Power electronic converter for characterization of hall-effect current sensors

Hall-effect current sensors are widely used in industrial applications. Characterization of their steady state, dynamic capabilities and thermal endurance verification is important to ensure the sensor performance. It is shown that an H-bridge inverter topology with an RCD snubber, packaged as proposed, can be used for large signal sinusoidal current characterization and step current characterization of the current sensor. Analytical expression of step current is derived and used to produce rising and falling step excitation with controlled peak value and transition time. A hybrid PWM technique with a frequency adaptive proportional-resonant current controller is used to produce large magnitude sinusoidal current with controlled frequency and magnitude. Using IGBT and MOSFET legs in the H-bridge reduces overall power consumption of the current source during sinusoidal current generation. The hardware is fabricated in the laboratory, and its performance is validated using high bandwidth current probe.