A Noncontact Planar Microstrip Sensor for Power Line Fault Detection

In this letter, a novel TM0 mode launcher is presented as a sensor for the fault detection on a single-conductor line (SCL). The launcher is designed at 2.4 GHz frequency on FR4 substrate with the microstrip technology. Simulated S-parameter results of the launcher are verified with the measured results of the fabricated prototype. Experiments are performed to demonstrate the signal propagation on a bent SCL to measure the isolation between the launchers and to measure backward propagating signal. Open-circuit fault location experiment is performed on a 6 m long cable using the time domain reflectometry technique. An average error of 0.15 m (5.04%) is observed in fault location. The proposed sensor is nonconductor-contact, nonintrusive, planar (16 cm×16 cm), and easy to install on the existing power lines for fault detection and power line communication.