The 2460 High Current SourceMeter® Source Measure Unit (SMU) Instrument brings advanced Touch, Test, Invent® technology right to your fingertips. It combines an innovative graphical user interface (GUI) with capacitive touchscreen technology to make testing intuitive and minimize the learning curve to help engineers and scientists learn faster, work smarter, and invent easier. With its 7A DC and pulse current capability, the 2460 is optimized for characterizing and testing high power materials, devices, and modules such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), DC-DC converters, power MOSFETs, solar cells and panels, LEDs and lighting systems, electrochemical cells and batteries, and much more. These new capabilities, combined with Keithley’s decades of expertise in developing high precision, high accuracy SMU instruments, will make the 2460 a “go-to instrument” for high current applications in the lab and in the rack for years to come.
Key Features
- One tightly coupled instrument that combines capabilities from analyzers, curve tracers, and I-V systems at a fraction of their cost
- Wide coverage up to 105 V, 7 A DC/7 A pulse, 100 W max.
- Five-inch, high resolution capacitive touchscreen GUI
- 0.012% basic measure accuracy with 6½-digit resolution
- Source and sink (4-quadrant) operation
- Four “Quickset” modes for fast setup and measurements
- Context-sensitive help function
- Front panel input banana jacks; rear panel input mass termination screw connections
- 2460 SCPI and TSP® scripting programming modes
- Front-panel USB 2.0 memory I/O port for transferring data, test scripts, or test configurations
Learn Faster, Work Smarter, Invent Easier
The 2460 features a five-inch, full-color, high resolution touchscreen that supports intuitive operation, helps operators become familiar with the instrument quickly, and optimizes overall speed and productivity. A simple icon-based menu structure reduces the number of steps required to configure a test by as much as 50 percent and eliminates the cumbersome multi-layer menu structures typically used on soft-key instruments. Built-in, context-sensitive help supports intuitive operation and minimizes the need to review a separate manual. These capabilities, combined with the 2460’s high versatility, simplify its operation in both basic and advanced measurement applications, regardless of the user’s previous experience in working with SMU instruments.
2460 main home screen.
Model 2460 icon-based menu.
All-in-One SMU Instrument
The 2460, built on the fourth generation of the award-winning SourceMeter SMU platform, leverages the proven capabilities of previously introduced high current SMU instruments from Keithley, including the 2420, 2425, and 2440. It offers a highly flexible, four-quadrant voltage and current source/load coupled with precision voltage and current measurements. This all-in-one instrument gives you the capabilies of a:
- Precision power supply with V and I readback
- True current source
- Digital multimeter (DCV, DCI, ohms, and power with 6½-digit resolution)
- Precision electronic load
- Trigger controller
2420/2425/2440型 | 2460型 |
Max Voltage: 60V/100V/40V | Max Voltage: 100V |
Max Current: 3A/3A/5A | Max Current: 7A |
DC Power: 60W/100W/50W | DC Power: 100W |
Wideband Noise: 10mVrms typ. | Wideband Noise: 2mVrms typ. |
Sweep Types: Linear, Log, Custom, Source-Memory | Sweep Types: Linear, Log, Dual Linear, Dual Log, Custom |
5000 Point Reading Buffer | >250,000 Point Reading Buffer |
>2000 Readings/second | >3000 Readings/second |
SCPI Programming | SCPI Programming + TSP Scripting |
GPIB, RS-232 | GPIB,USB, Ethernet(LXI) |
Front/Rear Banana Jacks | Front: Banana Jacks. Rear: Mass Screw Terminal Connection |
Ease of Use Beyond the Touchscreen
2460 front panel with high-resolution, capacitive touchscreen.
In addition to its advanced touchscreen, the 2460’s front panel offers a variety of features that enhance its speed, user-friendliness, and learnability, including a USB 2.0 memory I/O port, a HELP key, a rotary navigation/control knob, a front/rear input selector button, and banana jacks for basic bench applications. The USB 2.0 memory port simplifies storing test results and instrument configurations, uploading test scripts into the instrument, and installing system upgrades. All front-panel buttons are backlit to enhance visibility in low-light environments.
Four “Quickset” modes simplify instrument setup. With one touch, the instrument can be quickly configured for various operating modes without the need to configure the instrument indirectly for this operation.
One-touch Quickset modes speed measurement setups and minimize the time to measurements.
Comprehensive Built-in Connectivity
Rear panel access to rear-input mass termination connector, remote control interfaces (GPIB, USB 2.0, and LXI/Ethernet), D-sub 9-pin digital I/O port (for internal/ external trigger signals and handler control), instrument interlock control, and TSP-Link® jacks make it simple to configure multiple instrument test solutions and eliminate the need to invest in additional adapter accessories.
Rear panel connections are optimized for signal integrity and speed system setup
Convert Raw Data to Information
A full graphical plotting window converts raw data and displays it immediately as useful information, such as semiconductor I-V curves and voltammograms. Using the 2460’s Sheet view, test data can also be displayed in tabular form. The instrument supports exporting data to a spreadsheet for further analysis, dramatically improving productivity for research, benchtop testing, device qualification, and debugging.
TriggerFlow® Building Blocks for Instrument Control and Execution
The 2460 incorporates Keithley’s TriggerFlow triggering system, which provides user control over instrument execution. TriggerFlow diagrams are created in much the same way that flow charts are developed, using four fundamental building block types:
- Wait – Waits for an event to occur before the flow continues
- Branch – Branches when a condition has been satisfied
- Action – Initiates an action in the instrument, for example, measure, source, delay, set digital I/O, etc.
- Notify – Notifies other equipment that an event has occurred
TriggerFlow building blocks allow creating triggering models that range from very simple to highly complex.
A TriggerFlow model using a combination of these building blocks can be created from the front panel or by sending remote commands. With the TriggerFlow system, users can build triggering models from very simple to complex with up to 255 block levels. The 2460 also includes basic triggering functions, including immediate, timer, and manual triggering.
Built-in data display, charting, and spreadsheet export functions simplify converting test results into useful information.
Unmatched System Integration and Programming Flexibility
When a 2460 is configured into a multi-channel I-V test system, its embedded Test Script Processor (TSP®) allows it to run test scripts, so users can create powerful measurement applications with significantly reduced development times. TSP technology also offers channel expansion without a mainframe. Keithley’s TSP-Link® channel expansion bus, which uses a 100 Base T Ethernet cable, can connect multiple 2460s and other TSP instruments such as Keithley’s 2450 SourceMeter SMU Instruments, Series 2600B System SourceMeter SMU instruments, and Series 3700A Switch/Multimeter systems in a master-slave configuration that operates as one integrated system. The TSP-Link expansion bus supports up to 32 units per GPIB or IP address, making it easy to scale a system to fit an application’s particular requirements. The 2460 also includes a SCPI programming mode that takes advantage of all of the instrument’s capabilities.
Parallel Test Capability
The TSP technology in the 2460 supports testing multiple devices in parallel to meet the needs of device research, advanced semiconductor lab applications, and even high throughput production test. This parallel testing capability allows each instrument in the system to run its own complete test sequence, creating a fully multi-threaded test environment. The number of tests that can be run in parallel on a 2460 can be as high as the number of instruments in the system.
KickStart Instrument Control Start-up Software
The 2460 comes with KickStart instrument control/start-up software, which lets users start taking measurements in minutes without programming. In most cases, users merely need to make some quick measurements, graph the data, and store the data to disk for later analysis in software environments such as Excel. KickStart offers:
- Instrument configuration control to perform I-V characterization
- Native X-Y graphing, panning, and zooming
- Spreadsheet/tabular viewing of data
- Saving and exporting data for further analysis
- Saving of test setups
- Screenshot capturing of graph
- Annotation of tests
- Command line dialog for sending and receiving data
- HTML help
- GPIB, USB 2.0, Ethernet compliance
A Free trial version of KickStart is available at https://www.tek.com/keithley-kickstart.
KickStart start-up software lets users be ready to take measurements in minutes.
Simplified Programming with Ready-to-Use Instrument Drivers
For those who prefer to create their own customized application software, native National Instruments LabVIEW® drivers, as well as IVI-C and IVI-COM drivers are available at www.tek.com