SLT3G1, quick demo, pulse mode IF(V) sweep of a Flash LED.

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:36:59 GMT

Few minutes to set up a pulsed current sweep characterization

Here is a demonstration of a simple use case with our SLT3G1 test cube for measuring the IF(V) characteristics of a Power Flash LED.

Setup

2 hook wires to power the Flash LED
2 hook wires to sense the Flash LED terminal voltages

The Digital Power Supply output of SLT3G1 is equipped with a current sense that can be triggered on demand.

Program SLT3G1 (remote)

Create 1 script (VPULSE) to apply a voltage pulse with a parametric amplitude
Create 1 script (vSWEEP) to sweep the amplitude
Collect the measurement data

Script syntax (PULSE generation)

beginTask 0.0 0 0 VPULSE ;
ldoSetVout 0.0 xrVAR1 1; // sets DPS 1 power supply CH 1, reads from VAR1
delayms 50.0 ; // 50ms
SingleExternalMeasurement 0.0 1 1; // Votlage sense VF(+) = ANA1.1 (MUX1_CH1)
SingleExternalMeasurement 0.0 2 1; // Votlage sense VF(-) = ANA2.1 (MUX2_CH1)
subFloat 0.0 xrMUX 1 _CH1 xrMUX 2 _CH1; // math operation VF = VF(+) - VF(-)
getFloatVar; // reports VF data
ldoGetIout 0.0 0 1; // measures and report DPS 1 current IOUT1
ldoSetVout 0.0 0 1; // Turns off the Voltage pulse
delayms 500.0 ; // 500ms
endTask;;

Attention: The syntax is case sensitive.

In this example we create a parametric pulse with a variable amplitude and defined ON and OFF duration.

The measurements are embedded during ON duration.

Script syntax (Voltage pulse sweep)

beginTask 0 0 0 vSweep ;

setUsrFloatVar 0.0 0 xrVAR1; // global VAR1 = 0

executeTask 0.0 0 0 VPULSE ; // Runs VPULSE, which uses global VAR1

setUsrFloatVar 3.1 0 xrVAR1; // VAR1 = 3.1V

executeTask 0.0 0 0 VPULSE ; // reruns VPULSE

setUsrFloatVar 4.0 0 xrVAR1; // VAR1 = 4.0V

executeTask 0.0 0 0 VPULSE ; // reruns VPULSE

endTask;

The task vSweep is mapped to front panel short cut with the following instruction

beginVolatileTask;

setTaskShortcut 0.0 0 1 vSweep ; // maps button F1 to task vSweep

endTask;

The task vSweep can also be executed by soft as follows

beginVolatileTask;

executeTask 0.0 0 0 vSweep ;

endTask;

Run the script from the internet browser (LAN connection) and collect the data !

Finally a short video to view the simplicity of it: LED PULSED CURRENT SWEEP VIDEO

Silicon Lab Test Cube S L T 3 Gen 1 is born

183:820714396 (Sami Ajram) — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:47:22 GMT

Motivation

Developing an automated test bench with a full set of test resources is probably the most concerning objective for Engineering teams in the semiconductor industry, while we all know when such a project starts it never ends and it keeps consuming bandwidth and material cost!

Testing few tens of product units with the same quality level to be sent to tier-1 customers is key for new Silicon ICs, new Evaluation Kits and for new electronic devices such as IoT objects.

Professionals not yet concerned by this topic might probably be at early phase of product development while others reaching beta demonstration levels and market sampling are highly stressed by the integrity of first product lots sent to beta testers and tier-1 customers.

We have started our effort as Power Management IC designers where we needed to sweep voltages and currents to report exhaustive power efficiency results for our DCDC regulators. As we go, our product design offer got extended to run IoT hardware designs and we got to switch - at all cost - from manual HW debug to fully automated and fully tested HW to our customers.

This was the genesis of our SLT3™ Silicon Lab Test Cube: A desk-top or bench-top test equipment gathering essential needs for our customers.

Customers interested in this topic can browse SLT3G1 product page or reach out to our channel on Linkedin .

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SLT3G1, quick demo, pulse mode IF(V) sweep of a Flash LED.

Few minutes to set up a pulsed current sweep characterization

Silicon Lab Test Cube S L T 3 Gen 1 is born

Motivation ﻿

Motivation