Infineon Technologies recently announced its first automotive current sensor, the new XENSIV™ TLE4972. The coreless current sensor uses Infineon’s well-proven Hall technology for precise and stable current measurements. With its compact design and diagnosis modes, the TLE4972 is ideal for xEV applications like traction inverters used in hybrid and battery-driven vehicles, as well as for battery main switches.

As a result of proprietary temperature and stress compensation, TLE4972 offers state-of-the-art sensing without the negative effects caused by magnetic cores. Due to its differential sensing structure, neither core nor shield are required to protect the sensor against stray fields. The integrated EEPROM allows to customize the sensor for different applications and supports measurement ranges up to 2 kA.

To protect the system, the sensor has two separate output pins for overcurrent detection with a typical response time of less than 1 µs. Customers can program the sensitivity as well as the overcurrent limits and adapt the sensor to the system requirements. In addition, the drift of sensitivity plus offset over temperature is below 1.6 percent.

The sensor causes very low-power losses due to the magnetic sensing principle. Therefore, it can be used as a versatile and redundant solution in 400 V or 800 V battery main switches. The small PG-VSON-6 package enables a compact design, making the device ideal for traction inverters. Moreover, a second product variant in a PG-TDSO-16 is offered. Both devices have been developed according to ISO 26262 as Safety Element out of Context for safety requirements up to ASIL B.

Samples of the XENSIV TLE4972-AE35D5 (PG-TDSO-16) are available, the TLE4972-AE35S5 (PG-VSON-6) will be available beginning 2022. Mass production is planned to start beginning 2022. More information is available at www.infineon.com/current-sensors.