Fluxgate current transducer with an analog measurement channel
AssigneeLEM International SA
InventorsDamien Barthelemy, Damien Coutellier, Atef Lekdim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Fluxgate current transducer including a control circuit and a fluxgate device comprising a saturable soft magnetic core surrounded by an excitation coil, the control circuit comprising an excitation coil drive circuit connected to the excitation coil configured to generate an alternating magnetic field to alternatingly saturate the soft magnetic core. The excitation coil comprises a first winding and a second winding connected together at a common point forming an input of the first winding and an output of the second winding, the first winding connected in series to a first switch (S1) and the second winding connected in series to a second switch (S2).
Claims15
-55. (canceled)
Fluxgate current transducer including a control circuit and a fluxgate device comprising a saturable soft magnetic core surrounded by an excitation coil, the control circuit comprising an excitation coil drive circuit connected to the excitation coil configured to generate an alternating magnetic field to alternatingly saturate the soft magnetic core, the excitation coil comprising a first winding and a second winding connected together at a common point forming an input of the first winding and an output of the second winding, the first winding connected in series to a first switch and the second winding connected in series to a second switch, the first and second switches controlled by the control circuit to provide an excitation coil current in the first winding generating a magnetic field in the magnetic core in a first direction, and an excitation coil current in the second winding generating a magnetic field in the magnetic core in a second direction opposite to the first direction, the control circuit comprising a comparator having a first input connected to the excitation coil, wherein the control circuit comprises a PWM module connected to an output of the comparator and configured to control a timing of operation of the first and second switches, including introducing a dead time between switching from one excitation coil winding to the other excitation coil winding.
Fluxgate current transducer according to claim 55, wherein the fluxgate transducer is connected to a user system to form together a current measurement system having at least three measurement channels, a first PWM channel M1, a second analog channel M2 and a third channel M3 provided by the test winding, the user system configured to compute a comparison of the measurement signals from the three measurement channels in order to determine correct or faulty operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.