Suitability of Current Sensors for the Measurement of Switching Currents in Power Semiconductors

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of current sensors on the measurement of transient currents in fast-switching power semiconductors in a double pulse test (DPT) environment. We review previous research that assesses the influence of current sensors on a DPT circuit through mathematical modeling. The developed selection aids can be used to identify suitable current sensors for transient current measurements of fast-switching power semiconductors and to estimate the error introduced by their insertion into the DPT circuit. Afterwards, this analysis is extended by including further elements from real DPT applications to increase the consistency of the error estimation with practical situations and setups. Both methods are compared and their individual advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Finally, a recommendation on when to use which method is derived.

Keywords

• Current measurement
• double pulse test
• error analysis
• measurement errors
• power semiconductors
• sensor phenomena and characterization