Innovation in Calibration Technology for High-Precision High-Voltage Power Supplies

1. Technical Value of High-Precision Calibration
High-precision high-voltage power supplies are irreplaceable in fields such as semiconductor lithography, quantum metrology, and medical diagnosis. The accuracy of their output voltage and current directly determines equipment performance. For example, a 0.1% deviation in the output accuracy of a high-voltage power supply in semiconductor wafer etching equipment can cause a 0.5μm deviation in etching line width, affecting chip yield. A 1% current fluctuation in the high-voltage power supply of a medical proton therapy device can lead to proton beam energy deviation, impacting treatment effectiveness. Traditional calibration technologies rely on manual operation and offline calibration, with long calibration cycles (typically 24-48 hours) and accuracy highly susceptible to environmental factors (temperature and humidity variations cause ±0.2% errors), failing to meet the real-time calibration needs of high-precision equipment.
2. Innovative Directions in Calibration Technology
(1) Automated Calibration Systems
Based on virtual instrument technology (e.g., LabVIEW, Python measurement and control platforms), an integrated system of "multi-channel sampling + real-time data analysis + automatic calibration execution" is built. High-precision voltage transformers (error ≤0.001%) and shunts (current sampling accuracy ≤0.005%) collect power supply output parameters in real time. The software platform compares these parameters with standard values (traceable to national metrology standards), automatically generates calibration compensation commands, and drives the power supply's internal adjustment circuit to complete calibration. This system reduces calibration time from 24 hours to 1.5 hours, with calibration repeatability error controlled within ±0.01%. For example, in quantum voltage standard devices, automated calibration systems enable real-time calibration of 10kV high-voltage power supplies, ensuring the output voltage deviation from the Josephson voltage standard is less than 0.0005%.
(2) Dynamic Calibration Technology
Traditional static calibration cannot cover dynamic errors of high-voltage power supplies with dynamic outputs (e.g., pulsed, frequency-adjustable). Dynamic calibration technology uses high-speed data acquisition cards (sampling rate ≥1GS/s) to capture transient output waveforms of the power supply, analyzing dynamic errors in pulse rise time, fall time, and peak value. Combined with adaptive calibration algorithms, it adjusts the power supply's control parameters in real time. In pulsed X-ray machine high-voltage power supplies, dynamic calibration technology reduces the dynamic error of pulse peak voltage from ±1.5% to ±0.3%, significantly improving X-ray image clarity.
(3) Traceability Technology Upgrade
Quantum traceability methods replace traditional physical standards (e.g., standard resistors, capacitors) to reduce error accumulation in the traceability chain. For example, resistor standards based on the quantum Hall effect (accuracy ≤1×10⁻⁸) and voltage standards based on the Josephson effect (accuracy ≤1×10⁻⁹) form a quantum calibration and traceability system for high-voltage power supplies. Meanwhile, fiber optic transmission of standard signals avoids signal attenuation and interference in traditional cable transmission, enabling remote calibration. Currently, some domestic metrology institutions have established 100kV-level quantum high-voltage calibration devices, improving the calibration accuracy of high-voltage power supplies by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
3. Applications and Development Prospects
Innovative calibration technologies have been applied to high-voltage power supplies for semiconductor lithography equipment (calibration accuracy ±0.005%) and medical linear accelerator power supplies (dynamic calibration response time ≤10μs). In the future, with the in-depth integration of AI algorithms, calibration systems will gain self-learning capabilities, optimizing calibration models based on long-term power supply operating data. Combined with 5G technology, remote collaborative calibration of multiple devices will be realized, further reducing calibration costs and improving efficiency.