The time-domain E-field probe using RF-over-fiber and power-over-fiber technology

Abstract

A time-domain E-field probe is proposed in this study. It detects E-fields in single polarization between 0.6 to 2.6 GHz. For the sake of RF transparency, optical fiber is used to replace coaxial cable to transmit the signal from the transmitter to receiver. Thus, RF-over-Fiber (RoF) technology is applied for signal transmission. VCSEL and photodiode (PD) act as the transmitter and receiver respectively. The VCSEL is powered also via optical fiber with Power-over-Fiber (PoF) technology. This design has been proposed in [2,3]. However, in those studies, almost all the components are fully customized, which dramatically increases the cost and demand of manufacture resources. This limits the application available with this probe practically. Therefore, we propose a low-cost design which is commercially and technically affordable for in-house development and mass production.