You are currently viewing A Programmable Decade Capacitor – Part 2

A Programmable Decade Capacitor – Part 2

In this part we will look at how to calibrate the decade capacitor and also see some measurement results.

Calibration

For the switching strategy described in the last post to work we need to know

  • Csl, the parasitic capacitance of the short loop
  • Cll, the parasitic capacitance of the long loop
  • The value of each of the capacitors

Measuring Csl

Csl is visible at the connectors if the capacitance is set to zero. (SCPI command: SOURce:CAPacitance 0) This will open the bypass relay and all relays of decade 1.

Command ADJustment:SLOop:CAPacitance <cmeas> sets Csl.

Measuring Cll

Csl can be measured if all decade relays are open but the bypass relay is closed. (SCPI command: ADJustment:LLOP:OPEN:STATe ON).

Command ADJustment:LLOop:CAPacitance <cmeas> sets Cll.

Measuring Capacitors

To measure the capacitance of a specific capacitor we can explicitly close one relay using command SOURce:DECade<dec>:RELay <byp>, <rel>.

Where <dec> is the decade [1..7], <byp> is the state of the bypass, ON for active, OFF for inactive and <rel> is the relay number [0..5] with 0 signifying all relays off.

To set the measured value use command ADJustment:DECade<dec>:RELay<rel>:CAPacitance <cmeas>

with <dec> in range [1..7] and <rel> in range [1..5].

Measurement Results

These are the results of 63 measurements from 20pF to 100uF taken with a DER EE DE-5000 LCR meter. The measurement frequency was 1kHz.

CDEC7 Measurement Results

The blue line shows the deviations from the set value. Note, that the deviation always stays below 0.2% even though the larger capacitors built into to box are specified with up to 5% tolerance.