A High-Performance Miniaturized Wideband Active Electric Probe Design

In this letter, a miniaturized active electric probe, which simultaneously achieves high performance in terms of wide bandwidth, high spatial resolution, and high sensitivity, is proposed for radiation source localization. This probe is manufactured utilizing a printed circuit board (PCB) process, occupying a compact area of 588 mm
²
. High spatial resolution is achieved through an ultra-narrow induction tip with an effective width of 0.1 mm, the PCB process limit. Sensitivity is improved by integrating an amplification circuit with a 17 dB gain. Wide bandwidth is achieved by implementing a wideband amplifier of 10 MHz to 27.8 GHz and a horizontal tapered substrate integrated coaxial line transition structure. Through the measurement results, the proposed probe can operate from 10 MHz to 27.8 GHz. At 27.8 GHz, the spatial resolution of the proposed probe is 0.41 mm. The sensitivity has a 17 dB improvement compared with the reference passive probe.