Novel micromachined fiber-optic E-field sensor

Due to ever increasing requirements and complexity of electrical circuits the necessity of developing precise and reliable sensors to measure internal electric field distributions steadily increases. One key issue for such sensors is noninvasiveness. Hence, our approach to meet this goal is to develop a hybrid fiber optic field sensor with high spatial resolution. This concept takes advantage of the fact, that optical fibers do not interfere with the electromagnetic field to be measured, but are capable of transmitting optical information. This minimizes distortion of the E-field. Furthermore, such sensors are suitable for a variety of measurements, e.g. the determination of field distributions in printed circuits and field patterns of antennas, or for hyperthermia measurements. The absence of any metallic parts minimizes field distortion by the sensor, and the use of a surface oriented semiconductor with dimensions determined only by the optical fiber allows one of the smallest sensors to our knowledge to be realized