David F. Swanson

A novel microcontroller-based sensorless brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive for automotive fuel pumps

This paper presents a novel back EMF detection method for sensorless BLDC motor drive systems. By this method, a true back EMF signal can be directly extracted for each phase without sensing the neutral point of the motor. The method proposed is not sensitive to switching noise and requires no filtering. Good motor performance is achieved over a wide speed range as well. This novel sensing scheme is implemented into a hardware macro cell inside a mixed-signal microcontroller. The proposed microcontroller-based sensorless BLDC drive system has been successfully applied to automotive fuel pump applications, which require high reliability and intelligence at a low cost.