rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str.
19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
RelaxIS 3 – DRT Tutorial
Contents of this Tutorial
In this tutorial you will learn the following steps:
• Creating test data with the Circuit Simulator
• Calculating the DRT with different basis functions
• Picking and integrating peaks
• Using the DRT View for live DRT analysis
Please follow the steps to get a basic idea of how to work with the RelaxIS 3 DRT feature. Please install
and start RelaxIS 3 to begin.
Step 1 – Creating test data
Starting from data that gives a well-understandable DRT result is important to learn about the meaning
of the various adjustable parameters of the calculation.
To create test data, you can use the Circuit Simulator 3 to calculate spectra for an
equivalent circuit. Please begin by starting the Circuit Simulator from the Tools section of
the main menu.
We will calculate a spectrum consisting of three (R)(C) elements with different time constants,
thus giving a spectrum with three semi-circles in the Nyquist plot. The DRT of this spectrum should
clearly show three distinct peaks, which allows a good validation of the methodology.
In the Circuit Simulator click the Add spectrum button.
In the Model Builder dialog enter the model (R)(C)-(R)(C)-(R)(C).
Click the OK button to accept the spectrum.
The Spectra window in the Circuit Simulator now contains the new entry and you can see that the
spectrum was calculated with default parameters. Since all resistors and capacitors have the same
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
value, all three semicircles overlap. To distinguish them, we will adjust the parameters as indicated
below:
= 5 x 10-5 s
= 6 x 10-3 s
= 7 x 10-1 s
As shown, the time constants now differ by two orders of magnitude and the spectrum display shows
three distinct semi-circles in the impedance Nyquist plot.
Step 2 – Sending test data to RelaxIS
The calculated spectrum can be sent as a data spectrum to RelaxIS.
First, create a new project folder in RelaxIS by clicking the New button in RelaxIS.
Next, send the spectrum from the Circuit Simulator to RelaxIS by clicking the Send to
RelaxIS button in the Circuit Simulator. In the dropdown menu, select Active to send all
currently plotted spectra (in our case just one) as a data set to RelaxIS.
Now switch back to RelaxIS and you’ll find the calculated spectrum as a data spectrum including the
model plot.
In case the spectrum is not sent successfully please verify that the RelaxIS WCF Link is active. In
the status bar of RelaxIS you should find . If it instead shows in red as inactive, please
close all other RelaxIS instances, and then click the red label to activate the WCF link in this window.
Step 3 – Calculating the DRT
In RelaxIS, open the DRT dialog by clicking the DRT – Distribution of Relaxation Times
button in the Data & Quality tab of the main menu. First you select the spectra to use
in the calculation - select the Current Model option and then click the Next button.
The dialog is built as a Wizard with multiple steps.
First is the Settings step. The DRT dialog works on sets of settings called Jobs. A DRT is calculated for
each job and each spectrum. This facilitates experimentation by comparing the results for different
settings.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
Job List Preview area
Job Editor
In this tutorial we will keep the settings at their default values except for one – the Lambda value
(regularizaion coefficient).
Per default, the Job List contains just one job, with a lambda value of 0.01. Click the Add button
beneath the job list to add another job. Select the new job in the job list and change the lambda value
to 0.001. The change will be reflected in the job list description.
You can click the Preview button. This calculates a DRT for the currently selected job and displays the
result. This allows you to quickly check the effect of various settings.
Now click the Next button. The DRTs for each job are calculated and you find yourself on the Result
page.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
Step 4 – Plotting the DRTs
You can see that, as expected, we see three distinct peaks in the DRT. The list on the left allows the
selection of multiple DRTs. The selected DRTs are then automatically plotted in an overlay plot.
Oberserve, that the DRT with the lower lambda value has narrower and higher peaks than the one with
the higher lambda value.
Clicking the Plot Type & Settings button at the top of the plot allows you to change various plot-related
settings, such as which value to use for the X-axis, or to plot the spectrum reproduction instead of the
DRT itself.
Step 5 – Evaluating the DRT results
The DRT dialog offers multiple types of analyses that can be performed on the data: Peak picking,
integration and fitting.
Peak picking finds the maxima above a defined threshold in the DRTs.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
Peak integration allows you to select boundaries on the X-axis and find the area beneath the DRT curve
within these boundaries.
In Peak fitting you define one or multiple peaks in the DRT and RelaxIS then performs a fit of a gaussian
peak function to the data. The fit result then gives peak area, position and width.
First, select both results in the list by clicking the group header, or holding Ctrl while clicking on the
results. Next, click the Pick Peaks button in the menu. The Peak Picking dialog shows the selected DRTs
normalized to the highest point in each DRT. To find the peaks, you select a threshold by clicking and
moving the blue bar up and down. This changes the “Minimum re. height” value, which can also be
entered manually.
The found peaks with the current settings are marked in the plot. Once satisfied, click the Accept
button to store the analysis result for the datasets.
Click the List / Export button to get a list of the picked peaks as raw data that can be inspected and
exported.
Click the Back button to move back to the results list.
Note that the results are now marked with a red sign in the result list, which indicates that they have
a Peak Picking result stored. The other analysis types are marked with yellow and green markers,
respectively.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
Next, mark the results again and click the Peak Integration button in the menu.
In the dialog, click the Add Area button. This adds a new integration area to the data. Move the mouse
over the area in order to display arrow markers. Drag these arrow markers around such that the
integration area is across one of the peaks. Repeat this twice to add areas for all three peaks.
Now, click Accept. RelaxIS will perform the integration and display the resulting values beneath the
plots. Note, that despite the different peak shapes, the two datasets show roughly the same
integration areas, which also correspond to the resistor values that were simulated.
The Peak Fitting analysis feature works similarly, but you define peak positions and heights before
performing the peak fitting.
Using the DRT view feature
In addition to using the fully featured DRT dialog, you can display a live-DRT-view
of the currently selected spectrum in the main UI. Please select Create new
Spectrum View from the Plotting tab in the main menu.
From the dropdown menu select DRT View.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer
rhd instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Otto-Hesse-Str. 19/T3, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel.: 06151-8707187, E-Mail: info@[Link]
The DRT View can be docked anywhere in the UI and shows a DRT of the currently selected spectrum.
Use the Settings button in the left menu of the DRT view to setup the calculation mode you wish to
use in the DRT view. It offers the same settings as the full DRT dialog, but you can only select one basis
function at a time.
Ideas to try
Now that you have seen how to use the DRT feature in RelaxIS, you could for example try something
like:
• Vary the overlap of the semi-circles in the source spectrum and see how the peaks do or don’t
overlap
• Change the number of calculated datapoints of the source spectrum and see the effect on the
DRT
• Add noise to the spectrum in the circuit simulator and check how much noise the DRT can
tolerate
• See the effect of a low-frequency polarization by adding a series capacitor or CPE to the source
model. Test the effect of the polarization-subtraction feature in the DRT calculation.
• Compare results of peak picking + integration with the combined result of Peak Fitting.
Summary
We have learned how to use the Circuit Simulator to generate test data for RelaxIS in general and for
DRT specifically. We calculated a DRT and used the peak-picking and -integration feature to extract
more quantitative information from the DRT.
Document rev. 1.1 / 2024-09
RelaxIS - Impedance Spectrum Analysis © 2013-2024 Jens Wallauer