Short Pulse Radio Frequency (RF) Field Measurement System

Presently, there is a specific need for portable RF field strength meters for testing over the intensity range of a few hundred volts per meter to several million volts per meter and up to a frequency of 100 GHz to ensure personnel safety. To address these wide dynamic range and high frequency requirements, SRICO proposes the development of all-dielectric photonic sensor technologies. Dielectric-based electro-optical photonic electric field sensors are especially attractive since they can directly mate with optical fiber cables. For stand-off detection, a long length of optical fiber may be used to connect the sensor probe to a remote optoelectronics unit. The photonic sensor optically isolates the RF field from the measuring instrument to provide a safe and reliable measurement of high field strengths. All dielectric construction makes the candidate probe technologies inherently immune to RF heating effects. All of the candidate sensor technologies to be explored in this Phase I effort allow both instantaneous peak and RMS field strength measurements. The focus in Phase I will be on establishing practical sensor probe designs that can meet the design specifications in a compact form factor. Feasibility of the proposed measurement method will be experimentally demonstrated. BENEFIT: The compact nature of the field power sensor chip makes it suitable for high resolution field measurement over the volume of small objects. An array of sensors could be used to map gradients in near field. Sensitive, lightweight, remote sensors are needed for measuring electric field near high-voltage towers to ensure human-safety limits are never exceeded. A dosimeter would benefit electro-magnetic compliance (EMC) and electro-magnetic-interference (EMI) tests.