Verification of non-contacting surface electric potential measurement model using contacting electrostatic voltmeter

Measurements of surface charge and potential became very common in industrial applications and academic research. In this paper authors present use of a contacting ultra-high input impedance voltmeter in the areas where traditionally the non-contacting measurement methods were used. With very low input capacitance of the order of 10(-15) F, and very high input resistance of the order of tens of teraohms, there is practically no charge transfer from the measured object to or from the instrument. Experiment presented in this paper explains a correlation between the non-contacting and contacting measurement techniques using a finite element analysis model. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.