I make flash measurements. What are the advantages or disadvantages to using the bias?
A. The advantage to using the bias is the gain in performance for flash measurements. An un-amplified, semiconductor-based detector gains additional performance for flash measurements in two major ways when biased. The first improvement is to speed the response time of the detector. Which basically means the output signal of the detector gets to the meter faster than if the bias were not used. The second improvement is to increase the point at which the incoming flash signal saturates the detector or impede its ability to produce a linear output to the meter. An IL1700 and a semiconductor-based detector with a bias can generally measure a flash as fast as one microsecond. The major disadvantage is in increase in signal noise.
