3316 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 66, NO.
12, DECEMBER 2017
Inversion Algorithm to Calculate Charge Density
on Solid Dielectric Surface Based on Surface
Potential Measurement
Boya Zhang, Wenqiang Gao, Zhe Qi, Qiang Wang, and Guixin Zhang
Abstract— Charge accumulation on a solid dielectric surface
is one of the critical concerns for the design and optimization of
the insulation system in a high-voltage power equipment, since it
will lead to the overstress of electrical insulation. Therefore, it is
important to obtain the charge density distribution on a solid
dielectric surface with high accuracy. The acquisition of surface
charge for insulators requires multipoint potential measurements
to establish the inverse calculation for the determination of an
unknown charge distribution. Up to now, extensive studies have
been conducted on this subject; nevertheless, the methods are
either too complicated and time consuming, or only applicable
for specific arrangements, or with poor accuracy. In this paper,
the problem is divided into two categories, i.e., shift-variant
system and shift-invariant system, and the basic principle of
an improved inversion algorithm is interpreted to solve the
problem. The 2-D Fourier transform and Wiener filter techniques
are employed in the algorithm for shift-invariant system thus
the relationship between potential and charge density can be
processed in spatial frequency domain, which tremendously
simplifies the conventional procedure. The accuracy and reso-
lution of the algorithm are discussed in detail with the aid of
numerical examples. In the end, experiments are conducted and
the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified.
Index Terms— 2-D fourier transform, inversion algorithm,
Kelvin probe, surface charge, surface potential, Wiener filter.
I. I NTRODUCTION
S OLID dielectrics are used as supports of stressed conduc-
tors in any high-voltage insulation system. In compressed
SF6 gas or vacuum insulation systems where high electric
field is involved, charge accumulation on solid dielectrics may
seriously influence surface discharge and insulation character-
istics, especially for dc equipment. These deposited charges
will, if of significant magnitude, lead to the overstress of
insulation due to local field distortion, and may eventually
Manuscript received February 9, 2017; revised May 8, 2017; accepted
July 3, 2017. Date of publication October 16, 2017; date of current version
November 8, 2017. This work was supported by the National Basic Research
Program of China under Grant 2014CB239502. The Associate Editor coordi-
nating the review process was Dr. Sasan Bakhtiari. (Corresponding author:
Guixin Zhang.)
B. Zhang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua
University, Beijing 100084, China, and also with the Institute of Materials
Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 USA.
W. Gao, Z. Qi, and G. Zhang are with the Department of Elec-
trical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail:
guixin@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn).
Q. Wang is with the School of Mechatronic Engineering, Beijing Institute
of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2017.2730981
0018-9456 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
initiate a flashover or breakdown [1], [2]. Therefore, it is
important to obtain the charge density on solid dielectric
surface with high accuracy.
Over the past decades, tremendous progress has been made
on this subject. The earliest method of evaluating surface
charge distribution is the so-called dust figure technique uti-
lized since the time of Lichtenberg [3]. This technique may
give a rough estimate of surface charge density and its polarity,
but it is impossible to get the density quantitatively. In the
late 1960s, electrostatic probes were gradually introduced
to measure the surface charge distribution as a noncontact
method [4], [5]. There are two types of electrostatic probes.
One is the capacitive probe which measures the induced
floating potential of a sensor electrode [6]. The sensor is
usually grounded through a known capacitance, while the
guard electrode is directly grounded in most cases. The other
one is the Kelvin probe [7], with a feedback loop that allows to
adjust the probe potential until it equals the value at the point
being measured. No matter what type of probe was used, it was
initially thought that a probe output corresponds uniquely to
the accumulated charge (density) facing the probe [4], [5].
Until 1976, the idea of a matrix relationship between probe
outputs and charge densities was reported for the first time
by Specht [8]. Since then, extensive debates have been held
in the 1980s about whether evaluation of charge densities on
a solid dielectric surface from surface potential measurement
was possible or not [9]–[12], finally reaching to a consen-
sus that accumulated charge could be in general determined
by multipoint measurements [6]. In other words, the output
potential of the probe is determined by all the deposited
charges on the measured object. Meanwhile, different inverse
calculation methods have also been developed to solve the
matrix relationship, including integral equation method [13],
charge simulation method [14], λ-function method [15], [16],
-function method [17], and some methods in [18] and [19].
However, the above methods are either too complicated and
time consuming or with poor accuracy. Because, on the one
hand, these methods try to solve the matrix relationship by
directly taking the inversion of the matrix, whose dimension
(N × N) corresponds to the measured points N. When the
measured object is large and the sampling density is high,
N can be such a huge number (for example, N = 65536
in [20]) that it becomes unpractical to use these methods, due
to the unacceptable computational time. On the other hand,
practically, noise is usually superimposed on the measured
ZHANG et al.: INVERSION ALGORITHM
Fig. 1. Schematic of the Kelvin probe and electrostatic voltmeter.
signal. The more data used in the calculation, the more
possibility the matrix will become ill posed, in which case,
the solution often makes no sense, including extremely large
errors. This paper, therefore, interprets the basic principle
of a latest inversion algorithm to solve the problem, which
borrows the concept of image restoration from the area of
imaging processing. The problem is divided into two cat-
egories, i.e., shift-variant system and shift-invariant system.
2-D Fourier transform (2D-FT) and Wiener filter techniques
are employed in the algorithm for shift-invariant system, which
was first proposed by Kumada and Okabe [21], thus the matrix
relationship can be processed in spatial frequency domain.
The amplitude-frequency characteristics of Wiener filter is
studied, which reveals that the Wiener filtering executes an
optimal tradeoff between inverse calculation and noise smooth-
ing. It also has a better compromise between computational
efficiency and quality of the restoration with respect to some
other inversion schemes. The accuracy and resolution of the
algorithm are discussed in detail with the aid of numerical
examples. In the end, experiments are conducted and the
effectiveness of the algorithm is verified.
II. BASIC P RINCIPLE OF M EASUREMENT
A. Kevin Probe
The Kelvin probe together with an electrostatic volt-
meter is the most widely used method for surface potential
measurement. The schematic of the system is shown in Fig. 1.
Assuming the sensor and the tested surface can be modeled as
a parallel-plate capacitor C. In this configuration, an electric
current I is being induced in the sinusoidally vibrating sensor.
This current can be expressed as [5]
 
dC d εS
I = U · = U ·
dt dt D0 + D1 · sin(ωt)
D1 ω cos(ωt)
= −U · εS · . (1)
[D0 + D1 · sin(ωt)]2
Here U is the potential difference between the vibrating sen-
sor and the tested surface; S is the surface area of the sensing
electrode; ε is the permittivity of the material between the
electrode and the tested surface; D0 is a constant representing
the separation between the sensor and the tested surface when
the sensor is not vibrating; and D1 and ω is the amplitude and
circular frequency of vibrations.
3317
The current signal I is amplified and demodulated by a
phase-sensitive demodulator to produce a voltage proportional
to the amplitude of I . The output of the integrator drives
a high-voltage amplifier circuit to replicate the voltage on
the tested surface. The amplified voltage is applied to the
probe thus nullifying the electric field between the tested
surface and the sensor. The current I vanishes if the probe
reaches the same potential as the tested surface potential,
which serves as the voltmeter’s output. This voltage-following
technique makes the measurement independent of the distance
D0 , at least within a certain range of D0 .
B. Multipoint Measurement Method
As mentioned in Section I, to obtain surface charge distri-
bution requires multipoint probe outputs to establish inverse
calculation. The probe output, therefore, corresponds to a lin-
ear superimposition of the effects of all the deposited charges
on the measured object. Suppose the entire measuring surface
is subdivided into N elements and each element j acquires a
charge density σ j . Then, the probe output ϕi obtained above
the center of the element i can be given by

N
ϕi = hi j · σ j . (2)
j =1
The above equation can be also expressed in matrix form,
that is
⎛ ⎞⎛ ⎞
h 11 · · · h 1N σ1
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟
ϕ = H · σ = ⎝ ... . . . ... ⎠ ⎝ ... ⎠ . (3)
h N1 · · · h N N σN
Here H is the transfer function matrix, in which the coef-
ficient h i j is the probe output at the point i caused by a unit
charge at the element j . Once the components in matrix H
are obtained, the electric charge density σ can be calculated
by solving the matrix-related formula.
Considering the spatial property of different measured
objects, the measuring system can be divided into two cat-
egories, shift-variant system and shift-invariant systems. In a
shift-invariant system, the relational function between a probe
output and a charge on the measured object is given as
a function of the relative position of the probe and the
charge [22]. For such a configuration, the relational matrix
3318 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 66, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2017
Fig. 2. Tested insulator and electrode arrangement.
Fig. 3. Schematic of the surface charge measuring platform.
equation (3) can be reexpressed as a convolution equation
so that it can be processed in spatial frequency domain
by 2D-FT. While for a shift-variant system, the relational
function differs for the measuring position, thus the data from
a spatial frequency domain cannot be used. In the following
two sections, the inversion algorithm for the two systems will
be interpreted in detail.
III. I NVERSION A LGORITHM FOR
S HIFT-VARIANT S YSTEMS
A. Measuring System
Cone-type insulators are widely used in gas-insulated equip-
ment. The charge accumulation phenomena on cone-type
insulators have attracted considerable attentions [14], [19],
[22]–[29]. Some researchers use practical cone-type insulators
for their studies [14], [19], [27]–[29], while some use trun-
cated cone insulator as a model of practical one [22]–[26].
These cone-shaped insulators are treated as “shift-variant”
system, where the transfer function matrix between a probe
output and a charge on the measured object is not given
as a function of the relative position of the probe and the
charge [22].
In this section, a downsized cone-type insulator is used for
the study. The insulator is made of epoxy resin with 100-mm
outer diameter, 12-mm inner diameter, and 17.5-mm height.
It is mounted between a grounded hollow cylindrical enclosure
and a central conductor, which forms a downsized model
of a gas-insulated transmission line (Fig. 2). The insulator
is stressed under continuous dc voltage in order to deposit
electric charges on its surface. For multipoint measurement,
a surface charge measuring platform is designed with a motion
control system, as shown in Fig. 3. After the removal of
dc voltage, the enclosure opens automatically and a motion
control system drives the Kelvin probe to scan along the slope
surface of the insulator within an exact separation of 2 mm.
The detail of this platform can be found in [25] and [30].
B. Transfer Function Matrix Components
After measuring the potential distribution on the insulator
surface, all the components in the transfer function matrix is
needed in order to solve (3). From (3), we can see that if
just one element in σ equals to 1 and others are set to zero,
i.e., just σi = 1, the obtained ϕ can be expressed as
ϕ N×1 = H iN×1 (4)
where the superscript i represents the i th column of matrix H.
Therefore, theoretically, the N 2 components of matrix H can
be obtained by numerical field computation for N times.
However, if high spatial resolution is required, the elements N
on the tested surface can be such a huge number that the
computation is very time consuming and even unachievable.
Nevertheless, for a rotational symmetric system,
the matrix H is proven to be a block circulant matrix,
which can be used to reduce the computation times
significantly. Take the cone-type insulator as an example.
Suppose the measured surface is divided into N elements,
N = r × d, where r is the number of cycles in radial direction
and d is the number of elements in each cycle. Then, H can
be reexpressed as
⎡ ⎤
H 11,d×d H 12,d×d · · · H 1r,d×d
⎢ H 21,d×d H 22,d×d · · · H 2r,d×d ⎥
⎢ ⎥
H N×N = ⎢ .. .. .. .. ⎥ (5)
⎣ . . . . ⎦
Hr1,d×d Hr2,d×d ··· H rr,d×d
where H 11 , H 12 , …H rr are the block matrixes of the matrix H
and each of the block matrix is a d × d dimensional circulant
matrix. A circulant matrix is a special matrix where each
row vector is rotated one element to the right relative to
the preceding row vector. Therefore, based on formula (5)
and the method described by formula (4), the numerical field
computation can be reduced to only r times.
As for this measuring system, the translation of the probe
and the rotation of the insulator are precisely controlled by
interpolation motion with 44 × 360 points, i.e., N = 15840,
r = 44, and d = 360. For sampling, the pitch in radial
direction is set to 1 mm, and the rotation pitch is set to 1°. For
accuracy, the electrostatic field computation is implemented
by a 1:1 scale model built in a finite-element software,
which consists of the gas insulated transmission line (GIL)
unit, surrounding gas, and the chamber. When conducting
the computation, take turns to set the surface density of
each element in radial direction equal to 1 C/m2 , and get
the surface potential values of all the elements after each
computation. After 44 times, all the components in matrix H
can be obtained.
C. Restoration by Regularization Technique
1) Ill-Posed Feature of the Transfer Function Matrix:
Obviously, once the matrix H is obtained, the surface charge
ZHANG et al.: INVERSION ALGORITHM
distribution can be calculated from measured surface potential,
that is
σ N×1 = H −1
N×N ϕ N×1 . (6)
However, the inverse calculation becomes instable when the
dimension of matrix H is so large that it probably becomes
ill posed. Assuming that the calculation error δH is added
to the transfer function matrix, and that the measurement
error δϕ is added to the measured value ϕ. Then formula (6) is
rewritten as
σ + δσ = (H + δH)−1 (ϕ + δϕ). (7)
The bound of perturbation δσ caused by δH and δϕ is
expressed as follows [31]:
 
δσ  δH δϕ HH −1 
≤κ + ,κ = . (8)
σ  H ϕ 1 − δHH −1 
Here the symbol || · || denotes the Euclidean norm for vectors
and the spectral norm for matrices. Equation (8) is obtained
under the following assumptions.
1) Assumption 1: m ≥ n = Rank(H).
2) Assumption 2: ||δH||||H−1 || < 1.
3) Assumption 3: Rank(H + δH) = Rank(H).
Here, m and n represent the number of measurement points
and unknowns, respectively. The ill-posed feature of transfer
function matrix H can be roughly evaluated by its condition
number, that is
Cond(H) = HH −1 . (9)
Application experience indicates that if 100 ≤ Cond(H) ≤
1000, the matrix H has ill-posed problem [32]. Since the
calculation error of H is not zero, ||δH||||H −1 || = 0. That is,
the bound of perturbation δσ of the estimated charge distrib-
ution σ caused by δH and δϕ is governed by a value κ larger
than the condition number of matrix H. In other words, even
though the measurement error of ϕ and the calculation error
of H are very small, the solution can diverge easily. Even
worse, the solution may become absolutely meaningless if the
condition number is too large, that is, if H is ill posed.
Therefore, it is important to build a well-posed transfer func-
tion matrix with a small condition number. However, there is
a limit on the improvement of the condition number. Because
noise is usually superimposed on the measured signal due to
multiple factors, such as deviation of the probe positioning,
inaccessible zones, and the influence of the probe geometry.
When actual insulator are measured with a large number of
measured points, ill-posed matrixes with a condition number
exceeding 100 or 1000 may well appear [18]. For example,
the condition number of matrix H in this study case is up to
648. In practice, the instability of the inverse calculation must
be reduced in some way in order to obtain a stable solution.
2) Wiener Filter Based on Tikhonov’s Regularization:
In this paper, a signal processing technique using a Wiener
filter is practically adopted for solving (3). The goal of a
Wiener filter is to compute a statistical estimate of an unknown
signal using a related signal as an input and filtering that
known signal to produce the estimate as an output [33].
3319
Fig. 4. Schematic of the image deterioration/restoration model.
It is based on Tikhonov’s regularization [34], in which a
regularization term for (3) can be included in this minimization
min : Hσ − ϕ2 + σ 2 . (10)
Here,  is called Tikhonov matrix. Based on this criterion,
an explicit solution, denoted by σ̂ , is given by
σ̂ = (H T H +  T )−1 H T ϕ. (11)
Usually, the matrix  is chosen as a multiple of the identity
matrix ( = αI), giving preference to solutions with smaller
norms [35]. Therefore, in our case, the estimated surface
charge density of σ is expressed as
σ̂ = (H T H + αI)−1 H T ϕ = Gϕ (12)
where α is the optimal Tikhonov parameter which can be
determined by the L-curve method [36] and other approaches.
From the viewpoint of digital image processing, the surface
potential measurement and the processing of the measured
signal by inverse calculation can be described by an image
deterioration/restoration model [22], [37], as shown in Fig. 4.
In the model, the expected surface charge density distribu-
tion σ is mapped to σ̂ , by measuring process H and restoration
process G as follows:
σ̂ = GHσ = (H T H + αI)−1 H T Hσ. (13)
One can prove that the directions of eigenvectors v1 − v N for
matrix H T H coincides with those for matrix GH. Therefore,
σ and σ̂ can be decomposed as

N 
N
σ = ki v i ; σ̂ = ki v i . (14)
i=1 i=1
Here ki and ki are coefficients with the relationship given by
λi
ki = ki (i = 1, 2, . . . , N ) (15)
λi + α
where λi is the eigenvalue corresponding to the
eigenvectors vi .
It is worth mentioning that most real-world phenomena,
which can be described as Ax = b, have the effect of low-
pass filters in the forward direction where A maps x to b.
Consequently, in solving the inverse problem, the inverse
mapping operates as a high-pass filter that has the undesirable
tendency of amplifying noise. In other words, eigenvalues and
singular values are largest in the reverse mapping while they
3320 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 66, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2017

Fig. 5. Estimated surface charge along the radial direction by inverse Fig. 6. Fourier transformation of the estimated surface charge distribution
calculation for a unit surface charge on r = 28 mm. and the cut-off frequency of the measurement system.

were smallest in the forward mapping. Backing to (15), we can

find that when λi is much larger than α, ki is approximately
close to ki ; when λi is much smaller than α, ki is approxi-
mately 0. Namely, the component ki ui , whose eigenvalue vi is
small, can be well attenuated by the mapping GH. Therefore,
the Tikhonov parameter α can be carefully chosen, in order to
suppress the tendency of amplifying noise and avoid excessive
filtering at the same time. Reference [22] gives a recommended
range of α, from 0.03% to 1% of the largest eigenvalue λmax
of the matrix H T H.
3) Spatial Resolution: In this section, the spatial resolu-
tion of the algorithm is discussed based on the concept of
point spread function (PSF). Generally, PSF is often used
in an imaging system and describes its response to a point
source or a point object. Obviously, for a point source, a better
image system outputs a more concentrated image. Therefore,
PSF can be adopted to evaluate the spatial resolution of an
imaging system.
Similarly, the real charge density σ and the estimated
charge density σ̂ can be treated as the “source” and “image,” Fig. 7. Accuracy analysis based on numerical simulation: example 1.
respectively. Their “imaging” relationship is governed by the (a) Original assumed surface charge distribution. (b) Calculated surface
potential distribution. (c) Estimated surface charge distribution when 0.1%
output transfer function GH. Suppose a unit charge density Gaussian noise is superimposed to the surface potential. (d) Estimated surface
(1 C/m2 ) is set on the ith element on the insulator surface, charge distribution when 0.5% Gaussian noise is superimposed to the surface
an estimated surface charge distribution σ̂ can be therefore potential.
obtained. This surface charge distribution σ̂ is the PSF of
this measuring system. Actually, for a shift-variant system,
the PSF is different, depending on the location of the unit- characteristic curve decreases to 0.5 [38]. The dotted vertical
charged element. Here, we set the unit-charge element in the lines in Fig. 6 indicate the cut-off frequency, which shows that
middle of the conical surface (r = 28 mm). Fig. 5 shows the the spatial resolution becomes worsen with the increase of α.
computed σ̂ along the radial direction by changing different When α ranges from 0.003%λmax to 0.1%λmax , the spatial
Tikhonov parameter α in G. The curves are fit by Gaussian resolution is from 1.8 to 2.9 mm.
distribution. One can see that with the increase of α, the width 4) Accuracy Analysis: The accuracy of the algorithm is
of the curve increases and its amplitude decreases. analyzed based on numerical simulation. An annular area on
Fig. 6 shows the Fourier transformation of the fit Gaussian the insulator surface (23 mm ≤ r ≤ 33 mm) is charged to
curves in Fig. 5 and the amplitudes of these curves are a uniform density of 1 pC/mm2 , as shown in Fig. 7(a). The
normalized. The Fourier transformation of PSF indicates the resulting surface potential is calculated by electrostatic field
spatial frequency transmission characteristics of the measur- computation, as shown in Fig. 7(b). As experimental noise,
ing system [21], [38]. The spatial resolution of the mea- Gaussian noise, whose standard deviation is 0.1% or 1% of
suring system is conventionally defined as the reciprocal of the maximum value of the ideal surface potential is added. The
the cut-off frequency where the intensity of the normalized estimated surface charge density distribution is then calculated
ZHANG et al.: INVERSION ALGORITHM
Fig. 8. Accuracy analysis based on numerical simulation: example 2.
(a) Original assumed surface charge distribution. (b) Estimated surface charge
distribution when 0.1% Gaussian noise is superimposed to the surface
potential.
TABLE I
SNR AND S QUARE ROOT OF PMSE FOR THE E STIMATE C HARGE
D ISTRIBUTION IN THE A LGORITHM E XAMPLE
using (12), where α = 0.03%λmax . Fig. 7(c) and (d) shows
the results from the surface potential on which 0.1% and 1%
Gaussian noise are superimposed, respectively.
Despite of the random noise, the overall estimated surface
charge distribution agrees well with the originally assumed
charge distribution. The only flaw is in the edge of the charged
area, which is not sharp but a bit blurry. It is due to the
low-pass characteristics of Wiener filter. The high spatial fre-
quency components are attenuated after the inverse calculation.
However, in reality, charge distributions in the experiments
always change gradually rather than abruptly. If we set the
original surface charge distributed gradually, the estimated
surface charge distribution shows better agreement with the
original one (Fig. 8).
The accuracy of the algorithm can be quantified by the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) [33]

N 1) Basic Principle of the Algorithm: According to “shift-
{σ̂ i − σ i }2
i=1
SNR = −10log10 (16)
N A2
where σ i and σ̂ i are the real and estimated surface
charge density, respectively; A is the maximum value of σ .
This equation is the expression of the peak-mean square
error (PMSE) in decibel form. Table I lists the results of
accuracy analysis based on the numerical examples showed
in Figs. 7(c) and (d) and 8(b). The square root of PMSE is
also presented in the table which is given by
 surface charges σ (x  , y  ) at position (x  , y  ) and the measured
 N
√ 
PMSE =  {σ̂ − σ }2 /(N A2 ).
i i (17)
i=1
In the numerical example of Fig. 7(d), the SNR
reaches 38.1 dB and the square root of PMSE is only 1.25%.
3321
Fig. 9. Measuring system for two kinds of shift-invariant configuration.
With the increase of noise level, the accuracy of the algo-
rithm drops, but the SNR is still above 24 dB when 0.5%
Gaussian noise is superimposed. The accuracy of the algorithm
becomes higher if the original surface charge does not change
abruptly in spatial domain. It should be noted that, for a
manufactured electrostatic voltmeter product, the fluctuation
of the monitor output is usually less than 0.1% of full scale.
For example, the accuracy of two widely used electrostatic
voltmeters, TREK 347 [19], [25]–[27], [39] and TREK
341B [29], [40], [41], is better than 0.05% and 0.1%, respec-
tively [42]. Therefore, the error of the inversion algorithm is
expected to be at the same level of the simulated result.
IV. I NVERSION A LGORITHM FOR
S HIFT-I NVARIANT S YSTEMS
A. Measuring System
Insulating plates and cylinder insulators are another two
types of insulators that are widely used for the study of surface
charge phenomena [20], [21], [39]–[41]. If the measured sub-
ject is an infinite plane plate or film of constant thickness, or an
infinite long rod or pipe of constant diameter, as shown
in Fig. 9, the system is regarded as shift-invariant [21].
During the measurement, the probe is usually positioned by
a motion control platform to scan the whole surface of the
measured object, such as a XY stage for a plate insula-
tor [21], [41], [44], [45] or a linear stage with a rotation
stage for a cylinder insulator [39], [40], [46].
B. Restoration by 2-D Fourier Transformation and
Wiener Filter
invariant” principle [43] and the multipoint measurement
method, the formula (2) in Section II-B can be reexpressed
by the following double convolution:

ϕ(x, y) = h(x − x  , y − y  ) · σ (x  , y  )d x  d y 
= h(x, y) ∗ σ (x  , y  ). (18)
Here ∗ stands for the operator of the convolution and h is the
convolution kernel, which represents the relationship between
potential ϕ(x, y) at position (x, y) [see Fig. 9(a)]. Meanwhile,
particularly for this linear and shift-invariant system, h(x, y)
is the impulse response of the system, which can be obtained
by potential measurement under the condition that the delta
function δ(0, 0) is applied for σ on the dielectric surface.
3322 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 66, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2017

Fig. 10. Flowchart of the inversion algorithm for shift-invariant systems.

Of course, (18) can be also written in matrix form as

ϕ = Hσ , and once H is obtained, σ can be solved by
a similar way described in Section III. However, for shift-
invariant system, (18) can be expressed in the spatial frequency
domain, which avoids matrix calculation and is possible to
handle the large data with little computational complexity.
By convolution theorem, the convolution equation in spatial
domain can be transformed to multiplication equation in fre-
quency domain [43]. By performing 2D-FT, (18) is written as
Φ(μ, ν) = H(μ, ν) · σ (μ, ν) (19)
where Φ(μ, ν), H(μ, ν), and σ (μ, ν) are Fourier transfor-
mation of ϕ, h, and σ , respectively. μ and ν are spatial
frequencies. Then, charge density in the spatial domain can
be obtained by a simple division as
Φ(μ, ν)
σ (μ, ν) = . (20)
H(μ, ν) Fig. 11. Surface potential distribution in spatial domain caused by a unit
charge. (a) σ0 (x, y). (b) ϕ0 (x, y).
After inverse Fourier transformation (IFT) of σ (μ, ν), charge
distribution in spatial domain can be obtained.
However, as discussed in Section III-C, noise is generally and a step of 0.5 mm between each collecting point. It should
superimposed onto the measured signal Φ. So if Φ is simply be noted that although the discussion is based on the plate
divided by H, the noise can be amplified excessively in the configuration, results for the rod and pipe configuration can
solution. Therefore, Wiener filter is practically adopted to be deduced in a similar way.
improve the stability of calculation. The predicted solution σ̂ As mentioned before, h is treated as the impulse response
for (19) is given by of the system, which can be obtained under the application of
the delta function δ(0, 0) for σ . Supposing that a unit charge
H ∗ (μ, ν)
σ̂ (μ, ν) = Φ(μ, ν) (21) of 1 C/m2 is set in the center of the insulator surface and the
|H(μ, ν)|2 + c2 radius of charge distribution is 1 mm. By fully modeling
where H ∗ is the conjugate matrix of H and c2 equals to the the probe and insulator arrangement with actual parameters
ration of noise to signal on the power spectrum. The flowchart of the insulator, the surface potential can be calculated. The
of the algorithm is shown in Fig. 10, which will be discussed 1-D surface charge distribution σ 0 (x, y) and the resulting
in detail in the following sections. surface potential ϕ 0 (x, y) are given in Fig. 11. It shows that
2) 2-D Fourier Transformation and Wiener Filter: In this the surface potential caused by a unit charge decreases fast as
section, the calculation results after 2D-FT are given and how the distance increases.
the transfer function and Wiener filter are built in the frequency The distribution of charge density and surface potential in
domain is discussed in detail. spatial frequency domain is calculated by 2D-FT, that is
As an example, a 3-mm-thick flat insulator made of epoxy 
resin (εr = 5.1) has been chosen as the measured object. The σ 0 (μ, ν) = σ 0 (x, y)e− j 2π(μx+νy) d x d y (22)
whole surface (70 mm×70 mm) can be automatically scanned 
by the Kelvin probe in a raster mode using an XY stage and a
Φ 0 (μ, ν) = ϕ 0 (x, y)e− j 2π(μx+νy) d x d y. (23)
motion controller, with a constant probe-surface gap of 2 mm
ZHANG et al.: INVERSION ALGORITHM 3323

Fig. 12. Charge density and surface potential distribution of a unit charge in spatial frequency domain.

Fig. 13. Amplitude-frequency characteristics of the transfer function H, inverse filter 1/H, and Wiener filter W .

The results are shown in Fig. 12. Note that since the measuring
pitch r = 0.5 mm, σ 0 , and ϕ 0 in spatial frequency domain
holds values up to a spatial frequency of 1 cycle/mm equivalent
to the sampling frequency of f s = 1/(2r ). From Fig. 12,
we can see that the charge distribution σ 0 has high-frequency
components while the spectrum of potential distribution ϕ 0
only concentrates on the low-frequency region.
According to the flowchart in Fig. 10, the transfer function
of the system can be obtained by
Φ 0 (μ, ν)
H(μ, ν) = . (24)
σ 0 (μ, ν)
Then, the Wiener filter can be built as
H ∗ (μ, ν)
W(μ, ν) = . (25)
|H(μ, ν)|2 + c2
Fig. 13 illustrates the amplitude-frequency characteris-
tics of the transfer function H, inverse filter 1/H, and
Wiener filter W. The transfer function H of the measuring
system converges to a very small value in the high-frequency
region, as shown in Fig. 13(a). While the inverse filter 1/H,
which consists the reciprocal values of H, diverges in the high-
frequency region as shown in Fig. 13(b). It can enlarge the
system noise which is mainly in the high-frequency region.
Fig. 13(d) shows that the amplitude of the spectrum of 1/H
3324 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 66, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2017

Fig. 14. Amplitude-frequency characteristics of the output transfer

function GH.

is about 3 × 10−7 at μ = 1/mm, whereas the amplitude

in lower frequency region is of the order of 10−8 − 10−9 .
In other words, the noise could be amplified up to 100 times
if the charge density is calculated directly by using (24).
Therefore, the Wiener filter is used to improve the stability
of the calculation. As shown in Fig. 13(c), by using Wiener
filter, the amplification ratio in the high-frequency region is
limited effectively so that the influence of the noise can be
suppressed. The bandwidth can be controlled by changing the
value of c, as shown in Fig. 13(d).
Fig. 15. Accuracy analysis based on numerical simulation. (a) Originally
assumed surface charge distribution, resembling a “THU” logo; the charge
density of each letter is set as 0.5, 1, 0.5 pC/mm2 , respectively. (b) Calculated
surface potential distribution. (c) Estimated surface charge distribution when
0.25% Gaussian noise is superimposed to the surface potential. and (d) Esti-
mated surface charge distribution when 0.5% Gaussian noise is superimposed
to the surface potential.

C. Spatial Resolution
As discussed in Section III-C, the “imaging” relationship
between the real charge density σ and the estimated charge
density σ̂ is governed by the output transfer function GH,
as shown in Fig. 4. Note that, here, G = W. At a spatial fre-
quency of |H(μc , 0)| = c, the amplitude of the output transfer
function GH becomes 0.5 and consequently a value equal to
only half the original signal can be restored. According to the
definition of spatial resolution, the resolution of the overall
measuring system is therefore can be obtained as the reciprocal
of the cut-off frequency at which |G(μc , 0)H(μc , 0)| = 0.5
or |H(μc , 0)| = c. Fig. 14 shows the output transfer
function GH when c equals to 1%, 0.5%, and 0.25%
of H(0, 0). The predicted spatial resolutions are 4.3, 2.3, Fig. 16. Surface charge accumulation on a cone-type insulator after
and 1.2 mm, respectively. application of −20 kV dc voltage for 6 h in air.

D. Accuracy Analysis
Suppose a surface charge pattern, resembling a “THU” logo,
is set on the measured subject. The charge density of each
letter is set as 0.5, 1, and 0.5 pC/mm2 , as shown in Fig. 15(a).
Fig. 15(b) shows the surface potential distribution calculated
by electrostatic field computation. Next, Gaussian noise with
noise level of 0.25% and 0.5% is added to it, respectively.
Then, the estimated surface charge density distribution can
be obtained by using the inversion algorithm, as shown
in Fig. 15(c) and (d), where c equals to 0.5%|H(0, 0)|. We can
see that the estimated surface charge distribution agrees
very well with the originally assumed charge distribution.
Based on (16), the SNR of the calculation results are 28 and
22 dB, respectively.
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
By using the measuring system described in Section III-A,
the accumulated charge on the cone-type insulator is mea-
sured after the application of −20 kV dc voltage for 6 h
in atmospheric air. Fig. 16(a) shows the measured surface
potential distribution which is the output of the Kelvin probe.
Fig. 16(b) shows the estimated surface density distribution by
using (12). Obviously, charge density distribution gives more
ZHANG et al.: INVERSION ALGORITHM
Fig. 17. Surface charge measurement on a flat insulator after negative dc
corona charging.
details than potential distribution. Therefore, more accurate
behaviors of surface charge are likely to be obtained.
Surface charge measurements on a flat insulator made of
epoxy resin are also carried out. As shown in Fig. 17(a),
a “needle-to-plane” electrode is used for charging the insulator.
A negative dc corona (Udc = −5 kV) occurs at the tip of
the needle with a separation of 10 mm above the sample
center. The sample is first corona charged for one minute
and then transferred to the measurement platform, as shown
in Fig. 17(b). The measured surface potential and estimated
charge density distribution is shown in Fig. 17(c) and (d),
respectively. We can see that the surface potential distribution
after negative corona discharging has a bell-like shape and
the potential values are all negative. As for charge density
distribution, both positive and negative charges are detected.
The existence of hetero charges may be due to the attractive
Coulombic force toward the sample center. And it has been
verified by dust figure, as shown in Fig. 17(e).
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper presents an improved inversion algorithm to
calculate charge density on solid dielectric surface based
on potential measurement. After the interpretation of basic
principle of the multipoint measurement, the algorithms for
shift-variant system and shift-invariant system are discussed
in detail.
1) In a shift-variant system, Wiener filter based on the
Tikhonov’s regularization is introduced to solve the ill-
posed problem of the transfer function matrix H and
the restoration characteristics are explainable in terms
of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the output transfer
function GH.
2) In a shift-invariant system, the restoration can be
processed strictly in the spatial frequency domain by
2D-FT, which avoids matrix calculation and significantly
simplifies the conventional procedure.
3) The spatial resolution of the algorithm is evaluated based
on the PSF of the restoration system. And the accuracy
3325
of the algorithm is discussed with the aid of numerical
examples.
4) Surface charge measurement experiments are conducted
for a cone-type insulator under dc voltage and for a flat
insulator after corona charging. The results show that
the algorithm provides an effective solution for surface
charge estimation.
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Boya Zhang was born in 1990. He received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, in 2013. He is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University.
Since 2016, he has been a Visiting Scholar with
the Institute of Materials Science, University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. His current research
interests include HVDC gas-insulated system and
charge accumulation phenomena under dc stress and
dc insulation materials.
Wenqiang Gao was born in 1991. He received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Sichuan
University, Chengdu, China, in 2014. He is currently
pursuing the M.S. degree with the Gas Discharge
and Plasma Laboratory, Department of Electrical
Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
His current research interests include surface
charge measurement techniques.
Zhe Qi was born in 1992. He received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua Uni-
versity, Beijing, China, in 2015.
He was a Technician with the Gas Discharge and
Plasma Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engi-
neering, Tsinghua University. His current research
interests include high-voltage testing and signal
processing and programming.
Qiang Wang was born in 1984. He received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an
Jiaotong University, Xian, China, in 2006, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, in 2012.
In 2015, he joined the Department of Mechachon-
ics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, as a
Researcher involved in gaseous discharge, plasma
and intelligent control technology.
Guixin Zhang was born in 1963. He received the
B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, in 1987 and 1993, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree from the Department of Physics, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore, in 1999.
He is currently a Full Professor with the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua
University. His current research interests include
plasma, high-voltage insulation, optical fiber sensor,
signal processing, and electronic current/voltage
transformer.