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Low Level Measurements Handbook

Low Level Measurements Handbook

Low Level Measurements Handbook

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the connecting cable. A practical voltmeter may be represented by an idealinfinite input-resistance voltmeter (V M ) in parallel with a resistor equal tothe specified input resistance (R IN ), as shown in Figure 2-1. When a sourcewhose Thevenin equivalent is V S in series with R S is connected to the input,the voltage (V M ) appearing across the meter input terminals is reduced bythe voltage divider action of R S and R IN as follows:RV INM = V S ––––––––––( RS + R IN)For example, assume R S = 100kΩ and R IN = 10MΩ. If V S = 5V, the actualvoltage measured by the meter is:10V 7M = 5 –––––––––––V M = 4.95V( 105 + 10 7 )Thus, input resistance loading would result in an error of 1% in thisexample.The meter input resistance should be much higher than the sourceresistance. For example, if the desired accuracy is 1%, then the meter resistancemust be more than 100 times the source resistance. For higher accuracy,this ratio must be correspondingly higher.The connecting cable ordinarily isn’t a factor, but with very high sourceresistances (>10GΩ) or under extreme environmental conditions, it canFIGURE 2-1: Effects of Input Resistance Loading on Voltage Measurement AccuracyHIR SV SR INInputResistanceV MLOVoltage SourceVoltmeter Measuring V SIndicating V MV M = V SR INR IN + R S<strong>Measurements</strong> from High Resistance Sources 2-3

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