Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating, measuring and analyzing polarization voltages developed across an element, such as an electronic component or an electrochemical energy cell, or network of such elements, in response to a current mode excitation provided by a driver composed of a voltage controlled voltage source connected to one terminal of a Device Under Test and a voltage controlled current source connected to the other terminal of a Device Under Test. A voltage sensor, also connected across the Device Under Test, determines the magnitude and polarity of any potential appearing across the DUT; whenever the excitation current is exactly zero, this measured potential will be equal to the Open Circuit Potential of the DUT. This configuration of driver and sensor is known as a Kelvin connection. In response to the sensor's output, an internal control circuit adjusts the magnitude and polarity of an offset controlling signal provided to the voltage controlled voltage source, such that any intrinsic open circuit potential exhibited by the device under test appears centered with respect to the common ground potential of the apparatus. The offset controlling signal is also applied to the inputs of the sensor preamplifier such that the only the polarization voltage component of the DUT's voltage response to the excitation current appears at the output of the preamplifier. The characteristics of the resulting polarization voltage signal appearing at the output of the sensor preamplifier may be analyzed to yield both qualitative and quantitative information about the Device Under Test.

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