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So what do you do when you need a modern transistor curve tracer?

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switchabl:

--- Quote from: edavid on February 19, 2023, 10:39:02 pm ---
--- Quote from: David Aurora on February 19, 2023, 10:16:35 pm ---There are current model curve tracers out there but it depends what kind of voltages and currents you want to test the DUT at, as well as the volume of parts you want to test.

--- End quote ---

That's a bold statement.  Can you name even one that is a standalone unit, not an SMU?

--- End quote ---

Off the top of my head: Keysight B1500A, Keithley 4200A-SCS, several Iwatsu models. Yes they do a lot more than just I/V curves these days and they are not cheap. But neither was a Tek 370.

alm:

--- Quote from: edavid on February 19, 2023, 10:39:02 pm ---That's a bold statement.  Can you name even one that is a standalone unit, not an SMU?  (I don't think the above mentioned Keysight B1500A counts, since it's an SMU system in a box

--- End quote ---
Why is a system consisting of a number of SMUs in a box that can trace curves not a curve tracer? The traditional Tek 576 etc also had voltage/current sources and voltage / ammeters (on the CRT).


--- Quote from: edavid on February 19, 2023, 10:39:02 pm ---and I also think OP doesn't want to spend $86K+.)

--- End quote ---
Unfortunately the OP was last active in July, 2022, so we'll probably never know. This company claims to sell the Keithley equivalent for less than half ;). But if you want something that a cal lab will certify, then I think it's either this or a stack of SMUs, and I'm not sure the latter will be all that much cheaper, especially if you factor in software (buying or developing it yourself).

edavid:

--- Quote from: alm on February 19, 2023, 11:00:06 pm ---Why is a system consisting of a number of SMUs in a box that can trace curves not a curve tracer? The traditional Tek 576 etc also had voltage/current sources and voltage / ammeters (on the CRT).

--- End quote ---
I don't have a good answer, except maybe the time required to set up a simple measurement?


--- Quote ---Unfortunately the OP was last active in July, 2022, so we'll probably never know.

--- End quote ---
Whoops!


--- Quote ---This company claims to sell the Keithley equivalent for less than half ;).

--- End quote ---
That's $34K for just the mainframe, so it does add up once you add the SMUs :)

alm:

--- Quote from: edavid on February 20, 2023, 12:18:29 am ---I don't have a good answer, except maybe the time required to set up a simple measurement?

--- End quote ---
Well, my hobby budget is also slightly below the $80k mark, so I haven't used these instruments, but I'd expect them to ship with ready made templates for easy IV tracing, BJT tracing, etc. Even the old HP 4145A/B and 4155A could do this fairly easily, although you would have to tell them which channels to use and over what range to sweep. Once set up you could save these settings to disk.

I'd even expect the modern Keithley (and probably also Keysight) SMUs to easily do this with their software. Wasn't one of the big selling points for the Keithley 2450/2460 how easily they could be scripted, and how a script could control multiple instruments? But I'm sure they found a way to charge a crazy amount of money for this somehow.


--- Quote from: edavid on February 20, 2023, 12:18:29 am ---That's $34K for just the mainframe, so it does add up once you add the SMUs :)

--- End quote ---
Oops, that is pretty useless on its own indeed...

Whitefoot:
There is a Taiwan company named K&H that makes a stand-alone curve tracer.
I don't know anything about it, including price or availability.

https://www.kandh.com.tw/ki-3020d-digitized-semiconductor-curve-tracer-ki-3020d.html

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