This paper proposes a novel and direct dead-time compensation method of the 3-phase inverter using space vector pulse width modulation(SVPWM) topology. The proposed dead-time compensation method directly compensates the dead-time to the turn-on time of the effective voltage vector according to the current direction of the medium voltage reference. Each phase voltages are determined by the switching times of the effective voltage vectors, and the practical switching times have loss according to the current direction by the dead-time effect in the 3-phase inverter. The proposed method adds the dead-time to the switching time of the effective voltage vector according to the current direction, so it does not require complex d-q transform and controller to compensate the voltage error. The proposed dead-time compensation scheme is verified by the computer simulation and experiments of 3-phase R-L load.