Products > Test Equipment
Which SMU -- Keithley 2450, Keysight B2901B, R&S NGU401?
(1/6) > >>
colorado.rob:
I'm in the market for an SMU.  I will primarily be using it for battery-powered system testing, but I have some additional needs that make an SMU a worth-while purchase.  One key requirement is that it be network accessible (LXI), which leaves a lot of older equipment out of the running.  Keithley seems to be the go-to choice for an SMU.  R&S is new to the space, but certainly seems worth considering.  I've not heard much about the B2900 series from Keysight other than a disparaging remark about the UI.  The low-end models are all close to the same price USD5000-6000.

Having a dedicated application for battery simulation would be nice but is not a necessity since I am adept at lab automation.

Looking to the experts here who have experience with these units to share their thoughts.  Are there SMUs not on the list worth considering? Are there any features that stand out as unique to any of these models?
Someone:

--- Quote from: colorado.rob on November 30, 2021, 03:41:57 am ---I've not heard much about the B2900 series from Keysight other than a disparaging remark about the UI.
--- End quote ---
Completely fair assessment of those models, they're descended/derived from semiconductor testing equipment and are very very fiddly to use manually. Much of the automation is built in for sweeps/sequences/delays/triggers etc so they can measure as fast as possible. But again, pain in the neck to setup as they follow semiconductor test methodologies/patterns with its own lingo and not a more general purpose UI. Supplied "Free" software to use them is pretty rudimental and doesn't really show off their capabilities. If you're ok learning the command set and doing it all over LXI/VISA none of those should not be issues for you.

The associated/derived Agilent/Keysight models are the SMUs B2901/B2902/B2910/B2911/B2912 and also power supplies B2961/B2962. Meters B2981/B2983/B2985/B2987 are similar UI/casing but different internals: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/keysight-b2980a-series-electrometerpicoammeter-teardown/

That said if you're not needing high speed and/or extremely low ranges, a modern power supply might do for your application. Some of the R&S models sit somewhere between the two.
Joel_Dunsmore:
I've personally used the B2912 and one nice feature is the ability to do triggered high-speed measurements and then read the data out after you are done triggering. we use this feature when when use the B2912 along with the PNA-X to sweep a drive voltage (often gate on a GaN device) and measure drain while measuring the RF gain properties. We can get nicely traces of Gate voltage, drain voltage and current, RF input and output. We use hardware triggering to get speed and then count triggers to get the right number of points and read out the data arrays at the end. i think we can get as fast as 50 microseconds a point on the B2912. 
Xandinator:
In case you haven't pulled the trigger on one of those yet: The B2900 series' UI takes a little to get used to (still I prefer the B2987's UI/ergonomics over the 6517B, although I don't have any in-depth experience with the latter), so I could not put up with it being the primary workhorse. In contrast to this, Keithley and R&S really nailed it with their graphical (touch) UIs – just a pleasure to use. I wonder why nobody has been considering the NGM202 as an option so far, which I would deem ideal for the battery testing part (lots of power under the hood, 2 channels you trade off 2 quadrants for, could have added more ranges, triggering is OK once you have wrapped your head around it, battery simulator). If 4 quadrant is a must, I would probably go with Keithley though, especially if you already have their DMM/DAQ...
luudee:

I realize this thread is about a year old ... but ...

Has anybody looked at the SMU from ITECH (IT2800)?

https://www.itechate.com/en/product/SMU/IT2800.html

This is a "Graphical SMU" whatever that means, lol

Appears to me the R&S unit is missing a ton of features ....

Thnks !

luudee
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod