24 SENSOR TECHNOLOGY www.ti.com Issue 1 2024 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Making sense of the world around us with sensor ICs How accurate sensing enables better system performance and increased efficiency. By Giovanni Campanella, Sector General Manager, Industrial Systems at Texas Instruments Sensor ICs are everywhere and can measure almost any type of physical stimuli. From measuring the ambient temperature and humidity of a room to detecting cars and other obstacles on the road, sensor ICs help systems more quickly and reliably react to the world around them. They can measure almost any type of physical stimuli. For example, measuring the ambient temperature and humidity of a room to detecting cars and other obstacles on the road. Sensing types Sensor ICs are typically designed for a specific modality or type of sensing; current, voltage, humidity, proximity or radar, for example. Recent sensor IC technology innovations have focused on integrating more capabilities into the IC while also increasing overall accuracy and reliability for its given modality. These innovations have led to better system performance, increased energy efficiency and – in some cases –new applications. One example is the continuous monitoring of a car’s interior and exterior with low-power radar sensing. In the past, radar sensing consumed too much power to be used continuously when the car engine was off. With innovations in millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar sensors, 360° continuous monitoring of a car for unauthorised access or unattended children is now possible. EVs and charging stations Sensing ICs play an important role in the shift from internal combustion engines to electric drivetrains, particularly in terms of current and voltage sensing for battery management systems, on-board chargers and DC fast charging stations, as shown in Figure 1. DC fast charging stations are an example of how impactful current sensors are in electric vehicles (EVs) - specifically the power-module control loop of the charging station. Current sensors monitor the signal bandwidth, gain and offset errors that can affect the power module’s ability to reliably regulate AC/DC power conversion, which enables fast charging of the car’s battery. In systems where power consumption is a design priority, a shuntbased current design can be implemented with isolated amplifiers or delta-sigma modulators such as TI’s AMC1306M05 precision current sensing reinforced isolated modulator or its AMC3302 precision current sensing reinforced Figure 1: An EV at a fast-charging station.
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