Abstract
Lightning remote sensing has been used widely to measure the electromagnetic (EM) fields in various frequencies bands. Circular metal plate capacitive antenna made of iron or aluminium have been used widely for the front-end design of the remote sensing system. The circular metal plates are arranged in parallel and separated by insulators made of Teflon. However, three common problems encountered with the existing setting. First, both metals rust easily and could affect the reading of the EM fields. Second, the insulation Teflon separating the metal plates could become weak conductor during heavy rain and thus distort the EM fields reading. Third, the use of Teflon in between the parallel plates changes the overall permittivity value. In this paper, we propose a cheaper and lighter alternative to iron and aluminium plates by changing to FR4 copper plate. Rectangular FR4 copper plate capacitive antennas with 2 sizes, A4 and A3 have been designed and constructed. The rectangular A3 FR4 copper plate has been found to have similar impedance and capacitance values to the iron-based circular metal plate. Analysis of wave shape and peak amplitude ratio showed similar performance between both antennas. Therefore, we conclude that rectangular A3 FR4 copper plate antenna can be used as replacement for the existing iron- or aluminium-based circular metal plates antenna.
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