Electro-optic voltage sensor with Multiple Beam Splitting
US6124706A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 6, 1997 |
| Grant date | Sep 26, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 6, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01R1/071
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A miniature electro-optic voltage sensor system capable of accurate operation at high voltages without use of the dedicated voltage dividing hardware. The invention achieves voltage measurement without significant error contributions from neighboring conductors or environmental perturbations. The invention employs a transmitter, a sensor, a detector, and a signal processor. The transmitter produces a beam of electromagnetic radiation which is routed into the sensor. Within the sensor the beam undergoes the Pockels electro-optic effect. The electro-optic effect produces a modulation of the beam's polarization, which is in turn converted to a pair of independent conversely-amplitude-modulated signals, from which the voltage of the E-field is determined by the signal processor. The use of converse AM signals enables the signal processor to better distinguish signal from noise. The sensor converts the beam by splitting the beam in accordance with the axes of the beam's polarization state (an ellipse) into at least two AM signals. These AM signals are fed into a signal processor and processed to determine the voltage between a ground conductor and the conductor on which voltage is being…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.