Video Keithley 2460 Source Measure Unit (SMU) Review, Teardown and Experiments

[dadler]

Are the touchscreens on these devices capacitive or resistive? Hard to tell from the videos if the touch/drag system lags the processor or is just a result of a non-responsive touchscreen.

[HighVoltage]

I just looked up the 2280S and it is $ 2500 on ebay! What is so special about it to have such a price tag?
The screen looks similar to the 2450 SMU

 

[Hugoneus]

I just looked up the 2280S and it is $ 2500 on ebay! What is so special about it to have such a price tag?
The screen looks similar to the 2450 SMU

It is a very low-noise and high-precision power supply up to 192W. It can also measure down to 100nA with 6.5 digits of precision. It is almost like a SMU in one quadrant only and much higher power. It also has programmable rise/fall times.

[economist]

I just looked up the 2280S and it is $ 2500 on ebay! What is so special about it to have such a price tag?
The screen looks similar to the 2450 SMU

The 2280S-32-6 is $1,990 at Newark. Everything about it (at least from the specs) is terrific but it lacks TSP-Link. I could live without the touch interface (though it should have it, and I agree that front sense ports would be very helpful as well), but it really needs the TSP-Link interface.

[HKJ]

I got a 2460 but am not that impressed. The AUTO current range does not cover the full source range.
I.e. select source 1A, measure Auto or 1A and you risk getting overflow. The measure function cannot handle even 0.1% over range and the calibration of the unit is not that good:


And according to Keithley that is acceptable behaviour.

[jlmoon]

HKJ,

Want to unload that 2460 since you're not impressed with it?  I would love to have a 2460.

[HKJ]

Want to unload that 2460 since you're not impressed with it?  I would love to have a 2460.

Not really, I paid a bit above $8000 for it and hope to get some usage out of it, but the precision will be rather bad for the price.
With a limit of 100mA and measuring range of 1A (Next higher range) I get 100.2mA (With a specific setup), i.e. 0.2% error.

[Hugoneus]

I.e. select source 1A, measure Auto or 1A and you risk getting overflow. The measure function cannot handle even 0.1% over range and the calibration of the unit is not that good:

The unit is supposed to do that. It has a hard limit on the "limit" you set. That is what it is supposed to do.

Not really, I paid a bit above $8000 for it and hope to get some usage out of it, but the precision will be rather bad for the price.
With a limit of 100mA and measuring range of 1A (Next higher range) I get 100.2mA (With a specific setup), i.e. 0.2% error.

I am very surprised about that. I did a test on my unit. As you can see in the picture the error (compared to a new 7.5 digit meter) is less than 0.0174%. I suspect something might be wrong with your setup. I hope you can resolve the issue.

[JBaughb]

I am very surprised about that. I did a test on my unit. As you can see in the picture the error (compared to a new 7.5 digit meter) is less than 0.0174%. I suspect something might be wrong with your setup. I hope you can resolve the issue.

Are those the same cables? The ground cable banana jack has a different color end...even the cable looks a shade of blue next to the black cabling on top.

[Hugoneus]

I am very surprised about that. I did a test on my unit. As you can see in the picture the error (compared to a new 7.5 digit meter) is less than 0.0174%. I suspect something might be wrong with your setup. I hope you can resolve the issue.

Are those the same cables? The ground cable banana jack has a different color end...even the cable looks a shade of blue next to the black cabling on top.

The red cable goes from the SMU to the DMM. The black cable goes from the SMU to a resistor and the blue cable is the return from the resistor to the DMM. That is how the circuit is closed.

[HKJ]

I.e. select source 1A, measure Auto or 1A and you risk getting overflow. The measure function cannot handle even 0.1% over range and the calibration of the unit is not that good:

The unit is supposed to do that. It has a hard limit on the "limit" you set. That is what it is supposed to do.

As usual a limit has some tolerance and in some cases a 1A limit can deliver slightly above 1A, but it is silly that the meter goes into overflow because of that, a included 1% over range in the measurement circuits would have avoided any problems like that.
As it is now the auto range function does always work.

Not really, I paid a bit above $8000 for it and hope to get some usage out of it, but the precision will be rather bad for the price.
With a limit of 100mA and measuring range of 1A (Next higher range) I get 100.2mA (With a specific setup), i.e. 0.2% error.

I am very surprised about that. I did a test on my unit. As you can see in the picture the error (compared to a new 7.5 digit meter) is less than 0.0174%. I suspect something might be wrong with your setup. I hope you can resolve the issue.

It is probably the measurement function that is a bit out, it is only using 10% of its range, this means offset errors are more significant.

[es]

As usual a limit has some tolerance and in some cases a 1A limit can deliver slightly above 1A, but it is silly that the meter goes into overflow because of that, a included 1% over range in the measurement circuits would have avoided any problems like that.

In the brochure, they specify "OVERRANGE: 105% of range, source and measure."

[HKJ]

In the brochure, they specify "OVERRANGE: 105% of range, source and measure."

This is not present in my 2460.
Limit 0.9999 measures 0.9999
Limit 0.99997 measures 0.99995
Limit 0.99998 measures overflow
Limit 0.99999 measures overflow

This is with the source=4 volt, another source value will give different results.
I am running software version 1.1.0c

[HKJ]

The new firmware version for the 2460 fixes this problem.

[HighVoltage]

The new firmware version for the 2460 fixes this problem.

Thanks for letting us know about the new FW
Downloading it now.