Calculation and Experimental Validation of 3-D Parallel Plate Sensor for Transient Electric Field Measurement

A three-dimensional (3-D) sensor is proposed for transient electric field measurements in this paper. Three direction components of total fields can be measured simultaneously by using 3-D sensor. The 3-D antenna can convert fields to induced voltages, and the optical transmitter can transform electricity signals to light signals. In order to validate the antenna´ s configuration, numerical simulation is implemented for calculating models by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, and then several circumstances, for instance, interelectrode coupling of the 3-D antenna and synthesis of 3-D field and frequency response of the antenna, are analyzed. Based on the results of simulation, a 3-D electric field sensor has been developed. Fiber measurement system with 3-D sensor is calibrated and then is used for transient electric field measurement. The results of measurement show that wide frequency response of this sensor agrees with the requirements of transient electromagnetic field measurement.