PVI-100

Pulsed V/I 100 Amp

System overview
The PVI-100 is a fully oating instrument for the generation and measurement of high current pulses. The oating capability allows both positive and negative pulses to be generated and keeps ground return currents from upsetting the rest of the systems accuracy. The PVI-100 does not require any bulky system power supplies to generate very high current pulses. At the extremes, the PVI-100 is capable of generating 100A 20V pulses and 50V 1A pulses.

Theory of operation

To generate a pulse, a capacitor bank on the PVI-100 is charged up from a +65V system power supply. When the charge exceeds a set minimum value, the supply is disconnected and the load is connected. The forcing voltage and current parameters are then set and a drive signal is issued. The control loop then will drive the load going into either voltage or current compliance as dictated by the forcing parameters and the load. After a specied period has elapsed the voltage across or the current through the load is measured and the drive is turned off. At this point the PVI-100 could be set up to make another measurement or returned to the charging state. (cont.)
SYSTEM GROUND-REFERENCED CIRCUITRY FLOATING GROUND-REFERENCED CIRCUITRY
CURRENT

+65 V

0.5 A

FORCE SWITCHES

SENSE SWITCHES

LIMITER

SYSTEM WITH BUS

LATCHES
OPTICALLY COUPLED SWITCH, RANGE, AND COMPENSATION CONTROLS

7000mF CAPACITOR BANK

DRIVE ON/OFF

DAC 16 BITS

I SET

IN

OUT

V DRIVE RANGE
DAC 16 BITS V SET

+ + CONTROL AND DRIVE

+ + + + + CURRENT SENSE RESISTORS

LOAD

+ + + + + -

IN
CHARGE MEAS
OUT

OUT

IN

ADC 15 BITS

I MEAS
OUT

IN

I SENSE

+ DIFF -

TEMP MEAS DRIVER TEMP SENSOR V MEAS

OUT

IN

V MEAS RANGE

V SENSE

+ DIFF -

PVI 100 Diagram

PVI-100 features

Fully oating Instrument for high current pulses 1V, 3V, 10V, 30V, 100V(50V max) ranges 100mA, 300mA, 1A, 3A, 10A, 30A, 100A ranges

16 bit current and voltage forcing resolution 15 bit current and voltage measurement resolution

Division

PV-100
Specications
Theory of operation (cont.)
Connections from the PVI-100 to the load are made with force and sense lines. Five sets of these lines are available. Optically isolated switches control which of the lines are active and whether their polarity is positive or negative. This arrangement allows for up to four loads to be connected to the PVI-100 or for force lines to be paralleled when driving very high currents. Discrete power MOSFETs were used for the pass elements in the force switches so there are no contacts to fuse under high currents. Control of the forcing voltage and current is done from system ground referenced DACs whose outputs are passed across the isolation barrier to the oating control loop via isolation ampliers. The current and voltage measurements are also via isolation ampliers driving a system ground referenced ADC. In addition, the ADC is used to monitor the charge on the capacitor bank and the temperature of the output driver. Power for the oating side of the isolation ampliers, the control loop, and the oating measurement circuitry is supplied by isolated DC to DC converters. The charging rate for the capacitor bank is set at a constant 0.5Amps. With the maximum output current of 100Amps, the worst case average duty cycle is 0.5%. With this duty cycle, test times need not be negatively impacted since the capacitor bank has 7000uF of capacitance, which provides sufficient charge to make multiple high current tests before charging is necessary. Also, charging can occur during all other times the PVI-100 is not being used. The PVI-100 has selectable compensation that sets the nominal bandwidth of the control loop to 10kHz, 20kHz, 40kHz, and 80kHz. The 10kHz setting is for driving loads that might be hard to stabilize at the faster setting. The upper two settings are for cases where the amount of feedback to the control loop has been attenuated which lowers the effective loop bandwidth. This occurs when the PVI-100 is in current compliance and driving very low impedance loads. In this situation, there can be a larger voltage drop across the cumulative resistance of the traces, connectors, current sense resistor, and force switches than across the load. This same condition can occur when the PVI100 is in voltage compliance except here the feedback comes from the current sense resistor instead of the load. For both modes, the higher settings will allow the specied settling times to be met if the load is within the limits shown below. Sustainable pulse duration verses output voltage and current for the PVI-100 is shown in the following chart. The drop in the voltage as the duration increases is due to the discharge of the capacitor bank. The drop in the voltage as the current increases is due to the cumulative resistance in the force path. The 100 Amp curve is with force lines paralleled.

Voltage Force and Measure

Forcing Resolution Forcing Accuracy Measuring Resolution Measuring Accuracy Ranges 16 Bits +/- 0.5% of Range* 15 Bits +/- 0.5% of Range 1V, 3V, 10V, 30V, 100V

Current Force and Measure

Forcing Resolution Forcing Accuracy Measuring Resolution Measuring Accuracy Ranges 16 Bits +/- 1.0% of Range 15 Bits +/- 1.0% of Range 0.1A, 0.3A, 1A, 3A, 10A, 30A,100A

Settling Time to 1.0%

Drive with Measure (Resistive Loads) Voltage Ranges Current Ranges < 200us Typical < 300us Worst Case < 200us Typical < 2300us Worst Case * +/- 1.0% on 1 Volt Range
1A 5A 10A

Pulse Duration vs Voltage Current

volts 50 40 30

Selected Current Range 100mA 300mA 1 Amp 3 Amp 10 Amp 30 Amp 100 Amp

Voltage Compliance Mode Maximum Load 600 ohms 600 ohms 60 ohms 20 ohms 5.8 ohms 1.8 ohms 0.4 ohms

Current Compliance Mode Minimum Load 6.0 ohms 2.0 ohms .6 ohms .2 ohms 0.06 ohms 0.03 ohms 0.02 ohms
1.00E-04

50A 100A

20 10 0 1.00E-02

1.00E-04 seconds

Credence Systems Corporation TMT Division 435 Lakeside Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Tel: (408) 730-5000 Fax: (408 730-5650

2000 Credence Systems Corporation. All rights reserved. Specications are subject to change without notice. Credence, Credence Systems, and TMT are trademarks of Credence Systems Corporation. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. LS 0009 PNT (D-TMT/PVI-100 1.0)

Division