Enhancements to Keithley Instruments’ S530 parametric test system for production parametric test have doubled its pin count to 48-pin full Kelvin switching. They also include options for ring oscillator measurement, pulse generation, and low-voltage measurements.
According to Jay Shah, Keithley’s manager of worldwide marketing operations, the measurement of ring oscillators has become increasingly important since they are increasingly used in process control monitoring test structures.
The S530 now includes a high-speed, high-resolution oscilloscope option that supports ring oscillator testing over a frequency range of approximately 10 kHz to 20 MHz with 40 Msamples/s.
Shah also cited the increasing amount of ICs with embedded flash. Testing these devices requires sourcing user-defined voltage pulses to program and erase memory cells, followed by precise dc measurements. To address this need, the S530 integrates two, four, or six channels of pulse generation capability to produce a wide range of testing waveforms.
The testing of van der Pauw and metal structures demands a combination of low voltage, high resolution, and very repeatable measurements. S530 systems now offer an optional 7.5-digit, low-noise digital multimeter (DMM) optimised for low-voltage measurements. It provides 10-nV resolution on its lowest (100 mV) range and 100-nV resolution on its next lowest (1 V) range. It also offers 7-ppm dc voltage repeatability.
Two versions, a low-current system and a high-current system, are available. The S530 low-current system is for measuring characteristics like sub-threshhold leakage and gate leakage. It employs a high-performance switch matrix to direct signals between instruments and test pins, providing sub-picoamp measurement resolution and low current guarding all the way to the probe pin. This version also supports 48-pin full Kelvin (four-wire) switching.
The high-voltage version of the S530 incorporates a source measurement unit capable of sourcing up to 1000 V at 20 mA (20 W max) to any system pin. This version is optimised for the difficult breakdown and leakage tests that gallium-nitride (GaN), silicon-carbide (SiC), and silicon LDMOS power devices demand.
Keithley Instruments
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