A proposal for a two-stage bidirectional electric drive for hybrid electric vehicle is presented in this paper. The system comprises a synchronous PM electrical machine (EM) directly connected to a Diesel internal combustion engine. The EM is fed by a three-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverter connected to a bi-directional multi-phase interleaved DC/DC converter interfacing the high voltage dc-link with a low voltage battery. The electric drive design issues, control topics and the power converter prototype description are reported in this work. Simulation and experimental results are based on a prototype test bench, composed by two external rotor permanent magnet synchronous machines with the same speed/torque/power rating and connected to the same shaft, intended to emulate a hybrid traction system. The drive system is controlled by multiple digital signal controllers based on TMS320F28035 DSP.
