low current (~1uA) multimeter?

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brehob
 
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:20 am

low current (~1uA) multimeter?

Post by brehob »

Hi folks,
Does anyone know of a reasonably cheap multimeter that can measure current as low as 1uA (10uA would also be okay)? I'd love to be able to go even lower, but stay in the ~$200 range and (most importantly) not be easily destroyed by newbies playing with it.

Thanks,
Mark

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: low current (~1uA) multimeter?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

You want Dave Jones's uCurrent: https://www.adafruit.com/products/882

It's a current-to-voltage converter that goes down to 1mV per nanoamp. With a decent multimeter you should be able to take readings down to the 10pA range. It also works as a precision 100:1 voltage amplifier, so putting two of them in series would take you down to the high femtoamp range. At that point you need special techniques to avoid introducing errors larger than the signal you're trying to measure.

We don't have any in stock because Dave has been working on an updated version, but his website says "early September": http://eevblog.myshopify.com/

brehob
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:20 am

Re: low current (~1uA) multimeter?

Post by brehob »

Thanks!

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