generation (dielectric breakdown o f the medium surrounding Feed back a n d Contact I nformati o n

a conductor) and arc flashovers, radio-channel effects from

authors next detail the RF tag sensor and test bed operating at
these sources, and the use of SF6 gas in this environment. The
5 . 8 GHz, with measurements of corona noise effects, transient
noise from arc-flashover effects, and the effect of an arc in the
Any questions or feedback may be forwarded to Stephen
Schneider at stephen.schneider@wpafb.af.mil or to Jeff Kemp
at jeff.kemp@gtri.gatech.edu. If you wish to reference other
previous AMTA publications, AMTA members can do so

and design rules for the RF sensors from these measurements

presence of SF6 gas. The measurement results are presented, through our online archive at http ://www.amta.org. If you are
not a member, $50.00 and a few mouse clicks will get you
are suggested. Once again, measured data rules ! We hope you registered as a member today! We are both open to feedback.
enjoy this AMTA comer, and continue to have a great summer. Until next time !

H i g h -Vo ltage-E nvi ro n ment Backscatter­

C h a n n e l Meas u reme nts at 5 . 8 G Hz

Christopher R. Va/enta1, Patrick A. Graf', Matthew S. Trotter1, Gregory A. K001,

Gregory D. Durgin1, William G. Daly2, and Bradley J. Schafer

1 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Georgia I nstitute of Tech nology
777 Atlantic Dr. , Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0250 USA
E-ma i l : cvalenta3@gatech . ed u , pg raf3@gatech . ed u , mtrotter@gatech . ed u , g ko03@gatech . ed u , d u rg i n @ece . gatech .
ed u

2Gwi nett County Georgia School System

50 Taylor Road , Suwanee, Georgia 30024 U SA
E-ma i l : William_Daly@Gwi n nett.k1 2 . g a . us

3Southern States, LLC

30 Georgia Ave . , Hampton , Georgia 30228 U SA
E-mail : b.schafer@southernstatesllc.com

Abstract

This study characterizes 5 . 8 GHz backscatter rad io l i n ks in a transient, hig h-voltage power l i n e environ ment. The
measu red res ults demonstrate how an i ncreased RF carrier frequency provides additional resistance to the noise,
i nterference, and added corona shielding of comm u n i cation a ntennas that operate near high-voltage l i nes. The resu lts
lead to important design ru les for low-power wireless-sensor applications deployed in the futu re smart g rid .

Keywords: E lectromag netic testi ng ; measurement; m icrowave ; noise; RF I D ; corona

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 1 . I ntrod u ction

I
t has been known for years that high-voltage transmission

providing an extra challenge for radio-frequency (RF) system

systems produce above-average levels of radio interference,

designers [ 1 ] . These links must be resilient in the harsh envi­

ronment of power systems with charged particles and impulsive
noise in order to provide efficient communication. For instance,
Wang et al. [2] measured the performance of an 802. 1 1 b link
in a high-voltage environment, and determined that the link's
data rate was reduced 80% by the electromagnetic interference
generated by the breakdown of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas,
a common dielectric for high-voltage applications. Due to this
unreliability and the short lifetimes associated with sensor
power supplies, these types of systems have been largely
Figure 1. A photo of high-voltage switches for capacitor
avoided by the power industry.
banks at a wind farm in Illinois. Due to the constantly
changing power factor that results from the use of wind
The benefits of using radio links in high-voltage environ­
turbines, capacitors must be switched into and out of the
ments are pivotal to the successful implementation of a "smart
grid to cancel the effects of reactive power on the lines.
power grid" [3, 4] . The principle motivating application for the
link study in this paper was remote fault detection at power
substations. For example, capacitor banks at wind farms, such as
shown in Figure 1 , are dynamically switched in order to balance This work appeared in part in the IEEE Sensors 20 1 0
the ever-changing power factor: a scenario that requires careful Conference in Waikoloa, Hawaii, and in the AMTA 20 1 0
equipment monitoring and sensing. Outfitting these substations Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia.
with a 5 . 8 GHz backscatter radio current-sensing system would
provide the information necessary to efficiently and effectively
manage the power factor with robust, battery-less radio sensors 2 . Descri ptio n of H i g h -Vo ltage Enviro n ment
[5] .

iors that affect physical-layer RF channels, many of which

The high-voltage environment exhibits several key behav­
Remote fault detection is also pivotal in avoiding catastro­
phic substation failures. These failures, possibly resulting
differ from conventional wireless systems. These attributes
in fires and explosions, can be caused by sudden equipment
include additional corona noise, thermal noise, impulsive
malfunctions, switching transients, and lightning strikes [6] .
noise, and plasma shielding on line-potential antennas. These
Wired monitoring solutions are difficult and unsafe across
attributes result from the characteristics of the strong electric
the high-voltage insulation gap, due to dielectric break­
fields that build up around high-voltage power lines. Corona
down. Current transformer (CT) tanks that perform a wired
generation and arc flashovers, both impulsive and steady-state,
measurement of high-voltage lines inside an insulating oil tank
may also be present in this type of environment. Collectively,
are expensive, and themselves present a failure point and fire
these physical effects lead to channels that are far more data­
hazard. 5 . 8 GHz backscatter is well suited for this high-volt­
hostile than conventional wireless links.
age environment because it is extremely low power (providing
instant tum-on, which is required for fault detection), operates
at a high frequency (is resistant to corona shielding), and is
secure (short-range, difficult to j am/spoof/intercept). 2 . 1 Rad io-Interferen ce Sou rces

Reliable radio links along with low-power sensors would
allow real-time monitoring of a variety of power-line condi­
tions, including fault detection, temperature, and line sag. Sen­
sors using backscatter radio, particularly at 5 . 8 GHz, allow
many of the aforementioned problems to be avoided [7] .
This paper first presents background on the radio interference
Corona describes the particle or dielectric breakdown of
the medium surrounding a conductor, usually air or SF6. It
begins in areas of high electric-field gradients, such as sharp
points, comers, wires, and water droplets. Corona generation
occurs when the electric-field intensity exceeds that of the
dielectric strength of the surrounding material.

description of the RF test bed is then discussed. Measurements

of high-voltage environments, and SF6 gas, in particular. A
Two types of corona are possible, but similarly affect the
of the radio interference of corona and time-dependent flash­ radio link. Around the cathode (negative corona), freed elec­

lowing sections. An RF interference measurement of a faulty

overs on a 5 . 8 GHz backscatter link are presented in the fol­ trons create secondary avalanches of additional electrons,
which are generated as a result of the photoelectric effect

of design rules for backscatter sensors or RF devices operating

switch placed in an SF6 container is then shown. Finally, a list from the cathode. This process will continue if the voltage is
maintained, until it reaches a steady state of ion formation and
in high-voltage environments is presented. recombination. Around the anode (positive corona), corona

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 occurs due to the same process, but the secondary avalanche is Ie = J80.5 N Max . (1)
generated by the gas surrounding the plasma, and not the anode
itself [8] . The ion clouds are conductive and will produce radio
The use o f higher microwave frequencies i s particularly effec­

RF interference across all bands, and potentially leading to

interference upon charge recombination, sputtering broadband
upper-limit thresholds of charge density that can shield the RF
tive at penetrating into these plasmas, although there are still

plasma shielding of entire devices of any material and their

tag from communications.
antennas. Other potential effects of corona include generation of
visual light, audible noise, energy loss, mechanical vibrations,
and chemical reactions (ozone and nitrogen oxide generation)
[9] . 2 . 3 Use of S F 6 Gas

Arc flashovers result from short circuits that are character­

The first industrial use of SF6 gas for power switching
ized by large amounts of current, bright sparks, and loud noises.
was performed by Westinghouse in the early 1 950s [ 1 5] . SF6
Large electric fields between conductors will cause dielectric
gas was identified as having excellent thermal and dielectric
breakdown, resulting in an arc. While natural lightning
properties, which helped to overcome the technical challenges
discharges last on the order of 1 00 IlS and have currents up to
of extinguishing high-voltage arcs. The high dielectric strength
400 kA, man-made sources may exist for shorter or indefinite
time periods, which may affect RF communication [6] . It has
allows smaller gaps between high-voltage components,
reducing the overall size and weight of devices. The thermal
been shown by Skomal, Betz, et al. [ 1 0, 1 1 ] that lightning
properties of SF6 allow the gas to better cool arcs during
and man-made sparks produce electromagnetic signals rich
switching operations. While the choice of this gas helps to
in spectral content. However, the most important factor in
improve equipment performance, these qualities also cause
determining the contribution of this contact to radio interference
shorter arc-transition times (on the order of nanoseconds),
is the arc 's transition time. The shorter the time, the wider range
which produce higher-frequency electromagnetic emissions.
of frequency content that will be generated [ 1 2] .
Therefore, devices that use this dielectric may potentially gen­
erate more harmful, high-frequency radio interference than
devices that use air gaps.
2 . 2 Rad io C h a n n e l Effects

Corona and arc-flashover events add both broadband and

impulsive noise, which result from the time-dependent transi­ 3 . M i crowave 5.8 GHz Test Bed and RF Tag
tion times of the positive and negative corona and the flash­
over discharge time [ 1 2] . While the majority of spectral energy The 5 . 8 GHz test bed consisted of a transceiver in a bi­
for these pulses exists at frequencies below 200 kHz, there static antenna arrangement, shown in Figure 2; a signal gen­
are significant contributions through the hundreds of MHz, erator; and a PC used for sampling and data processing. The
as measured by [ 1 3] . As expected and measured by Sporn system was assembled as shown in Figure 3 [ 1 6] . The direct­
and Monteith [ 1 ] , this energy is directly proportional to line conversion receiver operated in the range of 5725-5 850 MHz
voltage. Moreover, the energy at high frequencies is inversely in the ISM band. It converted the in-phase and quadrature
proportional to the transition time. Therefore, a 5 . 8 GHz system elements of the received signal to dc, where it was sampled
should experience reduced effects from time-dependent noise by an analog-to-digital converter and processed [ 1 7] . A signal
sources. generator was used to produce the 5 .79 GHz carrier wave for
the transmitted signal, and this also provided a frequency ref­
When in direct proximity to the corona source, a phenome­ erence for the receiver down-conversion. The receiver also had
non known as plasma shielding may occur. At high voltages,
the air around the conductor becomes plasma. The volume of
this plasma is directly proportional to the line voltage, and is
dependent on the system's geometry [8] . The electrons in this
cloud create a conductive medium that prohibits wave
propagation beneath a certain cutoff frequency [ 1 3] . The
communication failure can be attributed to the large electron
density in the proximity of the corona source: these charge
clouds act as an invisible Faraday cage that surrounds a com­
municating antenna at line potential. This occurrence is the
same phenomenon that occurs when spacecraft reenter the
Earth's atmosphere. In this case, it is the intense heat of reentry
that forms electrical plasma around the spacecraft, which
effectively shields all radio communication below a certain
frequency. This critical frequency ( Ie
in Hz) is related to the
Figure 2. A photo of the 5.8 GHz transceiver with internal
boards connected. The direct-conversion receiver used two,
number of electrons per cubic meter ( NMax ), and is given by four-layer FR-4 printed-circuit boards, an RF front-end,
[ 1 4] and a baseband amplification board [16].

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 pin header to a USB cable. This spread-spectrum sequence
TX
allowed the communication system to spread its frequency
content along a range of frequencies, making it less prone to
interference and narrowband jamming. To reclaim the tag's
DC Power data, the receiver performed a cross-correlation of the down­
Supply converted received signal with an identical, locally generated
BBI2 BBQ I
CPU B BQ2 BBI I pseudorandom sequence. This cross-correlated data was then
'-------l Gain normalized with the auto-correlated, locally generated pseudo­
A.,1-------1 BBlout RFin 1------'
A, BBQout LOin 1------,
random sequence. Th,e normalized data was then time-aver­
Aux aged 1 6 times to pr&1uce a reliable complex channel coetJi­
Receiver 2 cient that measured signal levels on the in-phase and quadra­
Power
ture backscatter components. This measurement technique was
Sig. Gen. 3 dB
j= 80 MHz discussed exhaustively by Griffin in [ 1 6] .

The pseudorandom sequence was generated o n the RF

Figure 3. A block diagram o f the 5 . 8 GHz communication
system in the bi-static antenna configuration. BBI and
BBQ represent the baseband in-phase (BBI) and quadra­
ture (BBQ) signals, respectively. BBI and BB2 connect two
internal boards in the receiver.
tag by using a Microchip PIC microcontroller (PIC 1 8F2520).
This microcontroller allowed for clock speeds up to 40 MHz
and microwatt operation [ 1 7] . The 3 1 -bit sequence was gener­
ated by using a five-bit shift register clocked at 4 MHz. The
outputs of the second and fifth registers were XOR-ed together,
and fed into the input of the first register, in order to generate
this sequence. As shown in Figure 5, this microcontroller was
connected to a microwave gallium arsenide, pseudomorphic,

Com MASW-00n07 V2). This switch allowed the RF tag to

high-electron-mobility transistor (PHEMT) switch (M/A­

change the 5 .79 GHz patch antenna's load between an open and
short-circuited state. These opposite impedances were chosen
to modulate the incoming signal with maximum backscatter
power.

4. Coro n a Meas u rements

4 . 1 Experi me nta l Des i g n

To measure the effects o f corona noise on backscatter

Figure 4. A photo of the 5.8 GHz RF tag. The RF tag was
printed on a two-layer FR-4 PCB, and contained a 5.8 GHz
slot antenna, a switching transistor to change the antenna's
impedance between and open- and short-circuit antenna
loads, and a microcontroller to produce the pseudorandom
sequence.
communication, the channel coefficient of a 5 . 8 GHz back­
scatter communication system was measured for various volt­
age levels. This channel coefficient described how a signal's
amplitude and phase were affected by the operating environ­
ment. The channel coefficient was also proportional to the
signal power, which, in tum, gave path loss.

the capability of providing an automatic gain control. This gain S i n g l e A n t e n n a Ta g

y
r . .. . .. - - - .. . - .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. - .. .. .
was controlled by a PC, which used an algorithm to adjust the •. - .. ... .. .. . ..

5.79 GHz •
I
dc offset of the receiver. •
H a lfw a v e M i c ro c o nt ro l l e r
: SI,
The RF tag in Figure 4, made from two-layer FR-4 printed
n=
c n=
a==:=J

circuit board, was capable of being reprogrammed to transmit Open

any variety of digital signal code, and modified to accept any •
�I---O Ci rc u it
number of external sensor inputs. These signals could then be
backscattered back to the receiver for processing. A three-volt
coin-cell battery powered the tag's electronics, but did not
contribute to the tag's data transmission.
r
C PW Tra n sm i ssi o n
�
I

For these measurements, the RF tag repeated a 500 kHz

a n d M atch i n g S e cti o n
_ . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _ . .

pseudorandom (PN) sequence with a length of 3 1 bits. This Figure 5. The circuit diagram of the 5.8 GHz RF tag,
sequence was programmed in the C language via a six- modified from [17].

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 A high-voltage production test set, which used a trans­
-OOr-----�--�--�
former to create high ac voltage, was used to generate voltages
from 0 V to 250 kV rms line-to-ground (0 V to 425 kV rms

wi
line-to-line) along a 1 6-gauge aluminum wire, which acted
as the corona source. Corona is generated at points at which -95 o t ag n

the voltage gradient is the greatest. This very thin wire thus • wi l ag ofT
represented a worst-case scenario for the occurrence of corona.
Commercial power lines would never be this small, so the j . (] r

corona generated by this wire at these voltages was more dis­ n

ruptive than that of any power line at similar voltages.
0.-

A semi-passive RF tag was placed on a movable platform - 1 05

•
near the corona source, as seen in Figure 6. This tag was moved
linearly so that space averaging could be performed. This action •
ensured that multipath interference effects were minimized -1 1 �OO 200 250
Itage ( k )
1 50
while still allowing corona to exist in the proximity of the tag.
• r n f! \.

Figure 7. The corona effects on the signal power, including

4.2 Cal i b rati on the noise floor and ideal values, and curve fits. "wi tag on"
refers to data taken when the RF tag was functional and
corona was present. "wi tag oW' refers to data taken when
A calibration procedure was followed to ensure that the
recorded data could be normalized to a known set. A step the RF tag was not functional and only corona was present.
attenuator was placed in series with the receiving antenna and
the receiver to simulate signal attenuation. With the high volt­
age turned off and the tag repeating its pseudorandom code,
the channel coefficient was measured for various values of
attenuation. Using this data, it could be determined what the
"optimal" conditions were, and where the noise floor existed.
This data could then be compared with data from the corona
tests to see if there were any deviations.

4 . 3 Meas u red Res u lts

It was discovered that a backscatter link at 5 . 8 GHz was

largely resistant to the effects of corona noise at a distance
of approximately 1 40 cm. As shown in Figure 7, the signal

6L cm

R F Ta g Figure 8. A photo of positioning the tag 10 cm from the

E E corona source (the tip of the wire). This wire was then
u u
0 0 attached to the high-voltage production set. The tag was
'<t '<t
r-I r-I attached to a wooden pole using electrical tape.
�

power was unaffected by the presence of corona noise. One

480 e m can see that the signal power remained above the noise floor
caused by the corona noise for all voltages up to 250 kV rms
line-to-ground (425 kV rms line-to-line). In fact, channel lev­
els remained relatively unchanged from ideal levels while in
the presence of corona. The small variations, on the order of
2-3 dB in the power, could be attributed to thermal noise and
measurement error.

power with the RF tag in the absence of corona. Likewise,

Figure 6 . A diagram o f the corona-noise-measurement test Ideal values were calculated by measuring the signal
setup. The tag was positioned on a moveable ceramic plat­
form near the corona source, so that space averaging could background noise was measured in the absence of corona and
be used to reduce multipath. the forward-transmitted signal.

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link at distance of 1 40 cm to a corona source, the RF tag was
After seeing the resistance of a 5 . 8 GHz backscatter radio
moved 1 0 cm away from the corona source, as shown in Fig­
ure 8. In this case, the backscattered signal should have been
affected more by the corona noise. The same testing procedure
as previously discussed was repeated.
above the noise floor, so communication was still possible. As
the voltage continued to increase, the corona charge density
increased as well, until it effectively shielded communication
at values above 1 50 kV rms line-to-ground (25 5 kV rms line­
to-line).

In this case, the backscatter link failed above 1 50 kV rms 5. Tra n s ie n t N o ise Meas u rements
line-to-ground (25 5 kV rms line-to-line), as shown in Figure 9 .
A t 50 kV rms line-to-ground (85 kV rms line-to-line), the
5 . 1 Experi menta l Des i g n
link remained unchanged from the ideal case. However, when
voltage was increased to 1 00 kV rms line-to-ground ( 1 70 kV rms
line-to-line), the signal power decreased by 5 dB, but remained The purpose o f the transient-flashover "lightning" test was
to determine whether 5 . 8 GHz backscatter radio communication
was possible in the presence of transient-flashover arcs. A
Marx generator was used to generate a high voltage that would
flash over between two conducting rods. The Marx generator
accomplished this task by charging several stages of capacitors
-10 from a common, constant-voltage source. The maximum output
voltage of the device was then approximately equal to the
product of the number of stages and the voltage charged per
E -104 stage. When all capacitors were charged, a controllable spark
CO gap created a new low-impedance path for the circuit, in which
a
v
....... - 1 06
:...
all capacitors could discharge [ 1 9] .

ce:; - 1 08 In our case, the low-impedance path included an air

gap between two metal rods, as seen in Figure 1 0. When the
-1 10 circuit discharged, an arc would thus be created between
the two metal rods. The Marx generator used 1 1 stages with
-1 1 2 capacitor values that were nominally 0.6 J1F and rated at 75 kV
These capacitors were charged until the output voltage was
-1 1 �0 1 00 1 50
Itage (k \I)
200 2 50 approximately 3 1 0 kV line-to-ground.
'oro n a V
The transmitting and receiving antennas were connected
Figure 9. Close-range corona effects on signal power. Note to a digital oscilloscope, the trigger of which was attached to
how with increasing voltage, the signal power decreased, the Marx generator. Therefore, only the instance of the arc
corresponding to a negative effect on the communication discharging was recorded.
between the tag and the receiver.

5 . 2 Meas u red Res ults

E Before testing the tag's functionality, it was of interest

u
U"l
to see how the lightning waveform appeared on the vertically
H i g h Vo l t a g e N polarized receiving patch antenna. That had localized frequency
..--i

89 em reception at 5 . 79 GHz, compared with a three-meter-Iong,

horizontally polarized wire antenna. Broadband radiation from
sparking is sufficiently depolarized, so the antenna orientation
E should have made little difference. The time-domain plot of the
u
o
received waveforms as measured at the antenna terminals with
(Y) G ro u n d
..--i
an oscilloscope for the patch and wire antennas can be seen in
Figures 1 1 and 1 2 , respectively.

The patch antenna waveform had a peak power 28.5 dB

123 em
* Fi g u re n o t t o sea l e less than the wire antenna at 5 . 8 GHz. This narrowband patch
antenna thus more effectively filtered the noise power of a
Figure 10. A diagram o f the spark gap setup relative to lightning strike, the spectral content of which was greater at
the transmitting and receiving antennas. All devices were low frequencies. Therefore, the radio design, which was built to
placed on a large metal ground plane that was attached to operate at 5 . 8 GHz, strongly mitigated the effects of lightning,
the quasi-shielded room's ground. which might otherwise be seen at lower frequencies. Also, the

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 the tag was undamaged, and continued to function and transmit
its pseudorandom sequence.

Since the lack of shielding caused the tag to reset, rudi­

mentary shielding was constructed using aluminum foil, and the
test was run once again. This time the tag functioned throughout
the strike, although the transient noise was still visibly present.

For the lightning test, another interesting parameter to

address was the rms delay spread of the environment. The
rms delay spread describes the time-domain dispersion due
to reflections in the environment [20] . In short, this parameter

o , �--.---�----�--��

o 2 4 6 8 10
Tim (s) o

Figure 11. The time-domain transient of the spark, as seen

by the vertically polarized 5.79 GHz patch antenna.

20

� 11..1,�
'I"

If' � �--�--������--����--����
o 0 01 0 02 0 03
Tim {s}
0 06 0 07

Figure 13. A transient view o f the received unshielded tag

waveform as seen by the vertically polarized 5.79 GHz
patch antenna. The flashover occurred at time zero, and
caused the tag to reset (low-magnitude voltage), remaining
-40
off until 65 ms later, when the pseudorandom sequence
-1 -O. S 0 O. S 1 1 .S 2 2S 3 3 S 4 resumed (high-magnitude voltage).
Time (s) X 1 0-'

Figure 12. The time-domain transient of the spark, as seen

by the horizontally polarized wire antenna. Note how the
voltage levels were significantly higher than those received os

by the 5.79 GHz patch antenna.

:g
'---' 0
L . .i..t. .l t.u.. J.. I ......
" --.. ...... �.
� r- 'J .,..
noise had duration of less than 1 /J.S, meaning that the effect on
Z
data transmission and bit loss would be minimal (providing the .=
�s
chip time was sufficiently low)_ Ec
�

-1

signal, the RF tag was activated, and the effects of a lightning

Finally, after analyzing the system without an active tag

strike on the tag were witnessed_ As can be seen in Figure 1 3 ,

the strike caused the tag to reset, and it stopped broadcasting -1 S
-4

Time ( . )
·2 0 2 4 6 8 10
its pseudorandom sequence for approximately 65 ms_ How­
x o�
ever, it is important to note that the tag reactivated itself and
continued broadcasting after the interference signal dissipated_ Figure 14. The time-domain transient of the received
This outcome was similar to the effects on Wi-Fi radios seen shielded tag waveform (discharge through SF6) as seen by
in [2] . This reaction showed that due to the early stage of pro­ the 5.79 GHz patch antenna. The pseudorandom sequence

was able to reset the microcontroller on the RF tag_ However,

totype development and lack of proper shielding, the lightning was also interrupted in this case, due to the lack of adequate
shielding on the RF tag.

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 can be used to determine the maximum interference time a
lightning strike could affect the data signal. For this calcula­
tion, two different sets of measured data were used: data from a
lightning strike as measured at the output of the receiving patch
antenna, and data from a lightning strike as measured at the
output of the 5 . 8 GHz receiver.
The delay spreads calculated from these two sets of data
were 1 . 1 7 �s (as seen by at the antenna output) and 3 . 83 �s (as
seen by the receiver output). The receiver output had a slightly
higher delay spread than the antenna because it performed
low-pass filtering, which provided smoothing and stretched
out the delay. However, both delay spreads were extremely
short, and would cause minimal data distortions if the digital
symbol periods of backscatter signaling were kept greater than
or equal to these delay spreads. Also, it should be noted that
these delay spreads were a worst-case representation, because
the test facility was essentially a Faraday cage, and reflections
were thus higher than in an outdoor line-of-sight (LOS) envi­
ronment. It was thus not expected that impulsive noise would
significantly hamper data transmission.
(500 MHz to 3 GHz) then measured the resulting spectral
content from a distance of 1 0 m. The gas pressure in the switch
was 3 5 5 . 7 kPa.
Spectral measurements were made with the switch con­
nected to and disconnected from the power supply, in order to
verify that the observed spectral content was from the switch
and not from background noise. These measurements were
taken by using a maximum hold function on the spectrum
analyzer for 20 s.
Measurements were taken over several different bands
(5 MHz to 50 MHz, 50 MHz to 250 MHz, 850 MHz to
900 MHz, and 1 GHz to 3 GHz). In the 850 MHz to 900 MHz
and 1 GHz to 3 GHz bands, no additional frequency content
was measured, other than expected GSM and Wi-Fi signals,
when the switch was closed. However, content was found in the
5 MHz to 50 MHz and 50 MHz to 250 MHz bands, as shown in
Figures 1 5 and 1 6.
Comparit;on of oi. ·e from 5 1 1Hz to 50MHz

6. SF6 Meas u rements

6 . 1 Test Bed Meas u rements at 5 . 8 GHz

To determine the effects of an SF6 arc on the 5.8 GHz

communication link, the same setup was used as for the tran­
sient-noise measurements. However, instead of an air gap
between two conductors, a pressurized cylinder of SF6 gas
containing a high-voltage switch was used. The time-domain
response of the system under these conditions can be seen in
Figure 1 4. As could be observed, the voltage spike was more
narrow in the time domain, compared to the discharge-through­ 45
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 50
air measurements. This impulsive signal contributed additional Frequency ( 1 Hz )
broadband content in the frequency domain, as illustrated by
the spectral measurements of the failed switch. Figure 15. The spectral content of the faulty switch in the
5 MHz to 50 MHz band.

6.2 S pectru m Meas u rements of Com parison of Noise fro m 50MHz to 250l\ I H z
-40
a Fau lty Switch

To assist in the determination of the effects of SF6 on

-45
1- Background

communication channels, spectrum measurements were per­ - 50

- S w i tch Closed
formed on a pressurized cylinder of SF6 gas containing a high­
voltage switch. This switch was known to disrupt cell-phone
communications near the substation containing the switch,
due to an internal fault. This fault caused internal, impulsive
sparking 1 20 times per second, during the sinusoidal peaks of

�
every ac cycle. To affect cell phone communications, the switch -65

���:
had to produce significant spectral content in the UHF bands, or
�l ��
,II �
had to radiate electromagnetic interference that could affect the - 70
base-station hardware. Therefore, it was of interest to determine � IYJ
the power spectrum of these contributions. -7 � 1 00 1 50 200 250
Freq uency ( 1 Hz )
The switch was connected to a high-voltage test produc­
tion set at 70 kV line-to-ground ( 1 1 9 kV line-to-line) at 60 Hz. Figure 1 6. The spectral content of the faulty switch in the
A spectrum analyzer using a broadband, biconical antenna 50 MHz to 250 MHz band.

238 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 5 3 , No. 4, August 20 1 1

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 The spectral content at these frequencies was consistent
with transition times on the order of 4 ns to 200 ns. These
results followed the claim that SF6 gas quenches arcs on the
order of nanoseconds.
7. Conclusion
The 5 . 8 GHz backscatter system worked well i n the high­
voltage power environment, revealing several interesting design
parameters for radio systems in this area. While the system was
not impervious to all corona and impulsive-noise conditions, it
was shown that through rudimentary hardware modifications
and communication-layer protocol implementations, these
problems could be overcome.
Based on the findings presented in this paper, as well as
other portions of the high-voltage microwave-link environment,
sensors and RF devices in general are suggested [2 1 ] :
the following design rules for designing microwave-backscatter
1. Keep digital symbols larger than 1 Il S and add for­
ward error correction or error detection to maintain
reliability during arc-over events. This will prevent
lightning and other arc-over events from causing
burst errors in the communication link.
2. Add low-pass filters with break points around
250 MHz to receiver antennas to filter out the bulk
of air-gap arc-over, SF6 spark noise, and broadband
corona noise.
3. Small, resonant antenna types with less than 3 %
bandwidth (such as the patch) are preferred for use
as transmitting, receiving, or backscatter antennas,
since they provide an extra level of filtering for the
broadband noise sources of the high-voltage envi­
ronment.
4. Extra shielding is needed around all
sensor and
RF devices - to keep impulsive noise from resetting
transceiver electronics - baseband circuits as well as
logic circuits and corrupting signal lines.
5. Higher carrier frequencies for in-line sensors should
be used as the line voltage increases, since higher
penetrate corona plasmas. The additional RF
UHF and microwave frequencies more effectively
noise due to corona also drops sharply at higher,
microwave frequencies.
6. Avoid sharp points and comers i n the design of
antennas and physical layout, to diminish the build­
up of additional corona.
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8 . Ack n owledgment
The authors would like to thank Rusty Ortkiese of South­
ern States, LLC, for his assistance with the high-voltage
measurements and insight into high-voltage environments. The
work reported in this paper was sponsored in part by Southern
States, LLC, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career
Grant #0546955 .
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