Abstract:
Most of the current Electric field (E-field) sensors are oriented to scalar signal acquisition. The scalar signals are difficult to be used for field-source structure analysis at the measuring area. Therefore, these sensors have obvious application limitations in situational awareness and state assessment. On the other hand, the E-field vector probe has extremely strict requirements on the sensing direction; even the slight installation angular deviation will cause a significant impact on the accuracy. In this paper, a new E-field vector sensor with multiple arc electrodes is proposed, based on the multi-dimensional E-field coupling mechanism and vector synchronous synthesis method. Specifically, a new deterministic equation of the structural parameter and the topology circuit structure of the sensor is proposed. Then, the overall E-field distribution, the shift mechanism of the charge variation with the angle, and the axiom of the sensor's capacitance parameters are obtained by simulation. Finally, through the established sensor system, the steady test, transient test, and angular deviation test are accomplished to check the measurement accuracy and stability of the E-field amplitude. The result demonstrates that the measurement error of the E-field amplitude of the proposed sensor is about 1.914% ±0.03%. Meanwhile, the sensor has good anti-angular-deviation E-field measurement ability.