What is a teraohm resistor used for?

[MildInductor]

My question is pretty much the title. I was browsing Mouser and found a 10 teraohm resistor (588-UM050E100BKE). What could this be used for?

[daqq]

Some applications:

High voltage dividers
Feedback for transimpedance amplifiers for ultra low currents ( see: https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/user-guides/ADA4530-1R-EBZ_UG-865.pdf )
Ultra low current sources

Mostly specialized stuff.

[coppercone2]

or bleeding charge from something fairly non conductive. Like a super weak ESD connection. I am sure it has physics uses (so it does not load the device that might have a resistance in the gigaohms)

[chris_leyson]

 I've used higher value resistors for electrometer amplifiers in physics experiments using the ME1403 electrometer triode many years ago. The resistors were sealed in large glass tubes to avoid contamination.

[Kurets]

Not teraohm but I have encountered 100GOhm (from memory, might have been slightly different value) used in a current source for measuring plasma density around a spacecraft.

[Phil1977]

Imagine you build a terraohm meter and want to check/calibrate it somehow.

And what do you use a terraohm meter for? E.g. testing insulations. Nearly every insulation is a little conductive. If you can track changes of this unwanted conductivity far before it gets a problem, you can early detect aging or any kind of stress. That´s only one example from quality control where you can use these things.

[MildInductor]

That's all very interesting. Thanks everyone!

[Phil1977]

And think about the following: You just need to put 1mA through this resistor, and the voltage drop generates 1GV of potential... But be careful, it´s also dissipating 1MW of heat!

With only one mA you have enough heat for 50 houses... That´s fantastic! And don't be so skeptical and say such a current source is difficult. It can't be that hard, it´s just one mA.


SCNR