iSimulator: Calibration of LCR-meter over the

entire complex plane F. Overney, B. Jeanneret

Federal Institute of Metrology, Lindenweg 50, 3003 Bern-Wabern, Switzerland

Abstract:

This paper describes a fully automated impedance simulator used to

calibrate commercial LCR-meters over the entire complex plane. The

amplitude of the synthesized impedance covers more than 7 orders

of magnitude from 1 W to more than 10 MW and the phase angle can

be arbitrary set to any value between -90 deg to +90 deg.

Measurements presented here have been carried out at frequencies

ranging from 100 Hz to 10 kHz.

Uncertainties

Calibration over the entire complex plane

Acknowledgements:

This work is partially funded by the EMRP project AIM-QuTE (SIB53). The

EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within

EURAMET and the European Union.

References:

[1] G. Ramm et al., IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 48, no. 2, 1999.

[2] F. Overney et al., Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 60, no. 7, 2011.

[3] J. Bohàček, Metrologia, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 231–237, Apr. 2002.

[4] M. Zeier et al., Metrologia, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 809–815, Dec. 2012.

The DUT measures the voltage V (at HP) and the current I (at LC)

and compute the impedance ZLCR.

Using the iSimulator, the voltage and the current are supplied from

two oscillators S1 and S2. The amplitudes and the relative phase can

then be arbitrarily changed.

A precise measurement of the voltage ratio Vv / Vi [1, 2] and the

calibration of ZCB [3] allow the determination of ZREF.

Two connecting boxes (100 W and 12.906 kW) are used to

synthesized impedances covering 7 order of magnitude.

Two different LCR-meters (of same type) have been calibrated (at

1 kHz) using the classical method and the iSimulator. The plots

show the results of the calibration carried out at METAS and at esz

AG in Munich .

The gain error of a LCR-meter (Agilent 4284A, S/N: MY42100167)

has been calibrated over the entire complex plane (red dots) at 1 kHz.

The uncertainty budget has been calculated using UncLib tools [4].

Validation and on-site demonstration at esz AG

Setup

DU

T

Conn

ectin

g

bo

x

Sa

mp

ling

brid

ge

Ag

ilen

t 4

28

4A

S/N

: M

Y4

21

00

16

7

Agile

nt 428

4A

S/N

: 2848J0

03

13

LCR-meter