The performance improvement of turbomachinery operating at off-design conditions can be achieved by the understanding of unsteady phenomena which are occuring in its components. The present study is focussing on the interaction between a centrifugal impeller fan and its vaned diffuser. It aims at analysing precisely these unsteady phenomena (and especially the fluctuating separated region identified on the vanes wall) and their consequences on the diffuser performance by three holes probe and unsteady pressure measurements. In a second step, devices for a passive control of the separation are introduced. Several configurations are tested and their results are compared