Automated setup to accurately calibrate electrical dc voltage generators

At National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM), an automated setup to calibrate dc voltage generators, mainly top-level calibrators, from 1 mV to 1 kV has been developed. The heart of the setup is an INRIM-built automated precision fixed ratios dc voltage divider. It can be interconnected to a DMM characterized in linearity, to a dc voltage standard and to a dc voltage generator under calibration to manage automatically the calibration process. Novelty of the system is the employment of the divider being such an instrument not commercially available. Main results are the improvement of the reliability and the increasing of the accuracy of the calibration process saving a lot of time. In addition, it is possible to avoid several standards (still manually operating) carrying out the whole process without changing the setup configuration and without the presence of operators. The expanded uncertainties of the system span from 6.0 × 10−7 to 1.3 × 10−4 improving the previous capabilities of the INRIM laboratory for calibration of multifunction instruments. The setup concept can be transferred to secondary high-level electrical laboratories to improve and expedite their calibrations.