Enhanced and fast detection of open switch faults in inverters for electric drives

Open-switch faults in inverter-driven electric drives have recently gained increasing attention in the scientific community. Since these faults may lead to undesired effects, their fast and unambiguous detection is desirable. This paper proposes a detection algorithm for open-switch faults, which is based on the observation of the current control deviation and a subsequent test procedure. This algorithm detects the fault immediately after its occurrence within a few switching periods, even during transient operation. The proposed method is tested via simulations and experiments at different operating points of a surface permanent magnet drive.