Early Considerations for Unit's Induced Electric Behaviour Characterization in the Extreme Low Frequency Domain

Abstract

The majority of space science missions aim to measure weak slow varying electromagnetic fields and in order to do so, need to meet strict cleanliness requirements. The accurate characterization of equipment in the extremely low-frequency domain (below several hundred kHz) should include the direct emitted electric field as well as the induced behavior of the device due to the unit-to-unit interaction. Following a detailed characterization at the unit level, the unit-to-unit interaction is attributed to the near field scattering effect, usually considering the scatterer as a small sphere. This way the induced behavior of the unit can be described by an oscillating dipole coherent to the incident field. This work highlights the importance of induced behavior of the units at the system level for accurate system predictions in the case that the scatterer can't be considered as a small sphere due to dielectric materials or complex unit geometry. The authors aim to characterize the induced behavior by solving the inverse electromagnetic scattering problem through a customized measurement procedure.