A MODEL OF THE PLASMA FREQUENCY PROBE
Open Access
- Author:
- Fissinger, Richard Thomas
- Area of Honors:
- Electrical Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor
John Douglas Mitchell, Faculty Reader
Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- plasma
plasma frequency probe - Abstract:
- The domain of this thesis is the Plasma Frequency Probe (PFP), an instrument that determines the density of a plasma by finding the frequency at which a reflected signal has no phase shift. This information would be used to better understand the plasmas in the ionosphere, as they affect communications. A model was created in order to simulate the PFP. It was found that a low quality factor, along with a high resistance value and upper hybrid plasma frequency, were the ideal conditions for finding the plasma density with the PFP. The AD8302 Phase Detector, the device planned for detecting the phase shift created by the plasma, further ensures that a low quality factor would be desirable. However, by adding noise and finding the upper hybrid plasma frequency (through averaging frequencies that result in low enough phase differences and thus voltage from the output of the phase detector), it is found that higher quality factor, lower noise, and a lower compared voltage result in the most accurate estimate of the upper hybrid plasma frequency. Also, the original upper hybrid frequency is a significant parameter, as higher frequencies and frequencies near the edges of the sweep range can compromise accuracy estimates.