Charge Measurement

They're designed to read out charge-producing detectors such as ionization chambers and other radiation and particle detectors that generate a small electrical charge in response to a signal.

Both types of instruments can technically measure charge and current, since charge is just current integrated over time. In practice, though, each is built and optimized for one measurement over the other.

Charge-measurement instruments have less intrinsic noise than current-measurement instruments, so they're the better choice when you need to resolve ultra-low currents or charges as precisely as possible. If data speed is the priority instead, a current-measurement instrument is usually the better fit, since current-measurement instruments are intrinsically faster.

Sensitivity varies by specific model and configuration. Pyramid's electrometers are built for precision picoamp-to-milliamp-range work, but for an exact sensitivity spec for your application, contact us or check the datasheet for the specific instrument you're considering.

Common uses include dosimetry in radiotherapy and beam diagnostics, scientific instrumentation reading out ionization or semiconductor detectors, and any application where you need to know the total charge delivered by a pulsed or transient signal.