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Barry Wood
Phone: 613-990-9225
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Email: Barry.Wood@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
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Calculable Capacitor
In collaboration with the 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.
A calculable capacitor is a device that yields an accurate determination of impedance in terms only of a length – a length which can be very accurately measured using optical interferometry. Three such devices are presently under construction–at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), at NMIA and at NRC. The NRC calculable capacitor will also be used in conjunction with quantized Hall measurements to determine a value for RK, the fundamental constant of resistance. When the SI system is reorganized, the calculable capacitor will be used to determine a value for the permittivity of free space (ε0), which will no longer be a defined quantity under the proposed new system of units.
Dr. Carlos Sanchez, Research Officer in the Electrical Standards group winding precision transformers for impedance bridges to be used to link the calculable capacitor to the NRC primary standards.
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