New Industry Products

Accelerating Time-to-Market for High-Power Designs and Wide Bandgap Devices

May 15, 2019 by Paul Shepard

The new Keithley Series 2470 SourceMeter® SMU Instrument from Tektronix is built to take engineers over the hurdles posed by SiC, GaN and other wide bandgap semiconductors and power components. It's suited for research, product development, and manufacturing where high voltage and low current are required.

When characterizing high voltage materials and devices like GaN and SiC, the 2470 can be used to quickly determine if the device was correctly manufactured and if it can be effectively used in the intended application. The 2470 can test devices and materials up to 1100V and measure low current with 10fA resolution.

Combine the 2470 with a Tektronix MSO oscilloscope and arbitrary function generator to setup a development bench for designing today's high-power devices and components, including:

  • I-V characterization of new devices, including GaN and SiC for power devices, breakdown voltage, and leakage current
  • Isolation test and leakage current for designing switches, relays, TVs, MOVs, power supplies, etc.
  • Hi-pot and dielectric withstanding for sub-assembly design and test

The 2470 can also be used for characterizing transistors with multiple SMUs on wafer, packaged parts, or ICs, ASICs, and SOCs on the production floor. The 2470 has the source and measure ranges needed to meet time-to-market challenges for a wide range of characterization and production test applications.

Keithley's Series 2400 Source Measure Unit (SMU) Instruments are designed specifically for test applications that demand tightly coupled sourcing and measurement. All SourceMeter models provide precision voltage and current sourcing as well as measurement capabilities. Each SourceMeter SMU instrument is both a highly stable dc power source and a true instrument-grade 6½-digit multimeter.

The power source characteristics include low noise, precision, and readback. The multimeter capabilities include high repeatability and low noise. The result is a compact, single-channel, dc parametric tester. In operation, these instruments can act as a voltage source, a current source, a voltage meter, a current meter, and an ohmmeter. Manufacturers of components and modules for the communications, semiconductor, computer, automotive, and medical industries will find the SourceMeter SMU instruments invaluable for a wide range of characterization and production test applications.

Key Features

  • Five instruments in one (IV Source, IVR Measure)
  • Five models: 20-100W dc, 1000W pulsed, 1100V to 1µV
  • Source and sink (4-quadrant) operation
  • 012% basic measure accuracy with 6½-digit resolution
  • 2-, 4-, and 6-wire remote V-source and measure sensing
  • 1700 readings/second at 4½ digits via GPIB
  • Pass/Fail comparator for fast sorting/binning
  • Programmable DIO port for automation/handler/prober control (except 2401)
  • Standard SCPI GPIB, RS-232 and Keithley Trigger Link interfaces
  • Download free KickStart I-V Characterization Software for device characterization.
  • Advantages of a Tightly Integrated Instrument

By linking source and measurement circuitry in a single unit, these instruments offer a variety of advantages over systems configured with separate source and measurement instruments. For example, they minimize the time required for test station development, setup, and maintenance, while lowering the overall cost of system ownership. They simplify the test process itself by eliminating many of the complex synchronization and connection issues associated with using multiple instruments. And, their compact half-rack size conserves precious "real estate" in the test rack or bench.