A NEW SCHEME TO REALIZE THE MEASUREMENT STANDARD OF MICROFORCE

Abstract

To increase the accuracy of mechanical characterizations of microstructures and nanomaterials on the molecular- and nano-scale, the measurement standard of microforce ranging from 10-6 N to 10-9 N must be realized for calibrating the testing and measuring instruments. In this paper, a new scheme based on the equal-arm torsion balance is proposed. This precision torsion balance detects accurately the gravitational force between two mass standards, and links the small force measurement to the International System of Units and Newtonian gravitational constant G. Such a balance might serve as a force standard machine operating in the regime below 10-6 N with an accuracy of 0.1%.