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Show Us Your Curve Tracer

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tautech:
Not mine but member mawyatt had some time for experimentations of what he could do within the limits of a AWG and DSO.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/fooln-around-with-dso-awg/

Reply #2 has his hand drawn setup and layout as an attachment.

Calambres:

--- Quote from: armandine2 on September 25, 2022, 08:34:24 pm ---I have the Elektor magazine linked below - so no excuse

https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Elektor/80s/Elektor-1988-10.pdf

for not having a simple curve tracer?

--- End quote ---

One year later (1989-12) Elektor showed a new instance of that curve tracer that was later cloned in the (in)famous Thai Kit. See my take on that kit in this very topic:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/show-us-your-curve-tracer/msg3503702/#msg3503702

TopQuark:
I'll put in my entry to the topic with probably the cheapest curve tracer mentioned in this thread.

I was once a teaching assistant for a mechatronics course in university during the pandemic lock down. It was not possible for students to access the lab gear on campus, all everyone had was an Arduino, some R and C and a couple of diodes from a basic component kit.

I was put in charge of designing a lab project for basic electronics, and I designed a fun "curve tracer" / "SMU" with the Arduino board. I have attached the lab manual I wrote for the project and a couple of test result plots. Mind you the students I taught were majoring in Integrated Systems and Design (not EE) and they were first or second year students, so the language of the lab manual was purposefully oversimplified.

What I hoped the lab would do was to instill in student's mind, the importance (and fun) of doing test and measurement, even if we were on a shoestring budget and locked down. I don't think many students understood or appreciated the lab project, but I think a few students got something useful out of the experience.

mbrennwa:
Just stumbled over this thread. Cool stuff!

Here's my curve trace project: https://pypsucurvetrace.readthedocs.io

PyPSUcurvetrace takes a somewhat different approach than most other curve-tracer projects that require some specific hardware / board to work. PyPSUcurvetrace is a software toolbox that controls programmable power supplies to set and read the voltages and currents at the DUT. This means you can make a curve tracer from PSUs that are available off the shelf, and you choose the PSU units that suit your application: small transistors, power transistors, vacuum tubes, etc.

The PSUs don't need to be expensive "high end". For example, two RIDEN 6006P units can be had for about $300 or less, and will make for a very decent curve tracer setup! 

PyPSUcurvetrace also allows controlling the temperature of the DUT during curve tracing. I attached an example of an IRFP150 power FET measured at 30°C, 50°C and 70°C.

PyPSUcurvetrace not only allows measurement of the curves, but also has post-processing tools for high-quality curve plotting and to determine the DUT parameters from the raw data files (e.g., bias voltage/current for a given operating point, gain parameter, output conductance). More tools like curve matching/pairing of parts are in the works...

THDplusN_bad:
Good Day,

Nice work, mbrennwa!

I have paused my activity here for some time - life happens...

At least, I have found some time to adopt my simple Python scripts for my Agilent N3280A component tester so it can also test MOSFETs now...
Plot taken from a BS170 N-ch. MOSFET attached.  ;)

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

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