Design and development of a low-cost optical current sensor

Joseba Zubia; Luciano Casado; Gotzon Aldabaldetreku; Alfonso Montero; Eneko Zubia; Gaizka Durana

doi:10.3390/s131013584

Design and development of a low-cost optical current sensor

Sensors (Basel). 2013 Oct 10;13(10):13584-95. doi: 10.3390/s131013584.

Authors

Joseba Zubia¹, Luciano Casado, Gotzon Aldabaldetreku, Alfonso Montero, Eneko Zubia, Gaizka Durana

Affiliation

¹ Department of Communications Engineering, ETSI de Bilbao, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Alameda de Urquijo s/n, Bilbao 48013, Spain. joseba.zubia@ehu.es.

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate the design of a low-cost optical current sensor. The sensor principle is the Faraday rotation of a light beam through a magneto-optical material, SF2, when a magnetic field is present. The prototype has a high sensitivity and a high linearity for currents ranging from 0 up to 800 A. The error of the optical fibre sensor is smaller than 1% for electric currents over 175 A.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Conductometry / instrumentation*
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Optical Devices*
Transducers*