Time domain measurements of high electric fields due to spark gap resonator

Measurement of the electric field radiations by ultra-wideband antenna is a challenging task. In general, all the antennas are measured for the radiation pattern and return loss to estimate their overall performance. However, when it comes to the antennas that are fed by very high voltages (HV), in the order of few hundreds of kilo volts and the input is not continuous, the measurements become complex. There arises an ambiguity in deciding about the peak value of the high electric fields generated, especially when the HV electric discharge mechanism is involved in the radiation of the antenna. The electric discharges are, in general, not repetitive. This paper proposes a measurement technique that is well suited for measuring the high electric fields, especially in the order of hundreds of kV/m. The proposed measurement procedure is verified and validated by experiments. The repeatability and reliability of the proposed measurement procedure are checked and presented here.