2461 SourceMeter SMU Instrument

The 2461 High Current SourceMeter® Source Measure Unit (SMU) Instrument brings advanced Touch, Test, Invent® technology right to your fingertips. It combines an innovative graphical user interface (GUI) with capacitive touchscreen technology to make testing intuitive and minimize the learning curve to help engineers and scientists learn faster, work smarter, and invent easier. With its 10 A/1000 W pulse current and 7 A/100 W DC current capability combined with dual 18-bit 1MS/s digitizers, the 2461 is optimized for characterizing and testing high power materials, devices, and modules, such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), DCDC converters, circuit protection devices, solar cells and panels, high brightness LEDs and lighting systems, electrochemical cells and batteries, and much more. These new capabilities, combined with Keithley’s expertise in high precision, high accuracy SMU instruments, will make the 2461 a "go-to instrument" for high current sourcing and high speed measurement applications in the lab and in the rack for years to come.

To help users who wish to transition to the 2461 from Keithley’s legacy 2420, 2425, 2430, and 2440 SMUs, the 2461 now includes four SCPI emulation modes for each of the older models, minimizing SCPI code rewriting and maximizing your investment.

Key Features

• One tightly coupled instrument that combines the capabilities of analyzers, curve tracers, and I-V systems at a fraction of their cost
• Wide coverage up to 105 V/7 A DC 100 W, 100 V/10 A Pulse 1000 W max.
• Dual 1 MS/s digitizers for fast sampling measurements
• Five-inch, high resolution capacitive touchscreen GUI
• 0.012% DCV accuracy with 6½-digit resolution
• Source and sink (4-quadrant) operation
• Four "Quickset" modes for fast setup and measurements
• Context-sensitive help function
• Front panel input banana jacks; rear panel mass termination screw connections
• SCPI and Test Script Processor (TSP®) programming modes
• Front-panel USB 2.0 memory I/O port for transferring data, test scripts, or test configurations

Learn Faster, Work Smarter, Invent Easier

The 2461 features a five-inch, full-color, high resolution touchscreen that supports intuitive operation, helps operators become familiar with the instrument quickly, and optimizes overall speed and productivity. A simple icon-based menu structure reduces the number of steps required to configure a test by as much as 50 percent and eliminates the cumbersome multi-layer menu structures typically used on soft-key instruments. Built-in, contextsensitive help supports intuitive operation and minimizes the need to review a separate manual. These capabilities, combined with the 2461’s high versatility, simplify its operation in both basic and advanced measurement applications, regardless of the user’s previous experience in working with SMU instruments.

Capture Real Device Operation with the Built-in Dual 1 MS/sec Digitizers

Capturing and displaying real device operation, waveforms, and transient events just got easier with the 2461’s digitizing function. The two built-in 1 MS/sec, 18-bit digitizers make it possible to acquire both voltage and current waveforms simultaneously without the need to use a separate instrument. The digitizing functions employ the same DC voltage and current measure ranges that the standard A/D converter uses. In addition, the voltage digitizing function uses the same DC voltage 10 GΩ input impedance levels to reduce loading significantly on the device under test (DUT).

Comparison of 2461 vs. 2420, 2425, 2430, 2440

All-in-One SMU Instrument

The 2461, built on the fourth generation of the awardwinning SourceMeter SMU platform, leverages the proven capabilities of previously introduced high current SMU instruments from Keithley, including the 2420, 2425, and 2440. It offers a highly flexible, four-quadrant voltage and current source/load coupled with precision voltage and current measurements. This all-in-one instrument gives you the capabilies of a:

• Precision power supply with V and I readback
• True current source
• Digital multimeter (DCV, DCI, ohms, and power with 6½-digit resolution)
• Precision electronic load
• Pulse generator
• Trigger controller

Ease of Use Beyond the Touchscreen

In addition to its five-inch color touchscreen, the 2461 Graphical SourceMeter front panel offers a variety of features that enhance its speed, user-friendliness, and learnability, including a USB 2.0 memory I/O port, a HELP key, a rotary navigation/ control knob, a front/rear input selector button, and banana jacks for basic bench applications. The USB 2.0 memory port simplifies storing test results and instrument configurations, uploading test scripts into the instrument, and installing system upgrades. All front-panel buttons are backlit to enhance visibility in low-light environments.

Four "Quickset" modes simplify instrument setup. With one touch, the instrument can be quickly configured for various operating modes without the need to configure the instrument indirectly for this operation.

Comprehensive Built-in Connectivity

Rear panel access to rear-input connectors, remote control interfaces (GPIB, USB 2.0, and LXI/Ethernet), D-sub 9-pin digital I/O port (for internal/external trigger signals and handler control), instrument interlock control, and TSP-Link_®jacks make it simple to configure multiple instrument test solutions and eliminate the need to invest in additional adapter accessories..

Convert Raw Data to Information

A full graphical plotting window converts raw data and displays it immediately as useful information, such as semiconductor I-V curves and digitized waveforms. The touchscreen interface makes it easy to observe, interact with, and explore measurements with "pinch and zoom" simplicity. By using the built-in graphing cursors, you can immediately analyze your data without a PC. All graphic screens can be saved to a USB thumb drive for incorporation into reports and journals. Using the graphical SMU’s Sheet view, test data can also be displayed in tabular form. The instrument supports exporting data to a spreadsheet for further analysis, dramatically improving productivity for research, benchtop testing, device qualification, and debugging. This combination of high performance and high ease of use offers unparalleled insight into your test results.

Built-in functions like real-time graphing, charting, scope-like cursors, and data display spreadsheet for export simplify converting test results into useful information.

Typical Applications

Ideal for current/voltage characterization and functional test of a wide range of today's modern electronics and devices, including:

• Power semiconductors and materials
  • – SiC, GaN
  • – IGBTs, Power MOSFETs,HBLEDs
  • – Thyristors
• Power management and protection devices
  • – Telecom power management chipsets
  • – DC-DC converters
  • – Metal-oxide varistors (MOV), transient voltage suppressors (TVS)
• Electrochemistry
  • – Galvanic cycling
  • – Cyclic voltammetry
  • – Electro-deposition

TriggerFlow^®Building Blocks for Instrument Control and Execution

The 2461 incorporates Keithley’s TriggerFlow triggering system, which provides user control over instrument execution. TriggerFlow diagrams are created in much the same way that flow charts are developed, using four fundamental building block types:

• Wait – Waits for an event to occur before the flow continues
• Branch – Branches when a condition has been satisfied
• Action – Initiates an action in the instrument, for example, measure, source, delay, set digital I/O, etc
• Notify – Notifies other equipment that an event has occurred

A TriggerFlow model using a combination of these building blocks can be created from the front panel or by sending remote commands. With the TriggerFlow system, users can build triggering models from very simple to complex with up to 63 block levels. The 2461 also includes basic triggering functions, including immediate, timer, and manual triggering.

Contact Check Function

The Contact Check function makes it simple to verify good connections quickly and easily before an automated test sequence begins. This eliminates measurement errors and false failures associated with contact fatigue, breakage, contamination, loose or broken connection, relay failures, etc. Some capabilities of this function are:

• <100 μs verification and notification process time
• 3 pass/fail threshold values: 2 Ω, 15 Ω, and 50 Ω
• Enabled remotely over the GPIB, USB, or Ethernet (LXI) interfaces

Unmatched System Integration and Programming Flexibility

When a 2461 is configured into a multi-channel I-V test system, its embedded Test Script Processor (TSP^®) allows it to run test scripts, so users can create powerful measurement applications with significantly reduced development times. TSP technology also offers channel expansion without a mainframe. Keithley’s TSP-Link_® channel expansion bus, which uses a 100 Base T Ethernet cable, can connect multiple graphical SourceMeter SMUs (2450, 2460, 2461), and other TSP instruments such as Keithley’s DMM7510 7½-Digit Graphical Sampling Multimeter, Series 2600B System SourceMeter SMU instruments, and Series 3700A Switch/Multimeter systems in a master-subordinate configuration that operates as one integrated system. The TSP-Link expansion bus supports up to 32 units per GPIB or IP address, making it easy to scale a system to fit an application’s particular requirements. The 2461 also includes a SCPI programming mode that takes advantage of all of the instrument’s capabilities.

Parallel Test Capability

The TSP technology in the 2461 supports testing multiple devices in parallel to meet the needs of device research, advanced semiconductor lab applications, and even high throughput production test. This parallel testing capability allows each instrument in the system to run its own complete test sequence, creating a fully multi-threaded test environment. The number of tests that can be run in parallel on a graphical SourceMeter can be as high as the number of instruments in the system.

Instrument Control Start-up Software

KickStart instrument control/start-up software enables users to start making measurements in minutes without programming. In most cases, users merely need to make some quick measurements, graph the data, and store the data to disk for later analysis in software environments such as Excel. KickStart offers:

• Configure and control up to four SMU instruments for DC or Pulsed I-V test in either the same app, same project, or a combination of the two.
• Create tests by mixing any of these SMU instruments:2400 Graphical Series, 2400 Standard Series (DC only), 2600B Series, 2651A, 2657A, and 6430 SourceMeter_®SMU (DC only) instruments.
• Differentiate SMU instrument channels and their measurement data using labels that are relevant to your device or module.
• Native X-Y graphing, panning, and zooming; screenshot capturing of graphs.
• Spreadsheet/tabular viewing of data; export data for further analysis.
• Annotating of tests; save test setups.
• GPIB, USB 2.0, Ethernet compliance.

Optional Apps Tailored for your Characterization Needs

The 2461 is an excellent tool to define nearly any DC test you choose for characterizing materials, electronic devices and modules. For more specific needs, Keithley offers oninstrument software apps that alter the 2461’s behavior, fitting your instrument to your needs. These apps can be installed directly to your 2461 by connecting to Keithley’s KickStart instrument control software and opening the relevant app in KickStart.

I-V Tracer App

Curve tracing analysis is a critical task for many users in the semiconductor development supply chain. Engineers and technicians both hold the traditional curve tracer as the simplest, fastest method for generating characteristic I-V curves on a device. They are heavily used by engineers in failure analysis and incoming inspection to qualify parts, identify counterfeit devices, and to quickly identify the location of a failure on damaged devices. SMUs have typically been limited to predefined sweeps with longer set up times than curve tracers — until I-V Tracer.

Keithley’s I-V Tracer app leverages the touchscreen and front-panel knob of the 2461 to allow precise, live control over the SMU output while viewing I-V results of 2 terminal devices. At each individual output level current and voltage are measured and plotted. The small footprint of the SMU enables portable bench top use, reserving high power (kW) traditional curve tracers for special cases. The power envelope of the 2461 allows it to comfortably operate in the low power range of traditional curve tracers like the Tektronix 576 and Tektronix 370A, while offering enhanced low current measurements.

Once installed, I-V Tracer exists on the SMU itself, meaning I-V tracer can be used wherever your SMU can go, without a continuous remote connection. It can also integrate with KickStart to enable simple data collection and comparison on the PC, simplifying the preparation of reports used in failure analysis or teaching labs at colleges and universities.

I-V Tracer capabilities with the 2461:

• Use the full DC power envelope of the 2461 (max 100 V or 7 A)
• Trace by sourcing voltage or current, positive or negative
• Use AC polarity to continuously sweep positive and negative about 0 to see the full behavior of your device
• Pulse mode with adjustable pulse width to limit selfheating effects
• 2 or 4-wire sense
• Compare mode for verifying against a reference device
• Reading table view to see exact measurements
• Easily copy curves and settings to your PC with KickStart

Simplified Programming with Ready-to-Use Instrument Drivers

For those who prefer to create their own customized application software, native National Instruments LabVIEW^®drivers, as well as IVI-C and IVI-COM drivers, are available at www.tek.com/keithley.