Design and implementation of on-chip embedded current probe using magnetic field coupling in chip to chip wireless power transfer system

Abstract

In this paper, we present an on-chip embedded current probe that uses magnetic field coupling to determine the current flowing on a target channel without breaking the circuit. A helically wound 3 dimensional on chip inductor is adopted as a current probe. We first investigate the characteristics of mutual induction for this current probing structure in various geometrical design parameters like coupling distance, area of magnetic flux linkage and ratio of turns. And then we describe how to process the magnetically induced voltage to reconstruct a current waveform. Finally we validate the performance of proposed on-chip current probe by the experimental results of test vehicle fabricated in PCB.