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MEMS SENSORS

Distortion-free probes of electric field

Nature Electronics volume 1, pages 10–11 (2018)Cite this article

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A microfabricated silicon device can locally measure the intensity of an electric field without any significant field distortion.

The measurement of electric fields is important in a variety of applications, including the identification of electrostatic hazards during process control in industry1, the study and prediction of weather phenomena such as lightning2, and the monitoring of power utilities or high-voltage power lines to ensure the safety of humans and equipment3. For such applications, methods and devices are required to measure low-frequency (a.c.) and static (d.c.) electric fields. Most electric field sensors, which are also called field meters, are based on induction probes, optical sensors or field mills4. A fundamental limitation of these field meters is that the devices themselves often perturb the field to be measured, leading to field distortions and inaccurate measurements. This is due to the fact that dielectric parts in the instruments can have surface charges that produce moderate distortions, and electrical conducting parts in the instruments can generate significant field distortions, which are made worse if the instruments have to be grounded or connected to large conductors to set a reference potential. These traditional electric field sensors can also be bulky. Therefore, in an attempt to reduce their size, as well as their power consumption, MEMS (microelectrochemical system) technology has recently been explored5,6,7. However, despite the compact size of MEMS field meters, the devices can still be problematic as they include active electrical parts and components that can cause non-negligible field perturbations at this low size scale. Writing in Nature Electronics, Andreas Kainz and colleagues now report purely passive MEMS devices that can be used to measure electric field strength without introducing severe field distortion8.

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Fig. 1: MEMS sensors for measuring electric field strength.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Vittorio Ferrari

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  1. Vittorio Ferrari
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Correspondence to Vittorio Ferrari.

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Ferrari, V. Distortion-free probes of electric field. Nat Electron 1, 10–11 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-017-0013-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-017-0013-9

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