I'm looking for some references on the relative merits of using different devices to sense current and voltage in a conducting cable. The application requires it to not be in contact, or encircle the conductor. The suggested sensors are Hall Effect and MEMS, both working off the electromagnetic field, but other means are acceptable. Some things I'm looking for are comparisons in sensitivity, current range, cost, reliability, etc.
I used these devices when I was working as an electrician some years back. I used a capacitive sensor that I thought worked quite well. I would not recommend Hall sensors in this application since they require current to be flowing in the circuit to detect a magnetic field and even when current is not present, dangerous voltages may be.
You may be interested in this article in Forensic Facts - http://www.forensicfacts.com/FF1.pdf
This article from Reliable Plant is informative as well -http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/24332/electrical-safety-voltage-testing
For contact-less voltage measurements, you need a sensor that presents no susceptibility to magnetic field and which is sensitive only to electric field. Electro-optic crystals present this property. We have recently demonstrate the concept of a V-clamp for multi-conductors cables (see the link below). As compared to other devices, you can get much more information like the precise frequency of the signal, its relative magnitude and even the position of the conductors in the cable, all of these information being obtained without any physical contact with the conductors ans consequently in a safe way. I hope the paper given in the link will be helpful.
Conference Paper Contactless real-time voltage monitoring of multi-conductors...
Thanks to both Lionel and Ron for your comments and input. I'm going through the material now and will get back to you once I've digested it.
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