Meter Serves as a Signal Source

Follow the Script: The script language in the Keithley Series 2600 SourceMeter family lets engineers quickly automate tests that require simultaneously sourcing and measuring currents and voltages.

Few things irk engineers more than having to make dozens or hundreds of careful measurements of device characteristics while simultaneously varying a current or voltage. This tedious process takes considerable time and one error can undo test results. The Series 2600 SourceMeter instruments from Keithley Instruments combine a voltage and current meter with a voltage and current source that operate independently or together. The capability to operate the source unit in synchronization with the measure unit lets the instrument automate many repetitive measurement tasks. Those tasks can occur either in a stand-alone mode controlled solely by Series 2600 instruments or under control of a host PC.

The source-measure capabilities provided by the Series 2600 instruments serve engineers who must make current and voltage measurements on devices such as transistors, displays, display-driver circuits, radio-frequency amplifiers, disk-drive read-write heads, individual passive components, and so on. As a stand-alone instrument, the measurement portion of the Series 2600 SourceMeter can acquire 12,600 readings/sec. Each reading includes a simultaneous current and voltage measurement. When combined with the current-voltage source, the instrument operates at 4,750 source-measure cycles/sec. A new type of ranging control lets the output of the source-measure unit settle quickly, thus increasing test speeds over those available in other instruments.

Each member of the Series 2600 family includes a Test Script Processor (TSP) that lets it function as a stand-alone instrument system. Keithley's Test Script Builder software, which operates within an instrument, provides a simple graphical user interface that lets engineers and technicians develop, modify, and debug high-speed test-and-measurements programs, or scripts. A BASIC-like language simplifies writing these scripts. Easy-to-read commands such as smua.reset() and smua.measure.rangei=1.0 establish a current-measurement range, for example.

The flexible TSP "language" includes the following capabilities:

• Instrument command queuing

• Modular subroutines with passable parameters

• Pass/fail and limit testing

• Math operations

Keithley Instruments http://rbi.ims.ca/4390-576