The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have begun shipping a new 10V standard to users around the world. The programmable system measures both direct current (dc) and alternating current (ac) voltages.
The new 10V system builds on a number of previous NIST inventions, from the initial 1V standard in 1984 through the 2006 unveiling of the world’s first precision instrument for directly measuring ac voltages. Because the measurements are made using integrated circuits based on quantum phenomena and simple equations that can be reproduced reliably, NIST quantum voltage standards represent a major advance over historical artifact standards, which were essentially chemical batteries that were influenced by environmental conditions and sometimes drifted over time.