Company Blog

Different Views on Quality Factor and Equivalent Circuit Modeling

21.09.2023

MFIA front

For ease of communication, scientific nomenclature is often named as short as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes this convention leads to different terms sharing the same name, which may lead to confusion. Taking piezoelectric impedance and dielectric impedance as examples in this blog post, we will clarify 2 ambiguous terms, the quality...

Fitting Electrical Impedance Spectra Measured by an MFIA Impedance Analyzer

21.08.2023

Nyquist screenshot

Equivalent circuit modeling (ECM) is often necessary to understand the detailed frequency-dependent physics behind a device or component. In many real-world scenarios where the circuit model is complicated (more than 2 elements), ECM can only be done after a frequency sweep is completed, or in other words, during post-processing. In...

Detecting Covid Virus Using an MFIA Impedance Analyzer

14.06.2023

MFIA

In the past few years, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has led to a tremendous development in detecting SARS-CoV-2 (and HCoV-229E) viruses. Whereas polymerase chain reaction-based fluorescence is known to be accurate, it is time-consuming and requires sophisticated setup and expertise. On the other hand, lateral flow assay (LFA) is...

Piezoelectric Impedance: Measurement and Modeling

13.04.2023

teaser piezo

Piezoelectric materials can produce electricity under mechanical stresses, and often find uses in both sensing and transducing applications. In this blog post, we focus on the electrical impedance measurement of piezoelectric materials, using an MFIA Impedance Analyzer (measuring the electrical response of piezoelectric devices often requires a charge integrator, which...

Setting Up Drive Level Capacitance Profiling Measurements

14.03.2023

DLCP

Drive level capacitance profiling (DLCP) is a powerful technique to accurately determine the charge carrier density in semiconductors when deep level states are present. It is often considered an improvement over the widely applied characterization technique known as capacitance-voltage (C-V) profiling...

Dielectric Impedance Measurements of Chocolates

19.12.2022

winter card

Swiss chocolates are famous worldwide thanks to their high quality of taste. Switzerland is also renowned as the country with the highest chocolate consumption per capita. Today, many popular brands can be found even in the supermarket. Are you curious about what makes the chocolates special? And which non-destructive technique (NDT) can be employed to measure them?

Understanding the Sweep Duration in the LabOne Sweeper Module

31.08.2022

A fast sweep capability is often desired by researchers working on fast physical phenomena or short-lived samples, and may also be beneficial purely from a time-saving perspective. This blog post will elucidate the factors on which the sweep rate depends and guide you along several possible ways to make the...

DLTS User Meeting 2022 – Q&A

25.07.2022

DLTS User Meeting 2022

This blog post presents a selection of questions and answers raised during the DLTS User Meeting 2022. The meeting intended to bring together the community who may face common measurement challenges and allow them to share core competencies and know-how.

DC-biased Impedance Measurements Using an External Bias Tee

23.06.2022

DC-biased impedance measurement

A bias tee is often used in DC-biased impedance measurements. In fact, some impedance analyzers may have a built-in bias tee to allow the output of a sine wave with DC offset. Advanced ones such as the MFIA Impedance Analyzer , are further equipped with an analog adder path to...

Impedance Characterization of a Wideband Bias Tee

28.04.2022

photo and circuit of a bias tee

A bias tee is often used to add a DC offset to an RF signal ideally without affecting its transmission. In the simplest format, this is often achieved with an L||C circuit, where the high-frequency RF signal passes through the capacitor C, and the DC counterpart is injected across the...

Characterizing Electrochemical Gas Sensors with Impedance Measurements

14.12.2021

Gas sensing with the MFIA

Gas sensing is a topic of broad research interest. Our page on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) shows a good example of application. That example considers an optical investigation to quantitatively assess gas content, achieving extremely low detection limits. In this short blog post, we focus instead on the...

Choosing the Best Current Input Range for Impedance Measurements

20.10.2021

Current-zone-ranging

Auto-ranging is one of the key features of all impedance analyzers. It makes it possible to run a sweep (of frequency, AC amplitude, DC bias, or other parameters of interest) continuously and without manual adjustments of the input ranges. This helps particularly when working with reactive components, whose impedance changes...

网络研讨会：来自瑞士的顶尖阻抗分析仪

27.09.2021

MFIA Impedance Analyzer

2021年9月23日，苏黎世仪器举办了一场网络研讨会：“即来自瑞士的顶尖阻抗分析仪: 快速和低速测量两相宜”。此研讨会包含了两部分内容。其一就是直流支撑电容器的ESR和ESL的测试，我们重点讲述了如何通过智能用户补偿，实现低至mOhm和nH数量级的微笑阻抗的测试。其二则为深能级动态能谱检测（DLTS）。在这一部分中，我们展示了如何使用MFIA在us的时间尺度内，测到半导体器件中fF级别电容的变化。我们希望借本次研讨会之际，能与您展开更为深入的交流。

Loudspeaker Impedance Measurements

26.07.2021

audio fig1

Loudspeakers are electroacoustic transducers that convert electrical signals into acoustic ones. They are commonly found in our daily lives. One of the most frequently used types, known as an electrodynamic loudspeaker, functions by the movement of a cone membrane (diaphragm). When AC electrical signals are sent to the voice coil...

使用MFIA测量自来水样本的电化学阻抗谱

05.07.2021

Nyquist Plot

电化学阻抗谱（EIS）是一种常用的无损检测材料（尤其是在固液界面）物理化学性能的手段。尽管数据的分析有一些复杂，EIS依旧被广泛的应用在各类的电化学器件（电池，超级电容器，燃料电池），介电涂层，以及微流控芯片之中。本篇博文演示了如何使用MFIA阻抗分析仪（或者带IA选件的MFLI锁相放大器）测量自来水的电化学阻抗谱。