Frequency Response Characterization of High-Bandwidth Current Viewing Resistors Used in Dynamic Testing of Power Semiconductors

Current viewing resistors are widely utilized in the power electronics industry due to their claimed bandwidth and relatively low insertion inductance. While popular, there is a lack of characterization data that proves the accuracy of this type of device across frequency. This work is the first step in addressing this need, by proposing an experimental setup for characterizing the frequency response of any current measurement device. In this work, terminating type current viewing resistors from T & M Research are characterized with different combinations of cables, oscilloscope input impedance settings, and feed-through terminators. The impact of the previous elements on measurement consistency is also demonstrated in the time domain via double pulse testing.