New Design for Sensorless BLDC Motor

Using Half-Bridge Driver Circuit

Ming Lu
1,2
, Yaohua Li
1
1. Institute of Electrical Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences
2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China
{luming,yhli}@ mail.iee.ac.cn
AbstractMost of the current sensorless control schemes for
BLDC (Brushless DC) motor are based on full-bridge driver.
However, half-bridge driver draws a lot of attention due to its
simpler structure, smaller occupied volume, lower power loss,
easier control scheme and lower production cost, and it has been
successfully utilized in several applications. Inspired by these
applications, this paper presents novel designs for sensorless
BLDC motor based on half-bridge driver circuit with buck
modulator. For different applications, two specific back EMF
detection methods: terminal voltage detection method and line
voltage detection method, are proposed. The simulation results
verified the validity of the proposed design for sensorless BLDC
motor, and by comparisons we further pointed out different
characteristics and possible applications of the two back EMF
detection methods.
Keywords- sensorless BLDC motor; half-bridge driver circuit;
back EMF detection
I. INTRODUCTION
In the past decades, sensorless control schemes for BLDC
motor have been widely studied. Among those existing
schemes, back EMF detection is the most popular technique.
Many direct and indirect back EMF detection methods have
been proposed
[1-5]
, most of which are based on full-bridge
driver. Compared with full-bridge driver, half-bridge driver has
simpler structure, smaller occupied volume, lower power loss,
easier control scheme and lower production cost. Thus in many
applications which have high requirements in reliability, power
loss, volume, and cost, e.g., some military and household
products, half-bridge driver would have its apparent superiority
to full-bridge driver. Encouraged by these characteristics of
half-bridge driver, this paper presents novel designs for
sensorless BLDC motor using half-bridge driver circuit with
buck modulator.
Existing back EMF detection methods are principally
designed based on the full-bridge driver circuit. Iizuka et al.
originally proposed a direct terminal voltage detection method
in [1], which extracts the back EMF ZCP (zero-crossing point)
by detecting voltage difference between terminal voltage of the
floating phase and neutral point voltage, and then shifts 30
electrical degrees for commutation. To circumvent the unstable
problem of the neutral point during PWM (pulse width
modulation) switching, Shao presented an improved terminal
voltage sensing scheme in which back EMF signals can be
directly extracted without detecting the motor neutral point [2].
However, in both [1] and [2], the operation of shifting 30
electrical degrees is relatively complex. To reduce the
computation complexity, line voltage detection methods are
proposed in [3] and [4], which detects the commutation points
by line phase voltages directly. In addition, several improved
back EMF detection schemes are presented in [5], such as
methods utilizing the integration of back EMF or the third
harmonic of back EMF. However, all of the above methods
cannot be directly utilized in the half-bridge driver circuit.
In order to realize sensorless BLDC motor based on half-
bridge driver, in this paper we design corresponding back EMF
detection methods. For different application cases, two
improved back EMF detection methods are proposed
respectively: terminal voltage detection method and line
voltage detection method. Terminal voltage detection method
for half-bridge driver extracts the true back EMF ZCP by
detecting voltage difference between the terminal voltage of
the floating phase and the control voltage modulated by buck
modulator instead of the neutral point voltage. Compared with
the neutral point, the control voltage modulated by buck
modulator is stable during PWM switching. Line voltage
detection method for half-bridge driver gets the commutation
point directly by detecting ZCP of line voltage between two
floating phases, while in full-bridge driver only one phase is
floating at any time and the detection is relatively complicate.
The simulation results verified the validity of the proposed
design for sensorless BLDC motor, and by comparisons we
learned that terminal voltage detection method has higher
detection precision than line voltage detection method, while
the latter one is simpler for realization. According to their
different characteristics, these two methods could be utilized in
different application cases in the future.
II. DRIVER CIRCUIT AND COMMUTATION MANNER
In this section, we would introduce the structure and
commutation manner of the half-bridge driver circuit.
The structure of the half-bridge driver circuit utilized is
presented in Fig.1 (a). Here, a buck modulator is introduced to
improve the performance of half-bridge driver. Four power
devices T
0
-T
3
are included in the driver circuit in total. T
0
,
which is controlled by PWM signal in the buck modulator, is
used to regulate the phase current. T
1
-T
3
are all utilized for
commutation.
978-1-4244-7161-4/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
Fig.1 (b) shows three-step commutation manner for half-
bridge driver. In three-step commutation manner, only one
phase conducts current at anytime, and the conducting interval
for each phase is 120 electrical degrees. In another word, half-
bridge driver sould commutate every 120 electrical degrees.
The back EMF (e
a
, e
b
, and e
c
), current (i
a
, i
b
, and i
c
), ZCP (T
Qa
,
T
Qb
, and T
Qc
) and commuting points (T
Q1
-T
Q3
) in the three-step
commutation manner are illustrated in Fig.1 (b).
Compared with the structure of the full-bridge driver
commonly utilized for BLDC motors, half-bridge driver
utilizes fewer power components and has the simpler structure.
Thus it has the lower power loss, smaller occupied volume, and
would also have higher reliability. For the full-bridge driver,
the conducting interval for each phase is 120 electrical degrees,
but it should commutate every 60 electrical degrees to make
current be in phase with the back EMF. Instead of six-step
commutation for full-bridge driver, only a three-step
commutation is required in the half-bridge driver. It is easy to
learn that the half-bridge driver is easier to control than the
full-bridge driver.
III. BACK EMF DETECTION METHOD
In this section we discuss back EMF detection methods for
half-bridge driver with buck modulator. From Fig.1 (a), we
could deduce the following equations:

d
( )
d
d
( )
d
d
( )
d
= + + +
= + + +
= + + +
a
p ag a a
b
bg b b
c
cg c c
i
u u ri L M e
t
i
u ri L M e
t
i
u ri L M e
t
(1)
Here, u
p
is control voltage modulated by buck modulator.
u
xg
is terminal voltage for phase x. i
x
is current for phase x. e
x
is
back EMF for phase x. x could be any one of the phase a, b,
and c. r, L and M is the resistance, self-inductance and mutual-
inductance of the three phases.
Based on (1), two kinds of voltage detection methods are
proposed, each of which would have its own application cases.
We referred to the basic ideas of back EMF detection in the
full-bridge driver circuit. However, since here a different driver
circuit is adopted, different methods should be designed
according to the new circuit.
A. Terminal Voltage Detection Method
Terminal voltage detection method extracts the true back
EMF ZCP by detecting voltage difference between the terminal
voltage u
xg
and the control voltage u
p
, and then shifting it 30
electrical degrees for commutation.
Assuming phase a is conducting current, phase b and c are
floating, we can compute back EMF e
b
and e
c
from (1),
e
b
= u
p
u
bg
(2)
e
c
= u
p
u
cg
(3)
From (2) and (3), the ZCP T
Qb
of phase b and T
Qc
of phase c
can be directly extracted. There are 60 electrical phase
difference existing between T
Qb
and T
Qc
, so the commutation
point T
Q2
for phase b which is 30 electrical degrees lagging
behind T
Qb
can be computed from,

2
1
2
Q Qb
Qb Qc
T T T
T T T

= +

. (4)
In the similar way, the commutation point T
Q1
and T
Q3
for
phase a and c can be obtained.
PWM switching noise and commutation noise are
interferences to the system. In the half-bridge driver circuit,
PWM switching noises have been filtered by the LC filter of
buck modulator, they would have no impact on terminal
voltage u
xg
and control voltage u
p
. But the negative influence of
commutation noises still remains. Commutation could cause a
spike on terminal voltage and lead to wrong commutation
points. So in this paper, sampling holder is further introduced
to eliminate the commutation noises. When the commutation
happens, the holder is triggered to hold the sampling results of
terminal voltage until the commutation ends to make sure the
spike on terminal voltage will not be brought in. This holding
operation would not distort the waveform of back EMF at its
t
t
t
(a) Half-bridge driver with buck modulator (b) Three-step commutation manner
Figure 1. Half-bridge driver circuit and its commutation manner
ZCPs. That is to say, sampling holder has no negative influence
on ZCP detection.
B. Line Voltage Detection Method
In terminal voltage detection method, commutation points
are extracted by shifting 30 electrical degrees from the ZCPs of
back EMF. This extra shifting operation makes the terminal
voltage detection method relatively complicated. Line back
EMF is of 30 electrical phase difference with back EMF,
whose ZCPs coincide with the commutation points. So line
voltage detection method can obtain commutation points
directly by detecting the ZCPs of the line back EMF without
the extra shifting operation.
In the three-step commutation, at any time only one phase
is conducting and the other two phases are floating. So the true
line back EMF can be computed from the line voltage between
the two floating phases directly. Assuming phase a is
conducting current, and phase b and c are floating, the line
back EMF e
bc
between phase b and c can be deduced from (1),
e
bc
= u
cg
u
bg
= u
cb
.

(5)
By detecting the ZCP of u
cb
, the ZCP of line back EMF e
bc
would be obtained as the commutation point for phase c.
Similarly, when phase b is conducting, e
ca
can be got by
e
ca
= u
ag
u
cg
= u
ac,
(6)
and when phase c is conducting, e
ab
can be got by
e
ab
= u
bg
u
ag
= u
ba .
(7)
By detecting the ZCPs of u
ac
and u
ba
, we can obtain the
commutation point for phase a and b. As mentioned previously,
commutation noises can distort the line voltage and lead to
wrong commutation points. Low pass filter can be used to filter
the communication noise, but time delay will be brought in.
We can use the same strategy of the terminal voltage detection
method by introducing a sampling holder, but the sampling
holder will delay the ZCPs because commutation point and the
ZCP of line voltage occur at the same time. Here we adopted
an ingenious solution from [6]. The solution is illustrated in
Fig.2 (a). Line voltage u
ac
, u
ba
and u
cb
are inputs of zero-
crossing comparators, and HALL_A, HALL_B and HALL_C are
outputs of the comparators. Pulse signal pulse_a, pulse_b and
pulse_c are respectively generated at the rising edge of
HALL_A, HALL_B and HALL_C. We take phase a for example
to explain how the adopted solution works. HALL_A is sent to
a sampling holder controlled by pulse_b and pulse_c. If either
of pulse_b and pulse_c is valid, HALL_A will be held,
otherwise HALL_A will be sampled. As in Fig.2 (b), the wrong
position information in HALL_A is eliminated by pulse_b and
pulse_c, and the true position signal hall_a is extracted. In the
same manner, position signal for phase b and c can be got.
IV. SIMULATION
A simulating model built in Matlab Simulink is shown in
Fig.3. The model includes BLDC motor module, half-bridge
driver with buck modulator module, position detector module,
decoder module, speed regulator module and open-loop start
module. The position detector module uses terminal voltage
detection method or line voltage detection method to extract
the position signals; the decoder module receives the position
signals and outputs the commutation points; speed regulator is
made up of speed loop and current loop, it controls the motor
running at the speed of 6000 rpm (revolutions per minute); the
open-loop start module is used to start the motor from standstill
until the back EMF can be detected. The BLDC motor
parameters in the model are shown in table I.
Firstly, terminal voltage detection method is utilized in the
position detection module, the position signal is computed
according to formula (4) and sampling holder is used to
eliminate the commutation noises. The detected back EMF and
position signal for phase a are compared with the true back
EMF and position signal at speed of 6000 rpm in Fig.4 (a).The
true back EMF and position signal are drawn with real lines,
the detected back EMF and position signal are drawn with
dashed lines.
TABLE I. BLDC Motor Parameters
Phase Pole Back EMF Coefficient Torque Coefficient
3 8 0.047V/(rad/s) 0.05Nm/A
Figure 2. Eliminating commutation noises in the line voltage detection method
(b) Illustrations for the process of eliminating commutation noises
a pulse _
b pulse _
c pulse _
AND
AND
AND
a hall _
b hall _
c hall _
z
e
r
o
-
c
r
o
s
s
i
n
g

c
o
m
p
a
r
a
t
o
r
z
e
r
o
-
c
r
o
s
s
i
n
g

c
o
m
p
a
r
a
t
o
r
z
e
r
o
-
c
r
o
s
s
i
n
g

c
o
m
p
a
r
a
t
o
r
P
u
l
s
e

g
e
n
e
r
a
t
e
r
P
u
l
s
e

g
e
n
e
r
a
t
e
r
P
u
l
s
e

g
e
n
e
r
a
t
e
r
S
a
m
p
l
e
/
H
o
l
d
S
a
m
p
l
e
/
H
o
l
d
S
a
m
p
l
e
/
H
o
l
d
C HALL _
B HALL _
A HALL _
ba
u
cb
u
ac
u
(a) Solution for eliminating commutation noises
pulse_c
hall_a
pulse_b
HALL_A
Time
Secondly, line voltage detection method is used in the
position detection module. The position signal can be extracted
according to the method described in Fig.2 (a). The detected
line back EMF and position signal for phase a are compared
with the true line back EMF and position signal at speed of
6000rpm in Fig.4 (b). The true line back EMF and position
signal are drawn with real lines, the detected line back EMF
and position signal are drawn with dashed lines.
From Fig.4, we can see at the speed of 6000rpm, position
signal detected by terminal voltage is nearly the same
compared with the true position signal, but position signal
detected by line voltage has approximately 1% error compared
with the true position signal. The reason is that terminal
voltage detection method can extract the ZCPs of back EMF
directly without distortion, its precision is mainly decided by
the operation of shifting 30 electrical degrees. When the motor
runs at 6000 rpm steadily, the computation error can be
ignored, so it has high accuracy. In line voltage detection
method, though the wrong commutation points created by
commutation noise can be eliminated, ZCP of the line voltage
is distorted unavoidable, because the ZCP of line voltage and
the commutation point occur at the same time. However, line
voltage detection method does not require shifting 30 electrical
degrees operation, so it is more easily to realize than terminal
voltage detection method.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents new designs for sensorless BLDC
motor based on the half-bridge driver with buck modulator.
The corresponding back EMF detection methods are
developed including terminal detection method and line
voltage detection method. Terminal voltage detection method
extracts the ZCP of back EMF between the terminal voltage of
the floating phase and the control voltage modulated by the
buck modulator. Sampling holder is utilized to eliminate the
commutation noise. Line voltage detection method extracts the
commutation points by measuring the line voltage between
two floating phases. An ingenious solution is presented to
eliminate the commutation noises while at the same time to
avoid the time delay. Various simulation results verified the
validity of the proposed design for sensorless BLDC motor. By
comparing the two methods presented in this paper, we also
learned that terminal voltage detection method has higher
detection precision than line voltage detection method, while
the latter one is much simpler for realization. According to
their different characteristics, these two methods could be
utilized in different application cases in the future.
REFERENCES
[1] K. Iizuka, H. Uzuhashi., M. Kano, T. Endo and K. Mohri,
Microcomputer control for sensorless brushless motor, IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. IA-21, no. 4, pp. 595601, 1985.
[2] J. Shao, An improved microcontroller-based sensorless brushless DC
(BLDC) motor drive for automotive applications IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 42, no.5, pp.1216-1221, 2006.
[3] P. Damodharan and K. Vasudevan, Indirect back-EMF zero crossing
detection for sensorless BLDC motor operation, 6
th
IEEE International
Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS2005),
pp.1107-1111, 2005.
[4] P. Damodharan and K. Vasudevan, Sensorless Brushless DC Motor
Drive Based on the Zero-Crossing Detection of Back Electromotive
Force (EMF) From the Line Voltage Difference, IEEE Trans on
Energy Convers.,vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 1-8, 2010.
[5] C. Xia, The control System of Brushless DC motor. Beijing: Science
Press,2009, pp.127-161.
[6] C. Fan, Y. Wang, X. Lin and Y. Chen, A Driving Circuit for
Sensorless Brushless DC Motor, Micromotors,vol.34, no. 3, 2001.
Figure 3. Simulating model for sensorless BLDC
0 0.625 1.25 1.875 2.5
0
1
hall_a
Time (ms)
0 0.625 1.25 1.875 2.5
-40
-20
0
20
40
ea
(V)
Time (ms)
Figure 4. Simulation results for two back EMF detection methods at the speed of 6000 rpm
(a) Simulation results for terminal voltage detection method (b) Simulation results for line voltage detection method
0
0.625 1.25 1.875 2.5
0
1
hall_a
0 0.625 1.25 1.875 2.5
-100
-50
0
50
100
eca
(V)