User Manual

2400 Series SourceMeter
®
User’s Manual Basic Source-Measure Operation 3-15
Basic source-measure procedure
Front panel source-measure procedure
Use the following procedure to perform the basic source-measure operations of
the SourceMeter. See Section 4, “Ohms Measurements,” to measure ohms.
NOTE For the Model 2430, the following procedure pertains to the DC Mode of
operation. Pulse Mode operation is covered in
Section 5. If the Model
2430 is in the Pulse Mode (Vpls or Ipls displayed in the source field), you
can select the DC Mode from the source/pulse configuration menu.
Press CONFIG SOURCE V or I, select the SHAPE menu item, then
select DC. Use the EXIT key to return to the normal display. In the DC
Mode, Vsrc or Isrc is displayed in the source field.
The following procedure assumes that the SourceMeter is already con-
nected to the DUT as explained in Section 2, “Connections.”
Step 1: Select source.
Press SOURCE V to select the V-Source or press SOURCE I to select the I-
Source. The presently programmed source value (V
SRC
or I
SRC
) and compliance
level (Cmpl) are displayed. Note that the “OFF” message is displayed to indicate
that the source is off (ON/OFF indicator off).
Step 2: Set source level and compliance limit.
The source level is the voltage or current setting of the selected source (V-Source
or I-Source). A compliance limit acts as a power limiter to the DUT and is set to
protect the DUT from damaging currents or voltages. When using the V-Source, a
current compliance is set. When using the I-Source, a voltage compliance is set.
Compliance defines the maximum absolute value the SourceMeter can output.
Note that compliance can also be determined by the measurement range.
Depending on which value is lower, compliance occurs at the programmed value
(real compliance) or at the maximum compliance value for the present fixed mea-
surement range (range compliance). For example, with compliance set to 2V and
the 200mV measurement range selected, compliance will occur at 210mV. On the
20V measurement range, compliance will occur at 2V. See Section 6, “Compli-
ance limit,” for details on real and range
compliance.
NOTE The SourceMeter must be in the edit mode (EDIT annunciator ON) to set
source and compliance values. The edit mode is selected by pressing
the EDIT key. The flashing digit for the source or compliance reading
indicates that the SourceMeter is in the edit mode. If no editing operation