Application of an Efficient Rogowski Coil Sensor for Online Estimation of Turn-Off Energy Loss of Power Diodes

This paper deals with a new application for a special sort of Rogowski coil (RC) sensor in real-time estimation of diode turn-OFF energy loss. The turn-OFF energy loss of power diode is a key metric in designing power electronics circuits. The estimation accuracy of the diode turn-OFF energy loss significantly depends on the accurate extraction of diode reverse-recovery parameters during the turn-OFF process. By far, many methods have been proposed for offline estimation of diode reverse-recovery parameters. However, online estimation of these parameters can also provide worthwhile information for real-time monitoring of power diode and operating power electronics circuit. Specifically, the online estimated energy loss includes information which can be interpreted to obtain general ideas about the diode junction temperature, health status of snubber circuits, and so on. In this paper, a novel approach for online estimation of turn-OFF energy loss of power diodes using an efficient double-layer printed circuit board RC (DLPCBRC) sensor is proposed. The sensor is designed and utilized to acquire the key reverse-recovery parameters of the diode. Based on the extracted reverse-recovery parameters, a sufficiently good estimation of diode turn-OFF energy loss is obtained in real-time. The simulation and experimental results on a typical diode in a boost DC-DC converter are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.