The bent bus bars were evaluated with an aluminum plate placed above and below the bus bar and sensors. The distance to the edge of the aluminum, X, was swept from 1-20 mm away. The top plate was moved relative to the top of the sensor and the bottom plate was moved relative to the bottom of the bus bar. The distance from the bend to the center of the IC, Y, was taken at different values specified in the plots. The ICs are placed in the same location relative to the bus bars as they were in Figure 3-5.

Figure 4-5 Bent Bus Bar with Surrounding Metal - Side View

Figure 4-6 Bent Bus Bar with Surrounding Metal - 3D

Figure 4-7 shows the amplitude and phase error vs distance of an aluminum plate from the bus bar (X) as specified in Figure 4-5. The data from the sensors outside the bend is shown on the left and the data from the sensors inside the bend is shown on the right. Each line represents a different distance that the sensor is located from the bend labeled as Y in Figure 4-5. This data reveals an important practical threshold: in this setup, when aluminum is only below the bus bar and positioned approximately 11 mm away or farther, phase errors drop below 2°. This 11 mm boundary is particularly useful for AC system designs because phase errors cannot be corrected through post-characterization frequency compensation like the amplitude errors are. Sensors positioned inside the bend show slightly higher errors than those outside the bend; there is also a slight improvement as the distance the sensors are from the bend increases (the red lines being closest to the bend and the blue lines being farthest).

Figure 4-7 Error vs Distance from Surrounding Metal

The frequency-dependent error behavior shown is in Figure 4-8. This data was taken from sensors located 10 mm away from the bend. The data reveals a consistent pattern across both bend positions: conductor placement only below the bus bar (dotted lines) produces worse errors—reaching ±6-8% amplitude and ±3-4° phase error—compared to the other conductor placement options (solid/dashed lines). However, when that lower conductor is positioned 20 mm away or greater, errors converge with the other configurations, staying below ±2% amplitude and ±2° phase. The ±2% amplitude error is well within the range that is able to be corrected with the frequency compensation procedure. Overall, the errors from the devices outside the bend are about half that of the errors from the devices inside the bend.

Figure 4-8 Error vs Frequency