Saturating core Magnetic Current Sensor for high Direct Current measurements in space applications

With satellite power level increasing, the requirement to measure higher Direct Current (DC) has become critical. This paper gives details of two Magnetic Current Sensor (MCS) approaches for high DC measurements. These current sensors are based on saturating core concept to avoid loss of information at high currents due to magnetic fold-back which occurs in conventional techniques [2]. The two approaches of MCS presented are: unidirectional, for measuring currents in one direction and bidirectional, for measuring currents in both the directions using single core for each method. Both the concepts are explained in detail with block schematic, timing equations, B-H curve and practical waveforms.