I-Corps: Wideband Contactless Current Sensors

该 I-Corps 项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是引入完全集成的电流传感器，其性能比最先进的技术提高了一个数量级。所开发的技术将使电力电子系统更加可靠、高效和紧凑。电力电子是当今电力输送系统（例如可再生能源系统、电动汽车、数据中心和大多数消费电子产品）不可或缺的一部分。在这些应用中，电流信息通常是一个重要参数，需要了解和测量以用于控制、诊断和预测目的。随着电力电子电路的进步，尤其是高频电力转换器，有必要研究测量电流的替代方法和技术。这些方法应该能够提供具有快速响应、准确、无损且最好是非侵入性的电流传感器。这种传感器的影响是通过使用宽带隙半导体和高开关频率使系统和电路小型化并提高效率。此外，当前测量信息的可用性将带来更高的可靠性和预测能力。应用包括电动汽车和数据中心中的电源转换器。该 I-Corps 项目将探索当前传感器技术在汽车、电信和数据中心等不同行业领域的商业潜力。如今，还没有任何电流传感器可以用于许多电力电子系统或集成到经过优化以在超过 1MHz 的开关频率下运行的半导体模块中。该项目将通过放弃常用的霍尔效应传感器并利用磁电阻器来满足此类传感器的需求和要求。凭借专有的 IC 电路和封装，项目团队正在开发带宽高达 10 MHz 的非接触式无损传感器，同时克服 EMI、不对称电流分布和不均匀磁场带来的测量挑战。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to introduce a fully integrated current sensor with an order of magnitude performance improvement over the state-of-art technologies. The developed technology will enable more reliable, efficient and compact power electronics systems. Power electronics is an integral part of today's power delivery systems such as renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, data centers and most consumer electronics. In these applications, electric current information is often an essential parameter that needs to be known and measured for control, diagnostic and prognostic purposes. With advances in power electronic circuits with specific attention to high frequency power converters, there is a need to investigate alternative approaches and techniques to measure the current. These approaches should result in availability of current sensors that have fast-response, are accurate, loss-less, and preferably non-intrusive. The impact of such a sensor is to enable systems and circuits that will be miniaturized and more efficient through the use of wide band-gap semiconductors and high switching frequencies. Additionally, the availability of current measurement information will lead to greater reliability and prognostic capability. Applications include power converters in electric vehicles and data centers.This I-Corps project will explore the commercial potential of the current sensor technology in different industry sectors such as automotive, telecommunications, and data centers. Today, there is no current sensor that can be used in many power electronics systems or integrated into semiconductor modules optimized to operate with switching frequencies beyond 1MHz. This project will address the need and requirements for such sensors by moving away from commonly-used Hall-Effect sensors and utilizing magneto-resistors. With proprietary IC circuitry and packaging, the project team is developing contactless, lossless sensors with bandwidths up to 10 MHz, while overcoming the measurement challenges due to EMI, asymmetrical current distributions and non-uniform magnetic field.