Robustness against parameter mismatches and position-sensorless operation are two important research topics for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. In this paper, a sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO) is proposed to achieve either of two functions for different application environments: 1) if a position sensor is equipped, accurate current regulation can be achieved by deadbeat predictive current control (DBPC) despite mismatched motor parameters; 2) if the position sensor is not equipped but with a good estimation of motor parameters, the observer can serve as a back electromotive force (EMF) estimator. On this basis, the rotor position can be extracted for positionsensorless control. Usually, low-pass filter is required to suppress high frequency noises in conventional sliding mode observer. This inevitably leads to phase delay in the estimation, which cannot be directly used for disturbance compensation. While in the proposed method, a complex coefficient filter is inherently embedded, which can provide accurate estimation without phase or magnitude error. Experimental results obtained from a 2.4 kW PMSM drive platform indicate that high performance current control can be achieved with good robustness for position sensor based operation. And, rotor position can be accurately estimated with good steady and dynamic performance for position-sensorless operation.