Calibration services

News and Updates

The Half of It: Argentinian Metrologist Builds NIST-Inspired ‘Half-Angle’ Measurement System

October 30, 2019

When Jorge Campbell, an engineer from Argentina’s National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI), visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Brighter Future for LEDs: NIST Introduces New Lamp Calibration Lab

September 3, 2019

Question: How many measurement scientists does it take to screw in an LED lightbulb? Answer: For researchers at the National Institute of Standards and

Exactly how loud is that jackhammer?

August 17, 2018

When a jackhammer starts pounding outside your window at 7 o’clock on a Monday morning, you might find it annoying. For the worker who is running that

NIST Puts the Optical Microscope Under the Microscope to Achieve Atomic Accuracy

May 22, 2018

Over the last two decades, scientists have discovered that the optical microscope can be used to detect, track and image objects much smaller than their

Industry Impacts

A man in a hardhat standing on top of the million-pound weight stack with a person standing at the bottom.

Massive Forces for Heavy Industry

Measuring large forces, such as the thrust of a rocket engine or the deflection of an aircraft wing, requires well-calibrated force sensors. NIST’s unique

Projects and Programs

New Standardization of Ra-228

Measurements of radium isotopes in the naturally-occurring radioactive decay chains (i.e., 235U, 238U, and 232Th) are exceedingly important for various

Advanced Metering in Smart Distribution Grids

Electricity meters today face unprecedented challenges, from distorted waveforms on the grid, bidirectional metering for renewables, and the use of meters as

SI Length and Traceability

To enable our highest accuracy calibrations and NIST advanced research efforts, we maintain and develop methods to provide traceability to the meter via laser

Primary optical watt radiometer (POWR)

The Sensor Science Division of NIST realizes and maintains the unit of optical power (watt) with the NIST reference cryogenic radiometer, Primary Optical Watt

Publications

Direct DC Voltages Comparison between two Programmable Josephson Voltage Standards at SCL

September 10, 2020

Author(s)

S. Yang, Stefan Cular, Alain Rufenacht, Charles J. Burroughs, Paul D. Dresselhaus, Samuel P. Benz, M. N. Ng

Standards and Calibration Laboratory (SCL) setup in 2018 a liquid helium based programmable Josephson voltage standard (PJVS) developed by the National

Dual Josephson Impedance Bridge: Universal bridge for impedance metrology

August 24, 2020

Author(s)

Frederic Overney, Nathan E. Flowers-Jacobs, Blaise Jeanneret, Alain Rufenacht, Anna E. Fox, Paul D. Dresselhaus, Samuel P. Benz

This paper describes the results of the calibration of a 100 pF capacitance standard performed at 1233 Hz. Two calibration chains were used. The classical

Ultrafast waveform metrology: A first international comparison

August 24, 2020

Author(s)

Mark Bieler, Paul Struszewski, Ari D. Feldman, Jeffrey A. Jargon, Paul D. Hale, Pengwei Gong, Wen Xie, Chuntao Yang, Zhigang Feng, Kejia Zhao, Zhijun Yang

We report on the first international comparison in ultrafast waveform metrology. To this end, the frequency and time responses of a photodiode with a nominal

Advanced Temperature-Control Chamber for Resistance Standards

April 10, 2020

Author(s)

Shamith U. Payagala, Alireza R. Panna, Albert F. Rigosi, Dean G. Jarrett

Calibration services for resistance metrology have continued to advance their capabilities and establish new and improved methods for maintaining standard