Contactless current sensor features minimum power loss

In recent years, the growing worldwide awareness of energy conservation and safety together with environmental regulations require improved safety measures and power measurement in high power applications such as servers in data centres and solar power systems. This results in an increased demand for current sensors.

However, conventional current sensors using hall elements typically feature large current consumption and low sensitivity, making it necessary to draw current within the sensing element itself. As such until now there were no current sensors on the market that provided high reliability and low loss in a compact form factor (3.5mm²).

ROHM has developed a current sensor utilising a high sensitivity low current MI element that allows for completely contactless current detection. The BM14270MUV-LB was developed by combining ROHM’s semiconductor production and sensor control technologies with Aichi Steel’s MI (Magneto-Impedance) element.

The result is a contactless current sensor that eliminates the need to draw current within the sensor to measure it. The sensor itself consumes very low current (0.07mA-100x smaller than conventional products) and comes in the industry’s smallest size (3.5mm²).

In addition, a disturbance magnetic field cancellation function is included to protect against noise, making shielding unnecessary. Digital output from the built-in A/D converter reduces MCU load, facilitating easy current monitoring. These features allow users to easily detect the current of virtually any application with high reliability, from compact battery-driven devices to high power industrial equipment.

Going forward, ROHM will continue to contribute to increase comfort and safety by developing high performance, high reliability sensors demanded by the IoT and industrial equipment markets.