Nanosecond Partial Discharge Current Waveforms with Polyethylene Naphthalate Films on IEC(b) Electrode

The polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) film has been widely applied as a heat-resistant thin insulation film and sensor film. For the safe and long application of the film in various products, one significant characteristic is the partial discharge (PD) resistivity. In this study, a well-known IEC(b) electrode is used to measure PD characteristics such as the maximum partial discharge, q_max and fast PD current waveforms at AC peak voltages of 1–3 kV_p and 50–1000 Hz over PEN films with thicknesses of 75, 50, or 25 μm. All experiments are conducted at room temperature of ~20 °C. The positive PD current is defined as the current flowing from a high-voltage electrode to a ground electrode. The positive and negative q_max increased rapidly with the applied voltage increase but remained almost the same for the applied voltage frequency changes. The PD current duration time was less than 40 ns for the positive current and 30 ns for the negative current at all voltages, frequencies, and film thicknesses. It was deduced that the positive current peak magnitude was approximately twice of the negative one at all applied voltages, frequencies, and film thicknesses. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.