Compensation of impedance meters when using an external front-end amplifier

Abstract

Four-terminal impedance meters based on pseudo-bridges yield unexpected uncertainties when using high-contact-impedance electrodes. Adding a front-end amplifier to the impedance meter and rearranging the connection of the meter terminals overcome the contact impedance problem. However, because the compensation provisions in the instrument are meant to compensate only impedance residuals of test fixtures, by either an open/short or an open/short/load correction procedure, the external front-end increases the inaccuracy of the measurement setup. This paper shows that an open/short/load correction can also compensate complicated impedance residuals such as those from external amplifiers. The paper details the correction procedure and provides the equations to calculate the impedance under test from the readings of the impedance meter.