Motor Efficiency Depends Upon Power Factor

Electric motor efficiency is taking center stage these days not only because the potential power savings are significant, but also because the technology for achieving them is now available. This white paper discusses the factors that are critical in achieving overall system power savings, taking into consideration the rectifier that conditions input power from the AC mains and the variable frequency inverter drive electronics of the motor. Active power factor correction for the rectifier used in modern motor drives is required to keep the generated line harmonics within regulatory limits and reduce wasted power. Mixed-signal FPGAs, by doing many calculations in parallel, can perform better than other possible motor control and power factor correction implementations.