A novel non-contact capacitive probe for common-mode voltage measurement

This paper describes a capacitive voltage probe (CVP) that can measure a common-mode voltage on a cable without touching its conductor. This CVP has two coaxial electrodes: the inner electrode works as a voltage pickup and the outer one shields the inner electrode. These electrodes separate into two parts for clamping to the cable. Using a high input impedance circuit, this probe measures the common-mode voltage by detecting the voltage difference between the two electrodes. The probe characteristics are evaluated by measuring its linearity and frequency response. The results show that this probe has a dynamic range of 100 dB and flat frequency response from 10 kHz to 30 MHz. Deviations in sensitivity due to the position of the clamped cable in the inner electrode and to differences in the cable radius are evaluated theoretically and experimentally. The results indicate that the influence of the cable position can be calibrated. Finally, measured data obtained using both an impedance stabilizing network (ISN) and a CVP are compared to confirm the validity of the CVP. The results show that data measured by the CVP closely agreed with that obtained by the ISN. Therefore, the CVP is useful for EMC measurements to evaluate common-mode disturbances.