A micro-fabricated current sensor for arc fault detection of aircraft wiring

This paper presents the design and manufacture of a miniaturised current sensor for detecting partial discharges and the arc fault current signatures that indicate that aircraft wire and interconnect have reached end of life/point of failure. The bandwidth of the sensor is in the range of 200 MHz to detect fast rise time current spikes which are indicative of intermittent degradation of the wire and interconnect that result in partial discharge and arcing. The sensor is a Rogowski coil manufactured using the UV-LIGA manufacturing process.