Kelvin bridge

This article is about a measuring instrument. For the 2 Principle of operation

bridge across the river Kelvin, see Kelvinbridge.

A Kelvin bridge (also called a Kelvin double bridge and

in some countries a Thomson bridge) is a measuring in-
strument used to measure unknown electrical resistors be-
low 1 ohm. It is specifically designed to measure resistors
that are constructed as four terminal resistors.

1 Background

Resistors above about 1 ohm in value can be measured us-

Circuit diagram of Kelvin bridge
ing a variety of techniques, such as an ohmmeter or by us-
ing a Wheatstone Bridge. In such resistors, the resistance
of the connecting wires or terminals is negligible com-
pared to the resistance value. For resistors of less than
an ohm, the resistance of the connecting wires or termi-
nals becomes significant, and conventional measurement
techniques will include them in the result.

A commercial Kelvin Bridge

See also: Four-terminal sensing

The operation of the Kelvin bridge is very similar to the

Symbol for four terminal resistor
To overcome the problems of these undesirable resis-
tances (known as 'parasitic resistance'), very low value
resistors and particularly precision resistors and high cur-
rent ammeter shunts are constructed as four terminal re-
sistors. These resistances have a pair of current terminals
and a pair of potential or voltage terminals. In use, a cur-
rent is passed between the current terminals, but the volt
drop across the resistor is measured at the potential ter-
minals. The volt drop measured will be entirely due to the
resistor itself as the parasitic resistance of the leads car-
rying the current to and from the resistor are not included
in the potential circuit. To measure such resistances, re-
quires a bridge circuit designed to work with four terminal
resistances. That bridge is the Kelvin bridge.
Wheatstone bridge, but uses two additional resistors, Re-
sistors R1 and R2 are connected to the outside potential
terminals of the four terminal known or standard resistor
Rs and the unknown resistor Rx (identified as P1 and P1'
in the diagram). The resistors Rs, Rx, R1 and R2 are es-
sentially a Wheatstone bridge. In this arrangement, the
parasitic resistance of the upper part of Rs and the lower
part of Rx is outside of the potential measuring part of the
bridge and therefore are not included in the measurement.
However, the link between Rs and Rx (Rpar) is included
in the potential measurement part of the circuit and there-
fore can affect the accuracy of the result. To overcome
this, a second pair of resistors R'1 and R'2 form a second
pair of arms of the bridge (hence 'double bridge') and are
connected to the inner potential terminals of Rs and Rx
(identified as P2 and P2' in the diagram). The detector D
is connected between the junction of R1 and R2 and the
junction of R'1 and R'2.[1]

1
2 6 FURTHER READING

The balance equation of this bridge is given by the equa- There are some commercial bridges reaching accuracies
tion of better than 2% for resistance ranges from 1 microohm
to 25 ohms. One such type is illustrated above (though
( ) ( that model is designed for use with two terminal resistors).
)
Rx R2 Rpar R′ 1 R2 R′ 2
= + · · − Laboratory bridges are usually constructed with high ac-
Rs R1 Rs R′ 1 + R′ 2 + Rpar R1 R′ 1
curacy variable resistors in the two potential arms of
In a practical bridge circuit, the ratio of R'1 to R'2 is ar- the bridge and achieve accuracies suitable for calibrating
ranged to be the same as the ratio of R1 to R2 (and in standard resistors. In such an application, the 'standard'
most designs, R1 = R'1 and R2 = R'2). As a result, the resistor (Rs) will in reality be a sub-standard type (that is
last term of the above equation becomes zero and the bal- a resistor having an accuracy some 10 times better than
ance equation becomes the required accuracy of the standard resistor being cal-
ibrated). For such use, the error introduced by the mis-
match of the ratio in the two potential arms would mean
Rx R2 that the presence of the parasitic resistance Rpar could
=
Rs R1 have a significant impact on the very high accuracy re-
Rearranging to make Rx the subject quired. To minimise this problem, the current connec-
tions to the standard resistor (Rx); the sub-standard re-
sistor (Rs) and the connection between them (Rpar) is
Rs designed to have as low a resistance as possible, and the
Rx = R2 ·
R1 connections both in the resistors and the bridge more re-
The parasitic resistance Rpar has been eliminated from semble bus bars rather than wire.
the balance equation and its presence does not affect the Some ohmmeters include Kelvin bridges in order to ob-
measurement result. This equation is the same as for the tain large measurement ranges. Instruments for measur-
functionally equivalent Wheatstone bridge. ing sub-ohm values are often referred to as low-resistance
In practical use the magnitude of the supply B, can be ar- ohmmeters, milli-ohmmeters, micro-ohmmeters, etc.
ranged to provide current through Rs and Rx at or close to
the rated operating currents of the smaller rated resistor.
This contributes to smaller errors in measurement. This 4 References
current does not flow through the measuring bridge itself.
This bridge can also be used to measure resistors of the [1] All About Circuits
more conventional two terminal design. The bridge po-
tential connections are merely connected as close to the
resistor terminals as possible. Any measurement will then 5 External links
exclude all circuit resistance not within the two potential
connections.
• Kelvin Bridge
• Discussion of 4 terminal measurement and ohmme-
3 Accuracy ters in general.
• Northrup, Edwin F. (1912), Methods of Measuring
The accuracy of measurements made using this bridge Electrical Resistance, McGraw-Hill, pp. 100–131;
are dependent on a number of factors. The accuracy of chapter VI: The Measurement of Low Resistance.
the standard resistor (Rs) is of prime importance. Also
of importance is how close the ratio of R1 to R2 is to
the ratio of R'1 to R'2. As shown above, if the ratio is ex-
actly the same, the error caused by the parasitic resistance 6 Further reading
(Rpar) is completely eliminated. In a practical bridge, the
aim is to make this ratio as close as possible, but it is not • Jones, Larry D.; Chin, A. Foster (1991), Electrical
possible to make it exactly the same. If the difference in Instruments and Measurements, Prentice-Hall, ISBN
ratio is small enough, then the last term of the balance 9780132484695
equation above becomes small enough that it is negligi-
ble. Measurement accuracy is also increased by setting
the current flowing through Rs and Rx to be as large as
the rating of those resistors allows. This gives the greatest
potential difference between the innermost potential con-
nections (P2 and P2') to those resistors and consequently
sufficient voltage for the change in R'1 and R'2 to have
its greatest effect.
 3

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