TIDUCL0 January 2017
Power dissipation in sense resistors and the input offset error voltage of the op amps are important in selecting the sense resistance values. The sense resistors are carrying a total nominal RMS current of 60 A with a peak current of 120 A for 3 seconds. A high sense resistance value increases the power loss in the resistors. The internal current shunt amplifiers of the DRV8323 have an input offset error of 3 mV. The DRV8323 has the DC offset voltage calibration feature. In case the amplifier is used without offset calibration, it is required to select the sense resistor such that the sense voltage across the resistor is sufficiently higher than the offset error voltage to reduce the effect of the offset error. Selecting a 0.5-mΩ resistor as the sense resistor, the power loss in the resistor at 60-ARMS is given by Equation 2:
At a 120-A peak current, using Equation 2, the power loss in the resistor = 7.2 W (for 3 seconds)
In this reference design, two 1-mΩ, 5-W resistors are used in parallel.
NOTE
The user can consider reducing the sense resistor further down to reduce the power loss and use the current sense amplifier in maximum gain.