Keithley 595 Quasistatic CV Meter

[Rax]

Hi all,
I recently got this alongside a batch of other equipment I am familiar with, but this one I have no idea what it's useful for. It seems to measure capacitance in a pretty limited range, and current?...
Anyone willing to throw some light for me on this, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks a bunch!

[alm]

I've never used one. From what I know, they were designed to do measurements as would be done in semiconductor fabs, like verifying processes. As for what a hobbyist could use it for, I guess as a limited voltage source that can do steps and square waves, and ammeter. It goes down to 20 pA full scale with 1 fA resolution. So it's probably quite good as a high resistance meter: 20 V / 20 pA gives 1 TOhm full scale, with a resolution (surely down in the noise) of 1 POhm.

I don't know how useful a "quasistatic C-V curve" is outside semiconductor device testing.

Maybe it could be used to trace I-V curves, like a two terminal curve tracer?

[ch_scr]

Here Sam Zeloof explains and shows it: ,
but the short of it is: It's a precise capacitance meter with low ranges and integrated, adjustable / sweep-able bias voltage.
Excels at measuring varicap diodes and parasitic device characteristics that behave similar. You could also e.g. measure the reduction in capacitance of non-NP0 SMD cap's under bias voltage.