Next generation of current sensors for aeronautics: preliminary designs

• Main Author: Babinet, Cyril
• Published: Georgia Institute of Technology 2009
• Subjects: Sensitivity; Detectors; Electric currents; Faraday effect
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1853/29709

As a specialist in power distribution for the aerospace industry, Leach International-Europe intends to master both design and production of the current sensor - a strategic component - while offering a novel technology, free from important disadvantages of the previous generation. This report puts forward some research directions to replace the present generation, based on the Hall Effect and equipping most of commercial and military aircrafts. Relying on a feasibility study, and after reviewing the state of the art, this work heads quickly on exploiting Faraday's Law. The latter allows getting a voltage as an output directly from the magnetic field generated by the current flowing inside the conductor. The different solutions introduced here are based on analytical calculations (when it is possible), simulations and numerical calculations and are grounded on designing a sensor with an acceptable sensitivity.