Electrical Standards

The Electrical Standards program maintains primary standards, provides technical consultations, performs calibrations, and participates in international metrology activities. Scientists carry out research at the very forefront of electrical metrology, using novel techniques and advanced instrumentation to develop primary standards for use in all areas of electrical measurement from dc to microwave. Many of these primary standards are based on quantum phenomena, and are fundamentally stable, have low intrinsic noise and are exactly reproducible from place to place.

The program covers the electrical standards of voltage, resistance, capacitance, inductance, dc voltage ratio, low frequency ac voltage ratio, ac/dc difference, and ac resistance; and voltage, impedance, attenuation, power and noise at RF, and microwave frequencies up to 110 GHz.

The program disseminates values of these standards through a comprehensive calibration service and provides technical support for the Institute's Calibration Laboratory Assessment Service (CLAS) activities. These activities impact on most technical, manufacturing, transportation, military and utility sectors.

• Publications
• Calibration Services
• Facilities

Laser-Cooled Microwave Power Standard

The objective of this program is to develop a new RF power standard based on atomic constants. The laser-cooled rubidium atoms are dropped through a rectangular waveguide and under the effect of the radiation, the populations of the internal state undergo a Rabi flopping oscillation. [More]

Quantum Metrology for AC Voltage Measurement

Invited by his US colleagues to the NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg, MD, NRC metrologist Peter Filipski contributed to the rapid development of the pulse-driven AC Josephson Voltage Standard (ACJVS) based on Josephson junction arrays, moving closer to quantum metrology for AC voltage measurement. [More]

Electronic Kilogram Project

The electronic kilogram project known as the Watt Balance is a unique project that aims to contribute to the ongoing global effort to measure Planck’s Constant, h, and to redefine the kilogram. [More]

Calculable Capacitor

In collaboration with he national metrology institute of Australia (NMIA), NRC-INMS is constructing a new generation of calculable capacitors expected to yield impedance values up to ten times more accurate than can be achieved using the present generation of calculable capacitors. [More]

Related Information

Institutes:

• NRC Institute for National Measurement Standards