A Three-Arm Current Comparator Bridge for Impedance Comparisons Over the Complex Plane

Abstract

We present here the concept of three-arm current comparator impedance bridge, which allows one to perform comparisons among three unlike impedances. Its purpose is the calibration of impedances having arbitrary phase angles against calibrated nearly pure impedances. An analysis of the bridge optimal setting and proper operation is presented. To test the concept, a two-terminal-pair digitally assisted bridge has been realized; preliminary measurements of an air-core inductor and of an <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$RC$ </tex-math></inline-formula> network versus decadic resistance and capacitance standards, at kilohertz frequency, have been performed. The bridge measurements are compatible with previous knowledge of the standard values with relative deviations of parts in <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-5}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> .