Voltage from SMU or DAQ

[anna13]

Hi ! 

I am making IV curves for transistors and I need to make continuous voltage sweeps between +/- 2V for a specific time period. I need to be able to control the speed, duration, number and amplitude of those sweeps. In the lab, I have a PXIe-6358 module (that I use to measure the resulting current of my transistors) and I also have a PXIe 4140 module. I was wondering if it would be possible to just use the analog output of the DAQ to provide the voltage for the sweeps and control the sweeps efficiently with a LabView program ? My other option would be to provide and control the voltage with the SMU, which I know I can do but it would mean adding another connector to my PCB. What are the advantages of each method (and is the first option possible at all) ? 

Thank you in advance !

[santo_13]

Typically IV sweeps are done using SMU - because it can measure the current along with sourced voltage inherently. The limitation would be the update speed for the SMU for sourcing of voltages (limited based on the model to few hundred kHz). SMU has various current ranges for accurate measurement which is not present on DAQ cards.