When a constant current is passed through a thermometer of resistance Rt and a set reference resistor of known value Rs, the voltage across them will be in direct proportion to their resistance values.
Anonymous of both voltages and for that reason of the two resistors, can be measured very accurately using high-precision voltage divider techniques employed in the AC bridges with ASL technology. As Rs is known, Rt can be determined from n=Rt/Rs, where n is the measured ratio.
The advantages of the AC bridge
The low-frequency AC (alternating current) bridge technology has major advantages over DC (direct current) systems for high-precision measurement of platinum resistance thermometers, two which are:
DC generates small voltages in the thermometer, reference resistor and cables, across every junction where different materials are used, (for example copper, tin, platinum, palladium, nickel etc.). These voltages increase or subtract from the measured voltages and so are dependent on the many temperature differences at the junctions, hence they are known as ?Thermal EMFs?. These variable voltages cause measurement errors and the more accurate DC bridge systems switch the polarity of the existing to attempt to solve the issue, taking between two and four seconds for each reversal. Utilizing the ASL technology, the AC bridges perform this reversal automatically 75 times a second, a more effective solution.
Active circuits, which are key to the performance of DC systems, suffer from ambient temperature changes as well as the ramifications of component ageing. Fundamental to the ASL AC bridges accuracy is its inductive voltage divider ? a passive, precision voltage divider, the performance which is unaffected by ambient temperature change and by time. DC bridges require very stable and accurate electronics to accomplish their performance. Because active circuitry within the AC bridge is secondary to performance, the effects of active component drifts and ageing are therefore minimised. Illusive results within an instrument which does not require regular recalibration to stay within specification.
Note
Information on our resistance thermometry bridges are available on the WIKA Website.