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Sensitivity improvement of RF‐over‐fiber E‐field probe with LNA and postamplification
Author(s) -
Lin ZhengJia,
Wu JianMing,
Hong ShaoNan,
Wu SungMao,
Huang HsuanHan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
microwave and optical technology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.304
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1098-2760
pISSN - 0895-2477
DOI - 10.1002/mop.30539
Subject(s) - sensitivity (control systems) , microwave , antenna (radio) , electric field , materials science , amplifier , rf probe , dipole , physics , optoelectronics , optics , electrical engineering , rf power amplifier , electronic engineering , engineering , cmos , quantum mechanics
This letter presents an electrically small probe for measuring a time‐domain electric field (E‐field) from 0.6 to 2.6 GHz. The probe design is based on RF‐over‐fiber technology. The most important feature of the probe is to improve its sensitivity, achieved using a low‐noise amplifier (LNA) and a postamplifier (Post‐amp) on the transmitting and receiving sides of the probe, respectively. Measurements reveal that this design substantially increases the sensitivity of the probe by 16.4 dB at 0.6 GHz and 7.8 dB at 2.6 GHz. The LNA is responsible for this improvement. Therefore, the lowest detectable E‐field is 8 mV/m at 0.6 GHz and 2 mV/m at 2.6 GHz. The postamplifier contributes to the flat frequency response of the sensitivity of the probe. The probe is validated by measuring the magnitude and phase of the E‐fields of a dipole antenna. A comparison between measurements and simulation results reveals good agreement in both magnitude and phase of the E‐fields. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:1375–1378, 2017