Survey of Zener-based voltage standards calibrated at the National Measurement Institute, Australia, in the period 1990-2004

摘要

A survey has been undertaken of the long-term performance of Zener-based voltage standards calibrated at the National Measurement Institute, Australia, in the period 1990-2004. A convenient measure of their stability is the 'pace', defined as the change in the standard divided by the relevant time-interval. The distribution of paces is presented as a set of histograms, which suggest not a normal (Gaussian) distribution of stability but rather a lognormal distribution. A measure of predictability of a standard is a graph of the present pace versus the previous pace, and this is illustrated and discussed.