SCTS - Supercapacitor Testing System

     

Arbin Instruments' SCTS is designed for research and development of capacitors, supercapacitors, and ultracapacitors in a variety of applications. It can perform charge/discharge cycling, DC-ESR and DC-EPR tests, leakage current measurement, capacitance testing, cyclic voltammetry, and other common capacitor tests.

SCTS features multiple completely independent chanels that allow users to test multiple capacitors or modules simultaneously.

Arbin's SCTS is the most advanced cpcacitor testing system on the market today.

 

   
  Product Links:
BT2000
MSTAT
SCTS
EVTS
FCTS
DPH
MITS Pro
   
 SCTS Links:
Applications
Common Options
Circuit Types

Features

   
Flexible Control Types including constant current, voltage, load and power; as well as, linear ramp, staircase, formula and other control profiles    

 

Completely Independent Channels allow users to run multiple independant tests simultaneously without affecting what is happening on the other channels
  Industry Leading Accuracy up to 0.02% for low power applications
  Current Rise Times as fast as 50us    
  Potentiostatic/Galvanostatic Functionality enables each channel to run advanced electrochemical experiments    
  Dynamic Data Acquisition allows user to capture data in a differnet manner for each step based on change in time, voltage, and/or current - minimizing data file size    
  Plug and Play Modules for easy expansion and maintenance    
    Channel Paralleling allows users to parallel several of the main channels together to increase the current handling capability of the system    
    Multiple Current Ranges for improved accuracy over a wide range of testing conditions    
       
 

Common Options

     
  High Speed Pulse allows the user to use GSM, CDMA, IDEN pulse types or custom design their own sub-second pulse profiles. Each pulse can have up to 10 stages and the pulse can be run once or repeated as in mobile phone applications.      
  External Charger/Load allows the user to connect his own charger or load to the system and program the SCTS to charge/discharge using his charger/load at a predetermined step in the test schedule.  The system internally and automatically connects the battery to the charger/load.  During the External Charge/Load step, the Arbin system collects data about the charger/load performance.     
  Temperature Chamber Interface allows the user to integrate the SCTS system with a temperature chamber and controller. This allows the system to set the temperature set points and ramps seperately in each step for completely automated control. No more trying to time the temperature setpoints seperately...    
  Auxiliary Voltage Channels can be used for numerous applications but the most common is to measure individual cell voltages within a pack. They can also be used to measure and monitor a reference or working electrode in a multi-electrode experiment.    
  Auxiliary Temperature Channels can be used to measure and record temperature data. They can be inserted into the pack or cell or just used to measure room temperature. Arbin offers both thermocouple and thermistor options.      
       
 

Applications

     
  Charge/Discharge Cycling        
    Power charge/discharge cycling is a common way to compare the capacitor's cycling efficiency. Using constant current or constant power control mode, an operator can perform a current or power discharge down to the lower voltage limit followed by a constant current/power charge up to the upper voltage limit. An indicator of the capacitor's quality, such as capacitance, can be monitored at any moment during the test. For supercaps, the duration of each cycle is much shorter than for batteries, usually requiring only a few seconds to a few minutes per cycle. For this reason, SCTS provides extremely fast response and fast data acquisition, as well as, voltage clamp with <1ms response time to prevent overcharging.      
         
       
       
       
       
       
       
               
         
               
  Online DC-ESR Measurement      
   

SCTS’s Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) calculation is based upon time-domain impedance analysis using pulse methodology. The obtained DC-ESR value is averaged over 10 pulses.

The ESR measurement function can be integrated into test procedures, so that the test regimes can contain charge/discharge cycling, capacitance and leakage current measurement, and self-discharge voltage monitoring in a single test.  In ESR monitoring, a key parameter, data sampling time, is adjustable to obtain accurate ESR readings for different capacitance ranges and capacitor types.  Each ESR measurement takes less than 0.4s.

     
               
  Injection EPR Leakage Current Measurement      
   

Following the application of a constant voltage to a capacitor, the current drawn will attain an equilibrium value (ΔI/Δt ~ 0 ), known as injection leakage current. To guarantee the stability and accuracy of this leakage current measurement, Arbin’s SCTS employs low-noise DAC and ADC.  

     
               
  Self-Discharge Voltage Monitoring and Dynamic Leakage Current      
   

The magnitude of self-discharge, or internal leakage current is an important indicator of the quality of a supercapacitor.  This measurement is done in parallel with injection leakage current. The open-circuit voltage of a charged capacitor is monitored with respect to time. A dynamic leakage current can be deducted from the obtained voltage-time curve. Since the leakage current varies with the voltage, a tabular data file of voltage versus time allows users to calculate it at any voltage value. The macro-command subroutine can easily convert the data to self-discharge current ISD (or dynamic leakage current). 

     
         
               
 

Circuit Types Overview

   
   
Circuit Technology Linear Bipolar Linear Unipolar PWM
Maximum Voltage of Application Below 60V 40 - 120V 100 - 600V
Range of Current Available <----------------------------------1uA - 4000A---------------------------------->
Relative Power Low to Medium Power Medium to High Power

High Power (up to 250kW)

Typical Accuracy (FS) 0.02 - 0.1% 0.05 - 0.1% 0.15 - 0.25%
Circuit Attributes Fast Response Time

Highest Accuracy

Zero Switching Time

Maximum Performance

Fast Response Time

High Accuracy

Short Switching Time

Lower Cost per Watt

Regenerative Power Supply

High Accuracy

Low Voltage Ripple

Fast Response Time

Lowest Cost per Watt

Switching Time Between Charge and Discharge None 100-200ms None
Typical Voltage Ripple None None Less than 1% FS
Products Served BT2000

MSTAT

SCTS

EVTS

BT2000

SCTS

 

 

BT2000

SCTS

EVTS

   
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
               

  762 Peach Creek Cut Off RD, College Station, TX 77845, USA Phone: (979) 690-2751 Fax: (979) 690-2761

  Copyright © 2007

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