USAF - Phillips Laboratory; Technology Transfer Passive Wideband Electromagnetic Field Sensors

The present method of detecting wideband pulsed and continuous wave (CW) electromagnetic fields utilizes asymptotic conical dipole devices. Because of the metallic nature of this device, the electromagnetic fields are perturbed and lead to inaccurate measurements. In addition, since this is a D-dot (theta-D/theta-t) sensor, the sensor output must be integrated to obtain the electric field. these problems of the asymptotic conical dipole could be overcome by using photonic sensors fabricated using integrated and fiber optic technologies. The photonic sensor is fabricated from an electro-optic, dielectric crystal material such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3). The sensor head and the input and output fibers offer very minimal perturbation to the electromagnetic fields. This is a passive device that does not require any power supply to the sensor head. We propose the development and laboratory demonstration of miniature electric field sensor devices that can operate from DC to 10 GHz with a dynamic range of 56 dB. The sensor devices will be fabricated with input and output optical fibers for testing and evaluation. This Phase I program would develop low cost, miniature, integrated optic electromagnetic field sensors that could completely satisfy the electromagnetic field measurement requirements of the Air Force for LPM, HPM, and UWB test applications.