electrometer (redirected from Electrometry)

electrometer [i‚lek′träm·əd·ər]

(engineering)

An instrument for measuring voltage without drawing appreciable current.

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Electrometer

A highly sensitive instrument which measures all or some of the following variables: current, charge, voltage, and resistance. There are two classes of electrometers, mechanical and electronic. The mechanical instruments have been largely replaced by electronic types. See Current measurement, Electrical measurements, Voltage measurement

Mechanical electrometers rely for their operation on the mechanical forces associated with electrostatic fields. Attracted-disk instruments, in which the attractive force between two plates, with a potential difference between them, is measured in terms of the fundamental units of mass and length, are sometimes termed absolute electrometers. They are widely used as electrostatic voltmeters for measuring potentials greater than 1 kilovolt. See Electrical units and standards

The quadrant electrometer consists of a cylindrical metal box divided into quadrants which stand on insulating pillars. Opposite quadrants are connected electrically, and a light, thin metal vane of large area is suspended by a conducting torsion fiber inside the quadrants. An unknown potential is applied across the two quadrant pairs, and electrostatic forces on the vane cause a deflection proportional to the potential. Potentials as low as 10 millivolts can be measured. Small charges and currents can also be measured if the capacitance between vane and quadrants is known. See Electroscope, Electrostatics, Voltmeter

Electronic electrometers utilize some form of electronic amplifier, typically an operational amplifier with a field-effect-transistor input stage to minimize the input current. In the most sensitive applications, problems arise due to drift in the amplifier characteristics and electrical noise present in the circuit components. To obviate these effects, electrometers employing a vibrating capacitor or varactor diodes are used. The signal to be measured is converted to an alternating-current (ac) signal and subsequently amplified by an ac amplifier which is less susceptible to drift and noise. The amplified signal is finally reconverted to direct current (dc). See Transistor