Mitigation of electromagnetic field radiated by PLC systems in indoor environment

Power line communication (PLC) is a well-known technique for data transmission over low-voltage power lines. The PLC signals have frequency bandwidth of about 1-30 MHz and they may cause electromagnetic interferences with services operating in the same frequency range. The regulation of electromagnetic radiation from PLC signals is currently subject of investigation in various international standardization bodies. This paper proposes a technique aiming at reducing the electromagnetic field radiated by indoor PLC signals, while not affecting the PLC signal itself. The basic idea is to take advantage of the additional ground conductor and inject a signal similar to the PLC signal into the ground-neutral line, but with a reversed phase. As a result, both the overall antenna mode- and transmission line mode-currents are significantly reduced, as well as the radiated electromagnetic fields. Experimental measurements are also carried out in a building and it is shown that the proposed technique allows for a significant reduction (up to 20 dB) of the PLC electromagnetic radiation in the considered frequency range (1-30 MHz)

Power line communications

Emmanuel Marthe

With the deregulation of the electricity and telecommunications markets, a great deal of new operators providing some innovative services have appeared. In the telecommunications' field, the promise of broadband Internet access with easy installation procedure at low cost may help to win new customers. The Power Line Communications (PLC) technology is a way to fulfil this function. PLC uses the low voltage (LV) and the medium voltage (MV) networks as communication support. It consists in an additional signal carrying data information and superimposed to the 50 Hz power wave. As PLC is easy to install, it can be used to extend the Internet coverage to areas that are still badly covered by the other broadband technologies, or to provide high speed Internet access to every power socket of a building. This thesis, done as a part of research project called Digital Power Line Access, is devoted to the study of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) aspects involved with the PLC. There are still a certain number of problems due to the fact that PLC, which is a quite recent technology, has not been regulated yet. Among these problems, all the aspects associated with the radiation created by the transmission of PLC signals over unshielded conductors and their potential disturbances are very significant. The aim of this thesis is the analysis of PLC data transmission over the low voltage network and the related EMC problems, mainly the radiation due to the transmission of PLC signals. The measurement and the analysis of these radiations lead us to develop a method to reduce these radiations. The mitigation of radiation created by the use of PLC within buildings is still an important EMC challenge, because there are no possibilities for network conditioning. The first two chapters of this thesis present a state of the art of PLC, its regulation and the related EMC problems. The second chapter describes the working of PLC and emphasizes the hostile nature of its environment. The problems (filtering, attenuation, generation of noise,...) caused by the use of a signal in the [1 – 30 MHz] band over a channel designed for a 50 Hz power wave are presented. On the other hand, the various technologies used to allow the PLC to work (suitable modulation scheme, use of repeater,...) are illustrated. An analysis of the different PLC concepts and of the successful and unfruitful commercial deployment ends this chapter. In the third chapter, we present the technical criterion (use of the PLC as a multi-purpose port: as a main port and as a telecommunication port) that we have to consider and the evolution of the conducted and radiated limits that we have to respect. The pollution of the radio amateur band, which could be the result of a massive deployment of PLC, is the subject of tremendous discussions and proves that if according to some persons the current limits are too permissive, for the PLC manufacturer they are already too restrictive. The coexistence of the PLC with other broadband technologies (xDSL, CA-TV, Wireless,...) is also addressed and we show that only the coexistence with an alternative of the DSL – VDSL – could be problematic. The main original contributions of this thesis are presented in chapters 4 to 6. We concentrated on the problems related to the electromagnetic radiations associated with PLC signals, especially in indoor environment. The reason for this is that the emission of electromagnetic noise, which can interfere with services such as public and amateur radio, remains an obstacle to the development of PLC. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, the mitigation of indoor radiation has not been addressed in the literature. In chapter 4, we present a complete characterization of the problems resulting from the use of PLC in an indoor environment. Two approaches are presented for the measurement of electromagnetic fields. The first one consists in the injection of a reference signal in the network and the measurement of the resulting radiations. The second one deals with the measurements of interferences due to the work of real PLC equipments. These two approaches enlight several aspects. The main aspect is the strong dispersion of the measurements, resulting from the influence of the position of the observation point and of the power network load. Measurements on real PLC networks show excessive radiations, which confirm that the limits are, at this time, too restrictive. We also present and discuss PLC radiated emissions in typical indoor environments. In particular, we analyze the field levels resulting from PLC signals with magnitudes given by EN55022/CISPR22 limits and compare them with various proposals for PLC radiated field limits. Thus, we show that the resulting fields exceed, for a wide range of frequencies, some of the current emission limits such as the German NB30, which is considered as a very strict limit. In this same chapter, we present a technique for the analysis of power line communication (PLC) signals, based on the formalism of the scattering parameters. This technique allows an efficient and fast characterization of any transmission medium of a power network. The analysis of the variations of the magnitude and phase of the scattering parameters gives useful insights on the increasing of the losses with frequency and confirm the need of a technique to reduce impedance mismatch at both injection and reception ports. The chapter 5 presents the modelling of the PLC environment and the computation of its radiations using a commercial code, the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC), which solves the electric field integral equation in the frequency domain using the method of moments. We present some comparisons between the NEC simulations and the experimental data for the total magnetic field presented in the previous chapter. The simulations of simple models give results in good agreement with the experimental data and therefore allow the validation of certain principles. Unfortunately, the simulations on a model of increasing complexity give less satisfactory results. Because of the difficulty to respect the topology of the network and to take into account all of the components of the network coupled with the constraints of NEC, it is extremely difficult to obtain accurate results on the complete PLC band. The strong electromagnetic radiations appeared as the major problem of this technology. Therefore, the development of a method of mitigation was the logical continuation of this work, especially because there is still no solution to this problem. We developed a technique, which is presented in chapter 6, aiming at reducing the electromagnetic field radiated by indoor PLC signals. This technique is the major original contribution of this thesis and led us to file a patent. The central idea is to take advantage of the additional ground conductor and inject a signal similar to the PLC signal into the ground-neutral line, but with a reversed phase. As a result, the overall antenna mode current is significantly reduced, as well as the radiated electromagnetic fields. The method is specifically developed for indoor applications and applies to uni-directional and bi-directional data transmission systems with an implementation using switches. Experimental data obtained on a test network have shown that the use of the proposed technique implies a significant reduction (up to 20 dB) of the PLC electromagnetic radiation in the considered frequency range. It is also shown that the performance of the proposed technique increases when the ground-neutral line is terminated by an impedance equal to the one of the PLC modem. Other tests performed on 230 V network confirm this trend but show that further work is needed in this direction. This work could consist in the development of a system allowing the synchronisation of the real PLC signal and the auxiliary signal according to the behavior of the PLC channel, in order to optimise the performances for any frequency used by the PLC.

EPFL2005

Broadband Electromagnetic Characterization of Materials for Accelerator Components

Giovanni De Michele, Alexej Grudiev, Tatiana Pieloni, Giovanni Rumolo, Carlo Zannini

Electromagnetic (EM) characterization of materials up to high frequencies is a major requirement for the correct modeling of many accelerator components: collimators, kickers, high order modes damping devices for accelerating cavities. In this scenario, the coaxial line method has gained much importance compared to other methods because of its applicability in a wide range of frequencies. In this paper we describe a new coaxial line method that allows using only one measurement setup to characterize the material in a range of frequency from few MHz up to several GHz. A coaxial cable fed at one side is filled with the material under test and closed on a known load on the other side. The properties of the material are obtained from the measured reflection coefficient by using it as input for a transmission line (TL) model or for 3D EM simulations, which describe the measurements setup. We have applied this method to characterize samples of SiC (Silicon Carbide) which could be used for LHC collimators and for CLIC accelerating structures and NiZn ferrite used for kicker magnets.

2011

Electromagnetic Simulation of CERN Accelerator Components and Experimental Applications

Carlo Zannini

Wakes and impedances of single accelerator elements can be obtained by means of theoretical calculation, electromagnetic (EM) simulations or bench measurements. Since theoretical calculations apply only to simple structures and bench measurements have some intrinsic limitations, EM simulations can be used as a reliable tool to determine wakes and impedances. This thesis will focus on the use of time domain 3D CST Particle Studio EM simulations to calculate wakes and/or impedances. First, the results of the EM simulations are compared with the known analytical solutions and other codes. In this exercise, the driving and the detuning terms of the wakes/impedances, in the transverse plane, are disentangled for both symmetric and asymmetric geometries. The sensitivity of the simulations results to the numerical parameters is discussed, as well as the limits of validity of the wake formalism and its extension to the nonlinear regime. Using the CST Wakefield Solver, the SPS kicker impedance contribution is then estimated. The simulation model was improved step by step, and successfully benchmarked with existing and new theoretical models, giving confidence in the numerical results and allowing a better understanding of the EM problems. In the case of the resistive wall impedance of simple chamber geometries a handy theoretical model has been proposed. In order to calculate the resistive wall impedance of a round chamber, a theoretical approach based on the transmission line (TL) theory, is demonstrated to be valid and practical to use. By means of appropriate form factors the method is then extended to rectangular or elliptical chambers. Moreover the method was successfully benchmarked with the most recent codes based on the field matching technique developed at CERN and was used to construct the SPS wall impedance model. For more complicated geometries (asymmetries, small inserts, holes etc.), a theoretical estimation without involving EM simulation becomes unworkable. An example of interest is the LHC beam-screen, for which CST 3D simulations were used to estimate the impedance. In order to allow the simulator to cover the whole frequency range of interest (few KHz to several tens of MHz) a novel scaling technique was developed and applied. Where possible, the EM models developed throughout this thesis were also successfully benchmarked with bench measurements (wire methods) and observations with beam. On the specific subject of bench measurements, a numerical investigation of coaxial wire measurements has been also presented. Finally, in order to verify the adopted EM models of the materials both in theoretical calculations and 3D simulations, an experimental setup for measuring EM properties (permittivity and permeability) of materials has been presented. The method is based on fitting the measured reflection transmission coefficients through a coaxial line filled with the material to be probed, with the outcome of EM simulations or theoretical models. It was successfully applied for measuring NiZn ferrites and dielectric material (e.g. SiC).