
Single-phase BLDC Motors for External Fan Applications
During PCIM Europe 2025 in Nuremberg, John Emmanuel Tan gave a poster presentation introducing a single-phase BLDC motor design for external fan applications. Our BridgeSwitch motor driver ICs, combined with the MotorXpert software suite, support a power range of 30 W to 746 W (1 HP) and deliver inverter efficiency up to 99%.
This paper explores the feasibility of utilizing the single- phase BLDC motor for external fan applications, especially the handling of external wind conditions and mitigating the increased torque ripple inherent in single-phase motors. A method to support different startup conditions that provides improved alignment is described. Compensation for increased torque ripple is addressed by the proposed hall-based imbalance handling algorithm.