a rotor position/speed estimating portion 18 for estimating a rotation position in angle θm of a polar and a rotation speed ωm of the rotor of the brushless motor 3, an angle PI calculating portion 20 for calculating a correction value (CRA) by performing a proportional-plus-integral calculation based on information of the polar position in angle of the rotor, and a speed PI calculating portion 21 for calculating a correction value (CRS) by performing a proportional-plus-integral calculation based on the estimated speed of the rotor.

0027Next, an operation of the controller 6 is described in brief below. An induced voltage es=(eu, ev, ew) of the brushless motor 3 is estimated by the induced voltage estimating portion 17 based on the information of the phase current "is"=(iu, iv, iw) of the brushless motor 3 detected by the current detector 11 on the inverter busbar, an output voltage Vs* calculated by the PWM signal generating portion 9, and an inverter applied voltage detected by the voltage detector 16.

0028Furthermore, a polar position in angle θm and a rotation speed ωm of the rotor of the brushless motor 3 are estimated by the rotor position/speed estimating portion 18. The PWM signal for controlling the drive of the brushless motor 3 is generated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 based on correction values (CRA, CRS). The first correction value CRA is obtained through a proportional-plus-integral calculation performed by the angle PI calculating portion 20 based on the information θ m of the polar position in angle of the rotor. The second correction value CRS is obtained through the proportional-plus-integral calculation performed by the speed PI calculating portion 21 based on the estimated rotation speed ωm with reference to a target speed ω*. Thus, the rotor speed is controlled so as to become the target speed by information such as deviation of the estimated speed ω m of the rotor 5 from the target speed w * applied from the outside.

0029Then, an operation of the induced voltage estimating portion 17 is described. The current detector 11 determines the phase currents iu, iv and iw (represented by "is") flowing through the phase windings by detecting the inverter busbar current, and the detected phase current values are supplied to the induced voltage estimating portion 17. In addition, the output voltage Vs* calculated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 and a voltage applied to the inverter which was detected by the voltage detector 16 are supplied to the induced voltage estimating portion 17. Thus, the phase voltages (vu, vv and vw) applied to the phase windings are calculated by the induced voltage estimating portion 17 based on the above supplied information.

0030In theory, the induced voltage values eu, ev and ew (represented by es) induced in the phase windings are calculated from the above values of the phase currents (iu, iv, iw) and the phase voltages (vu, vv, vw) by the following equations (1), (2) and (3). In the following equations, R is resistance and L is inductance, and d(iu)/dt, d(iv)/dt and d(iw)/dt are time differentiations of the phase currents iu, iv and iw, respectively.<maths id="math0001" num="(1)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>eu = vu - R·iu - L·d(iu)/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0001.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0002" num="(2)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ev = vv - R·iv - L·d(iv)/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0002.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0003" num="(3)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ew = vw - R·iw - L·d(iw)/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0003.tif" /></maths> When the equations (1), (2) and (3) are developed in detail, the following equations (4), (5) and (6) are obtained.<maths id="math0004" num="(4)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>eu = vu</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - R·iu</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - (la + La) · d(iu)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos (2θm)·d(iu)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iu·d{cos (2θm)}/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iv)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos (2θm - 120°)·d(iv)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iv·d{cos (2θm - 120°) }/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iw)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos (2θm - 120°)·d(iw)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iw·d {cos(2θm + 120°) }/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0004.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0005" num="(5)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ev = vv</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - R·iv</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - (la + La) · d(iv)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las · cos (2θm + 120°) · d (iv) /dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iv·d{cos(2θm + 120°)}/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iw)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos(2Am)·d(iw)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iw·d{cos(2θm)}/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iu)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las · cos (2θm - 120°)·d(iu)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iu·d{cos(2θm - 120°) )/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0005.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0006" num="(6)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ew = vw</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - R·iw</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - (la + La) · d(iw)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las · cos (2θm - 120°) · d (iw) /dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iw·d{cos(2θm - 120°)}/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iu)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos (2θm + 120°) ·d(iu) / dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iu·d{cos(2θm + 120°)}/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 0.5·La·d(iv)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·cos(2θm) ·d(iv)/dt</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - Las·iv·d(cos(2θm)}/dt</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0006.tif" /></maths>

0031Here, d/dt designates a time differentiation and an electrical angular speed converted from an estimated speed ωm is used as dθ/dt appearing in the differential calculation referring to a trigonometric function. Furthermore, d(iu)/dt, d(iv)/dt, and d(iw)/dt are obtained by a first-order Euler approximation. In addition, the w-phase current value iw, the u-phase current value iu and the v-phase current value iv have a relation represented in an equation (14) to be mentioned later. Here, R designates a resistance per a phase of the winding, la designates a leakage inductance per a phase of the winding, La designates an average value of an effective inductance per a phase of the winding and Las designates an amplitude of the effective inductance per a phase of the winding.

0032In the operation of the induced voltage estimating portion 17, the following equations (7), (8) and (9) which simplifies the equations (4), (5) and (6) are used. According to the simplification, it is assumed that the phase current values iu, iv and iw are sinusoidal waves and the phase currents iu, iv and iw are obtained from a current command amplitude ia and a current command phase βT and simplified.<maths id="math0007" num="(7)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>eu = vu</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + R·ia·sin(θm + βT)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 1.5·(la + La)·cos(θm + βT)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - 1.5·Las·cos(θm - βT)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0007.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0008" num="(8)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ev = vv</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + R·ia·sin(θm + βT - 120°)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 1.5·(la + La)·cos (θm + βT- 120°)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - 1.5·Las·cos (θm - βT- 120°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0008.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0009" num="(9)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ew = vw</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + R·ia·sin(θm + βT- 240°)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> + 1.5·(la + La)·cos(θm + βT- 240°)</mtext><mspace linebreak="newline" /><mtext> - 1 . 5·Las·cos (θm - βT- 240°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0009.tif" /></maths>

0033Next, an operation of the rotor position/speed estimating portion 18 is described below. The position in angle θm and the rotation speed ωm of the rotor 5 are estimated using the estimated induced voltage values es=(eu, ev and ew) estimated by the induced voltage estimating portion 17. In specific, an angle θm estimated by the rotor position/speed estimating portion 18 is corrected using an error of the induced voltage to converge on a true value, whereby the estimated speed ωm is obtained.

0034First, induced voltage reference values (eum, evm and ewm) of the phases are obtained by the following equations.<maths id="math0010"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>eum = em·sin(θm + βT)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0010.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0011"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>evm = em·sin(θm + βT - 120°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0011.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0012" num="(10)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ewm = em·sin(θm + βT - 240°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0012.tif" /></maths>

0035Here, an induced voltage amplitude value em is obtained by corresponding to the amplitude values of the estimated induced voltages eu, ev and ew. Then, a deviation ε between the obtained induced voltage reference values (esm) and the induced voltage estimated values (es) is calculated.

0036As shown in the following equation (11), the deviation ε is obtained by subtracting the induced voltage reference value esm from the induced voltage estimated value es.<maths id="math0013" num="(11)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>ε = es - esm</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0013.tif" /></maths>    (here, s represents the phases u, v and w)

0037The estimated angle θm becomes the true value when the deviation becomes zero. Therefore, the estimated angle θm is subject to the proportional-plus-integral calculation performed by the angle PI calculating portion 20 in such a manner that the deviation ε becomes zero and the resultant correction value (CRA) is transmitted from the angle PI calculating portion 20 to the PWM signal generating portion 9. In addition, the estimated speed ωm is obtained by calculating a variation value of the estimated angle θm in the rotor position/speed estimating portion 18 and the estimated speed ωm is transmitted to the speed PI calculating portion 21.

0038In the speed PI calculating portion 21, in order to implement a target speed ω*, using a difference Δw between the target speed ω* and the estimated speed ωm, the correction value (CRS) is obtained by Equation (12).<maths id="math0014" num="(12)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>KPΔω + KIΔω</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0014.tif" /></maths>    (KP : proportional gain, KI : integral gain) The obtained correction value (CRS) is transmitted from the speed PI calculating portion 21 to the PWM signal generating portion 9. In the PWM signal generating portion 9, a voltage V* to be output is calculated based on the correction values (CRA, CRS) from the angle PI calculating portion 20 and the speed PI calculating portion 21. Then a voltage Vs* to be applied to each phase (here s representing phases u, v and w) is obtained from the voltage value V* as following Equation (13).<maths id="math0015"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>Vu* = V*·sin (θm + βT)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0015.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0016"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>Vv* = V*·sin (θm + βT - 120°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0016.tif" /></maths><maths id="math0017" num="(13)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>Vw* = V*·sin (θm + βT - 240°)</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0017.tif" /></maths>

0039Furthermore, in order for the inverter 2 to output the obtained voltage Vs* (s : phases u, v and w) to be applied to each of the phases, the PWM signal is corrected by the duty correcting portion 19 and outputted as the drive signal (DRV) through the base driver 10 to be applied to each of the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w. In specific, the duty correcting portion 19 corrects a duty of the PWM signal generated by the PWM signal generating portion, without changing the PWM signal during the detection of the inverter busbar current by the current detector 11. Then, each of the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w are electrically driven by the drive signal (DRV) to generate a sinusoidal alternate current to be applied to each of the phases, thus driving the brushless motor.

0040According to the present embodiment, the estimated angle θm is provided using the deviation ε between the estimated induced voltage value es and the induced voltage reference value esm in the rotor position/speed estimating portion 18, and the sinusoidal driving of the brushless motor 3 is thus implemented by flowing the sinusoidal phase currents.

0041Here, the phase current of the brushless motor 3 appearing in the current flowing on the inverter busbar is described with reference to Figs. 2 through 6. Fig. 2 illustrates a condition of the phase current flowing in each phase winding of the brushless motor 3 every section of electrical angles. In the section of the electrical angles 0 to 60°, it is shown that the phase currents flow from the non-connection ends to the neutral point in the U-phase winding 4u and the W-phase winding 4w and from the neutral point to the non-connection end in the V-phase winding 4v.

0042In the section of the electrical angles 60 to 120°, it is shown that the currents flow from the non-connection end to the neutral point in the U-phase winding 4u and from the neutral point to the non-connection ends in the V-phase winding 4v and the W-phase winding 4w. Thus, it is shown that conditions of the phase currents flowing through the phase windings are varied every electrical angles 60°.

0043For example, when the PWM signals generated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 at the electrical angle 30° in Fig. 2 vary as shown in Fig. 3 (U, V, W, X, Y and Z are signals for driving the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w, respectively which are described by an active Hi), there appears no current flow (zero) at a timing (1), there appears a current flowing through the W-phase winding 4w at a timing (2) and there appears a current flowing through the V-phase winding 4v at a timing (3) on the inverter busbar as shown in Fig. 4.

0044Furthermore, when the PWM signals generated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 are varied at the electrical angle 30° in Fig. 2 as shown in Fig. 5, there appears no current flow (zero) at the timing (1), there appears a current flowing through the U-phase winding 4u at the timing (2) and there appears a current flowing through the V-phase winding 4v at the timing (3) on the inverter busbar as shown in Fig. 6.

0045Thus, it can be seen that the phase currents appear on the inverter busbar according to the conditions of the switching elements 12u, 12v, 12w, 13u, 13v and 13w in the inverter 2.

0046When the currents for the two phases are provided at the adjacent timings as described above, it is obvious that the currents of the respective three phases are obtained by a relation of following Equation (14):<maths id="math0018" num="(14)"><math display="block"><mrow><mtext>iu + iv + iw = 0</mtext></mrow></math><img file="EP1406375A2_D0018.tif" /></maths>

0047However, when the PWM signals generated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 are varied at the electrical angle 30° in Fig. 2 as shown in Fig. 7, there appears no current flow (zero) at the timing (1) and there appears only a current flowing through the V-phase winding 4v at the timing (3) on the inverter busbar. When the PWM signals of such variations are repeated, the currents in the respective three phases are not provided and the induced voltage estimating portion 17 cannot estimate the induced voltage and the brushless motor 3 cannot be driven.

0048In order to prevent the above problem, in the duty correcting portion 19, when it becomes necessary to detect a phase current flowing each of the phase windings in the brushless motor 3, the PWM signals generated by the PWM signal generating portion 9 are checked. In the event that the signal variation is as shown in Fig 7, the generated PWM signals are corrected to those as shown in Fig. 3, for example.

0049Furthermore, when the inverter busbar current is shown as an example in Fig. 3, oscillation in the current is generated at the time of switching. In addition, a noise or the like is superposed in the current detector 11. In order to eliminate such influences, the PWM signal generating portion 9 has a low-pass filter or the like (not shown).

0050Although a speed proportional gain (KP) of the speed PI calculating portion 21 may be variable in a linear manner according to a speed in a low-speed region of the electric motor, the stability and responsibility is deteriorated a little when a pulse width is small (at the time of a low speed) because of the above correction and the low-pass filter. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment, the speed PI calculating portion 21 may be adapted to set the values of the speed proportional gain KP in a multi-step manner according to a rotation speed ω as shown in Fig. 8. Thus, an appropriate speed proportional gain KP according to a load can be set to thereby prevent a hunting or an overcurrent from being generated.

0051When the speed proportional gain KP is increased more than the line (1) in Fig. 8, the control is too sensitive and the overcurrent flows in each of the switching elements in the inverter 2. When the speed proportional gain KP is decreased to be less than the line (2), responsibility is lowered because of shortage of the gain and a hunting may be generated. However, those problems can be prevented by the detailed setting in the multi-step manner.

0052Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, the speed PI calculating portion 21 may include a memory 21a such as EEPROM or the like in which the speed proportional gain KP values can be stored in a readable and writable manner to and from the outside of the controller 6. Thus, the values according to a difference of loads caused by a capacity difference or the like of a compressor or the like using a three-phase electric motor are stored in the memory 21a to correspond to each load, whereby an electronic control unit can be shared without changing a ROM of a microcomputer.

0053In addition, duty information of the PWM signals output from the duty correcting portion 19 is applied to the current detector 11. While the current detector 11 detects the inverter busbar current, the current detector 11 determines which phase current of the three phases in the brushless motor 3 is appearing on the inverter busbar.

0054Thus, the current detector 11 determines the respective currents flowing through the three phases based on the inverter busbar current with reference to the duty information. The resultant current values of the three phases are used in the estimate calculation of the induced voltage in the following induced voltage estimating portion 17.

0055As described above, by providing the current detector 11 which detects the inverter busbar current and the duty correcting portion 19, the phase current flowing each of the phase windings in the brushless motor 3 can be detected. In addition, the values of the speed proportional gain KP are set in a multi-step manner according to a rotation speed by means of the speed PI calculating portion 21, the stability at a low speed region can be improved.

0056As described above, according to the electric motor driver of the present invention, there can be obtained an effect that a sinusoidal wave drive can be stably implemented at a low through high speed range in an inexpensive system construction without providing two or more current detectors on a wiring between the inverter and the electric motor.

0057Furthermore, since the speed proportional gain for the speed PI control is stored in a readable and writable memory, various loads (differences of the three-phase electric motor or a product to be used) can be corresponded by merely varying the data of the memory, whereby a microcomputer and an electronic controller can be shared.