Electro-optic voltage sensor with beam splitting

Patent · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:874936

Woods, Gregory K ^[1]; Renak, Todd W ^[2]; Davidson, James R ^[2]; Crawford, Thomas M ^[2]

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1. Cornelius, OR
2. Idaho Falls, ID

The invention is a miniature electro-optic voltage sensor system capable of accurate operation at high voltages without use of the dedicated voltage dividing hardware typically found in the prior art. 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 measured.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-94ID13223
• Assignee: Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC (Idaho Falls, ID)
• Patent Number(s): US 6492800
• OSTI ID: 874936
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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