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Technical Overviews
Pick the best instrument for your precision measurement application
The push for “Green” energy has created the need for continuous innovation to reduce device power consumption. In addition, the voltages used to bias devices and equipment continue to decrease, which requires measurement instruments to have ever greater levels of precision. Since selecting the right instrument to measure these types of sensitive devices can be very difficult, this document provides guidance to help you choose the correct solution for your application.
Comparison table by model and key options
In general, applications requiring both sourcing and measurement capabilities should use SMUs, while applications requiring very accurate output (sourcing) capabilities should use the power supply-source.
What is an SMU?
An SMU has both precision source and measurement blocks, allowing it to force voltage or current and measure both current and voltage simultaneously. A typical SMU measurement application is shown below. In this example the SMU sweeps the voltage across a diode and measures the current through the diode.
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