A versatile electrical impedance calibration laboratory based on digital impedance bridges

Short Name: VersICaL, Project Number: 17RPT04
Image showing an engineer performing maintenance on solar panel equipment
Engineer performing maintenance on solar panel equipment

Developing expertise for the practical use of digital impedance bridges


Electrical impedance is one of the most widely measured electrical quantities, important for studying areas including supercapacitors, solar materials, and biological tissues. This means that increasingly accurate impedance analysers are required, which must be calibrated to international standards. Calibration services rely on ‘impedance bridges’, which are complex and labour intensive measuring systems beyond the means of most measurement laboratories. Digital impedance bridges offer an ideal solution as they are versatile, use inexpensive and readily available components, and do not require a high level of operator skill. As such, there is a need to show that they can be adapted for industry use.

 

This project designed, constructed, and validated a single reference impedance bridge, developed a good practice guide for the application of digital impedance bridges, and created a virtual training lab. In doing so, the project has facilitated the training and dissemination of expertise in practical ways, supporting industries in the adoption of digital techniques for accurate impedance measurements.

 

Project website
Publications
A Comprehensive Analysis of Error Sources in Electronic Fully Digital Impedance Bridges
2021

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Characterization of a precision modular sinewave generator
2020

Measurement Science and Technology

Other Participants
Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
Uniwersytet Zielonogorski (Poland)