A Shielded PCB Probe Optimized for Magnetic Near Field Measurements below 3 GHz

This paper presents an optimized shielded magnetic field probe in printed circuit board (PCB) technology, with improved sensitivity in the frequency band up to 3 GHz. The probe is simulated using finite element method (FEM) and is optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The PSO algorithm finds the best fitting value for the probe dimensions with a condition on maximum sensitivity in the analyzed frequency band. A simulation and measurement setup for determining probe sensitivity with a microstrip line is presented. The proposed probe sensitivity is compared to a conventional probe. The measured results show an average sensitivity increase of 7 dB compared to the conventional probe.