Applying simulation model to uniform field space charge distribution measurements by the PEA method

Signals measured under uniform fields by the PEA method have been processed by the deconvolution procedure to obtain space charge distributions since 1988. To simplify data processing, a direct method has been proposed recently in which the deconvolution is eliminated. However, the surface charge cannot be represented well by the method because the surface charge has a bandwidth from zero to infinity. The bandwidth of the charge distribution must be much narrower than the bandwidths of the PEA system transfer function in order to apply the direct method properly. When surface charges cannot be distinguished from space charge distributions, the accuracy and the resolution of the obtained space charge distributions decrease. To overcome this difficulty, a simulation model is therefore proposed. This paper shows the authors attempts to apply the simulation model to obtain space charge distributions under plane-plane electrode configurations. Due to the page limitation for the paper, the charge distribution originated by the simulation model is compared to that obtained by the direct method with a set of simulated signals.