About EEEL
Flip a light switch. Use your cell phone.
Fly aboard an airplane. Check out at a supermarket.
Play a video game or cruise the Internet.
Each time you do, you're relying on technologies that were impossible to achieve just decades ago, in large part because industry lacked the ability to make accurate measurements on the scale that today's electrotechnologies require.
Being able to etch millions of transistors onto a chip the size of a thumbnail or control electrical variations as small as one billionth of a volt pushes measurement to the limits of precision and accuracy. When componenets manufactured by different companies must interoperate seamlessly - as they do in power distribution grids, cellular phone networks, and the Internet - only a common set of measurement standards and regular calibration of measuring tools can assure interoperability.
That's what NIST's Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory does. We define the standard units used for all electrical measurements in the United States. We provide the calibration services and Standard Reference Materials that industry relies on to maintain its equipment at peak performance. We research precision itself, developing tools and measurement techniques to achieve nanoscale accuracy in manufacturing and testing, and advancing common industry standards for electromagnetic measurements, equipment performance, and e-commerce. And we ensure that U.S. electrical standards are consistent with the rest of the world's, so that American industry can compete in the global electronics market.
