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AC RESISTANCE RATIO BRIDGE FOR EVALUAITON OF CALCULABLE A C m C RESISTORS
Y. S. Ku and Jimmy C. Hsu
National Measurement Laboratory
Center For Measurement Standards
EZOO,Bldg. 16,321, Kumg Fu Rd., Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan

ftequency range which presumably due to the bridge ratio

Abstract
This paper summarizes the construction and operation of
our quadrifilar resistor and newly developed precise ac
resistance ratio bridge with relative uncertainty of about
few parts in IO8. The quadrifilar resistor is used as the
resistance transfer standard from dc to about 10 lcHz
frequency range. However, its frequency dependence is
usually certified only by calculation based on the
Gibbing's theory. We report our plan to evaluate the
correctness of calculations by comparing its frequency
dependence to that of a bifilar resistor using the ac
resistance ratio bridge.
errors.
We propose to evaluate the correctness of calculations by
comparing its frequency dependence to that of a bifilar
resistor using the ac resistance ratio bridge in frequency
range from 0.1 kHz to 10 kHz. We also report design,
operation and performance of our ac resistance ratio
bridge. We report our plan to.
Construction of Ouadrifilar Resistor
Figure 1 shows the cross-section view of our quadrifilar
resistor, which is designed based on the Gibbing's theory

Introduction

We have been working to establish impedance standard

tracahle to the quantized Hall resistance standard. We
briefly outline the procedure and present situation of our
impedance standard hereafter.
A quadrifilar resistor of nominal value of I!& was
developed based on the Gibbing's theory [1][2]. It is
directly compared to the second plateau of the quantized
Hall resistance with uncertainty better than 1 part in IO8
using OUT laboratory made cryogenic current comparator
bridge (CCC bridge) [3]. A 1O:l ac resistance ratio bridge
is used to determine the resistance values of the 10 w2
and 100 w2 resistors. Then, a quadrature bridge is
designed to determine the value of 1000 pF capacitors by
comparing them to the 100 w2 resistors. Finally, a 1O:l Fig.1 Construction of quadrifilar resistor
four terminal-pair bridge is used to determine 100 pF and
10 pF capacitors.
We report the design and construction of our quadrifilar
resistor. It is used to enhance ftequency range ftom dc to
10 kHz. From Gibbing's theory, the quadrifilar resistor is
calculated to have negligible change of resistance
between AC and DC. Experimental verifications for the
frequency characteristics of the quadrifilar resistors were
difficult and seldom done before for the limitations of the
bridge's accuracy [4]. In [I], a 1O:l ratio bridge was used
to compare the frequency characteristics between several
pairs of 1 M and lOOQ quadrifilar resistors in Ik to 33k
r a d s frequency range. The bridge was calibrated by
assuming the ratios of one pairs of resistors is !mown,
then the ratios of other pairs of resistors are 0 2 4 6 8 LO
experimentally measured using this bridge. The Frw(kHd
measurements results in [4] shows the difference of the Fig.2 Frequency characteristic
resistance ratios has higher discrepancy than the
Gibbing's theory predicted especially in the high to minimize eddy current, stray capacitance and skin

0-7803-7242-5/02$10.00 8 2 W 2 IEEE

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 343
effects. Resistance changes from 0 to IO kHz is calculated
to be smaller than about I part in IO'% shown in Figure 2.
The resistance element is housed in a stainless steel
cylindrical case of 140 mm diameter and 400 mm height.
We selected Evanohm S wire of 0.04 mm diameter as the
element. It is wound around two PTFE supporting rods to
be folded back upon itself of 280 mm length four times to
form a two-loops in series arrangement. Current and
potential leads are fastened using the nylon screws and
ceramic washers. Relative positions of the loops are
adjustable 1 cm in the distance and 1.414 cm in the
diagonal. Current flows and flows back through the
neighbered loops to cancel the induced magnetic flux.
We supplied current of IO mA to the wire for 24 hours
just after fabrication as beat treatment in order to
eliminate the intemal strain and improve the resistance
stability. All the quadrifilar resistor is installed in a
temperature stabilized oil bath at 25°C. Its resistance has
been regularly monitored. Its drift rate is about 0.08 ppm
per day, but it is getting saturated. Its drift is so smooth
that its resistance value is easily interpolated and
extrapolated by c w e fitting with high accuracy.
AC Resistance Bridee
Figure 3 shows a simplified circuit diagram of our newly
developed four-terminal pair ac resistance ratio bridge of
1:l mode[5][6]. It is designed to be used I:l, 2:l ... and
1O:l mode. Coaxial cable with a current equalizer is
Fig3 Four terminal-pair impedance bridge.
used at the each mesh of the circuit in order to balance the
currents flowing through its inner and outer conductors.
Two Inductive Voltge Dividers (IVD), TI and T2, are
used to adjust the inphase and quadrature components.
The generator supplies ac power to the IVDs and two
four-terminal pair resistors, Zs and Zx through the 1:l
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isolating tranformer, T3, of 140 tums. Variable capacitor
and resistor in the combining network, NI, are adjusted to
satisfy the Wagner balance, which is satisfied when the
detector, D3, shows no influence with or without the short
bar, S. The combining network, N2, and the 1:lOO
transformer are adjusted to eliminates the influences of
the cable impedance between the L terminals of the Zs
and Zx. The combining network, N3 (N4). is adjusted to
generate no voltage difference between the high (low)
potential terminal of the TI and H terminal of the Zs (Zx),
which is checked by the detector, D1 (D2).
The accuracy of the 1:l measurement was evaluated by
change of the readings of the IVD, T2 before and after
permuting the resistors, Zs and Zx because the uncertainty
associated to the offset of the detectors are cancelled. It
was measured to he about a few pans in 10'. It is not
necessary to evaluate the IVDs, TI and T2, separately to
estimate the uncenainty attributable to them. This
uncertainty is small enough to measure the frequency
dependence of our quadriftlar resistor by comparing it to
the bifilar resistor.
Conclusion
In view of our recent progress, the uncertainty of the ac
resistance ratio bridge is expected to be better than a few
pans in 10' in the I:l mode. We are now measuring the
frequency dependence of our laboratory made quadrifilar
resistor of 1 kohm by comparing it to NL engineering
made bifilar resistor of 1 kohm. Further results will be
presented at the conference.
References
I ] D. L. H.Gibbings,
[.~ - I' A design
- for resiston of calculable
a.cJd.c. resistance ratio ", Proceedinm 1E.E.. vol.l10, "0.2,
pp. 335-347, 1963.
[2] B. P. Kibble, A. Hartland and S . W. Chua, '' Calculable
ACDC Resistor for AC Ouantized Hall Resistance
Experiments ", in BEMC Conf Di&, Teddington, U. K. ,
1997,pp34/1-34/4
[3] Y. S. Ku, Jimmy C. M. H s q H. L. Pang and J. C. Hsiao,
'The Quantized Hall Resistance Standard at CMS " CpEM
ConfprenceDiaesr,pp.345,1998.
[4J D. L. H. Gibbings, " AN ALTERNATMG-CURRENT
ANALOGUE OF THE KELVIN DOUBLE BRIDGE ",
Proe~edinps~E.E.,voI.l09C,pp.307, 1962.
[5] B. P. Kibble, Raper G. H.,CouriaiACBridpes.ch0or.l.
Bristol, AdamHilger Ltd., 1984
.. RUDIGER HA".
161 "An Altematine Current Bridee for
I I
Comparing Four-Terminal-Pair Impedances at o = IO'
raUS '' IEEE TIanrntions on Immment, Vol. IM-3 I , pp
159-165, 1982