Numerical and Experimental Characterizations of Currents and Magnetic Fields Produced by Electrostatic Discharges Within Dielectrics Irradiated by High-Energy Electron Flux

Electron-caused electromagnetic pulse (ECEMP) is susceptible to occur into constitutive dielectrics of satellites during their mission due to natural space ionizing environment. This paper reports the numerical and experimental characterizations of the electromagnetic fields subsequently generated by the electrostatic discharges (ESDs) from the analysis of the resonant cavity modes and the replacement currents. ESDs are produced when the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or Teflon) samples are irradiated by a 6-MeV electron beam generated by the linear accelerator (LINAC) facility. The measured electromagnetic fields and currents are reproduced by a parametric analysis based on the 3-D Maxwell solution. Such a reproduction of the measured currents and magnetic fields allowed us to quantify the temporal and spectral characteristics of the ESD. It is shown that ESD is produced by bulk currents in the dielectric composed by a fast contribution (rise time lower than 100 ps) and a slower one (of about 200-ns duration).