Heat Dissipation of Current Sensors Used in the Car

One of the foundations of electronics is that power management is thermal management. Power efficiency and thermal performance go hand in hand, as the energy wasted by the system is always expressed as heat. If you can increase efficiency, you can lower temperatures and your electronics work better and more reliably.

Conversely, if your electronics are underperforming, more waste heat is generated, creating more thermal management, reliability, and safety issues. Optimizing power and thermal management will significantly improve productivity, cost-effectiveness, safety and reliability. Inverters, motor drives, power supplies, UPS, and external charging stations must be able to operate in the ambient operating temperature range of -40°C to 85°C (typically up to 105°C).

Even in inverter applications where the maximum internal temperature remains relatively low, such power systems are typically specified for 85°C operation, at least to ensure proper operating margins without derating. The ambient operating temperature requirement for automotive on-board chargers is up to 125°C, while the temperature for motor drives can be up to 105°C to 150°C, depending on the location.

While many systems use fans and other thermoregulation mechanisms to manage system thermal performance, this can be difficult for systems with rapidly changing temperature and performance dynamics. Additionally, the external cooling mechanism takes up additional space that can be used for other aspects of the design, consumes additional energy, and presents its own issues of efficient operation.

For systems where temperature may change rapidly, measuring system current may be a faster way to predict and manage the thermal performance of the system. A management controller monitoring the actual current level can determine if the current level is increasing rapidly, indicating a potentially catastrophic event.

Monitoring current in real time while the system is running is a leading indicator of potential out-of-range events and fault conditions, enabling the system to predict potentially catastrophic events before they occur, thereby protecting the system and critical components. Whatever the problem, fault identification for system performance, system reliability, or basic safety is something that must be addressed as early as possible. HANGZHI high-precision current sensors can detect potential problems, minimize system downtime and/or prevent catastrophic failure.