Reluctance Network Model of Open-Loop Hall-Effect Current Sensor for Circuit-Type Simulation Software Analyses

The automotive industry progresses towards full electrification of cars. Therefore, more and more current sensors will be used in each car. These sensors must consume little electrical energy and be as cheap as possible due to the cost-sensitive automotive market. The latter leads to the use, where possible, of Hall-effect open-loop sensors composed of cheap magnetic materials, such as Fe-Si alloys for the magnetic circuit. Depending on the wide range of current and bandwidth of the different onboard electrical devices, each sensor has a different magnetic circuit that must be designed quickly but still accurately. This paper aims to facilitate the design work of engineers by providing them with a simulation model that can be easily used in a circuit type simulation software such as LTspice. This model can bring high-fidelity results in terms of sensor linearity and frequency bandwidth which allows the optimization of the sensor before proceeding to the prototyping step, reducing the time and costs of the design phase.