A Miniature Ultrawideband Electric Field Probe Based on Coax-Thru-Hole via Array for Near-Field Measurement

TLDR: The ground vias, called via fence, are utilized to suppress the resonance caused by the parallel-plate mode of conductor-backed coplanar waveguide (CB-CPW), expanding the working frequency band.

Abstract: In this paper, a miniature electric field probe with an ultrawideband of 9 kHz–20 GHz is proposed, fabricated, and tested. The electric field probe is fabricated on a four-layer printed circuit board using high-performance and low-loss Rogers material ( $\varepsilon _{\mathrm{r}}= 3.48$ and tan $\delta = 0.0037$ ). Coax-thru-hole via array is used to control the signal via impedance to achieve impedance $50~\Omega $ match over the whole working band, reducing the harmful influence on the probe’s characteristic. The ground vias, called via fence, are utilized to suppress the resonance caused by the parallel-plate mode of conductor-backed coplanar waveguide (CB-CPW), expanding the working frequency band. Experimental result shows $\vert S_{21}\vert $ rather smooth in operation band, demonstrating the working frequency band is up to 9 kHz–20 GHz. The electric field probe has a 2–3 mm spatial resolution, which has a good ability to locate the interference source.