Space‐charge measurement in polymer films by the new alternating thermal wave method

Abstract

Space‐charge prospecting is commonly used as a way of evaluating the electrical qualities and reliability of insulating polymers. However, the various methods for space‐charge measurement are not adapted to thin films. The present work is concerned with the development of a new method suitable for thin polymer films intended for the manufacture of capacitors. The principle is the processing of the current response of a film sample submitted to alternating thermal stimulations. A controlled thermo‐electric module is used to generate the thermal stimulations. The current response is processed as arising from an equivalent pattern of discrete charged planes, parallel to the film faces. Some results obtained with this model on 100 µm thick polypropylene films submitted to various treatments are given. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry

A new technique for simultaneous measurements of space charge and TSDC in polymer films

“…In this manner, we obtain with good accuracy the charge values on four discrete planes located at 20, 40,60 and 80 % of the thickness, in 100 pm thick polypropylene (PP) films. More details on the signal processing and accuracy limits are given in other works [ 11 [4].…”