Calibration of a subminiature electric field probe

The Optics Laboratory at the University of Virginia has developed a subminiature electric field probe which is capable of accurately measuring electric field strengths without significant perturbation. The probe was developed in response to the growing need to know the effects of non¬ ionizing microwave radiation on animal tissues. This probe has many other applications other than bioeffects studies such as the accurate mapping of electric fields in complex microwave generating devices and waveguiding structures. This work presents a method for calibrating these probes in a commercial x-band slotted waveguide structure. The method does not require large amounts of power and can be done in a relatively small area unlike the method of calibration in an anechoic chamber. This method also is very convenient and simple to perform. The project includes a description of the electric field probe and gives a brief overview of its operation. The electric field strengths in a regular rectangular waveguide are presented using standard waveguide equations. Data form experiments with the slotted waveguide structure are presented and the method is verified with two supplemental experiments. Finally, some of the fabrication and operation problems with the probes are discussed.

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Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.

Thesis originally deposited on 2016-02-18 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2017-03-23 16:33:04.