Abstract. In March 2009, the Consultative Committee for Electricity and Magnetism (CCEM) reviewed and re-endorsed its recommendations originally proposed during its 25th meeting (April 2007) for changes in the SI electrical units (Recommendation E-1). Among its considerations, the document stated that the representation of the volt using the Josephson effect and the conventional value of the Josephson constant, K_J−90, has provided practical, accessible, reproducible, low noise and highly linear references worldwide since 1990. We summarize the measurement results of comparisons between Josephson voltage standards that help support this statement, especially concerning the accuracy and the simplicity of the Josephson relationship between voltage and frequency. We also detail a list of influence parameters and the ranges over which the Josephson relationship has been tested.

Print publication: Issue 6 (December 2009)
Received 12 June 2009, in final form 26 August 2009
Published 7 October 2009