Research of Faraday Magneto-Optical Effect

DC Optical Sensing Method Based on

Modulation and Demodulation
Liu Jun, Meng Lu, Ji Yaoyao, Li Yansong and Wang Qian

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing

Abstract--With the development of HVDC project in State
Strong Smart Grid, the Faraday magneto-optical effect optical
current transformer has been paid more and more attention to.
However, the signal to noise bands overlap in original Faraday
effect DC optical current transformer causes its measurement
accuracy to decrease. Therefore, this paper presents a Faraday
magneto-optical effect DC optical sensing method based on
modulation and demodulation. Moreover, a new Faraday effect
DC optical current transformer measurement system is deduced
and designed on this basis. Subsequently, this paper mainly
studies and designs an AC modulated optical source. With data
acquisition and analysis of several experiments by LabVIEW, the
results prove that the optical source can steadily generate
modulated light intensity. Based on the AC modulated optical
source, combined with the DSP technology, a complete DC optical
current measurement system is formed. The practicality of the
designed DC optical current transformer system has been tested
by experiments in this paper.
Index Terms--AC modulated optical source, Data acquisition
and analysis , DSP technology , Faraday effect DC optical
current transformer measurement system , Faraday magneto­
weight increases with the voltage grade increasing, etc [1], [2].
The DC optical current transformer based on Faraday effect is
not only able to overcome the above disadvanges, but also
convenient to connect with digital equipments. Therefore, the
DC optical current transformer is more suitable for DC
measurement and meets development of State Strong Smart
Grid.
As the original Faraday effect DC optical current
transformer has some problems, such as signal to noise bands
overlap and temperature drift, its measurement accuracy
decreases. According to the problems, the Faraday magneto­
optical effect DC optical sensing method based on modulation
and demodulation and a new type of Faraday DC optical
current transformer measurement system is presented in this
paper.
II. THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FARADAY EFFECT OPTICAL
CURRENT TRANSFORMER (OCT)
The Faraday effect principle is shown as Fig. 1.
" :\V Polarizer

optical effect DC optical sensing method, HVDC, LabVIEW,

Modulation and Demodulation, Signal to noise bands overlap, �.
Source
Strong Smart Grid

I. INTRODUCTION

HE
Linear Polarized Light

T
development of HYDC project demands higher
requirements for DC current transformer. However, the
Magnetic Field H " , ..
.�
traditional current transformer is still used for DC
measurement on most transmission systems. Although the ./' .. ' .
. .'
Magneto-optic Material

traditional transformer can meet accuracy requirement

Polaroid Analyzer
basically, it has some deficiencies as following: it cannot
accurately reflect the change of transient current; it is easy to Fig. 1. Faraday effect principle
be saturated; the cost of insulation is expensive; its volume and
As the linear polarized light passes through magneto-optical
material under the effect of the magnetic which is parallel to its
This work was supported in part by Ph.D. School Teacher Fund, North
China Electric Power University, Beijing, China. propagation direction, the Faraday rotation () will be
Liu Jun is with School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North generated between the incident polarized light and the
China Electric Power University, Beijing (e-mail: liujunlishu@126.com).
emergent polarized plane. The equation on Faraday rotation is
Meng Lu is with School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North
China Electric Power University, Beijing (e-mail: menghd2009@163.com). as follows [3]:
Ji Yaoyao is with School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North
China Electric Power University, Beijing (e-mail: jisenyao@126.com). () = V· J H·dl (1)
L
Li Yansong is with School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North
China Electric Power University, Beijing (e-mail: liyansong811@126.com). where V is Verdet constant of the magneto-optical material; H
Wang Qian is with School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North is magnetic field intensity; L is effective length vector of the
China Electric Power University, Beijing (e-mail: mengI2003@sina.com).

978-1-4244-8081-4/10/$26.00 ©201O IEEE

linear polarized light when passing through materials under the IV. FARADAY EFFECT DC OPTICAL CURRENT TRANSFORMER
magnetic effect; I is an integral vector. MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
Current to be measured is around the linear polarized light Based on the optical sensing method above, the principle of
to form a loop. According to Ampere circuit rule, it can be Faraday effect DC optical current transformer measurement
deduced as follows: system is presented as Fig. 2.
(}=N·V·i (2)
where i is the current to be measured.
As Faraday rotation is not able to be directly measured,
Malus law is usually used to measure Faraday rotation with
measuring light intensity signal of the polarized light. The
optical source of OCT generates natural light whose initial AC Modulated
intensity is Jo. The natural light becomes linear polarized light Optical Source

through the polarizer. After passing through the Polaroid

analyzer, the intensity of emergent light is:
, 2
J] =Jo cos (} (3)
Low-Pass Band-Pass
where (} is the angle between optical vibration direction and Filter Filter

permeable vibration direction. In practice, the angle between

polarizer and Polaroid analyzer is usually to be set at !!.. in

4
order to make the intensity of emergent light maximum. As
Faraday rotation is very small and Jo .!.J� , (3) can be
=

2
Fig. 2. Faraday effect DC optical current transformer measurement
changed into as follows: system
I ' 7r
J1 =-Jo[1 +cos2«(} +-)]
2 4 The modulation signal used in the measurement system is
�
I , . I ,
= - Jo (1 - sm 2 0) "" -Jo(1- 20) = Jo(1- 20) s(t) =M] + M2 sinmt , where M]"? M2 . The
modulated optical
2 2
As (4) is substituted into (2), it can be concluded that: intensity J] is as follows:
J] =Jo(l-2N·V·i) (5) J]=Jo(M] + M2 sinat)(l- 2N· V· i)
(6)

III. FARADAY MAGNETO-OPTICAL EFFECT DC OPTICAL The optical intensity signal is changed into voltage signal
SENSING METHOD BASED ON MODULATION AND by the photodetector. It is assumed that Jo is corresponding to
DEMODULATION
voltage Uo. Then the voltage signal through the high-pass
From the equations above, it can be concluded that filter is:
emergent intensity signal � is determined by Jo and i. In DC Vo(t) =UOM2 sinmt(l-2N·V. i) (7)
measurement, if J� is generated by a DC source, the output Afterwards, the signal is demodulated with the
demodulation signal r(t) =M2 sinmt . The demodulated signal is
which is generated by superposition of J� and i is still DC
as following:
quantity. That is difficult to be distinguished. Meanwhile, as
Vi (t) = Vo(t)·r(t)
most of the noise on DC measurement equipments is low
=UOM2 sinmt(l-2N·V·i). M2 sinmt (8)
frequency noise, it is not able to be filtered when J� and i is
DC quantity. =.!.uoMi(l-2N·V·i)(l-cos2mt)
2
To overcome the above problems caused by noise bands With low-pass filtering, the final signal is:
overlap [4], Faraday magneto-optical effect DC optical sensing
method based on modulation and demodulation is presented. V(t) =.!.uoMi(l-2N·V·i) (9)
2
In this method, at first, frequency modulation and frequency From (9), it can be concluded that the output of the
shifting principle are used to make the signal frequency band measuring system is DC component. It indicates that the noise
away from the noise frequency band. In this paper, the optical of original signal is eliminated and this system is able to
source is modulated. Then the effect of noise is eliminated improve the measuring accuracy.
after filtered. Finally with demodulating the filtered signal, the For the LED is not able to emit light when negative voltage
original signal can be obtained. The noise bands overlap is imposed on it, an AC modulated optical source with
problem is able to be overcomed in this way, and the output modulation signal s(t) =M] + M2 sinat (M]"? M2 ) is used in this
signal to noise ratio of OCT is raised.
system.
 V. AC MODULAlED OPTICAL SOURCE
The AC modulated optical source is the core part of the
Faraday effect DC optical current transformer measurement
system. Its hardware electrical graph is shown in Fig. 3.
C8051F310
Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of AC modulated optical source
The main part of AC modulated optical source is the signal
source, which consists of C8051F3I0 and AD9833. AD9833
is a low-power DDS device, which can output sine wave,
triangle wave and square wave. Besides, its maximum output
frequency is 12.5MHz [5]. In the circuit diagram, three pins of
AD9833 (FSYNC, SCLK and SDATA) are respectively
connected to three VO ports of C8051 (PO.4, PO.5 and PO.7)
for serial communication. Among them, FSYNC is the control
input port and enabled by low level; SCLK is the serial clock
input port; SDATA is the serial data input port.
The parameter of the waveform generated by AD9833 can
be set by programming in C8051. AD9833 includes two kinds
of 16 bytes register, control register and frequency register.
Though assignment for control register, the type of waveform
is set. The frequency register is selected by control registers.
The main program block diagram is also given in Fig. 4.
9 Port
Definition&
System Clock
Setting
Initialization Control Frequency
of AD9833 Register Setting
Fig. 4. Main program flow chart
In the optical source, HFBR1414 is used as light-emitting
device. As HFBR1414 is a current-steering element, it is
necessary to make the voltage signal change into current signal
[6]. In order to make the optical source generate complete
sinusoidal light intensity, through the adder circuit and the
voltage following circuit, the voltage signal generated by the
signal source circuit is changed into sinusoidal current signal
which is positive in its whole period.
VI. DSP SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEM
The light intensity generated by the AC modulated source is
sent to the DSP system for signal processing through the
optical sensing system and photoelectric conversion. The DSP
system consists of SEED-DPS2812Mv2 circuit board. The
SEED-DPS2812Mv2 is a high-performance and low-cost
solution based on 32-byte fixed-point DSP for power
application system, which is designed and developed for
power monitoring on the basis of TMS320F2812 [7].
The DSP system is used for filtering and demodulating the
input signal in this paper. Its basic flow chart is also given in
Fig. 5.
Low-Pass
Output
Filter tion Filter
Fig. 5. Basic flow chart of DSP system
In the signal processing, the input signal accesses the
system by AD sampling firstly. The input signal includes
photoelectric converted signal and demodulation signal. The
demodulation signal is generated by the signal source circuit in
order to correspond to the modulation signal. Then, IIR band­
pass filter is used for digital filtering in the system. By
correlation operation the filtered signal is demodulated.
Furthermore, with IIR low-pass filtering, the calculated signal
outputs through the DA chip. The main program block
diagram of signal processing shows as Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Main program block diagram of signal processing
VII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
A. Optical Source Experiment
The optical signal generated by the AC modulated optical
source is sent to the data acquisition card after photoelectric
conversion. The signal is analyzed with data acquisition intensity and meets the requirements of the DC optical current
program based on LabVIEW. transformer measurement system.
As the noise of the photodetector is mainly low frequency
B. DC Optical Current Transformer Measurement System
noise which is below 1 KHz [8],[9],[lO], we selects f = 4 KHz
Experimental Test
as the modulation frequency to avoid the effect of the noise.
The basic waveform of the AC modulated optical source is The wiring diagram of complete DC optical current
transformer measurement system is shown in Fig. lO.
shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8:
Output (V)

DC Voltage Source : ocr

2. TSL6-, I
6. 3�1!:1"(I 6.339[1-6 6. m:ue. 9
6. 33 !�
LabVIEW Program on PC
Tbne (5)
Fig. 10. Wiring diagram of DC optical current transformer measurement
Fig. 7. Unfiltered output of the photodetector
system

Ou�u�
t 00� __ �__�______________ __ SI�vo�"�.o �o I���ID I
�:; n n n n A n A A n With the DSP processing, the signal which is converted by
3.55-: photodetector is acquired by LabVIEW program.

From (9), it can be concluded that �uoMi and -uoMi is

2

constant. So let b = �uoMi and k =-uoMi . Thus, the input-

2
output relationship of the measurement system is as follows:
V(t)=Ki+b (lO)
3 �]. V---,,--..:...
V V V _V_V _V
I-'- ___ _ _
"---J where K and b is constant. With the system output and the
Tbne (s) equation above, the current to be measured can be determined.
With experiments of different current to be measured, the
Fig. 8. Filtered output of the photodetector input-output curve is obtained in Fig. 11.
Output {V}

The two figures shows that the designed optical source is

able to generate AC modulated optical signal.
The peak. voltage of the signal is as follows:
Peak Output Voltaa;e (V)

oc""

O �O�-+'.O' -- �O�' ��O�.

-- -- 7."��O�6 -- �"��O�' --��
CWTent(A)

Fig. 11. Input-output relationship curve

Time(s)
It can be concluded from Fig. 11 that K=O.OOI and
Fig. 9. Peak output voltage of the photodetector b=0.02859. Then, there is:
The figure indicates that the peak voltage variations is V(t)= 0.001 * i + 0.02859 (11)
about lower than lO mV and the change rate of the signal is Subsequently experiments of current change are used to test
lower than 2%. Therefore, it can be concluded that the AC the measurement system. When the current is changed from 0
modulated optical source can steadily generate AC light A to 0.5 A, with analysis of the output, the current measured
value is shown in the table.
 [9] Chen Jiagui. Weak signal detection. Central TV University Publishing
TABLE I House, 1987.
MEASURED VALUE AND THEORETICALVALUE OF CURRENT TO BE MEASURED [10] Gao Jinzhan. Weak signal detection. Tsinghua Publishing House, 2004.

Measured Value (A) Theoretical Value (A)

o o X. BIOGRAPHIES
0.4999 0.05 Liu Jun was born in 1971, received her B. S., M.S. degree from Northeast
0.0998 0.10 Dianli University, and Ph.D. degree from School of Electric and Electronic
0.1500 0.15 Engineering, North China Electric Power University, China. She is an
0.2002 0.20 associate professor of School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North
0.2500 0.25 China Electric Power University, China. Her main research areas are
0.2999 0.30 informatization, automation and optimization of power system, stability
0.3500 0.35 analysis and control for power system and optical measurement technique.
0.3998 0.40 Meng Lu was born in 1984, received his B. S. degree from Zhengzhou
0.4511 0.45 University, China, and currently studies in School of Electric and Electronic
0.4999 0.5 Engineering, North China Electric Power University for his M.S. degree. His
It can be concluded from the table that the designed main research areas are stability analysis and control for power system and
optical measurement technique.
Faraday DC optical current transformer measurement is able to
Ji Yaoyao was born in 1984, received his B. S. degree from China
overcome the noise effect and accurately determine the DC University of Mining and Technology, China, and currently studies in School
current. Furthermore, the Faraday magneto-optical effect DC of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power
optical sensing method based on modulation and demodulation University for his M. S. degree. His main research areas are stability analysis
and control for power system and optical measurement technique.
is also proved by experiments.
Li Yansong was born in 1970, received his B. S. , M. S. and Ph. D.
degree from School of Electric and Electronic Engineering, North China
VIII. CONCLUSION AND PROSPECT Electric Power University, China, and currently is an associate professor of
this University. His main research areas are informatization, automation and
The Faraday magneto-optical effect DC optical sensing optimization of power system, stability analysis and control for power system
method based on modulation and demodulation is presented in and optical measurement technique.
this paper. Furthermore, on this base, a new Faraday effect DC Wang Qian was born in 1985, received her B. S. degree from Zhengzhou
University, China, and currently studies in School of Electric and Electronic
optical current transformer measurement system is designed. Engineering, North China Electric Power University for her M. S. degree. Her
Then, the AC modulated optical source is mainly designed. main research areas are transmission and distribution for power system and
With DSP technology, the paper designs the signal optical measurement technique.

demodulation method. Besides, the optical source and

measurement system is tested by experimental tests. The result
verifies that the optical source and the measurement satisfy the
requirements of DC measurement. In the future, the DC optical
current transformer should be tested by more experiments on
stability and measurement accuracy.

IX. REFERENCES

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