A Precise Pulsed Current Source for Absolute Calibration of Current Measurement Systems With No DC Response

Absolute calibration of systems with no DC response requires pulsed calibration circuits. This paper presents a precise pulsed current source designed primarily for remote calibration of a beam intensity measurement system. However, due to its simple and flexible design, it might also prove interesting for other applications. The circuit was designed to drive a load of 10 Ω with current pulses lasting a few hundred microseconds with an amplitude of 1 A and precision in the order of 0.01%. The circuit is equipped with a half-bridge for precise determination of the absolute output current using the 0 V method. This paper presents the circuit topology and discusses in detail the choice of the critical components along with their influence on the final achieved accuracy. The performance of the built prototype of the current source is presented with laboratory measurements.