Current-induced Phase Demodulation Using a PWM Sampling for a Fiber-optic CT

In this work, we used PWM sampling for demodulation of a fiber-optic interferometric current transformer. The interference signal from a fiber-optic CT is sampled with PWM triggers that produce a 90-degree phase difference between two consecutively sampled signals. The current-induced phase is extracted by applying an arctangent demodulation and a phase unwrapping algorithm to the sampled signals. From experiments using the proposed demodulation, we obtained phase measurement accuracy and a linearity error, in AC current measurements, of ~2.35 mrad and 0.18%, respectively. The accuracy of the proposed method was compared with that of a lock-in amplifier demodulation, which showed only 0.36% difference. To compare the birefringence effects of different fiber-optic sensor coils, a flint glass fiber and a standard single-mode fiber were used under the same conditions. The flint glass fiber coil with a Faraday rotator mirror showed the best performance. Because of the simple hardware structure and signal processing, the proposed demodulation would be suitable for low-cost over-current monitoring in high voltage power systems.