Source measure units can cut test time by 25%

They target applications that require high accuracy, high resolution and measurement flexibility, including current-voltage (I-V) characterising and testing semiconductors, as well as other non-linear devices and materials.

The SMUs now available from Keysight are:

• The Keysight M9601A PXIe precision SMU is ideal for a wide variety of current versus voltage (I-V) measurement tasks that require both high resolution and accuracy such as characterisation, parametric/reliability tests of semiconductors, active/passive components and general electronic devices. It supports accurate and precise measurement up to 210 V / 315 mA with resolution down to 500 nV / 10 fA. Pulsed and sampling measurement capabilities allow the M9601A to perform a wide variety of measurements from DC to pulsed down to 20 μs at 1.25 MSa/s sampling rate.
• The Keysight M9614A and M9615A are PXIe five-channel precision SMUs which are ideal for applications that require high channel density, such as semiconductor reliability testing and integrated circuit (IC) tests. They support accurate measurement up to 30 V / 500 mA with resolution down to 6 uV / 10 pA and provide a wider output range than a conventional PXIe four-channel SMU at a lower cost per channel. Their seamless current measurement ranging function reduces test duration by eliminating the time it takes to change the range and expands the dynamic range to cover four measurement ranges.
• The Keysight M9602A and M9603A are PXIe precision SMUs featuring narrow pulse width (10 μs), a fast sampling rate of up to 15 MSa/s and a wide output range. They enable dynamic/pulsed measurements for broad emerging applications such as vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) optical devices, integrated circuit (IC) testing across a wide output range and high resolution. In addition, they offer low noise performance which enables measurements with short aperture times and the seamless current measurement ranging function eliminates range change time, which improves test throughput.

"Keysight has provided high precision source-measurement-units (SMUs) for decades, and our enhanced bench B2900B series SMU instruments continue to set the bar for accuracy, precision and measurement throughput," said Christopher Cain, vice president of Keysight Technologies Electronic Industrial Products. "We have leveraged our deep SMU expertise and the latest electronic technologies to create a family of high precision PXIe modular SMUs.  These high-density measurement SMU modules can be scaled in a PXIe system to reduce overall test time by up to 25 %, which is crucial in vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser device and quantum computing measurements."

SMUs are electronic instruments capable of sourcing and measuring at the same time. They can precisely force voltage or current and simultaneously measure precise voltage and/or current.  Keysight offers a wide range of SMU instruments, which are categorised into four areas: precision, application specific, general-purpose and basic.