INVERTER ASSEMBLY INCLUDING HARD-SWITCHING AND RESONANT SWITCHING FOR DRIVING A MOTOR

A system for driving an electric motor includes an inverter assembly including a main inverter circuit and an auxiliary circuit, the auxiliary circuit being a resonant circuit having a set of auxiliary switches and an inductor connected to each phase of the motor. The system includes a controller configured to control the inverter assembly according to one of a normal mode and a resonant mode. The controller operates the main inverter circuit to drive the electric motor when in the normal mode, and the controller controls the auxiliary circuit to control switching of the main inverter circuit when in the resonant mode. The controller is configured to control the inverter assembly according to the normal mode based on a load current being greater than or equal to a selected current threshold, and control the inverter assembly according to the resonant mode based on the load current being below the threshold.