Design of an Easy-to-Use Standalone PD Measurement System for Pulsed Voltage and High dV/dt Setups

Abstract:
In this paper a novel and easy-to-use partial discharge (PD) measurement system is presented. It is able to detect PD events even in test setups with pulsed voltage waveforms and high dV/dt, as they occur in SiC automotive traction inverters. Therefore, it is well suited for the use in industrial lifetime test benches. For an easy setup process by regular test bench operators, only two parameters have to be adjusted during calibration in the initial setup process. The components and the schematic of the PD analysing circuit are explained in detail in this paper. For validation of the whole measurement system, it is compared to a reference method using an oscilloscope. Additionally, it is tested in a three phase motor test bench with realistic switching noise. In all tests the proposed PD measurement system shows high immunity against switching noise from high dV/dt while simultaneously providing a good sensitivity for PD signals. Furthermore, the recorded PD rates and the determined PDIV and PDEV showed very good accuracy of the measurement system with high reproducibility.