Characterisation of a Selection of AC and DC Resistance Bridges for Standard Platinum Resistance Thermometry

Abstract

Accurate resistance bridges are used to measure the ratio between the resistance of standard platinum resistance thermometers and a reference (standard) resistor at the level of microkelvin in temperature terms and as such play a critical role in the realisation and dissemination of the ITS-90. For AC bridges, the ratio test unit has been available for some time, and for both AC and DC bridges, the increasing availability of resistance bridge calibrators based on combinatorial calibration has increased the ease with which the accuracy and linearity of resistance bridges may be determined, under conditions which provide a realistic representation of the actual measurement set-up. In this study, the performance of 14 resistance bridges, which were available for testing at NPL, consisting of a range of manufacturers and types, has been evaluated and expressed in terms of the standard deviation of the bridge errors over a given range of ratios, namely s. In general, the bridges are found to comply with the manufacturers’ specifications. The uncertainty of s has also been determined using Monte Carlo techniques and is found to be of the order of 10 % of s for most bridge types.