Measurements

NI DC power supplies and SMUs can measure the current and voltage they generate. This measurement capability is essential for many test applications including I-V curve tracing, where current must be measured for multiple voltage set points, and IDDQ measurements on CMOS integrated circuits, where current consumption must be characterized at fixed voltage levels. For more information about measurement resolution, accuracy, and speed, refer to your device specifications document.

To retrieve these measurements, use the niDCPower Measure or niDCPower Measure Multiple VI, or the niDCPower_Measure or niDCPower_MeasureMultiple function. The niDCPower Measure VI and the niDCPower_Measure function measure either the voltage or the current on a single channel. The niDCPower Measure Multiple VI and the niDCPower_MeasureMultiple function measure both the voltage and the current on multiple channels.

As with any measurement device, there is a trade-off between the speed at which measurements are performed and the amount of noise in those measurements. NI power supplies and SMUs provide flexibility in this trade-off by averaging a configurable number of samples before returning a measurement. To learn more about adjusting the number of measurement samples to average, including the trade-off between measurement speed and measurement noise, refer to the Measurement Averaging topic for your device.