Instrument buyers are demanding greater value at lower prices

Test hardware buyers have always striven to balance an instrument's performance against its price. In recent years, however, buyers are increasingly demanding instruments optimized to test at an appropriate level of accuracy for the application and produce results quickly and easily – all without blowing their equipment budgets on non-essential functions and capabilities. Several factors are driving this new focus on maximizing instrument value:

• Today, with fewer staff employees responsible for more work at many companies, engineers need instrumentation that can produce reliable results quickly, with no extended learning curve required. That means, to maximize value, a new instrument must combine measurement accuracy with intuitive operation.
• Many companies want instruments that offer a migration path that allows them to upgrade system capabilities cost-effectively when new test requirements emerge. No one can afford to scrap their old systems and start over from scratch every few years.
• Every instrument expenditure is being scrutinized more carefully now and requires more approvals. Many instrument specifiers are unable or unwilling to buy instruments with lots of features that would likely go unused—they want solutions that give them "just enough test."
• Although this might seems like a contradiction of my previous point, there is still a demand for instruments flexible enough to adapt to multiple applications and testing environments. Customers have always wanted both the flexibility to buy only what they need today and the ability to repurpose that instrumentation later. From an instrument development perspective, this poses a challenge.

At Keithley, the approach we’ve taken to balancing these seemingly incompatible demands is to focus on developing solutions that are inherently fast and flexible. One good example of this is the plug-and-play TSP Express test software embedded in our newest SMU instruments. It supports I-V characterization through any web browser, on any computer, from anywhere in the world. It offers users the flexibility to make a web connection to an SMU with a LAN cable, open a browser, enter the instrument’s IP address, and begin characterizing materials or components immediately.

We’ve also worked hard to hear the voice of our customers when they tell us they want lower price points without sacrificing important instrument capabilities. For example, many buyers have told us they prefer using SMUs in benchtop R&D applications because of their tightly synchronized sourcing and measurement. While many of our SMU offerings are oriented to system-level test automation for production test, our latest series of SMUs includes three dual-channel models that eliminate automation features to offer a lower-cost solution for benchtop use.

One of the ways we’re addressing migration path issues is the addition of a software emulation mode in our newest SMUs. The Model 2400 SourceMeter® instrument, introduced in 1995, has been extremely popular for both benchtop and production test use. Many long-time owners now need greater channel density and higher speed but have been hesitant to replace their instruments.  Our newer SMUs don’t support the original SCPI commands of the 2400 Series because they use ICL (Instrument Command Language) commands instead, and this difference in command sets once required users to re-write their test code if they wished to replace a Model 2400. However, we developed what we call a 2400 Personality Script, which allows Series 2600B System SourceMeter SMU instruments to accept Model 2400 SCPI commands, quickly and seamlessly translating them into the native ICL commands these new instruments can understand.

For instrument buyers and developers alike, achieving the right combination of performance and price will always require a balancing act. I encourage you to use the comments feature to offer feedback on the features and capabilities most important to your work that you’d like to see in the next generation of test and measurement instruments.

Engineering education hits the highway with Oregon State’s solar race car team

Some readers may recall from last year when I wrote that “Engineering Education is Tough And Needs to Stay That Way.” This year, I’d like to expand a little on that theme of the importance of engineering education and express my admiration for a group who are taking lessons learned in the classroom and applying them to the challenges of fielding a solar vehicle race car. Members of Oregon State University’s Solar Vehicle Team (OSUSVT), made up of students, staff, and faculty members, have designed and built a number of solar-powered race cars to compete in the recent American Solar Challenge.

I’ve long been a firm believer that electronics industry leaders should encourage and support the next generation of electrical engineers, and Keithley has provided test and measurement instrumentation to a number of college solar vehicle race teams over the years. This year, we were delighted to contribute to OSUSVT’s efforts by donating a Model 2440 5A SourceMeter® Source Measurement Unit (SMU) Instrument, which the students used to analyze and troubleshoot the solar modules they’ve designed for their vehicle.

The team developed a soldering, testing, and laminating procedure to produce flexible, lightweight solar modules based on mono-crystalline solar cells. To maximize vehicle performance, they required parametric data on each module to arrange sub-arrays on the car in the most efficient manner. The Keithley SMU let them characterize each module’s overall power output and maximum power point current using an I-V curve tracing technique. Students were able to gather accurate data on the performance of each module quickly and make side-by-side comparisons easily. Each module was characterized both before and after lamination, and the data obtained was used in troubleshooting problems such as shorted cells and cracked cells. In addition, this data was employed in current matching in the sub-arrays, as well in projecting the output of the vehicle’s entire solar array.

Kathy Han, the team’s manager notes, “Before we had access to Keithley’s SourceMeter Instrument, we had problems with one of our previous solar arrays that used solar cells that had been laser-cut from the front side, which we now know produces some melting of the p/n junction. This caused internal shorts and increased internal resistance in the cells. The Model 2440 made it possible to detect problems that simply weren’t detectable before and to match solar cells better. Because of Keithley’s generous donation, this year’s vehicle has 50 percent higher power output (900W instead of 600W) than last year’s.”

The Oregon State University Solar Vehicle Team finished in sixth place in the American Solar Challenge and fifth place in the Formula Sun Grand Prix. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating them, as well as all the future engineers who participated in the American Solar Challenge. To see pictures of the team and to read a white paper about how the students used the Model 2440 SourceMeter Instrument, visit http://www.keithley.com/data?asset=56996. I also encourage you to share your ideas in the comments section about how industry can help to support tomorrow’s electrical engineers while they’re still pursuing their education.

Test vendors face new challenges in serving power semiconductor market

The latest generation of high power semiconductor devices demands that test instrumentation vendors deliver solutions capable of characterizing significantly higher rated voltages and peak currents than ever. As I mentioned in my last post, many power device manufacturers are turning to compound semiconductor materials like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) to create high power semiconductor devices. These newer devices typically are significantly smaller than their silicon equivalents and have much higher power density, better high temperature performance, higher frequency response, and lower ON resistance, all of which add up to greater operating efficiency. These devices typically are far less leaky than silicon, which poses still another challenge for test suppliers—integrating higher current measurement sensitivity with higher voltage sourcing capability in the same solution.
Compound semiconductor technologies are less technically mature than silicon technology, which complicates designing and characterizing devices based on these materials, as well as characterization as part of quality assurance, failure analysis, and process monitoring. These challenges and the higher cost of the materials themselves make compound semiconductor devices more expensive than silicon. That puts pressure on the cost of test, especially final test. As a result, power semiconductor OEMs are searching for ways to balance developing and producing devices that operate at higher power levels and with lower leakage levels with testing these devices cost-effectively.

The once relatively slow rate of change in the power semiconductor industry meant that existing equipment types largely met these manufacturers' test requirements for a number of years. As a result, test instrument OEMs often had little motivation to develop more capable solutions; some even allowed their solutions to go obsolete. However, power semi OEMs have realized that the T&M instrumentation they relied on for so long is no longer capable of meeting their product development requirements. Today, device OEMs are searching for new approaches to high power semi material and device testing, including the use of instruments with integrated sourcing and measurement capabilities, like source measurement units (SMUs). Essentially, SMUs are fast-response, read-back voltage and current sources with high accuracy measurement capabilities, all tightly integrated in a single enclosure.

Although early SMUs lacked the dynamic range essential to characterizing high power semi devices, newer models can deliver the higher levels of power and low-level current sensitivity needed to test these devices accurately in R&D, FA, and QA applications, as well as the speed necessary for cost-effective production test. For example, Keithley’s new Model 2657A High Power System SourceMeter® instrument is designed for use across multiple departments within an organization. This offers the added benefit of measurement correlation at various stages throughout the commercialization process, which helps resolve problems faster and enables quicker time to market.

The next generation of power semiconductor devices represents some significant test challenges for device OEMs and test vendors alike. The test vendors who will ultimately serve this industry best will be those who deliver the best combination of power, performance, and cost-effectiveness available.

Is Your R&D Lab Prepared for Tomorrow’s Non-Volatile Memories?

From a semiconductor technology perspective, flash memory devices have been around for a very long time; in fact, a Toshiba researcher invented flash memory way back in 1984 and Intel released the first flash chip late in that same decade. Until recently, floating-gate flash memory of one form or another has been the non-volatile memory (NVM) technology of choice for digital cameras, MP3 players, and dozens of other electronic devices. However, the supremacy of flash memory may soon be drawing to a close; technical limitations such as memory wear, speed, power consumption and capacity limitations are spurring memory producers to research new NVM technologies such as phase-change memory (PCM/PRAM), charge trap flash (CTF/SONOS), resistive memory (ReRAM), ferro-electric memory (FeRAM), magneto-resistive memory (MRAM), and others. These new technologies will require R&D labs to re-evaluate their material and device characterization tools and techniques.

Flexible electrical characterization tools are crucial to gaining a better understanding of the physical aspects of any NVM technology. Regardless of the particular memory technology under investigation, pulsing is essential to exercise a cell’s switching behavior. Pulsing with simultaneous measurement provides the data necessary to understand the dynamic behavior of the switching mechanism.

Company executives need to understand that, for those at work in NVM R&D labs, finding an integrated approach to applying pulses to a memory device or material while simultaneously measuring current and voltage has been challenging. In the past, it required integrating a rack of instruments, writing software to coordinate their operation, and accepting various tradeoffs related to cost, performance, and complexity. Creating and maintaining these custom systems typically required an in-house test instrumentation expert with the considerable skills and resources necessary to integrate the various instruments into a working system. Although functional, these “in-house” systems are typically, by necessity, one-off creations with limited test envelopes and cumbersome test controls that require time-consuming data extraction. The measurement approach typically uses a load or sense resistor with an oscilloscope or digitizer to measure the current. Although this is a proven technique, the effect of the load resistor on the voltage delivered to the device has significant downsides for many pulse measurements. Also, correlation across multiple systems and obtaining traceable system-level calibration is effectively impossible.

To stay competitive in NVM design and development, company leadership must be committed to providing the hardware and human resources needed to help their labs to move beyond the limitations that in-house systems impose. Fortunately, a new class of integrated tools offers researchers additional data to gain a better understanding of NVM material and device behavior in less time. For example, Keithley has addressed these needs with the Model 4225-PMU ultra-fast I-V module for the Model 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characterization System, which can measure current and voltage simultaneously at high sampling rates while applying precisely controlled pulses. This approach provides greater insight into the electrical and physical mechanisms that provide the memory behavior. Adding this transient characterization capability to DC characterization provides fundamental data on intrinsic material properties and device response.

For a fast, easy way to learn more about emerging NVM characterization challenges, I’d encourage you to view our free online seminar on Non-Volatile Memory - Characterization and Measurement Techniques.

Want to predict the future of semi technology? More power to you!

Ask someone at work in a leading-edge fab what the semi industry will be all about over the rest of this decade, and the first answer you're likely to get is "more power," as in “more power devices based on wide-bandgap semiconductors." Currently, silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are considered some of the most promising materials for power devices. Rectifier diodes and power transistors with ratings ranging from 600V to more than 2kV are already in production or well on their way there.  

Applications for SiC and GaN power components include power inverters for green (solar and wind) energy, industrial server and telecom power supplies, high-end consumer power supplies, electric vehicles, and many others. And why not? Electronic components based on these compound materials can operate at higher temperatures and have lower thermal resistance than their silicon counterparts. They also offer greater electric field strength and highly efficient operation in high frequency, high power density, or harsh environments. Silicon carbide is also being investigated for use in large-scale synthesis of graphene, a single-atom-thick form of carbon that's also likely to be integral to the future of the industry. For all these reasons, industry players are focused on SiC and GaN components as a way to power their businesses. 

As a company serving both the R&D and production test sectors of the semiconductor fabrication market, Keithley has a vested interest in remaining deeply attuned to the emerging needs of market innovators. For power semiconductor makers, that includes supplying the instruments and systems they need to characterize the ever-lower levels of leakage currents these devices produce, as well as the higher levels of current and voltage at which they operate. Last year, we helped to sponsor the International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials when it came to Cleveland. For the future, we'll continue to invest in developing solutions for pulsed I-V characterization, Hall effect measurements, high power device characterization, and other test technologies likely to be critical to tomorrow's power device innovations.

Engineering Education is Tough – And Needs to Stay That Way

Should engineering degrees be expanded to a five-year curriculum instead of four?  The knowledge, skills and techniques our new hires must master is extensive and exploding, and it’s hard to imagine how it can all be covered in just four years.

But in truth, the extra year wouldn’t likely make much of a difference for those we hire here at Keithley.  Our engineering projects are difficult;  we’re creating measurement solutions that range from picoamps to 50A.  Engineers must understand not only measurement science, but the ways various subsystems must interact (power supplies, software, mechanical packaging, manufacturability, etc.).  It’s not practical to expect graduates to leaves college with the hands-on experience to design solutions at that level.  Much of what we do here, and in most companies, is learned in on-the-job experience.

In truth, we find as much value in the non-technical aspects of the college engineering experience as in mastering the basic science and math. If you graduate with an engineering degree today, you bring to your job a toughness, a perseverance, a tenacity that will be just as important to your job performance as in the elegance of your designs.

Actually, most engineering degrees include a co-op component in the workplace, which effectively functions as a fifth year.  And in truth that additional year in the field is really critical, since no EE program can adequately prepare for the transition from theoretical engineering to practical application.  We’ve enjoyed strong partnerships with many leading universities in the region to create these educational experiences and certainly have found many of our best engineers over the years through our co-op relationships.  

The Apple Tastes Better When Savored Slowly

Here’s my last blog post – for now – in my series of recent posts on creating enduring products:

Lesson: Make sure that first bite isn’t more than you can chew.

I’ll tell you something we don’t necessarily broadcast to the outside world:  the first two product concepts for our very successful Model 4200-SCS platform, which were based in part on input from customer focus groups, didn’t receive top management approval. Quite simply, their scope was too large to succeed in a reasonable time—it was just too big of a bite. Despite the undeniable value of their insights, customers in focus groups often have no concept of what it takes to bring a sophisticated system of this type to market.

During concept development, it’s critical to invest your energy in making sure you have a complete and compelling narrative to present to top management and that it’s presented in such a way that they can readily see how it will be carried through to completion. The development team’s early mistake was thinking about it like engineers (the “coolness” and technology of the measurements involved) rather than like top managers (is this a do-able product in a reasonable timeframe?).

The development team spent a lot of time “descoping” the project, whittling it down to a manageable level of technical risk. However, what finally convinced top managers that the Model 4200-SCS represented a viable product concept was our technical and marketing people taking them on the road with them. The conversation took place between Keithley’s technical people and the people who would actually be using the product—top management was a “fly on the wall,” silently absorbing what the lab managers needed and wanted from a product of this type. Over the years, we’ve often found that nothing beats a face-to-face meeting between management and customers for communicating the potential of a new product.

Patience is More than a Virtue. It’s Hard.

When I wrote earlier blog posts about creating enduring product ideas, I thought about it in general terms.  But when I began thinking about creating products in the semiconductor industry in particular, I realized it takes special, shall we say, fortitude to be a product developer in this sector.

Lesson: If you’re developing solutions for a cyclical industry like the semiconductor industry, be prepared to be persistent through its ups and downs.

In a traditional business model, R&D spending is based on the revenues a product is producing; that means too many companies tend to cut back on their development investments when there’s an industry downturn. However, companies that abruptly turn off the “money spigot” when there’s a cyclical downturn simply aren’t in a position to profit from the next market upturn when it arrives. Still worse, they’ve lost credibility with their customers by not being prepared to address their new needs.

One of the things Keithley does, in addition to long-term planning, is to focus on short-term, fast-response projects, so that when we spot an industry trend, such as organic solar cells, that requires specific measurement capabilities, we can address that opportunity very quickly. 

Lessons from Our Customers

Earlier I wrote about creating long-term value in product development, and how to uncover the real insights that lead to products that last for years.  Another “lesson-learned” we’ve thought about involved creating a long-term roadmap for the product, one that begins before Launch Day.

Lesson: You must lay out the upgrade path for the product and factor it into its architecture long before you introduce the first version.

At Keithley during the 1990s, our market research had informed us that those working in semiconductor labs were typically unhappy with the fixed-configuration characterization systems then available. All too often, they were being forced to purchase a completely new system every few years to address new test needs because their existing ones lacked flexibility. We created a test system, the Model 4200-SCS, that was originally envisioned to evolve over time so that we could offer customers a product that protected their instrumentation investment over the long term.

We took that upgrade path concept to heart, and today we write five-year “roadmaps” for the Model 4200-SCS. This roadmap is designed to parallel industry technology milestones as laid out in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) and our customers’ individual corporate roadmaps.  It’s a concept we’ve applied throughout our product line beyond the Model 4200 to our SourceMeter® Source-Measure Units and other primary measurement platforms.  Mapping our products to industry and customer roadmaps has been a vital strategy in creating enduring measurement platforms, not “me-too” instrument solutions.

Engineering Products That Stand the Test of Time

Every product has a lifespan, some measured in months, some in years. Test instruments are not the same as smartphones, of course – we typically seek to build high-value enduring “platforms” that will last several years and stand the test of time for our customers.

Easy to say, hard to do, in any competitive environment. Aside from the commonplace answers of “staying close to customers” and “anticipating the market,” just how DO you build an enduring product? We came up with a few common themes that have driven our more successful product technologies:

Lesson: Listening is hard. Learn how to do it well.
Product development at times seems to be a black art. Perhaps that explains the tremendous number of annual product launches that fail. But at its core, uncovering true opportunity resides on understanding what the customer says, and doesn’t say. The unarticulated need is often the difference between understanding the difference between features that are “nice to have” versus “have to have.” Teaching your marketers and engineers how to ask questions, and pull true insights from customer conversations, lies at the core of creating real value in product development. The psychology of questioning is vitally important to understand. For instance, “what else” will elicit far more than “is there anything else?” Very subtle, but very powerful. Or, one of our marketers loved the question, “what problem does that solve?” He felt that simple query yielded a treasure trove of creative insights.

Of course, we do the typical steps of customer visits, visiting trade shows and conferences. We’re always searching for the new application for our products that can yield to new solutions. One method we’ve used is Google Scholar, which we’ve found to be a powerful scanning tool to uncover ideas we may not hear of otherwise. For instance, during the last decade, we’ve learned researchers far outside the semiconductor lab are using the Model 4200-SCS in some astonishing ways. Just by searching for “Keithley 4200” using Google Scholar, we’re constantly discovering the results of research in technologies that simply didn’t exist when the system was introduced.

I’ll address other lessons-learned in product development practices in later blog posts. For now, remember that your customers are talking to you. Go listen to them.