Patent ID: 6504355
Filing Date: 2003-01-07
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A device for measuring an electric current by Faraday effect comprising:a light source for supplying an incident light beam, an input polarizer for linearly polarizing the incident light beam, a magneto-optical transducer for receiving the polarized incident light beam, a beam separator located at the output of the transducer and for supplying first and second output light beams, an output polarizer located on the path of the first output light beam, a processing unit comprising a first optical input connected to the output of the output polarizer, a second optical input for receiving the second output light beam directly from the beam separator, and means for opto-electronic conversion connected to the first and second optical inputs to supply first and second electrical signals to computing means for digital computation of the current to be measured, wherein the computing means comprise means for computing a first quantity constituted by the ratio between the first and second electrical signals, means for determining the AC and DC components of the first quantity, means for computing a second quantity from the AC and DC components of the first quantity, and means for computing the current to be measured from the second quantity.