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Ttulo del trabajo

Title of paper

High Range Illuminance Meter Calibration


Using Substitution Method
Autor/ es
Author/s

XU Gan, LIU Yuanjie, TAN Hwee Lang and WANG Xiaojuan

Afiliacin/ es del autor/ es


Affiliation/s of the author/s

National Metrology Centre, Standards, Productivity and Innovation


Board
Direccin principal
Mail adress

1 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118221


Telfono, fax. e-mail de la persona de contacto
Phone, Fax number and e-mail adress of the contact person

Tel: 65 67739874, Fax: 65 67739804


e-mail: yjliu@spring.gov.sg

Abstract
The measuring range of many commercial illuminance meters is well above 10,000 lx.
Calibration at such high illuminance levels cannot be done directly through the inverse
square law by using a normal luminous intensity standard lamp, which can only produce
an illuminance level up to a few thousand lx at the minimum acceptable distance (~ 0.5
metre). Some laboratories use lamps of very high power (up to 10 kW) for such
calibrations but this requires additional space and proper heat isolation, in addition to
the much larger power supply needed by such lamps.
A simple and low-cost method has been developed for high range illuminance meter
calibration based on a substitution-superposition technique. In this method, a luminous
intensity standard lamp is first set up at a known distance to calibrate the meter at a
point of low illuminance level. The light from the standard lamp is then blocked and the
meter is illuminated by an auxiliary lamp, the position and orientation of which are
adjusted so that the meter reading remains unchanged. The meter is then calibrated at
twice the initial level by using illumination from both the standard and auxiliary lamps
at the same time. Once this is done, the standard lamp is blocked and the auxiliary lamp
is again adjusted to give the same meter reading at twice the initial level, thereby
substituting the illuminance level of the standard lamp. By repeating the steps, the meter
can be calibrated at any desired level, limited only by the capacity of the auxiliary lamp
As the auxiliary lamp is used only as a substitute, similar to a capacitor in a holding
circuit in electronics, there is no special requirement on the type of lamp used except for
its stability. By this method, high illuminance can be achieved by using a focused beam
from a tungsten halogen lamp of only 50W at 12V dc with a collimator. Together with a
normal standard lamp, calibration of up to 50,000 lx can be performed. The relative
calibration uncertainty is similar to that of any low range illuminance meter calibration.

Introduction
Illuminance meters are normally calibrated using luminous intensity standard lamps
placed at several known distances for required illuminance levels according to inverse
square law. For inverse square law to be valid the standard lamps must fulfil the
conditions of a point source. i.e. the dimensions of the lamp filament shall be negligible
as compared with the distance between the illuminance meter and the standard lamp.
Such requirement sets a limit to the minimum distance (and hence the maximum
illuminance level) that can be used for illuminance meter calibration. For example, for a
1200 W tungsten halogen lamp of a filament size 10x10 mm running at 2856 K, the
maximum illuminance level it can produce is only about 7,000 lx at a minimum distance
of 0.5 m.
However the measuring range of many commercial illuminance meters is well above
10,000 lx. Calibration at such high illuminance levels cannot be done directly through
the inverse square law by using a normal luminous intensity standard lamp. To
overcome this problem, some laboratories have developed special standard lamps of
very high power (up to 10 kW), but this requires additional space and proper heat
isolation, in addition to the much larger power supply needed by such lamps. Others use
photometer-based method together with a special and complex source system that has a
spectral power distribution close to the CIE Illuminance A. Both methods require
substantial resources and the costs of establishment and maintenance of such calibration
facilities are not practical for most laboratories.
This paper presents a simple and low-cost method for high range illuminance meter
calibration based on a substitution-superposition technique. The calibration setup,
measurement procedure and working principle are illustrated. The additional
measurement uncertainties associated with this method are discussed.

Calibration setup
The setup for the proposed high range illuminance meter calibration is illustrated in
Figure 1.

Figure 1 Setup for high range illuminance meter calibration

The illuminance meter to be calibrated and a luminous intensity standard lamp (Model :
6895Z made by Philips, rated 1200W tungsten halogen lamp running at a correlated
colour temperature of 2856K) are set up on the main optical bench with a known
distance of 0.7 m between the measurement plane of the illuminance meter and the
reference plane of the standard lamp. This is exactly the same as one would use a
luminous intensity standard lamp to calibrate an illuminance meter by the inverse square
law.
An auxiliary tungsten halogen lamp is set up off-axis on a mini-bench at a distance of
about 0.5 m away from the head of the illuminance meter to be calibrated. This
auxiliary lamp has a rated power of 50W at 12V dc (Model : DECOSTAR 51, 41870 SP
made by OSRAM) and has a dichroic reflector which collimates its light beam to a
divergence angle of about 10 degree. The dichroic reflector reflects visible light but
allows most of the infrared radiation to pass. This reduces the heating effect of the
tungsten halogen lamp on the head of the illuminance meter to be calibrated.
The auxiliary lamp is mounted on a rotating holder with which the direction of the
collimated light beam can be adjusted freely. With the collimating reflector the 50 W
auxiliary lamp is capable of producing a high illuminace reading of more than 50,000 lx
when its light beam is pointed directly at the head of the illuminance meter.

Calibration principle and procedure


Set the calibration system up as illustrated in Figure 1. Arrange the auxiliary lamp and
its baffle properly so that they do not block the light from the standard lamp reaching
the head of the illuminance meter during the calibration. The principle and detailed
calibration procedure of substitution-superposition technique is explained in Figure 2.
The first step is to calibrate the illuminance meter at low illuminance level produced by
the standard lamp. This is done by block the direct illumination of the auxiliary lamp
and illuminate the head of the illuminance meter with the luminous intensity standard
lamp alone, and take the meter reading Y1. Y1 is the illuminance meter reading for
illuminance level of x + D, where x is the net direct illuminance value from the
standard lamp calculated based on inverse square law and D is the dark signal
(including stray light) when the direct illuminance from both lamps are blocked.
Next is to substitute the illuminance from the standard lamp with an equivalent
illuminance from the auxiliary lamp. This is done by block the standard lamp and
illuminate the meter only with the auxiliary lamp, and adjust the angle of the light beam
of the auxiliary lamp so that the illuminance meter reading exactly equals Y1, indicating
that the auxiliary lamp now provides a substitute illuminance equal to the illuminance
produced by the standard lamp (in terms of the illuminance meter response).

Figure 2 Calibration procedure using substitution-superposition technique

Strictly speaking this equivalence of substitution is valid only if the stray light level
remains the same after the adjustment of the pointing angle of the auxiliary lamp. This
condition can be verified by blocking both the lamps and measure the dark signal
again after the adjustment of the auxiliary lamp. Experiments showed that the dark
signal varies less than 0.1% of x under the calibration setup described in the last section.
This variation can be treated as an uncertainty source in the calibration uncertainty
budget.
Once the substitution is established, let both the standard lamp and the auxiliary lamp
illuminate the head of the illuminance meter simultaneously and take the meter reading
Y2. Y2 is the illuminance meter reading for illuminance level of 2x + D. This is the
superposition process.
Repeat these steps n times will increase the illuminance to the desired value:
nx + D,

n =1,2,..

The validity of this substitution-superposition step requires that the dark signal
remains constant and the output of the auxiliary lamp is stable. Under the calibration
setup, a 1200 W standard lamp with a luminous intensity of 1715 cd placed at a distance
of 0.7 m away from the illuminance meter, x will be 3500 lx, and the calibration level of
nx + D will reach 50,000 lx with a n of less than 15.

Uncertainty analysis
As can be seen from the calibration setup, the auxiliary lamp has a collimating reflector
and is placed off-axis. The illuminance it produces on the detector head of the
illuminance meter is therefore not uniform. And because of the dichroic reflector the
spectral power distribution of the illumination from the auxiliary lamp cannot be treated
as CIE Illuminant A. These are two important factors to be considered for normal
illuminance meter calibration. However they are not critical in the proposed method
because the illumination from the auxiliary lamp is used only to produce a response on
the illuminance meter that is equal to the response of the same illuminance meter to the
known illuminace produced by the luminous intensity standard lamp. Although the
actual average illuminance produced by the auxiliary lamp might be different from the
illuminance produced by the standard lamp, they still can be used to substitute to each
other as long as the responses produced by them on the illuminance meter to be
calibrated are the same.
There are two factors affecting the validity of this substitution-superposition technique.
The first is the variation of the stray light level when the angle of the auxiliary lamp is
altered. This variation can happen at random directions or at the same direction during
the process of the substitution-superposition technique. In the worse case if all the steps
the variations are at the same direction, they will be accumulated. E.g. if the stray light
increases by 0.1%x at each step of substitution-superposition, then the total increase of
stray light after n steps will be 0.1%x multiplied by n. Since the calibrated illuminance

level is also increased to nx after n steps, the relative increases in stray light will still be
0.1%.
The second factor affecting the calibration uncertainty of the substitution-superposition
technique is the stability of the output of the auxiliary lamp. The extent of this factor
depends on the time required for the whole calibration process. Experiments shown that
the total time required for a 15-step calibration is less than 30 minutes. The maximum
drift of the auxiliary lamp during a 30 minutes time period is assessed to be less than
0.1%.
Most of the uncertainty components associated with the first-step calibration, i.e. the
direct illuminance calibration by the standard lamp based on reverse square law, will be
accumulated in absolute values. But their relative values against the total illuminance
level will remain unchanged just as the worse case of the stray light variations
discussed.
Table 1 shows the uncertainty budget of the high range illuminance meter calibration
using the substitution-superposition technique under the calibration setup shown in
Figure 1. Among the 12 uncertainty components, u(1) to u(10) are uncertainty
components associated with the first-step calibration, u(11) and u(12) are additional
uncertainty components due to the substitution-superposition process. The relative
expanded uncertainty for the direct illuminance meter calibration at low range using the
standard lamp is 1.11%. The relative expanded uncertainty for the high range
illuminance meter calibration using the substitution-superposition technique is 1.13%.

Conclusion
A new approach based on a substitution-superposition technique is proposed to
calibrated illuminance meter at levels much higher than what can be achieved by
commonly available luminous intensity standard lamps. The advantages of this
approach are its simplicity and low cost. No specially designed, complex and high
power source is required. By using a 50W tungsten halogen lamp as an auxiliary source,
which is commercially available at very low cost, illuminance meters can be calibrated
up to 50,000 lx illuminance level. The relative calibration uncertainty is similar to that
of any low range illuminance meter calibration. More than one auxiliary lamp can be
used if even higher range is required, and the same principle still applies.

References
1. CIE Publication No. 53, Methods of Characterizing the Performance of Radiometers and
Photometers (1982)
2. CIE Publication No. 69, Methods of Characterizing Illuminance Meters and Luminance
Meters (1987)

3. Ohno, Y., High Illuminance Calibration Facility and Procedures, Paper for IESNA
Annual Conference (1997)

Uncertainty
components
u(xi)
u(1)
u(2)
u(3)
u(4)
u(5)
u(6)
u(7)
u(8)
u(9)
u(10)
u(11)
u(12)
u(y)
U(Y)

Description

Calibration uncertainty of the luminous


intensity standard lamp (type B)
Long-term stability of the standard lamp
(B)
Calibration uncertainty of multimeter for
lamp current measurement (B)
Calibration uncertainty of standard shunt
resistor for lamp current (B)
Uncertainty due to temperature change of
standard shunt resistor (B)
Uncertainty of distance measurement,
1mm for a distance of 0.7 m (B)
Alignment (cosine) error, 2 degree from
the normal (B)
Uncertainty due to the resolution of the
meter under test
Repeatability of illuminance meter
readings (A)
Uncertainty due to departure from inverse
square law, 1mm for 0.7m (B)
Uncertainty due to extra stray light
Uncertainty due to short-term drift of the
auxiliary lamp
Combined standard uncertainty
Expanded uncertainty

Degree of
freedom

Standard
uncertainty
ui(y) (%)
0.40

rectangular

1.73

0.29

6.25

rectangular

1.73

0.02

0.005

6.25

rectangular

1.73

0.02

0.01

6.25

rectangular

1.73

0.04

0.14

rectangular

1.73

0.16

0.06

rectangular

1.73

0.03

0.1

rectangular

1.73

0.06

0.1

normal

0.10

n-1

0.14

rectangular

1.73

0.16

0.1

rectangular

1.73

0.06

0.1

rectangular

1.73

0.06

Value of
u(xi)
(%)
0.8

Sensitivity
factor
Ci
1

Probability
Distribution

Multiplier
k

normal

0.5

0.005

0.565
2

1.13

Table 1 Uncertainty budget of high range illuminance meter calibration. u(1) to u(10) are uncertainty components associated with
the first-step calibration, u(11) and u(12) are additional uncertainty components due to the substitution-superposition process.

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