- Rohde & Schwarz has entered the market for source and measurement units with the launch of the R&S NGU201 and R&S NGU401 sourcemeters, which can deliver and measure currents and voltages simultaneously.
- The two-quadrant sourcemeter in the R&S NGU201 series enables automatic switching from source to sink mode when the input voltage reaches the predefined positive value.
- The four-quadrant model in the R&S NGU401 series can also switch to negative voltage values.
The sourcemeters in the R&S NGU family incorporate feedback current amplification technology that ensures current measurement over a range from nano-amperes to amperes in a single sweep. To handle the rapid changes in charging conditions that are typical of battery-powered communication devices that go from standby to data transmitter status, the R&S NGU sourcemeter has an optimized control loop load that achieves a recovery time of less than 30µs with minimal overshoot.
R&S NGU sourcemeters offer six current ranges from 10 µA for 100 pA resolution to 10 A for 10 µA resolution. They have a measurement accuracy of up to 0.025% over all current ranges. Voltage is measured with a resolution of 10 µV in the 20 V range and 1 µV in the 6 V range.
To address the measurement issue of capacitance at the input of the device under test, the sourcemeters have a capacitance compensation mode which is adjustable in steps from 1 µF to 470 µF so that the current is displayed as if it were measured directly on the device under test. All devices operating at voltages up to 20 V, currents up to 8 A and power up to 60 W are supported.
The R&S NGU401 four-quadrant sourcemeter measures voltage sources and voltage sinks of any equipment operating over a voltage range from -20 V to +20 V. In addition to the power supply voltage regulation mode, it has a fast current regulation mode to prevent damage to current-sensitive devices under test, such as LEDs or other semiconductor components. A current generation output of arbitrary waveform allows the simulation of power supply disturbances or instabilities up to frequencies of 1 kHz.
The R&S NGU201 two-quadrant sourcemeter, which delivers a maximum current of 8 A, can support rapid battery charging devices.
The instruments in the R&S NGU series include the FastLog function, which samples signals at up to 500 ks/sec. This offers the possibility of capturing voltages and currents every 2 μs in order to detect brief intermittent events. The optional built-in digital voltmeter can be used to check voltages at any point on the device under test as well as the input voltage.
