Probes for current measurement in power electronics

The current transducer market has grown considerably in recent years: new applications have emerged to improve the reliability and operating quality of systems, such as in the automotive sector, where power and control electronics have undergone almost exponential development. These mass-market sectors and their price constraints have led to changes in current transducer requirements, their performance and the constraints to which they are subjected. These now call for integration techniques similar to those used in microelectronics, with some products incorporating an ASIC, while others are deposited directly on a silicon substrate. Finally, significant progress has been made in the manufacture of magnetic sensors (Hall effect, giant magnetoresistance, etc.) in the last ten years or so.

In addition to the automotive sector already mentioned, current transducers are used in other sectors of the transport industry (electric traction, avionics), in industrial processes and also in instrumentation and metrology. For the latter, measurement accuracy is a key criterion.

The aim of this dossier is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the various technologies available for current measurement, and to situate them within a few specific fields of application in power electronics.