Company Blog

Capacitance Transients at Variable Temperature

05.10.2023

LabOne DAQ Module showing capacitive transients

This blog post shows the ease of set-up of the MFIA to measure capacitive transients for self-build DLTS. The combination of MFIA plus third-party temperature stage brings the possibility to tune your DLTS measurement parameters to suit your sample. Home-building your DLTS system with the MFIA gives you flexibility and the freedom to choose the test signal amplitude, frequency and even the mode of stressing pulse.

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...

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...

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?

Measuring Photo-Enhanced Ionic Conductivity

02.06.2022

Dino holding the MFIA and the April issue of Nature Materials

This blog post summarizes the latest academic project of Dino, our new Application Scientist Impedance Analysis. He investigated materials for high-temperature fuel cells in Fukuoka, Japan and the results made it to the front cover of Nature Materials. Learn how light can be used to increase the ionic conductivity of standard electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cells, and how to measure this effect using the MFIA Impedance Analyzer.

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...

Faster Impedance Measurements at Low Frequency

01.03.2022

MFIA Impedance Analyzer

Impedance measurements at frequencies as low as 1 mHz can take a significant amount of time for a multi-point sweep. The MFIA Impedance Analyzer allows for sweeps from 1 mHz to 5 MHz, with a freely selectable number of points up to 100000. In standard mode on the MFIA, a...

Discovering the MF-IA Impedance Analyzer Option

11.02.2022

The MF-IA option for the MFLI

This blog post introduces the MF-IA Impedance Analyzer option, which can be added to the MFLI Lock-in Amplifier to enhance it with the same impedance analyzer and precision LCR meter functionality as the MFIA Impedance Analyzer. Adding the MF-IA option to your MFLI gives you the ability to measure the...

How to Set Two Oscillation Frequencies for the MFIA?

09.02.2022

Result of configuring two osc frequencies

Sometimes we want to measure impedance at two different frequencies simultaneously. The second frequency can be either higher-order harmonics or completely independent from the first one. Thanks to the MF-MD Multi-Demodulator option, we can conveniently set this up. In this short blog post, we will walk you through.

Low-Frequency DLTS of Perovskite Solar Cells

29.06.2021

Fig.1

Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) is a powerful and commonly used technique to investigate the concentration and carrier binding energy of defects in semiconductors. The technique involves measuring capacitance transients at different temperatures, typically at 1 MHz. However, DLTS can also be carried out at lower frequencies such as 80...

Impedance Measurements with Small Amplitude Test Signals

03.06.2021

Scope showing bit resolution

When taking an impedance measurement, the test signal amplitude can often be a factor that needs to be minimized to avoid unnecessarily disturbing the sample under test. This blog post presents measurements showing how even small test signals of just 500 nV can be used to take a reliable impedance...

Customized Output Data Format for Impedance Sweeps

16.04.2021

Data Format

This short blog post shows you how to customize the exported data of your impedance sweeps on the MFIA and MFLI with MF-IA option. The Sweeper module of LabOne^® is an excellent tool to sweep frequency, amplitude or bias offset, and measure multiple parameters as a function of the swept parameter.

Capturing Transients with the Zurich Instruments Toolkit

07.04.2021

MFIA configuration

In many applications, Zurich Instruments' lock-in amplifiers and impedance analyzers are integrated into a larger measurement system. Relying on an application programming interface (API) to obtain necessary information from the instruments is of great importance in such cases...

Sensing Finger Movements with Impedance Measurements

19.01.2021

Fingers

Smart clothes, wearables and biosensors do not sound as futuristic as they used to. The development in this field of science and engineering is rapid and it is no longer a niche – as seen in the first or even second generation of such products hitting the market. Although there...

Fast Frequency Sweeps for Impedance Measurements

19.01.2021

Sweeper Trace

When characterizing a device or material as a function of frequency, the resulting spectrum may change with time as the environment or material itself evolves. This time evolution can be captured by taking sequential frequency sweeps with the LabOne Sweeper module on the MFIA or the MFLI. Each sweep requires...