English

Design of a Miniature Kibble Balance for Kilogram-Scale Mass Calibration -- KBmini

Instrumentation and Detectors 2026-01-27 v1

Abstract

Tabletop version Kibble balances are a significant developing trend for mass realizations following the revised International System of Units. A key innovation through the miniaturization of the Kibble balance from a large-scale instrument into a tabletop device is making the quantum-based realization of mass accessible to a wider range of calibration laboratories and industries. This paper presents a tabletop Kibble balance design at Tsinghua University targeting E2-accuracy class mass calibrations from 1 g to 1 kg. For calibrating a mass of 1 kg, for instance, the required relative standard measurement uncertainty must be below 0.27 ppm to meet E2-accuracy class. Major components and features of the proposed system are discussed. A novel method of multi-harmonic excitation is proposed to improve the coil-motion linearity during velocity measurement. We show that injecting odd-order harmonics into the motion-driving current can significantly improve the uniformity of the coil's moving velocity, while the second-order component can address the asymmetry between upward and downward movements. This achieves a flat velocity Δv/v<5%\Delta v/v< 5\% over 60% of the motion cycle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.18054,
  title  = {Design of a Miniature Kibble Balance for Kilogram-Scale Mass Calibration -- KBmini},
  author = {Shisong Li and Nanjia Li and Weibo Liu and Elsayed E. E. Qupasie and Wei Zhao and Songling Huang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.18054},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 7 figures