Optically scanning electric field probe system

We present an optically scanning electric field probe system designed to provide high-speed measurements of electric field distributions near PCB or LSI chips with high spatial resolution up to the gigahertz range. The optical probe system uses an electro-optic crystal and a scanned laser beam for high-speed measurements. The probe provides measurement speed of 0.1 seconds per point. We examined probe characteristics of frequency response, linearity, minimum detectable field strength, and spatial resolution up to 10 GHz.