On state voltage (V_on) sensing is crucial for an electrified future. This is due to how this parameter can be used to accurately monitor the condition of power semiconductor devices and either alert, or activate counter measures to ensure a device does not fail in industrial uses. This can cause billions of dollars in converter damage that originated from a single device failing. Industry standards are already in effect to support this necessity and require those working on modern converters and their applications to apply this addition. There are multiple ways to construct a sensor that can sense the V_on parameter including, but not limited to, a source-follower MOSFET, a wheat-stone bridge, and a clamped circuit. A circuit that uses a clamped circuit, specifically called the temperature compensated clamped circuit architecture, is investigated by switching the Zener diode used in the clamped leg of the sensor. The reasoning revolves around the impact on the transient behavior that this sensor would have on any given device that it is being used to measure its V_on. Zener diodes typically have a significantly higher junction capacitance than other diodes such as Schottkys and Rectifiers, which makes it a typical suspect for any dramatic changes seen on the dV/dt response. This sensor being observed serves the purpose of extracting the V_on value and was not built with minimizing the transient impact in mind. Because of this, characterization of this is conducted and quantified using four different Zener diodes over a range of 100V to 500V that the device being measured is subjected to. Simulation and experimental results showcase this impact and conclude the total amount of this impact that this sensor could have down to the range of picoseconds.By characterizing this phenomenon, further development into the research of this sensor is presented and allows for new insight for development moving forward.
