Keithley Series 2600A System SourceMeter® Instruments

Series 2600A System SourceMeter instruments are Keithley’s latest I-V source-measure instruments for use as either a bench-top I-V characterization tool or as a building block component of multi-channel I-V test systems. For bench-top use, Series 2600A instruments feature an embedded TSP Express Software Tool that allows users to quickly and easily perform common I-V tests without programming or installing software. For system level applications, Series 2600A’s Test Script Processor (TSP) architecture along with new capabilities such as parallel test execution and precision timing provides the highest throughput in the industry to lower the cost of test.

Key Features and Specifications

• Combines a power supply, true current source, DMM, arbitrary waveform generator, V or I pulse generator with measurement, electronic load and trigger controller – all in one instrument
• TSP® Express software tool for quick and easy I-V test
• Precision timing and channel synchronization (<500ns)
• Parallel test execution for unmatched throughput
• 20,000 rdg/s provides faster test times and ability to capture transient device behavior
• TSP-Link® bus allows up to 32 units/64 channels of channel expansion per GPIB or IP address
• USB, LXI Class C compliant

Unmatched Throughput and Flexibility for High Performance I-V Test Systems

TSP technology provides remarkable capabilities when the Series 2600A is integrated as part of a multi-channel I-V test system.

First, the embedded scripting capability allows for complete test scripts to be run by the instrument. Test scripts are complete test programs based on an easy to use but highly efficient and compact scripting language called ‘Lua’ . Since the test scripts can contain any sequence of routines that can be executed by conventional programming languages (including decision making algorithms), this feature allows entire tests to be managed by the instrument without sending readings back to the PC for decision making. This means that delays due to GPIB traffic congestion are eliminated and overall test times are greatly improved.

Second, TSP technology offers “mainframe-less channel expansion.” The TSP-Link channel expansion bus (which uses a 100 Base T Ethernet cable) allows multiple Series 2600A instruments (and other TSP instruments) to be connected in a master-slave configuration and behave as one integrated system. TSP-Link supports up to 32 units or 64 SMU channels per GPIB or IP address. This provides virtually unlimited channel count, allowing a system to be scaled to fit the particular requirements of an application.

Parallel Test Capability

As the next evolutionary step in TSP technology, the Series 2600A takes system level performance to a new height with parallel testing capability. This feature allows customers to test multiple devices in parallel to meet the high throughput requirements of production test and advanced semiconductor lab applications.

Parallel test capability enables each instrument in the system to have the ability to run its own complete test sequence. Hence, the number of tests that can be running in parallel on a Series 2600A system can be as many as the number of instruments in the system. In contrast, most conventional test systems run a single thread of the test usually on the controller PC instead of the instrument itself.

This parallel test capability allows Series 2600A systems to behave as a fully multi-threaded test environment. Testing multiple devices at the same time means dramatically improved test throughput and reduced overall cost of test. Additionally the Series 2600A system can be reconfigured via software, without rewiring, to match different devices with different pin-layouts to appropriate SMU-per-pin configurations.