[volt-nuts] Precision high resistance measurements / calibration of HP 4339B high-resistance meter.

[Mitch Van Ochten]

Here are specs from an older General Radio Bridge for observation.

GR 1644-A specifications:

Resistance Range: 1 kΩ to 1000 TΩ (10^3 to 10^15 Ω) in ten ranges.
Accuracy: 10^3 Ω to 10^10 Ω, ±1 %. After self-calibration: 10^10 to
10^12 Ω, ±1%*; 10^13 Ω, ±2%; 10^14 Ω, ±10%; 10^15 Ω, ± one scale
division.
ΔR% Dial: ±5% range; accurate to ±0.2% or, for small changes,
to ±0.1%.
Test Voltage: Voltage accuracy is ±3% ±0.5 V.
Fixed Voltages** 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000 v

Best regards,

mitch

-----Original Message-----
From: volt-nuts [mailto:volt-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of ed breya
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2018 12:23 PM
To: volt-nuts at febo.com
Subject: Re: [volt-nuts] Precision high resistance measurements / calibration of HP 4339B high-resistance meter.

Oops - I think I didn't send this message properly yesterday - here goes again. Ed

Yes, David, unless you go to very extreme measures, you won't see real R values that have any practical meaning beyond E12 ohms or so. Most practical insulation Rs may be around E12-E14 tops, unless you go to sapphire. Up in that region, the R may be all within a material, or include surface components like a film of dirt or moisture, or a fingerprint.

E11 resistors can be made to fairly high precision, and maybe E12 nowadays. In the old days, higher values were made by stacking E11s - like ten in series to get E12 with decent precision. The glass packaging also limits how high it can go, due to leakage within and on the surface. I once used a glass reed relay capsule as an ultra-high resistance in a circuit. There was no precision or stability at all, but it made a nice high resistor (probably E14-ish dry) even though there was no element in there, and the circuit didn't care, as long as it was very high, but not infinite.

The specs on this HP unit are likely just the most extreme capability taking maximum voltage over minimum current resolution, but any measurements would tend to be very noisy and unstable anyway. Also, testing at the extreme 1 kV makes the numbers seem more impressive, but the voltage coefficient of resistance will pretty much be unpredictable.

If this is a digital meter, then the other spec trick that tends to obscure the real performance limit is that the ultimate resolution and noise is that last digit - or even last two or three - that may may be pretty jumpy, unless very long averaging time is used.

There may be newer, fancier electrometers nowadays, but Keithley used to be the standard for these in the old days, before several digits of DVM resolution complicated the specs. They had a vibrating capacitor electrometer with all-sapphire input structure back in the 1970s/80s I think, that was the epitome of electrometers. I forget the model number, but vaguely recall that it could reach the aA region full scale - not that last digit of resolution thing. It's long obsolete, and I don't think they ever made anything actually better - only added DVM digits to less capable, conventional semiconductor amplifier techniques. If you can find info on it, it's an interesting read. I found a pdf of the manual years ago, but have no idea where it is now, or what info may still be around.

Ed

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