Interdigital capacitor (IDC) sensors areattractive candidates to measure the permittivity variationin dielectric materials. Thus, they can be used to monitorthe insulation degradation of nuclear power plant cablesdue to aging and environmental factors. This paper focuseson the simulation and experimental studies of both a unitcellIDC and multi-finger IDCs to investigate andunderstand important properties, such as electric fieldpenetration depth and capacitance as function of sensorgeometrical and material properties. Simulation resultsdemonstrate that an IDC sensor on a very thin dielectricsubstrate and backed by a conducting backplane is far moreeffective (has high Field Accentuation Factor andSensitivity) than the one without a backplane. Experimentalresults reveal that IDC sensors can easily discern betweenthe permittivity values of commonly known substrates.
展开▼
