ALPS Green Devices Develops "GCBC Series" PCB Mount High-Precision Current Sensor

Smallest and Lightest in the Industry

Duesseldorf, Germany, July 15, 2013 - ALPS Green Devices has developed the “GCBC Series” high-precision current sensor, achieving compact size, light weight and low loss. Samples will be made available from July 2013. With growing importance attached to energy savings in recent years, efforts to reduce the power consumption of various electronic devices have picked up momentum. In particular, motors are said to account for around 60% of power consumption in Japan, suggesting that lowering the amount of power consumed by motors would have significant energy saving benefits. As a result, attention is focusing on inverters, which can reduce power consumption through fine control of motor operation and which are expected to have benefits even for equipment that is not motor-driven, for example by helping to create high-efficiency power conditioners. A key device for achieving high-precision inverter control is the current sensor. Current sensors generally employ one of two approaches-measurement based on shunt resistance, or measurement of the magnetic flux generated around a current. The DC current transformer (DCCT) approach1 employing flux measurement is widely used to achieve high-precision detection while keeping down costs. The DCCT approach is generally used with magnetic elements that have low sensitivity and therefore a magnetic core is required to concentrate flux around the current. This results in larger and heavier equipment designs. In addition, existing current sensors became hot quickly due to high resistance in the primary conductor2, leading to associated power loss. The GCBC Series is a current sensor for PCB mounting and is the smallest and lightest in the industry. Use of a proprietary high-sensitivity magnetic sensor element (GMR3 element) eliminates the need for a core to concentrate magnetic flux, enabling compact dimensions of 13.4 × 15.7 × 7.2mm (W×D×H) and weight of 3g. Furthermore, proprietary magnetic control plates positioned around the sensor element ensure both high sensitivity and resistance to outside disturbance. Resistance in the primary conductor is also the industry’s lowest at 60µΩ, a 40% reduction4 compared to existing current sensors of other companies. This reduces conductor heat generation, helping to lower power loss associated with current measurement. The GCBC Series supports a maximum continuous current up to ±50A and ALPS Green Devices is developing sensors that will detect currents of up to 150A. 1 A method of current measurement involving detection of changes in magnetic flux around the current using a magnetic element 2 The current-carrying part when mounted to a PCB 3 Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) 4 ALPS Green Devices research Features Smallest and Lightest in the Industry with Low Resistance Smallest and lightest in the industry due to use of a high-precision magnetic element High-precision detection achieved with low resistance and low heat generation Highly resistant to disturbance, facilitating equipment design Principal Applications Motor drivers and general-purpose inverters Power-conditioning systems Server power supplies Packaged air-conditioning units NC machine tools Specifications Model: GCBC Series Dimensions (W×D×H): 13.4 × 15.7 × 7.2mm Weight: 3.0g Supply voltage: +5V ±0.15V Max. continuous current: DC ±50A Current measurement range: Up to DC ±150A Operating temperature: –50 to +105°C Storage temperature: –50 to +105°C Offset voltage: 2.5V Linearity: ±0.5%FS max. Response time: 1µs Primary conductor resistance: 60µΩ More information on the new product

ALPS Electric Co., Ltd. ALPS Electric (Tokyo: 6770) is a leading global manufacturer of high-quality electronic components for mobile devices, home electronics, vehicles and industrial equipment. With the philosophy of "Perfecting the Art of Electronics" ALPS Electric supplies over 40,000 different components to about 2,000 companies all over the world. For more information, visit www.alps.com. ALPS ELECTRIC EUROPE GmbH, a subsidiary of ALPS Electric Co., Ltd., was established in 1979. Since 1989 the European Head Office has been located in Düsseldorf, where a team of specialists works in Sales, Marketing, and Product Engineering. The activities of our branch offices in Munich, Paris, Milton Keynes, Gothenburg, and our sales office in Milan are coordinated from Düsseldorf.