Distortion-free measurement of high impulse voltages

It is shown that every high voltage divider has a limited bandwidth of some MHz, resulting in a limitation for the measurement of front oscillations or front-chopped lightning impulse voltages. It is pointed out that a voltage divider can be easily calibrated and can be constructed to prevent EMC-problems during impulse voltage measurement. Using a spherical electric field sensor with optoelectronic data transmission, a voltage measurement system with an upper bandwidth of 25 MHz has been constructed. The advantage of this system is the distortion-free measurement of all impulse test voltages in any circuit. After a short review of the principle and characteristics of the sensor, some practical applications are highlighted, showing that it can improve high-voltage measurement