How to Capture Fast Sleep-to-Active Current Transitions

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Modular Source Measure Unit
+ Modular Source Measure Unit
Modular Source Measure Unit
+ Modular Source Measure Unit

Measure a Wide Current Range Without Missing Fast Events

Dynamic characterization of a low-power integrated circuit (IC) requires a supply source, current measurement, and time-domain acquisition that can capture rapid changes in operating state. The device is biased at its required supply voltage while the supply current is monitored, and an external digital event such as a Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) signal can be used as the trigger for acquisition.

The measurement captures the current waveform before, during, and after the transition so the sleep current, active-state current, and transient behavior can be resolved on the same time base. High-speed digitizer acquisition is used to preserve short-duration activity that can be missed at lower sampling rates, while seamless current measurement ranging maintains a wide current span during the transition.

Fast Sleep-to-Active Current Capture Solution

Connect the supply channel to the DUT and trigger digitized current acquisition from the event that indicates the device has entered its active state. The Keysight high-speed modular source/measure unit (SMU) supports digitizer acquisition at up to 15 MSa/s and a minimum pulse width of 10 μs, providing the sampling capability described for fast dynamic measurements. Seamless current measurement ranging allows the measurement to follow large changes in current while maintaining the specified measurement timing. In the application example, a UART trigger is used to capture the low-power microcontroller current waveform as the device wakes from sleep, sends data, and returns toward sleep.
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How to Capture Fast Sleep-to-Active Current Transitions

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