An absolute Johnson noise thermometer

We developed an absolute Johnson noise thermometer (JNT), an instrument to measure the thermodynamic temperature of a sensing resistor, with traceability to voltage, resistance and frequency quantities. The temperature is measured in energy units, and can be converted to SI units (kelvin) with the accepted value of the Boltzmann constant kb; or, conversely, it can be employed to perform measurements at the triple point of water, and obtain a determination of kb. The thermometer is composed of a correlation spectrum analyzer an a calibrated noise source, both constructed around commercial mixed-signal boards. The calibrator generates a pseudorandom noise, by digital synthesis and amplitude scaling with inductive voltage dividers; the signal spectrum is a frequency comb covering the measurement bandwidth. JNT measurements at room temperature are compatible with those of a standard platinum resistance thermometer within the combined uncertainty of 60 ppm. A path towards future improvements of JNT accuracy is also sketched.