US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Mark R Probst

David Mark Hull

Systems and methods for reducing electrostatic platform noise in electric-field sensors due to various self-charging and discharging processes are provided. A representative method includes: identifying avoidance regions of an electrostatically-floating sensor platform that have a propensity for self-induced charging and discharging; locating a first electrode and a second electrode on the electrostatically-floating sensor platform, wherein the first electrode and the second electrode are positioned and dimensioned to receive substantially equal amounts of distributed charge via self-charging; and obtaining a differential signal from these two electrodes that is proportional to an external ambient E-field of interest, while at the same time nulling out the common-mode signal that results from sensor platform self-charging and/or discharging.

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Gaithersburg, MD, United States of America

Mark R Probst