Effect of a Radio Frequency Field on Atmospheric Pressure Pulsed Discharges in Air

Abstract

The article presents an investigation of the effect of radio frequency (RF) field (Wi-Fi signal) on electrical discharges produced by high-voltage (HV) pulses of different time duration applied between two pin electrodes in ambient air at atmospheric pressure. In the course of the work, electrical characterization was carried out, namely, the measurement and analysis of the breakdown voltage and the energy of single and multiple discharges with a duration from 500 ns to 200 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the presence, as well as without external influence, of RF radiation with a power of 30 W at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. The study results showed that the energy of the discharges remained unchanged in all cases; the breakdown voltage of the primary pulse was unchanged as well, whereas the amplitude of subsequent pulses in the packet for the case of multiple pulses dropped by half. Despite this fact, under current experimental conditions, a potential ignition risk of electric breakdown is still highly improbable. This result is of interest for the installation of wireless sensors in flammable environments.