Measurement of the capacitance-low temperature performance curve of a ceramic capacitor

Abstract

Highly reproducible capacitance-low temperature performance curves in the temperature range 130-280 K were obtained for a commercial ceramic disk capacitor with a modified barium titanate dielectric. Presented here is the description of a cryostat and the design of a test fixture used with a microprocessor-controlled LCR meter. By using the test fixture the capabilities of the meter were considerably enhanced by allowing continuously changing capacitance to be accurately measured.