MEASUREMENTS OF E-FIELDS IN ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPABILITY (EMC)

EMC is a vast subject that covers many applications like variable speed drives, solar or windmills inverters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), welding, railways, mining, marine, aircraft, …

When it comes to the investigations of root causes of malfunctions (design phase or during normal operation), the very compact design of the Kapteos eoProbe sensor is very useful for a rapid diagnostic.

Example of specific projects:
Electric field mapping of a bus bar inside an electrical network infra-structure
Measurement of perturbations on a catenary bus bar linked to contacts between pantograph and catenary.

 Application Note: Measurement of E-fields in Electromagnetic Compatibility

Application Note: EMC investigation in the field

Today’s EMC Standards require that electronics products are more and more immune against electromagnetic fields, or limit the electromagnetic fields these products emit.

But even though systems and product may meet EMC Standards, random behaviors linked to EMC (conducted or radiated) may still occur.

The investigation of the impact of EMC on systems is complex and is made more difficult due to the application and the performances of the E-fields measurement systems which are usually based on an antenna technology. Metal Antennas that influence and impact the very E-Fields that they are meant to measure!

Existing technical E-field measurement solutions

Currently, the measurement of E-field is usually based on a dipole (antenna technology). The probes may present good performances but are quite big (d-dot or Langmuir) and cannot allow an accurate E-field mapping. If the application presents medium or high voltage components, antenna based systems may not be suitable due to their metal parts which influence the E-Fields being measured.
Also, the classical solutions do not measure the E-field vector (each axis with amplitude and phase) but only the RMS (root mean square) field strength.

Proposed solution by Kapteos

The Kapteos electro-optic solution (eoSense Converter and eoProbe) presents the best possible measurement system thanks to:

• A very compact design (5 mm * 35 mm)
• A remote control box up to 100 meters thanks to a fibre optic (almost no losses)

• An insulated probe (near field possible even under 25 kV conditions)
• A very small spatial resolution (< 1 mm)
• An operating temperature from 0 to +50°C for the probe
• The possibility to use our instrument and a 2D or 3D scanner called eoScan (max 470 mm usable length per axis) for E-field mapping

Customer advantages of using Kapteos solution

• Easy and fast investigation
• Support of an expert in electromagnetism

• Safe measurement (insulated probe)

• Comprehensive data to perform rapidly improvements, actions, corrections or mitigations

Targeted markets

Any applications linked to high power like:

• Traction (main convertors, auxiliaries)

• Sub-stations

• Mining

• Power suppliers
• UPS

• Drives

• Windmills
• Solar convertors

• PCBs

Kapteos references

• Bus bar E-field mapping (GE –CH)

• PCB