The SPA100 Source Picoammeter is a highly sensitive picoammeter (ranges: 2mA down 200pA FSD) designed for measuring and logging small currents in Physics, Chemistry, Electron Microscopy, Material Sciences and Electronics.
Built in adjustable voltage source (+/-40V in 1V increments) is useful for biasing experiments (such as photodiodes) – this also doubles as an ultra-high resistance meter (will measure accuratley into the teraohm range).
The current input and source output are galvanically isolated (floating) from the case and USB to further aid in the construction of experiments.
Connected via USB to a compatible PC running our own free software (EPIC, download here) with the SPA100 you can easily configure the unit to measure, graph and capture your readings (with time-stamps as well as measurement stability infomation). Works with EPIC 21.009 and above.
With the SPA100 we set out to create an accurate and fully featured picoammeter at a super-affordable price.
Screen captures (EPIC21.009) show:
(i) Leakage current of an ordinary (1N4148?) glass bodied silicon diode at different reverse biases (5V to 40V in 5V steps, then back to 5V).
(ii) Measurement of 1G axial 0.4W resistor.
(iii) Noise/drift of an unconnected input on 200pA range, peroidic noise is likely integrated mains hum and other internal noise. Note vertical scale is in aA (atto amps).
Features & Specifications
- Input: +/-2mA to +/-200pA in 8 ranges.
- Accuracy and Resolution (2Hz):
- +/-2mA range: +/-0.1%, resolution <20nA
- +/-200uA range: +/-0.1%, resolution <2nA
- +/-20uA range: +/-0.2%, resolution <200pA
- +/-2uA range: +/-0.2%, resolution <20pA
- +/-200nA range: +/-0.5%, resolution <2pA
- +/-20nA range: +/-0.5%, resolution <200fA
- +/-2nA range: +/-1.0%, resolution <20fA
- +/-200pA range: +/-1.5%, resolution <2fA
- Sample rate: 2Hz (18bit) or 10Hz (16bit)
- Adjustable filter: 1 sample to 64 samples
- Output voltage: -40V to +40V (in 1V increments), output resistance 2.7Kohms
- Resistance Measurement: ~1Kohms to 40Tohms (e.g 40V source, 1pA measure)
- Acccuracy: >+/-0.5% 1Mohm to 1Tohm
- Powered via USB 2.0 (instrument uses upto 0.3A when in-use.
Calibration
Each SPA100 is calibrated and adjusted in-house as part of our standard production test procedure. Calibration values are stored within the instrument.
If recalibration/adjustment is necessary it is simply done through the UTILITIES menu in EPIC (You will need either voltmeter plus three known resistors, or a source of known currents (+/2mA to +/-200pA).
Includes
1x SPA100 Source Picoammeter
1x 2M USB cable
please note: any test leads shown are not supplied as standard.
Warranty
2 year warranty against manufacturing defects.