Automated Multi-Meter Method for the Scaling of Low AC Voltage from 200 mV to 2 mV.docVIP

Energy and Power Engineering, 2013, 5, 129-134 /10.4236/epe.2013.52012 Published Online March 2013 (/journal/epe) Automated Multi-Meter Method for the Scaling of Low AC Voltage from 200 mV to 2 mV Rasha S. M. Ali, Hala A. Mageed, N. N. Tadros Electrical Quantities Laboratory, National Institute for Standards (NIS), Giza, Egypt Email: halaabdelmegeed@ Received January 4, 2013; revised February 10, 2013; accepted February 20, 2013 ABSTRACT A set of seven single junction thermal converter Micropotentiometers (μPots) has been constructed at the National In- stitute for Standards (NIS), Egypt. This set has been built to cover the low ac voltage ranges from 2 mV to 200 mV at frequencies from 40 Hz up to 20 kHz. The construction of the μPots set has been presented and an adopted calibration method has been performed as well. This method has been performed by means of a step-down procedure using a Digi- tal Multi-Meter (DMM). The scaling procedures have been carried out in sequential steps starting from the calibration of the 200 mV-μpot by using DMM that is accurately calibrated at its 200 mV ac voltage range down to 2 mV-μPot. Furthermore, a new automatic calibration system has been established to achieve the scaling procedures. This system has been specially designed using Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) software to over- come the deficiencies of manual methods. The automatic calibration has been investigated of all ?Pots at different fre- quencies. The ac-dc differences for the μPots and their uncertainty evaluation from 2 mV to 200 mV at different fre- quencies from 40 Hz to 20 kHz have been determined. Keywords: Micropotentiometer; Low ac Voltage Calibration; ac-dc Difference; Digital Multimeter; Step Down Procedure 1. Introduction ranges. The thermal converters are widely used in the field of ac-dc transfer standards [2]. There are different types of μPots according to the thermal c