Impact of Slit Configuration on Eddy Current and Supply Current Losses in PCB Winding of Slotless PM Machines

Applied to the production of windings, the printed circuit board (PCB) technology is promising for developing high performance slotless permanent magnet machines, since it allows for winding shapes and topologies that are difficult to obtain with the classical wire technology. However, compared with wire windings, PCB windings are more prone to eddy current losses because of the high width-to-thickness ratio of the conductor cross-section. To counteract these eddy currents, the conventional solution consists of reducing the width of the conductive tracks constituting the winding in conjunction with an increased number of turns. To keep the supply voltage within limits compatible with the power supply, parallel connections of the tracks at the winding terminals are required. This article tackles the eddy current problem differently by adding some slits distributed along the conductive tracks. This amounts to carry out local parallelizations without impacting the motor supply voltage. By means of parametric analyses carried out on different slit configurations and considering their impact on both the supply and eddy current losses, this study shows that a parallel reconnection of successive tracks two by two gives almost the same results as a classical parallel connection of all the tracks, independently of the winding shape. Furthermore, this article concludes that the optimal number of parallel slits is fixed and valid for a large range of nominal speed-torque ratios. However, it is necessary to increase the width of the slits when this ratio becomes very high and it is technically no longer possible to increase the number of slits.

Automated summary

This article discusses the capabilities and challenges of using printed circuit board (PCB) technology in winding production, as well as the current conventional solution and a new approach proposed in this study to reduce eddy current losses.