With the development of new power system, it is necessary to establish advanced sensor networks to monitor the physical quantities in the power grid. The measurement of electric field is widely used in applications such as power system monitoring, electrical equipment fault diagnosis, electromagnetic environment measurement, etc. However, traditional electric field measurement methods, such as field mills, are bulky, which will cause electric field distortion. In this paper, we proposed a micro electric field sensor used for high electric field measurement based on microfabrication technology. In electric fields, the mechanical structure of the electric field sensor is deformed under the action of electrostatic force. This deformation is detected by means of capacitive measurements. Based on the principle of electrostatic force, we designed the structure of the micro electric field sensor. The finite element simulation method is used via Comsol Multiphysics to verify the working principle and optimize the size parameters of the sensor. Based on microfabrication technology, we designed the process flow of the sensor fabrication and carried out the miniaturized fabrication of the proposed sensor. Using electric field testing platform, we tested the performance of the electric field sensor. According to the test results, the proposed electric field sensor has a wide measurement range up to 700 kV/m, a high resolution of 200 V/m, and high linearity. Meanwhile, the proposed electric field sensor has the advantages of small size, low cost, and low power consumption. This study proposed a low-cost, small-size, high-performance micro electric field sensor. This sensor is suitable for a variety of application scenarios and can be used in the measurement of electric fields in new power system.



 

Micro sensor,electric field,MEMS,microfabrication