Apparatus and method for diagnosing a failure of an inverter

An apparatus for diagnosing failure of an inverter, the apparatus comprising:

• switches coupled to three phases of A, B, and C, respectively;
• a measurer configured to measure each of output currents of the three phases;
• a comparison processor configured to receive the output currents measured by the measurer and compare the received output currents with a set value;
• and
• a failure determination processor configured to detect a switch having an output current equal to or smaller than the set value based on the comparison performed by the comparison processor to determine the switch as faulty, and upon detecting faulty switch, configured to identify which phase switch is faulty to change duty ratio of the switch determined to be faulty and to perform phase shift on switches not determined to be faulty,
• wherein the failure determination processor is further configured to set a faulted phase duty ratio to 0, when an upper switch of the faulted phase is determined to be faulty.