Final e-SI-Amp Project Meeting The final project meeting for e-SI-Amp at the headquarters of Laboratoire national de métrologie et d’essais (LNE) Paris, March 2019. This meeting (28/29 March) gave e-SI-Amp partners an opportunity to discuss in detail the most recent results of research activities and of the overall progress made towards our goals of establishing enhanced small current measurement… Read More
Small Current Measurements for Radionuclide Metrology @NIST A workshop coordinated by BIPM and held at NIST has given e-SI-Amp partners a chance to discuss how developments in small current measurement technology can be applied in the field of nuclear medicine. The activity of samples of radioactive isotopes is a key tool in the development and application of certain cancer treatments. Activity is… Read More
Editors Pick: Measuring sub-picoamp currents with uncertainties below ten attoamperes A paper from e-Si-Amp partners PTB published in the Review of Scientific Instruments has been selected as one of the most read editors highlights of 2017. The paper “Measurement of sub-picoampere direct currents with uncertainties below ten attoamperes” contains an in-depth analysis and characterisation of a new variant of the Ultrastable Low Current Amplifier optimised… Read More
The noise-optimised ULCA: Editors Pick in Review of Scientific Instruments A paper on the noise optimised version of the Ultrastable Low Current Amplifier, developed by PTB has been selected as an editors pick for the journal ‘Review of Scientific Instruments’. Review of Scientific Instruments publishes novel advancements in scientific instrumentation, apparatuses, techniques of experimental measurement, and related mathematical analysis. The paper describes the process of selection of… Read More
Small current measurements with the ULCA: Workshop @PTB On March 20 and 21, 2019, the workshop “Ultrastable Low-Noise Current Amplifier (ULCA) in Laboratory Practice” was held at PTB. The ULCA is a commercially available instrument, developed by PTB, that enables the measurement and generation of small currents with the highest accuracy. This was attended by sixteen participants from national metrology institutes, the international metrology coordinating body… Read More
The ULCA in an Industrial Lighting Laboratory OSRAM is a large multinational lighting manufacturer and lighting solution-provider. Historically producing incandescent light bulbs – their name is a portmanteau of filament materials Osmium and Wolfram – they are now one of the largest manufacturers of optoelectronic semiconductors in the world. Supported by e-SI-Amp partners PTB, the OSRAM reference laboratory are now using the ULCA… Read More
e-SI-Amp contributions to CPEM 2018 The Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements is a biennial meeting of experts on electrical and related metrology. It was held in Paris 8th-13th July 2018. The work of the e-SI-Amp consortium on small current measurement and generation was well represented. Some of these presentations were written up into detailed, peer-reviewed papers listed below. M. Götz et… Read More
Ultra Stable Current Source supporting optical measurements The Ultra-Low DC Current source (ULCS) is a small current generating tool developed at Tubitak/UME. This provides a small reference current for the calibration of measuring instruments at very low currents. This instrument has recently been integrated into usage in the TUBITAK UME Optical calibration lab. This ULCS is based on ‘capacitor ramp’ methods (a linear… Read More
e-SI-Amp in-depth training During the e-SI-Amp project there have been many opportunities for in-depth training, typically in the operation of electron pumps, or in high accuracy small current measurements (and associated noise debugging). One particular example, which includes many of these activities, is the training that PhD student Ilaria Finardi (INRiM) received while a guest at PTB, Braunschweig.… Read More
Exchangeable sample holder for electron pump devices The e-SI-Amp sample package Working with the manufacturer of bespoke cryogenic components Aivon, we have developed a sample enclosure for electron pump samples compatible with cryostats at VTT, NPL and Aalto. This can be used to test the universality of different electron pump architectures and the robustness of electron pump performance when the same device… Read More