Shunt arrangement with power overload protection by a voltage responsive bidirectional switch

Abstract

A shunt arrangement for processing the output current of an inductive current transformer having a wide dynamic range in which, in order to provide high-precision conversion with smaller currents, a power shunt is connected in series with a precision shunt which is connected in parallel with an overvoltage protection circuit containing a switchable semiconductor rectifier and a control circuit. The rectifier changes to a conductive state if the voltage at the precision shunt reaches a limit value. The control circuit contains a symmetric voltage limiting element which is constructed as a pair of limiting diodes or as a fullwave rectifier, the output of which is connected to a reference diode. In order to check the switching state of the overvoltage protection circuit, the series circuit including the power shunt and the precision shunt is connected in parallel with a series circuit consisting of a first bridge resistor and a second bridge resistor which, together with the shunts, form a balanced bridge circuit whereby, when the overvoltage protection circuit is inhibited, bridge circuit is monitored by a window discriminator.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.