What Are NI PXI Source Measure Units (SMUs)?

NI PXI Source Measure Unit (SMU) installed in a PXI chassis

PXI Source Measure Units (SMUs) combine high-precision source and measure capability with features designed to reduce test time and increase flexibility. NI PXI SMUs provide simultaneous IV measurements, with DMM-class accuracy and speed, and are programmed with the first-in-class NI-DCPower driver.

Enhance Channel Density

SMU sourcing voltage and measuring current to test an electronic device.

Minimize test time, increase throughput, and meet today’s complex test needs by reducing a full rack to a few inches of physical space with up to 408 SMU channels in a single PXI chassis. With onboard hardware sequencing engine, you can easily share events and triggers across multiple instruments.

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Optimize Transient Response

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Custom tune the transient response of PXI SMUs to any DUT to maximize speed and stability, reduce overshoot, and decrease test times with NI SourceAdapt, a patented technology that helps you avoid custom circuitry and limit the risk of damage or system stability issues.

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Automate IV Sweeps

Screenshot of NI InstrumentStudio software showing SMU configuration and measurement controls.

Interactively configure IV sweeps with out-of-the-box NI InstrumentStudio™ software, to evaluate DUT performance without any programming, saving you development time. For more advanced automation, you can export those configurations into the programming language of choice.

Adopt Hardware-Timed Sequences

NI PXI SMU features, including precision, speed, and scalable channel density.

Get your results faster by removing communication latency between the host computer and SMU using hardware-timed sequences. Use advanced sequences for per step configurability and customize output mode, aperture time, current range, and transient response.

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Test at Higher Power

Engineer using electronic test equipment in a laboratory setting, demonstrating practical use of measurement instruments.

Operate beyond the basic DC power boundary of PXI SMUs by pulsing current or voltage instead of supplying a constant DC source, allowing you to test at high instantaneous power with limited or no heat sink infrastructure while reducing power dissipation.

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Best Practices for Ganging Power Supplies and SMUs

Discover tips and best practices for managing the interactions between multiple ganged power supplies, electronic loads, and SMUs to achieve the desired output power without compromising accuracy or introducing unwanted effects.