2011 1st International Conference on Electric Power Equipment Switching Technology Xian China

Development of an Exponential Tapered Impedance Transformer for UHF-PD Sensor

Chen ZHENG 1 and Tianhui LI 2
1

WANG Xiaohua, Xian Jiaotong University, China RONG Mingzhe, Xian Jiaotong University, China

Abstract- Among the methods used in partial discharge (PD) detection in GIS, ultra-high-frequency (UHF) method has gained broad acceptance and applications as an effective and efficient way to monitor PD, the key part of which is the sensor. Now the ultra wide band antenna has been usually used as the sensor for the broadband detection ranging from 300MHz to 3GHz. However, the impedance of the coaxial-cable, widely used in practical application, relatively differs from the broadband antennas, and that can result a bad impedance matching. To match the balance structure and the wideband character of the antenna, a kind of microstrip impedance transformer which is exponentially gradual type was designed in this paper, the parameters of which were defined through simulation. Optimization of the designed transformer has been done to make an easy package of the antenna and the transformer. The simulation results show that impedance matching in the ultra broadband range was achieved by the designed impedance transformer. The return loss was reduced and the sensitivity of the sensor increased simultaneously, thus the requirements of the on-line monitoring for the PD in GIS were better met.

PD Sensor

Bus bar

Fig.1 GIS Internal Structure

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the widely application of the GIS, the operational reliability of the GIS catches more and more attention. However, in the procedure of fabrication and assembling, some insulation defects, unavoidably, such as metal particles, fixed protuberance, floating potential and etc exist in the GIS, which always show a concealed feature, so it is not easy to detect the insulation defects by conventional methods [1]. Once the GIS with such defects is put into operation, the PD will probably happens, which is likely to leads an insulation accident in the long run [2]. Thus, it is of great significance to detect the insulation defects in the GIS. The pulsing signal created by the PD has a very short rising time, which contains ultra high frequency signal. The GIS can be considered as a coaxial waveguide with low loss, where the Electromagnetic wave has a very small attenuation, so we can use a UHF sensor to detect the electromagnetic wave which created by the PD in GIS (Fig. 1).

Frequency-independent antenna, such as plane equiangular spiral antenna, plane Archimedes spiral antenna and log-periodic dipole antenna, is always used as the UHF sensor placed in the GIS due to their ultra wideband feature. We chose the plane equiangular spiral antenna as the UHF sensor to detect the ultra high frequency signal in the GIS. According to the Babinet-Booker Theory, the input impedance of the infinite plane equiangular spiral antenna is 188.5. In fact, the size of antenna in practical application is not infinite, so the input impedance is about 140. However, the coaxial transmission line is 50, so we must use impedance transformer between the antenna and transmission line in order to avoid power loss brought by the sudden change of the impedance. II. PLANE EQUIANGULAR SPIRAL ANTENNA

The shape of the plane equiangular spiral antenna depends on the angle only. One of the conventional plane equiangular spiral antennas arm is formed by two equiangular spiral lines, and one equation of the spiral is given [3]: r = r0 e a (1) where r is the distance from any point at the spiral to the origin r0 is the distance from the initial point to the origin a is the tightness of the spiral line is the rotation angle Another spiral line can be obtained by rotating the

978-1-4577-1272-2/$26.00 2011 IEEE

383

former one degrees. When is 90, this kind of plane equiangular spiral antenna is called self-complementary structure. Plane equiangular spiral antenna is shown below (Fig.2):

III.

EXPONENTIAL-TAPERED TRANSMISSION LINES

A. Impedance Transformer Impedance transformer is placed between the antenna and the coaxial transmission line (Fig.5). In order to avoid power loss, the ideal impedance transformer should be lossless, which is always designed that the impedance is Z0 when we see it from the matched network. Fig.3 shows that the impedance was about 135 between 0.5GHz and 3GHz, but if we use a coaxial transmission line with the impedance 50, an impedance transformer should be placed between them.

Fig.2 Equiangular Spiral Antenna

The lower limit of antennas working band is decided by the radius of antenna. To be exact, the radius of antenna is a quarter of the maximum wavelength of the working band, that is R=max/4. The initial distance r0 depends on the minimum wavelength, and the relation between r0 and min is r0 = min /8 [4]. We used Ansoft HFSS for the modeling and simulation. The result shows that the impedance of the antenna is about 135 (Fig.3) and the parameter S11 (Fig.4) is not below -10dB, which means that an impedance transformer should be placed between the antenna and the coaxial transmission lines in order to get a better electromagnetic signal receiving.

Fig.5 Impedance Matching

B. Tapered transmission Line Transformer 1. Theory of Tapered Transmission Lines Impedance matching in any bandwidth can be realized by multi-section transmission lines transformer. When the number of sections increases, the sudden change of impedance between each section will decrease. Thus, when the number of sections reaches infinite, the multi-section transmission transformer can be considered as a tapered transmission line. Although it is impossible to use infinite number of multi-section transformer, this method, which replaces the infinite number of multi-section transformer by the tapered transmission line, is available. An exponential-tapered transmission lines is used, the shape of which meets the function (Fig.6): (2) Z (z) = Z0eaz

Fig.3 Impedance Diagram

Fig.6 Tapered Transmission Line

Fig.4 S11 Parameter

According to the theory of small reflections, we can obtain the expression of the reflection coefficient below [5]:

384

 ( ) =

1 2

z=0

e 2 j z

d Z ln( ) dz dz Z0

(3)

where = 2l. From the expression (2) and (3), we obtained

An electronic design automation software system called ADS can be also used to calculate the width of the microstrip. We chose the micro strip with r = 2.65 mm and d = 1.5 mm. The calculation results are shown as follows (Tab.1): Tab.1 Calculation Results of Microstrips Width
Formula W1mm W2mm 0.510 4.098 ADS 0.457 4.039

( L) =

ln Z L / Z 0 jz sin L e L 2

(4)

From the Fig.7, we found that the peak value of the reflection coefficient || decreased when the length of tapered line increased. In order to avoid the unmatched phenomena at the low frequency, the length should be more than 1/2max (L>).
||

Fig.9 Exponential-tapered Transmission Line

0 2 3 4 5 6 L

Fig.7 Transformers Reflection Coefficient

We chose the length of transformer L=1/2 max and the connection of transformer and antenna is shown below (Fig.10).

2. Tapered Transmission Line Transformer Micro strip is a type of electrical transmission line which can be fabricated using printed circuit board technology, and is used to convey micro-frequency signals. Fig.8 shows two different types of micro strip. Fig.8.a shows a conducting strip separated from a ground plane by a dielectric layer known as the substrate (GND Structure), and Fig.8.b shows two conducting strip separated by the substrate (Symmetrical structure ).

Fig.10 Connection of Transformer and Antenna

a
Fig.8 Two Types of Microstrip

The simulation result (Fig.11) shows that S11 parameters using GND is much less than that using symmetrical structure, which means that the GND structures power loss is much smaller and it can better receive the electromagnetic wave. Moreover, it is much easier to fabricate the transformer with GND structure, so we chose the transformer with GND structure.

For given impedance Z0 and relative permittivity r, W/d can be calculated by the following formulas:
W 8e A = 2A d e 2 W/d < 2 (5)

1 W 2 0.61 = B 1 ln(2 B 1) + r [ln(B 1) + 0.39 ] r d 2 r

W/d > 2 (6)

where A = Z 0 60

r +1
2

r 1 0.11 (0.23 + ) r +1 r

Fig.11 S11 Parameters

377 B= 2Z 0 r

However, the size of sensor must be restricted by the GISs internal structure and it is difficult to adopt the impedance transformer with the length of 1/2 max. We

385

decreased the length of impedance transformer to 1/4 max. Fig.12 shows the result of simulation. We found that the unmatched phenomena happened at the low frequency and the bandwidth with the impedance in 1/4 max was narrower than that with the impedance in 1/2 max. However, S11 parameter is still below -10 dB ranging from 800 MHz to 3 GHz, so this optimization is acceptable.

IV.

CONCLUSION

This paper designed a type of UHF sensor used in GIS on PD detection. In order to get a better signal receiving, an impedance transformer must be placed between the plane equiangular spiral antenna and the coaxial transmission line. However, it is difficult to fix the conventional tapered transmission line as an impedance transformer in GIS due to the GISs internal structure. We optimized the size of the impedance transformer. The simulation results show that this optimization can meet not only the requirement of the GISs size restriction, but also of the electromagnetic wave receiving. REFERENCES
[1] Barnett R. Paul, Nelson Jeffrey H. "SF6 Gas Monitoring and Leakage detection in Gas Insulated Swichgear," 2010 International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Application, NewOrleans, 2010 A. Eriksson, Fellow K. G. Pettersson, A. Krenicky "Experience with gas insulated substation in the USA," IEEE Transaction on Power Delivery Vol.10, Jan 1995 Li Zhimin, Feng Yunping, "UHF Partial Discharge Monitoring in GIS and Signal Prrcessing," 1998 International Symposium on Electrical Insulating Materials, 1998 Changlu Lin, " Modern Antenna Design," 1990, pp. 356-360. David M. Pozer, "Microwave Engineerring," 2006, pp.220 pp. 123. Qin Yang, "Design of Plane Equiangle Spiral Antenna Based on EBG Structure," 2010.

[2] Fig.12 S11 Parameters [3]

In order to further decrease the size of UHF sensor, we changed the shape of the impedance transformer and put it horizontally (Fig.13) [6]. Because the length of the horizontal impedance transformer is 1/4 max, it doesnt increase the horizontal scale of the UHF sensor, and meanwhile, the whole vertical scale become much smaller so that it can better meet the requirement of the GISs internal structure.

[4] [5] [6]

E-mail of author: zhc.863@hotmail.com

Fig.13 Horizontal Impedance Transformer

The simulation result shows that S11 parameter is below -10 dB from 800 MHz to 3 GHz, so the UHF sensor can also meet the requirement of the electromagnetic wave receiving.

Fig.14 S11 Parameter

386