Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

permanent magnet brushless DC machine
a machine that is similar in structure to a permanent magnet synchronous machine, containing armature windings on the stator and permanent magnets on the rotor. The permanent magnet brushless DC machine, however, is characterized by a trapezoidal flux density distribution in the airgap instead of the sinusoidal distribution of the synchronous machine. In operation, a DC voltage is applied sequentially to the stator coils to create a rotating field that pulls the rotor with it. To correctly operate, the brushless DC machine requires sensors to determine the rotor position so that the proper stator phases may be excited.