Out in Front: January 18, 1996
Component-test instruments indicate vendor’s new focus
Keithley is making a subtle shift in its emphasis in test instruments—to component-test products from the general-purpose precision-measurement instruments for which the company is known. As evidence, the company offers two new products, the Model 2400 digital SourceMeter and the Model 2010 low-noise, 7½-digit DMM. Notwithstanding their target applications, the new products are general-purpose enough to find many uses outside the market segments for which Keithley tailored them.
The 2400 combines in a half-rack-width enclosure an IEEE-488/RS-232C-programmable, 5½-digit, 20W, dc-voltage/current source and a 6½-digit DMM. The source operates in four quadrants; that is, it can produce positive or negative voltages and supply or sink current. Settling is fast, because no relays are involved in switching voltage- or current-source polarity. The unit can resolve voltage changes as small as 1 µV, supply and measure voltages to 200V, resolve current changes as small as 10 pA, and supply and measure currents to 1A. Error, which depends on range, is as small as ±0.02% of output for one year for the source and 0.01% of reading for the meter. The $3495 unit also makes guarded six-wire resistance measurements, enabling it to measure resistors in-circuit by driving the voltage across parallel circuit elements to zero.
The 2010, which costs $2395, takes as many as 2000 readings/sec at 4½-digit resolution and as many as 10 readings/ sec at 7½ digits. The instrument can resolve resistance changes as small as 1 mV and can measure resistance to 100 MV. Besides dc voltage, dc current, and resistance, the meter measures true-rms ac voltage, ac current, frequency, and period. Error and noise, which depend on range and function, are as low as ±24 ppm of reading for one year and 100 nV rms, respectively. — by Dan Strassberg
Keithley Instruments,
Cleveland, OH. (216) 248-0400.
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