Circuit protection against arcing by intelligent spectral analysis

With the advent of advances in electronics, demand from customer for more functionality of circuits, system designers are using advanced packaging technique. For consumer application, this is working well. However when it comes to mission critical system such as missiles, torpedoes, submarine and aerospace product, circuit failure in any form results in failure in strategy planned. This paper brings out technical method which can detect electrical arcing taking place in circuits; thereby necessary corrective measure can be initiated to stop catastrophic damage. Experiments have been carried out to identify spectral characteristics of electrical arcing and this data can be used for automated intelligent detection technique. An arc generation and characterizing facility has been designed and used. From the experiment carried out, it is seen the spectrum is a strong characteristics of unintentional arcing which cannot be detected. Even a small amount of arcing which takes place in the beginning of the process can be detected by observing the spectrum. From the results brought out in the paper, it is a powerful technique which when integrated with system development can give solution to major problem encountered due to arcing.