RF VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

This proposal addresses a design for measurement of high voltages at high frequency without the sensitivity, bandwidth and measurement time limitations encountered in currently available thermal converter components or diode detectors. SRICO proposes to develop a prototype RF Voltage Measurement System based on a directly coupled voltage to optical converter. This design uses advanced electro-optic technology. In this approach, RF isolation is provided by a photonic interface which converts the RF voltage to an intensity modulation of an optical carrier. The RF modulated optical carrier is then detected, amplified and applied to a square-law detector to obtain a DC voltage proportional to the RF signal. This novel approach provides for measurement of high voltages, greater than 1000 Volts, and improves the operating bandwidth to frequencies greater than 100 MHz. For this Navy Phase I, SRICO proposes to use state-of-the-art integrated optic technology to design a small, compact voltage sensing package with accuracy better than 10 ppm. A major benefit of SRICO's photonic approach is that not only can continuous wave and chirped RF waveforms be accurately measured, but so can pulsed waveforms and pulsed-cw signals.