I asked this same question of Sam Benz at NIST via email... And the answer I got was:
... crickets ... Maybe he was on vacation, or just didn't have the time to answer my questions... ?? But it dawned on me that NIST had been looking for years for different voltage standards to replace the standard cell, and then later to be an upgrade to the Zener diode-- they must have had a list of things to try, with some better than others, and no doubt all of them had "issues"; but it just well may be that there is a technology that is better than a Zener but not as good as a JJA. NIST always shoots for the best accuracy that they can get (no matter the cost), and so maybe some of these prospective ideas got permanently tabled. Unless NIST is willing to talk about them, then we will probably never know I think... I have been looking into buried Zeners using different semiconductor materials-- e.g. Silicon Carbide shows promise, and there may be other semiconductor systems that could be used in the same way... I haven't found anything mush on this though-- it seems the JJA has practically killed almost all research in this area. So, I'm with you on this-- *IS* there something better than a Zener, but less cost than a JJA system? -Ken _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- volt-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts and follow the instructions there.