Wattmeter comprising a hall sensor and an A/D converter

• US 4,843,311 A
• Filed: 07/15/1987
• Issued: 06/27/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/1986
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tetra Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Sol.O Iskra-Sozd Elektrokovinske Industrije N
• Inventors: Zlebir, Silvo, Rozman, Miro
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Vinh
• Application Number:
  US07/073,477
• Time in Patent Office: 713 Days
• Field of Search: 324/142, 324/117 H, 324/127, 324/103 R, 324/111, 324/251, 324/252, 364/483, 364/492
• US Class Current: 324/142
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/08 by using galvanomagnetic-effect devices, e.g. Hall-effect devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 21/14 Compensating for temperature change

Abstract

A wattmeter in which a Hall sensor is provided with a large number of Hall elements, whose voltages are individually tapped. The wattmeter circuit is further provided with an impulse-width modulator, the input voltage of this modulator being periodically reversed, with a feedback to compensate the disturbing voltages, and with a circuit for precision curvature compensation CMOS bandgap reference. The output of an embodiment of the wattmeter is adapted to the reading-off by a computer. A wattmeter can be realized on a semiconductor wafer.

Claims

1. Wattmeter including a Hall sensor circuit and an A/D converter, said Hall sensor including a plurality of Hall elements for producing a plurality of sensor voltages, said A/D converter comprising an impulse-width delta modulator, an impulse shaper, first and second frequency dividers with division ratios N and M, respectively, said frequency dividers connected to said impulse shaper, a compensation circuit for generating a compensation voltage, an adding circuit which receives said plurality of sensor voltages, a reference voltage, and said compensation voltage, a source for producing said reference voltage, said adding circuit producing an output signal fed to the input of said modulator, and a clock generator for generating clock pulse and first and second output signals,

said modulator generating an output signal fed to the input of a counter forming part of the compensation circuit and also fed to the input of the impulse shaper,

an inverted output of the modulator being connected to the input of the first frequency divider, the inverted output and a non-inverted output of the modulator being connected to first and second sets, respectively, of control terminals of adding circuit control switches in the adding circuit,

and the sensor circuit includes a plurality of sensor switches being interconnected to a bridge with the sensor elements in a diagonal between two output terminals of each of said sensor elements, feeding terminals of said sensor elements being parallel-connected and a mains phase terminal being connected to a first input terminal of the bridge through a resistor, whereas a mains zero terminal of said sensor circuit being mass connected.

2. Wattmeter as recited in claim 1, wherein an output signal of the first frequency divider being conducted to the control terminals of a first pair of sensor switches corresponding to a first and a last Hall sensor element and the compliment of said output signal of said first frequency divider being conducted to the control terminals of a second pair of sensor switches corresponding to said first and last sensor elements.

3. Wattmeter as recited in claim 2, wherein a second input terminal of the bridge in the sensor circuit is mass-connected.

4. Wattmeter as recited in claim 2, and further including an operational amplifier in said sensor circuit and wherein the second input terminal of the bridge in the sensor circuit is connected to an inverting input of said operational amplifier, and a non-inverting input of said operational amplifier is mass-connected.

5. Wattmeter as recited in claim 3, wherein the output terminals of each Hall sensor element being connected to a first terminal of first and second sets of controlled switches, second terminals terminal of said controlled switches being interconnected and connected to capacitors.

6. Wattmeter as recited in claim 4, wherein the output terminals of the Hall sensor elements are connected to predetermined pairs of switches in each of said first and second sets of controlled switches,

the second terminals of said switches being interconnected and connected to corresponding capacitors, a first output terminal of the last Hall sensor element being connected to a first terminal of a first set of two sets of a plurality of coupling switches and a second output terminal of the last Hall sensor element being connected to the inverting input of the operational amplifier,

a second switch in said first set of coupling switches is mass-connected, second terminals of said first and second coupling switches being interconnected and connected to a capacitor.

7. Wattmeter as recited in claim 5 or 6, wherein the first and second sets of coupling switches are controlled by said first and second clock generator output signals, respectively.

8. Wattmeter as recited in claim 7, wherein the source of reference voltage is provided with a circuit for a precision curvature compensation CMOS bandgap reference, said circuit including an adjustable capacitor connected through a bridge of said first set of plurality of adding circuit controlled switches via a first pair of second stage adding circuit controlled switches, the voltage between the emitters of current mirror transistors of said reference voltage source being tapped to provide for a preset temperature dependent reference voltage, the emitters of said transistors being connected to said first set of a plurality of adding circuit control switches, said first set of switches being connected to a first pair of second stage adding circuit switches, the adding circuit switches being controlled by output signals of said modulator and the second stage adding circuit switches being controlled by the said first and second clock generator output signals.

9. Wattmeter as recited in claim 8, wherein the inverted output of the modulator is connected to the first input of an exclusive OR gate and the output of the first frequency divider is connected to the second input of the exclusive OR gate.

10. Wattmeter as recited in claim 9, wherein the output of the exclusive OR gate is connected to the input of a counter of said impulse shaper, first and second outputs of said counter being connected to the inputs of a first AND gate, and the second output of said counter being connected to a first input of a second AND gate and the first output of said counter being connected to a second input of the second AND gate through an inverter,

the output of the first frequency divider being connected to the input of the second frequency divider and the output of said second frequency divider being connected to the clock input of a flip-flop of said impulse shaper, a reset input of said flip-flop receiving inverted clock impulses from said clock generator, a data input of said flip-flop receiving a feeding voltage from said sensor circuit,

an output signal of a first memory cell in said impulse shaper being conducted to an input of a third frequency divider in said impulse shaper, and an output of said flip-flop being conducted to the input of the third frequency divider,

the output of said flip-flop is conducted to an input of a fourth frequency divider in said impulse shaper and the output of the first memory cell being conducted to the input of the fourth frequency divider, the outputs of the third and fourth frequency dividers being connected to reset and set inputs, respectively, of second memory cell, the output of the second memory cell being connected to a first input of a third AND gate, a second input of the third AND gate receiving the output of the first memory cell,

and whereby an output of the third AND gate corresponds to meter output impulses.

11. Wattmeter as recited in claim 9, wherein said impulse shaper comprises a shift register and a counter, said counter a counter having a first input connected to the output of the exclusive OR gate, and a second input receiving said clock generator clock impulses, and outputs of said counter being connected to corresponding inputs of said shift register , a first control terminal of said shift register receiving a first control signal from a digital computer, said first control signal also being conducted through an inverter to a first input of a fourth AND gate, a second input of said fourth AND gate receiving an output of a memory cell in said compensation circuit, and an output of the fourth AND gate being connected to a second control terminal of the shift register, whereby an output of said shift register corresponds to a meter output signal.

12. Wattmeter as recited in claim 10 or 11, wherein the compensation circuit comprises an up/down counter, a latch register, and first and second flip-flop circuits, an input of said up/down counter receiving the output of said first flip-flop, predetermined ones of outputs of the up/down counter being connected to the first inputs of a plurality of exclusive OR gates , whereas a final output of the up/down counter being connected to all other inputs of the exclusive OR gates, the outputs of the exclusive OR gates being connected to the inputs of said latch register, said latch register being controlled by the second flip-flop to accept the content of the up/down counter, whereas to the reset input of the second flip-flop the inverse of the clock generator impulse signal is conducted, to the data of said second flip-flop input the feeding voltage is conducted and the third input of the second flip-flop being connected to the first frequency divider output signal,

the outputs of the latch register being connected to control terminals of switches in a D/A converter in said compensation circuit for tapping a compensation reference voltage from a voltage source in said compensation circuit.

13. Wattmeter as recited in claim 12, and further comprising a resistor being mass-connected at one terminal and connected at the other terminal to a positive current source and, through said first set of controlled switches of said sensor elements , the control terminal of said first set of switches being connected to the final output of the up/down counter of said compensation circuit through an inverter and , said resistor being directly connected to a first control switch in said compensation circuit, said switch being controlled by the first clock generator output signal and said resistor being further connected via a second control switch, controlled by the second clock generator output signal to said D/A converter in said compensation circuit.