A high sensitivity electromagnetic field sensor using

resonance

Hiroshi Tsutagaya , Satoshi Kazama

R&D Center, RF Technologies Research Dept.
TAIYO YUDEN Co., Ltd.
5607-2 NAKAMURODA, TAKASAKI, GUNMA 370-3347, JAPAN
E-mail address: tsuta-h @jty.yuden.co.jp

Abstract High sensitivity electromagnetic field distribution II. ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD DISTRIBUTION MAPPING
mapping is useful for analyzing intra-system EMC issues. We SYSTEM
have developed a high sensitivity electromagnetic sensor for this There are roughly two types of systems used to measure the
mapping. The sensor uses the resonance of an inductive loop and distribution map of adjacent electromagnetic fields. One
a chip capacitor. The sensitivity of a system using this sensor is method involves a sensor that scans the electric or magnetic
improved by about 20dB compared to a conventional one. This
field in the mapping plane mechanically. The other method is
paper studies the use of this resonance sensor for electromagnetic
field mapping.
to use electrical switches to select a sensor from an array of
sensors arranged in the plane. The sensitivity and spatial
Keywords-near field mapping; electromagnetic sensor; high resolution of both systems are dependent on the sensor
sensitivity; intra-system EMC characteristics used in the system. In the electric field sensor a
small monopole antenna is used, while in the magnetic field
sensor a small magnetic loop is used. Additionally, a sensor for
I. INTRODUCTION simultaneously measuring electric and magnetic fields has been
Recently, the miniaturization and diverse functionality of researched [1].
electronic equipment has continued to advance, as seen in the
latest cellular phones or portable media players. Such The mapping system for evaluating intra-system EMC
evolution is brought about by high density mounting of issues needs component level spatial resolution and high
components and high performance ICs, but another result of sensitivity. Therefore the sensor of the mapping system must
this is intra-system EMC issues. Because the distance between have high spatial resolution and high sensitivity.
components and ICs continues to shorten, the electromagnetic We have developed an adjacent electromagnetic field
fields generated within equipment can interfere with its mapping system of the mechanical scan type. The system uses
functionality. A typical example of this issue is the signal an electromagnetic sensor that can measure the electric field
reception sensitivity degradation of a cellular phone from very and magnetic field simultaneously [2,3], and can also get a
weak adjacent electromagnetic fields within the phone. clear mapping at low levels and in fluctuating field
Because they are very sensitive, even the very weak distributions because the system measures the APD of the
electromagnetic fields generated in close proximity to a digital electromagnetic field [4].
circuit such as a camera module or an IC can jam a wireless
communication circuit. This issue is called intra-system EMC.
The evaluation of the adjacent electromagnetic field is
necessary in order to generate countermeasures against intra-
system EMC. Adjacent electromagnetic field mapping with
component level spatial resolution and high sensitivity is one
of the useful evaluation methods for understanding the cause
of intra-system EMC issues. Because the strength of the
electromagnetic field is very weak, the mapping system must
have high sensitivity.
This paper describes the improvement of an
electromagnetic field sensor with high sensitivity for use with
an adjacent electromagnetic field mapping system.

978-1-4244-1699-8/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE


Figure 1. Stracture and equivalent circuit of adjacent electromagnetic
field sensor.
Figure 1 shows the structure and the equivalent circuit of
the electromagnetic sensor. The sensor is a loop with two
outputs. The two outputs from the sensor are generated by both
electric and magnetic fields. The current from magnetic field Im
is generated by magnetic flux crossing the loop. The output
currents from the magnetic field have the same magnitude but
are in the opposite direction at A and B. The current from
electric field Ie is generated by the electric field at the sensing
element. Outputs from the electric field also have the same
magnitude and are in the same direction at A and B. Therefore,
the outputs at A (Oa) and B (Ob) are
Oa = I e - I m
Ob = I e + I m
By calculating the vector sum and difference of these
outputs, the output generated by the magnetic field can be
separated from the output generated by the electric field.
I e = (Oa + Ob ) 2
I m = - (Oa - Ob ) 2
By using this sensor, the system measures electric and
magnetic field distribution maps simultaneously.
For our experiment, we used a sensor that was a 1mm
square loop. Therefore, the sensor had about 1mm spatial
resolution and magnetic field sensitivity of approximately
1mm2.
Figure 2 shows the electric and magnetic field distributions
measured when the sensor was placed 1mm above a 50ohm
microstrip line. One end of the line was connected to a signal
generator and driven by a 547 MHz sine wave. This
experiment was repeated for -70dBm, -80dBm, -90dBm, and
with the output off. The other end of the line was left open.
Figure 3 shows the microstrip which was measured in
Figure 2, along with the graph of the sensitivity level. The
microstrip we used was 290mm long, and we measured the
electric and magnetic fields from 130mm to 230mm.
The results of electric and magnetic field distributions
driven by the -70dBm signal show a typical standing wave.
The quarter wavelength of the standing wave is about 70 mm.
When the line was driven by the -80dBm or -90dBm signals
though, the sensor showed a result partially or fully masked by
the noise floor of the measurement system.
For example, the minimum receiving level of a tuner
module for 1 segment digital broadcast TV in Japan is -
107dBm. The sensitivity of the RF circuit in a cellular phone
has similar sensitivity. Therefore, a line signal having -90dBm
or less may interfere with the reception sensitivity of a wireless
communication system.
Because the conventional sensor doesnt have enough
sensitivity for a -90dBm signal, we felt the need to improve the
sensitivity of the system for a 1mm spatial resolution.
Therefore, we used resonance to develop a high sensitivity
sensor.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Figure 2. Mapping of electromagnetic field distribution by
conventional sensor. (547MHz)
 Figure 3. Level of electromagnetic field distribution by conventional Figure 5. Stracture and equivalent circuit of a resonance sensor.
sensor. (547MHz)
Figure 5 shows the structure and equivalent circuit of a
resonance sensor. We used an electromagnetic sensor made on
III. HIGH SENSITIVITY SENSOR USING RESONANCE a multilayer printed circuit board for the actual measurements
Figure 4 shows the frequency response of a conventional instead of the electromagnetic sensor in figure 1 [3]. The
electromagnetic sensor and resonance sensors. The electric and resonance sensor was constructed by adding a chip capacitor to
magnetic sensitivity of a conventional sensor shows the printed circuit board electromagnetic sensor, which formed
proportional response to frequencies up to 2GHz. a parallel resonance circuit as shown in figure 5.
The electromagnetic sensor in figure 5 senses vertical
-20
824MHz 1623MHz conventional
direction electric fields and magnetic fields crossing the loop,
287MHz
(electric) which are separated using the calculations shown in equations
-30 conventional
(magnetic)
3 and 4. The resonance sensor is resonant with the magnetic
resonance 100pF
fields, but not with the vertical electric fields. Therefore only
-40 (electric) the magnetic field measurement is improved.
resonance 100pF
Sensing level [dB]

(magnetic) The resonance sensor with 3 pF, 12 pF and 100 pF

-50 resonance 12pF
(electric)
capacitors have 1623 MHz, 824 MHz and 287 MHz resonance
resonance 12pF frequency respectively.
-60 (magnetic)
resonance 3pF At their resonance frequencies, the magnetic field response
-70
(electric) of these resonance sensors is improved about 10 to 20 dB
resonance 3pF
(magnetic)
compared to a conventional sensor, but the electric field
responses of these resonance sensors are the same.
-80

With a 12 pF capacitor, the 3 dB bandwidth of the magnetic

100 1000 10000
Frequency [MHz]

response of the resonance sensor is 111 MHz. Therefore, the

resonance sensor has a wide frequency tolerance. This wide
frequency range makes it very useful for measuring around the
Figure 4. Frequency response of conventional and resonance sensor. resonant frequency.
 Frequency fc[MHz] 10000

1000

100
1 10 100
Capacitance C[pF]

Figure 6. Relation between capacitance and frequency.

Figure 6 shows the relationship between the resonance

frequency and capacitance value of the resonance sensor. The
relationship shows that the frequency fc is inversely
proportional to the square root of the capacitance C.
Therefore the resonance frequency fc of the parallel
resonance circuit may be shown by equation 5 where L is the
inductance of the sensor loop and C is the capacitance of the
capacitor. Figure 7. Mapping of electromagnetic field distribution by resonance
sensor. (547MHz)

(5)
f c = 1 2p LC
By this equation, the inductance value of the loop of a
resonance sensor can be estimated. The inductance of the loop
is about 3.1 nH.
The range of frequencies that the resonance sensor has high
sensitivity over can be designed by using equation 5 with the
loop inductance. The resonance frequency can be tuned on
demand by changing the capacitance value.
The loop size we used was a 1.2mm by 1.2mm square, and
the capacitance of the capacitor was 27pF. The resulting
magnetic sensitivity of the resonance sensor had a peek at
resonance frequency fc. At the resonance frequency of 547
MHz, the magnetic sensitivity of the resonance sensor was
about 20dB better than a conventional sensor. The electric
sensitivity of the sensor was about the same as a conventional
one. These results show that the resonance improves only Figure 8. Level of electromagnetic field distribution by resonance
sensor. (547MHz)
magnetic field sensitivity and magnetic field output is
separated from electric field output. This characteristic is Figure 9 shows the printed circuit board of a cellular phone.
brought by the electromagnetic sensor shown in figure 1. We measured the electromagnetic field distribution in a red
Figure 7 and 8 show the electric and magnetic field frame in Figure 9 at 547 MHz. Figure 10 shows a mapping of
distributions measured by using the resonance sensor on the the electric field with a conventional sensor. Figure 11 shows a
microstrip line described above. While the electric field mapping of the magnetic field by a conventional sensor. Figure
distributions show the same distributions as the conventional 12 shows a mapping of the electric field by a resonance sensor.
sensor, the magnetic field distributions show better sensitivity In figures 10, 11, and 12, sensitivity of the sensor is too weak
than the distributions of a conventional sensor. Even when to clearly see the noise generated in the system.
driven by a -90dBm signal, the magnetic field distribution Figure 13 shows a mapping of the magnetic field using our
shows a standing wave distribution on the line. Therefore, the resonance sensor. This mapping clearly shows the strong areas
sensitivity improvement of the sensor is useful for sensitive of the magnetic field. As a result, we were able to see which
magnetic field mapping.
parts were acting as noise sources and which parts did not
contribute to the noise.
These results show that the magnetic field sensitivity is
improved by using a resonance sensor. We can get effective
electromagnetic field mapping for intra-system EMC issue
countermeasures by using the high sensitivity resonant
electromagnetic field sensor.

Figure 11. Mapping of magnetic field by conventional sensor.

Figure 9. PCB of a cellular phone.

Figure 12. Mapping of electric field by resonance sensor.

Figure 10. Mapping of electric field by conventional sensor.

Figure 13. Mapping of magnetic field by resonance sensor.

 IV. SUMMARY
We described a high sensitivity electromagnetic sensor,
which measures both electric and magnetic fields
simultaneously. The sensor uses the resonance of loop
inductance and chip capacitance and shows improved magnetic
field sensitivity at the resonant frequency. The sensitivity of the
system we built using this sensor was improved by about 20dB.
We believe this high sensitivity electromagnetic field
distribution mapping system would be very useful for
analyzing a system, which had EMC issues.

REFERENCES
[1] M.Kanda, "An Electromagnetic Near-Field Sensor for Simultaneous
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AUGUST 1984
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distributions by scanning coupling probe", IEICE Transactions on
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[3] S. Kazama, Ken Ichi Arai, "Adjacent Electric Field and Magnetic Field
Distribution Measurement System" 2002 IEEE International Symposium
on EMC (Minneapolis) Record (CD-ROM), Aug. 2002.
[4] S. Kazama, and H. Tsutagaya, "Adjacent electromagnetic field APD
measurement for analyzing auto-jamming issue on wireless
communication system", 2007 IEEE International Symposium on EMC
(Hawaii) Record (CD-ROM), July, 2007