Impedance and Nonlinear Dielectric Testing at High AC Voltages Using Waveforms
Impedance and Nonlinear Dielectric Testing at High AC Voltages Using Waveforms
Impedance and Nonlinear Dielectric Testing at High AC Voltages Using Waveforms
4, AUGUST 2005
Abstract—This paper presents the application of a waveform high dielectric constant is rather low, conventional measure-
technique that can determine the complex impedance and non- ment procedures are inadequate and may lead to ambiguous
linear response of dielectric composite films at high ac voltages results.
using a data acquisition (DAQ) card and virtual instrumentation.
The voltage waveforms are Fourier transformed from the time The conventional testing techniques use either dc or ac cur-
domain to the frequency domain to obtain the fundamental and rent [2]. However, ac testing voltage is preferred, especially for
higher order harmonic responses as complex phasor quantities. asymmetric metal-insulator configurations that may have rec-
The specimen impedance is determined by performing complex al- tifying characteristics and for high- composite materials that
gebraic calculations. It was found that the conventional fiber-glass exhibit dielectric saturation and/or polarization reversal. Under
reinforced epoxy resin laminates exhibit a flat impedance char-
acteristic, nearly independent of voltage, up to near breakdown ac high field, the dielectric response can be nonlinear.
conditions. At near breakdown conditions, the second-harmonic Monitoring and analysis of both the incident voltage and
response starts to decrease, indicating a dielectric softening of the resulting current waveforms is a more useful mean for
the material. At higher voltages, nonlinear dielectric behavior proper evaluation of the dielectric responsiveness. Venkatesh
is dominated by the third-harmonic response. In contrast, the and Naidu used a capacitance divider and a digital storage
impedance of dielectric hybrid materials made of organic resins
and high-dielectric constant ceramics decreases continuously with oscilloscope to capture waveforms [3]. Tanaka et al. developed
increasing voltage. The drop in impedance is accompanied by a a system that monitors the dissipation current waveforms for
reversible transformation from a dielectric to resistive character. a capacitive load using a capacitance bridge and a digital os-
The field-induced nonlinear dielectric effects are mainly due to cilloscope [4], [5]. The measurement of nonlinear dielectricity
polarization reversal of the high- filler, which is manifested by a in ferroelectric polymers using computerized DAQ and digital
large third-harmonic response. The near breakdown conditions
in such materials can be inferred from the second-harmonic Fourier transform techniques was described by Furukawa et al.
response, which diminishes when the ac electric field erases the [6]. To date, no published successful attempt has been made
residual static polarization. The presented testing procedure to measure complex impedance, the phase component of the
represents a compatible extension of the existing standard test dissipation current as a function of a high ac voltage.
methods for dielectric breakdown but is better suited for testing This paper describes a measurement technique for recording
thin-film materials with a high-dielectric constant. The results
demonstrate that the voltage withstanding condition can be and analyzing the incident voltage and the resulting dissipation
inferred from the impedance characteristic and the nonlinear current waveforms at fundamental frequency and higher order
dielectric response without ambiguity. harmonics using a multichannel DAQ card.1 This technique is
Index Terms—AC harmonics, complex impedance, dielectric applied to determine the complex impedance and nonlinear di-
breakdown voltage, dielectric hybrid materials, nonlinear dielec- electric response at high ac voltages. The effect of high voltage
tric response, waveform measurements. on the electrical performance of materials and nonlinear dielec-
tric response is demonstrated for conventional glass-fiber epoxy
resin laminates and for novel composites with enhanced dielec-
I. INTRODUCTION
tric properties.
materials for power distribution. The electrical performance of The availability of computerized DAQ systems makes it con-
these materials can be evaluated by measuring the dissipation venient to record a digitized spectrum of the entire voltage wave
current, breakdown voltage, and/or dielectric loss tangent. The as a function of time. In contrast to the conventional proce-
conventional standard testing procedures that are currently in dures that utilize engineering notation, recording the voltage
use have been developed for thick high-impedance dielectrics waves and transforming the data from the time domain to the fre-
[1] and measure performance in terms of breakdown voltage. quency domain enables the determination of phase between the
Since the impedance of thin dielectric films and those with a voltage and the current waves and, consequently, the complex
impedance . Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the measure-
ment system. An IEEE 488.2 bus is connected to a computer
Manuscript received June 15, 2004; revised May 4, 2005. 1Certain equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this paper in
The authors are with the Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards order to adequately specify the experimental details. Such identification does not
and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA. imply recommendation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2005.851414 nor does it imply the materials are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
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OBRZUT AND KANO: IMPEDANCE AND NONLINEAR DIELECTRIC TESTING AT HIGH AC VOLTAGES USING WAVEFORMS 1571
(1)
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1572 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 4, AUGUST 2005
Fig. 2. Voltage waveforms for FR-4 specimens: (a) 0v (t) and (b) 0v (t) .
Fig. 3. (a) Impedance magnitude and (b) phase angle for FR-4 specimens.
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OBRZUT AND KANO: IMPEDANCE AND NONLINEAR DIELECTRIC TESTING AT HIGH AC VOLTAGES USING WAVEFORMS 1573
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1574 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 4, AUGUST 2005
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