Measurements of flicker noise in supercapacitor cells

Flicker noise (1/f-like noise) is often used to assess the quality of various materials and devices. This phenomenon has been observed in different electrochemical devices or reactions (e.g., smart windows, pitting corrosion events). In our exploratory studies we consider how to measure and utilize 1/f noise for the quality assessment of supercapacitors. This task requires special attention because of enormous capacitance of the specimen under test and long-time noise measurements. Such system requires stability and noise measurements within a frequency range up to a few mHz only. The developed measurement setup and the considered methods of low frequency noise analysis are presented. Some conclusions for further development of the proposed idea are considered as well. We have confirmed that the 1/f noise can be measured and additionally its level increases after aging the tested cells.