Pavani Korada

pkorada@magnelab.com
Hall Effect Current Sensors
Magnelab

I. Introduction

A Hall Effect Current Sensor is a current transformer,

which utilizes the Hall effect. This effect was first observed
by Edwin Hall in 1879[1]. He conducted experiments on
gold foils wherein he monitored the current flowing from
the top to the bottom of a thin rectangular strip. He found
that, in the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to
the strip, the electrons were deflected to one side of the
gold foil. This caused an excess electrical charge build up,
which gave rise to a voltage difference across the right and
left side of the foil. This electric field (voltage difference),
which is perpendicular to both the magnetic field and the
current flow, is called the Hall Voltage. In the absence of a
magnetic field, or in the presence of a magnetic field
parallel to the strip, there was no voltage difference
between the right and left side of the strip.
(a)

Fig 1: The Hall Effect

II. Theory of Hall Effect (b)

The Hall effect can be explained by the Lorentz force
principle. When a charge moves in a direction
perpendicular to an applied magnetic field, it experiences a
force defined by the Lorentz Law. The direction of this
force is perpendicular to the direction of propagation of
the charge and that of the external magnetic field.
For an n – type semiconductor as shown in Fig. 2.a, the
majority of the charge carriers are electrons. The current
flows across the semiconductor in the positive x direction,
with the external magnetic field in the positive z direction.
The electrons under the influence of the Lorentz force
drift away from the current line towards the negative y-axis,
which results in the build up of excess charge. This gives
rise to an internal electric field, which opposes the Lorentz
force. The electric field is measured as the Hall Voltage.
The force on holes/positive charges as shown in Fig 2.b is
towards the same side because of their opposite velocities
and positive charges.
Fig 2: Hall effect in a thin semiconductor bar with
(a) negative and (b) positive charges
III. Operation of Hall Current Sensor
A Hall Current Sensor utilizes the principle of the Hall
effect to detect the current levels. These sensors monitor
the gauss level created by a flow of current; they do not
measure the actual current flow. The current being
measured (through the primary conductor) is passed
through a flux-collecting core (which is generally a slotted
toroid) that concentrates the magnetic field on the Hall
element. The Hall element is a piece of semiconductor
material, which produces the Hall voltage proportional to
the current flow. The Hall voltage is a low level signal, so
generally a low noise high gain amplifier is used to regulate
the output of the Hall element. The Hall Element along
with the evaluation and regulation circuitry is generally
fabricated into a single IC (Integrated Circuit).

1
The output of the sensor is linearly proportional to the
current in the primary conductor. Fig. 3 shows an example
of the output waveform of these sensors. These sensors are
ratiometric; where the output voltage of the sensor is half
that of the supply voltage, when the current in the primary
conductor is zero. This voltage is called the Quiescent
voltage (Vq). When the current flows in the positive
direction then the output voltage is greater than Vq, when
the current flow reverses, the output voltage is leass than
Vq. Saturation occurs when the current exceeds the rating
of the sensor.
Output Voltage
Quiesecnt
Voltage
Input Current
-Ipeak Ipeak
Fig 3 Linear Current Sensor Ideal Output
Different Configurations of Linear Hall Effect Sensors
1. Open loop Hall Effect Sensor
The configuration of an Open loop sensor is shown in Fig.
4. Here the current (Ip) carrying primary conductor passes
through the core, and the Hall IC is situated in the air gap
of the core. The current through the primary conductor
creates a magnetic flux in the core, which is sensed by the
Hall IC to produce an output voltage (Vo) proportional to
the input current Ip.
Gapped
Toroid
Input Vo
Current
Hall IC
Fig 4: Open loop Hall Effect Sensor
2. Closed loop Hall Effect Sensor
Fig. 5 shows the configuration of a closed loop sensor.
Here, the output of the Hall IC is amplified and driven
through a coil wound around the core. This secondary
current, Is, creates a secondary magnetic field in the core.
The magnetic flux from the secondary coil is exactly
opposite to that generated by the primary conductor and
this results in the cancellation of the magnetic flux in the
core. The current through the secondary coil is driven
through a resistor to measure a voltage that is proportional
to the input current Ip.
Is
Ip
Vo
Fig 5: Closed loop Hall Effect Current Sensor
IV. Design Example
An open loop Hall Effect Sensor is designed with a current
rating of ± 90 A. It is assumed that 1 Amp of current
generates approximately 6 Gauss of flux density. Based on
this assumption, the flux operating extremes are
determined. Accordingly, a Hall IC that can operate within
the desired flux density range is selected. The saturation
levels of the core and the gauss sensitivity of the Hall IC
limit the peak current that can be detected.
The selected Hall IC has a quiescent voltage, Voq = 2.5 V
which is typically half the supply voltage. It has a sensitivity
of 4mV/G. The range of the output voltage for the
selected Hall IC is 0.25 V to 4.75 V. Based on the
sensitivity rating and the output voltage we can safely
estimate that the IC can sense a flux of ±500 G. The
selection of the core is based on the size of the primary
conductor or the dimension requirements if any.
The maximum effective permeability of the core with the
air gap is calculated.
µe = BLm/0.4πNI
where,
Lm = mean length of the core,
N = number of turns
I = current flowing in the primary
conductor
B = flux generated due to the current flow
Based on the effective permeability the minimum length of
the air gap is calculated as,
Lg = Lm [(1/µe) -(1/µi)] 0.3937
where,
Lg = length of air gap in inches
µe = Effective permeability
µi = Initial permeability of the core
The air gap should be large enough to house the Hall IC. If
the gap is not large enough then a larger core is selected
and the minimum gap length is calculated again.
2
V. Results

2.5
2
1.5
Output Voltage (V)

1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2
-2.5
-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Input Current (A)

Fig 6: Characteristic Graph of Design Example

An Open loop Hall Effect Current Sensor is designed as

per the considerations in the design example. Fig. 6 plots
the linear relationship between the sensor output and the
input current.

The current sensor designed here can sense AC or DC

current. The supply voltage of 5.09 V produces a quiescent
voltage of 2.50 V. A positive current flow results in an
increase in the output voltage, while a current flowing in
the negative direction causes a decrease in the output
voltage. The sensor is linear for an input current range of
±90A. Increasing the input current further causes the core
to saturate.

A single wire passing through the center of the core

provides a sensitivity of 25mV/A with a peak current of
90A. The sensitivity increases as the number of turns of the
wire around the core increases. Passing the wire 2 times
provides a sensitivity of 50 mV/A with a peak current of
45 A. Passing the wire 5 times will provide a sensitivity of
125mV/A and a peak current of 18 A.

VI. References

[1] Hall, Edwin, "On a New Action of the Magnet on Electric

Currents”, American Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 2,
1879, p. 287-292