For permanent magnet (PM) brushless DC motors, torque ripple, is an important origin of vibration, acoustic noise and speed fluctuation. In this paper, the output torque profile of a PM motor with one phase energized is decomposed into the commutation torque, the reluctance torque and the armature reaction according to their source origins. It verifies that the output torque profile is qualitatively equivalent to the BEMF profile for low reluctance motors. This paper discusses the effect of magnet pole shaping and magnet arc length on the output torque and torque ripple. A magnet edge shaping is proposed to design a trapezoidal BEMF motor without torque ripple, with minimal sacrifice of the maximum output torque.