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TechWaTch October, 2023
Wireless Measurement of Body and Object Voltage
By Daan Stevenson, CEO, and Jonathan Tapson, CTO, IONA Tech C
an you measure the volt- age of an object, from that object, without attaching
any wires to the object? It’s a tough question, because we’re conditioned to think of voltage as a two-terminal measurement; af- ter all, voltage is defined as the difference in electrical potential between two points. There have been non-contact
voltmeters available for a few decades already. These generally operate by being wired or ground- ed to one point of contact, and they infer the voltage of the other point by measuring the electric field at its surface. In order to convert from an electric field to a voltage, they need to know the distance to the object, and make some assumptions about the uni- formity of the field itself. IONA Tech has solved the
problem of making a measure- ment from the object itself, with- out any wires at all. Its method asks the question: what if you turned the non-contact voltmeter around, and pointed the electric field sensor outwards from the
surface of the object? The physics of this method
are quite straightforward. The object’s voltage will be propor- tional to the charge on it, and in- versely proportional to its capac- itance: V = q/C.
The charge will create an electric field perpendicular tothe surface, and proportional to the charge
density:=/, where is the permittivity of the space around
the object,is the unit normal vector, and A is the area covered by the
charge. So, if we measure, we get a measure of q, and if we can estimate C, we can calculate V.
What’s the point of a wire-
less voltage measurement? In the management of ESD (electro- static discharge), it’s a continu- ous battle to understand when and why objects in the workplace (including, most importantly, people) are getting charged up. With wireless voltage measure- ment, we can put sensors on peo- ple, carts, conveyors and all manner of mobile systems, and measure what is going on as they move about the plant in a natu-
ral and unencumbered way.
IONA Tech StatIQ Band IONA Tech has designed a
miniature wearable DC field sensor for making these measurements. It’s about half the size of a deck of cards, weighs less than two ounces, and talks to the world through a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) network. It’s worn on the user’s
shoulder, which is a good combination in terms of keeping the sensor out of the way during work, while keeping it exposed to the external environ- ment. The unit has user- settable alarm levels, so that when a chosen volt- age level is exceeded, or when an electrostatic dis- charge takes place, a buzzer goes off. The user is then alerted that they are a hazard to unprotected electron- ics, and should ground them-
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selves before handling any such components. The unit also inter- faces with a mobile phone app, so that user voltages can be ob- served in real time, and alarm
IONA StatIQ band, worn on a user’s shoulder.
levels configured on the fly. The StatIQ Band is already
finding application in monitoring the effectiveness of ESD controls in plants where wrist straps are not necessarily practical, and conductive footwear is the main method of grounding. Footwear ESD control used as conductive shoes or heel grounders is known to be harder to monitor than wrist straps, because it depends on a longer and more variable chain of electrical contact. The StatIQ Band can effec-
CA CB CE CG 7.0 x 5.0 mm 5.0 x 3.2mm 3.2 X 2.5mm 2.5 X 2.0mm
tively be used as a continuous monitor of footwear-based groun - ding. The real time and visible nature of the data makes it par- ticularly useful for finding ESD “hotspots,” and a simple walk- around of a factory can reveal problems such as insulated areas of flooring, or ungrounded carts and carousels. We expect the StatIQ Band to become a unique- ly useful tool in the arsenal of equipment available to the mod-
Scan the QR Code to view our video
1-800-232-9825 •
sales@doveonline.com •
www.doveonline.com
ern ESD manager. Contact: IONA Tech, LLC,
164 Society Drive, Unit O, Telluride, CO 81435 % 970-880-0390 E-mail:
jon@iona.tech Web:
www.iona.tech r
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