Design and Evaluation of a Low Thermal Electromotive Force Guarded Scanner for Resistance Measurements

Published

June 1, 1999

Author(s)

Dean G. Jarrett, J. A. Marshall, T. A. Marshall, Ronald F. Dziuba

Abstract

The design and testing of a low thermal electromotive force guarded scanner, developed to provide completely guarded switching when used with actively guarded resistance bridge networks, is described. The design provides a continuous guard circuit trace on the scanner circuit boards that surrounds the relay contacts and protects the measurement circuit from leakages to ground. Modification to the circuit boards and relays of the guarded scanner are explained. Several tests were developed to evaluate the guarding effectiveness, including isolating sections of the guard circuit to create a potential drop between the main and guard circuits. Calibration of standard resistors using the guarded scanner has shown relative differences less than 1 x10^-6, 30 x 10^-6, and 150 x 10^-6 for measurements made with and without the guarded scanner at nominal resistances of 1, 10, and 100 GΩ}, respectively. The substitution method was used to significantly reduce the relative differences between channels to less than 0.5 x 10^-6, 3 x 10^-6, and 30 x 10^-6 for nominal resistances of 1, 10, and 100 GΩ}, respectively. Applications for the guarded scanner in automated direct current measurement systems are presented.

Citation

Review of Scientific Instruments

Volume

70

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

standard resistor, guarded scanner, guard circuit, leakage, resistance bridge, calibration, substitution

Citation

Jarrett, D. , Marshall, J. , Marshall, T. and Dziuba, R. (1999), Design and Evaluation of a Low Thermal Electromotive Force Guarded Scanner for Resistance Measurements, Review of Scientific Instruments, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=977 (Accessed April 26, 2024)