WATERLOO, Ontario -- Siborg Systems Inc. has been working with the Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk to create a new calibration fixture for all Siborg's LCR-meter models including the LCR-Reader. The calibration fixture has recently been verified by Navair Technologies, one of Canada's leading calibration houses. With this verification, the unit is able to calibrate all models of LCR-meters, but most importantly, grants the ability to conduct traceable calibration for the LCR-Reader.
The calibration fixture utilizes 14 known components of different types that lay within the applicable measurement ranges. When the calibrated device is connected and the control button is pressed, the fixture connects to a different component which the calibrated LCR-meter or LCR-Reader measures with the results appearing on the LCR-meter's display which are then compared to the known values of the component.
Two versions of the calibration fixture have been created; using a 4-wire and 2-wire connections. Earlier models of LCR-meters employed a 2-wire connection between the PCB and the gold-plated test leads. Newer models, including the LCR-Reader, use a 4-wire connection. The 2-wire calibration fixture could not handle the complete dynamic range of L, C and R values, particularly higher values of resistance and lower values of capacitance and inductance due to a parasitic capacitance and resistance of the calibration fixture's circuit board.
The remedy was to create a 4-wire version of the fixture. Siborg and the Novosibirsk based Academic Institute created a calibration unit that was less sensitive to the parasitics on the fixture's PCB and could measure the values that the previous calibration fixture could not.
Since early 2000's, Tweezers Type LCR-meters became synonymous with high accuracy and speed while testing SMT. The design integrates gold-plated tweezers' probes with a lightweight LCR-meter. Unlike bench-type testers that require set up before measurements, LCR-Reader automatically determines the type of component and best test ranges immediately displaying the results.
There are presently two main models available: the advanced model with extensive menus and features and basic accuracy of 0.2%, and the lower-cost alternative, LCR-Reader, that does the primary functions for LCR and ESR measurements with the basic accuracy of 0.5%.
LCR-reader is a streamlined version of the Tweezers Meter family that retails for less than half the price of advanced models. It was previously believed that the basic accuracy was around 1% but after sending 4 randomly-selected devices to Navair, the results showed that it was closer to 0.5%. This model's main hindrance was the lack of traceable calibration but with the new calibration fixture, the LCR-Reader is optionally accompanied with a NIST traceable calibration certificate.
Now Siborg can provide periodical calibration for all its Tweezers Type meters including the LCR-Reader which is crucial to companies that require their test equipment to be calibrated annually.
For more info, go to http://www.lcr-reader.ca