A current meter has been designed, intended for surveillance of low-power battery driven devices with a large dynamic range in their current consumption. Among such devices may, for example, be nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN). The large dynamic range originates in the nodes’ states from an active mode for data collection and communication to a sleep mode for preserving very limited energy and prolonging the lifetime of the device. The active mode draws current up to hundreds of milliamperes whilst the sleep mode’s current may be as low as 22 nA. This makes the dynamic range larger than 6 orders of magnitude. To perform measurements that prevail over noise sources and resolution of involved components, an increase in the SNR must be made. If the current is measured with a shunt resistor, this may be done by varying its resistance as required. The resistance should be as high as possible to maximize the SNR, but low enough such that the burden voltage of the current meter is kept within tolerances of the device. A literature study was done, and with the gained knowledge a circuit was designed and simulated in LTSpice. Then a printed circuit board (PCB) of the circuit was designed and implemented using Altium Designer (an ECAD program), manufactured and hand-soldered. The final PCB was tested but shown to have some design flaws that deteriorated the performance, for example too frequent switching of the current range.

Relays and fuses are used in a multitude of applications to deliver and control current to its consumers. To improve the controllability of both the fuse and relay function, they can be moved to software. This will not only increase the number of available features but can also give live feedback of the systems current state. For an electronic fuse to work the software needs to be able to measure the amount of current flowing through the circuit. For this a voltage drop can be measured across a series resistor. This can be implemented in several ways and will because of this utilize the resources of the controlling microcontroller differently. This thesis focuses on the software implementation of two current measuring circuits and will characterize the behavior of these in terms of making it simple to compare their advantages and disadvantages. Any hardware related aspect found to have an impact on the result will be taken into account as well. Two implementations, using two different integrated circuits, are tested against each other. MAX4172 is fully analog while the INA226 is half digital. A shorter study of current sensing in general is made but the foundation of the study is the datasheets and characteristics of the components chosen. In this thesis, both the hardware and the software is designed and built which end with gathering data in two different electronic fuse scenarios. The thesis concludes that the two implementations as electronic fuse is at least a factor of 10 faster than the traditional breaking fuse. It also concludes that both implementations have their advantages and either may be the right solution depending on the intended end application. The fully analog solution is generally faster but is more susceptible to external noise and bad hardware design whereas the half digital is slower but more forgiving and thus shows of more precise measurements out of the box. / Relä och säkringar används i flera olika applikationer för att leverera och kontrollera strömmen till förbrukaren. Genom att förflytta denna uppgift till mjukvara kan detta förbättras genom att ge utökad funktionalitet samt realtidsövervakning av systemet. För att en mjukvara ska kunna kontrollera strömmen i en krets måste denna kunna mätas. Detta kan göras genom att mäta spänningsfallet över ett motstånd kopplat i serie med förbrukaren. Hur man väljer att implementera denna metod avgör vilka kravs som ställs på den kontrollerande mikrokontrollern. Denna studie kommer fokusera på mjukvaruimplementationen av två olika kretsar för strömmätning och har för avsikt att karakterisera dessa för att skapa en tydlig jämförelse av dess för- och nackdelar. De aspekter av hårdvaruimplementationen som påverkar detta resultat kommer också diskuteras. Två implementationer, bestående av två olika integrerade kretsar, ställs mot varandra. MAX4172 är en helt analog lösning medans INA226 är delvis digital. En kortare studie av strömmätning kommer utföras men grunden av denna studie består i huvudsak av datablad och karakteristik av de utvalda komponenterna. Både mjukvara och hårdvara är utvecklad och tillverkad för att kunna utföra test och inhämta den data som krävs för analysen. Studien visar att båda lösningar är åtminstone en faktor 10 snabbare än en traditionell säkring. Den visar också att en lösning inte är bättre än den andra i alla aspekter. Båda implementationerna kan vara den rätta lösningen beroende på de krav den tilltänkta produkten har. Den helt analoga lösningen är generellt snabbare men lider av en större känslighet mot störningar vilket ställer högre krav på hårdvarudesignen. Den delvis digitala lösningen är långsammare men betydligt mer förlåtande i dess implementation och har också större noggrannhet som resultat.

In this masters's thesis is closely studied questins of current (power) side channel. It deals with attack upon this type of side channels and methods, which can this channel analyse. Also two methods of measurements, which make possible successfully attack, are presented here. Below the work describes progress, which was used for analyse current side channel of chip PIC16F84A. This chip, which was plugged in the circuit in agreement with diagram introduced here, processes step by step variety of programs implementing always other operation, which matches concrete used instruction. In corresponding chapters are introduced resulting values and graphs, which was obtained by measurement.

This work deals with the description and analysis of suitable methods for measurement of non-periodical high-level current pulses. For pulsed current source design and development a suitable measurement system is required. In this work shunt resistor, Rogowski sensor and magneto-optic sensor are presented. The analysis of their properties is performed in order to design a suitable sensor for test current pulse measurement. A design of Rogowski coil sensor has been made. An experimental measurement of current pulses with short time relations has been performed. The suitability of the coil sensor for non-harmonic waveforms measurement has been evaluated on the basis of measurement results. In case of the magneto-optic sensor a concept utilizing an optical fiber has been proposed. The design of the sensor has been performed also. Individual parts of the sensor were verified. Experimental magneto-optic sensors have been built and their properties have been studied.

This master’s thesis deals with the design of autonomous monitoring system electronics which will be used for diagnostics of the electromagnetic vibration generator developed at Brno University of Technology. This generator should be used in a practical application where frequent mechanical shocks are present, for example in vehicle or goods transportation. For such an application, the goal of the monitoring system is to find out whether generator is capable of producing enough electrical energy for smooth operation of wireless sensors used in similar applications. The first part of the thesis consists of the autonomous diagnostics system overview from both commercial and scientific spheres, brief description of the vibration generator used and also a summary of commercially available power management electronics. The next chapters present the detailed description of each functional element of energy harvesting system, the simulation of generator’s behaviour for optimal load in three different model applications and the most important part – design of the autonomous monitoring system. In the end, achieved results are evaluated and it is considered whether the shock-driven generator is suitable for use in a given application.