FPGA based direct model predictive current control of PMSM drives with 3L-NPC power converters

Direct control techniques are interesting alternatives, in particular, for drive systems with multilevel and/or multi-phase power converters, for which the modulator design becomes rather complex. This work presents a direct model predictive current control (DMPCC) method for permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) drives fed by three level neutral point clamped (3L-NPC) power converters. The proposed DMPCC method takes the currents, neutral point voltage balancing and switching frequency regulations as control targets and is implemented on a FPGA based real-time controller. Its control performances are compared with the conventional direct torque control method with switching table (DTC-TB). Experimental results confirm that the proposed DMPCC scheme may outperform the conventional DTC-TB technique in steady-state with reduced tuning efforts.