Generating Arbitrary Pulses on SMU Hardware (4141) Without Pulse Voltage/Current Support

[SLL00]

Hey everyone,

I've noticed many of the newer SMU models do not support the pulse current/voltage features of the niDCPower API. Has this become obsolete with the newer revisions of niDCPower?

I would like to generate an arbitrary pulse train of varying pulse widths/amplitudes on a PXIe-4141 SMU and am wondering if this is achievable. I've tried building individual pulses and appending them together using the append waveform functionality, but that only seems to support appending waveforms with identical dT values.

[Mario_C]

Hi,

Have you tried this approach with DAQmx instead?

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Using NI-DAQmx and LabVIEW

I see that the API does support Pulse Voltage/Current.  What do you want to do exactly?

Best,

Mario_C

[SLL00]

Hi Mario,

Only specific, typically older SMU models appear to support those features. And I am wondering if this because there may be a more efficient way to utilize the SMUs for arbitrary pulses.

I've looked into the PWM route and might be missing something, but I don't understand how you could use that to simultaneously modulate pulse width and amplitude.

Sorry if I missing something obvious here.

Best,

Sam

[Ben · Accepted solution]

Not having any hardware handy at the moment or the source code I developed I will just mention...

Have you considered composing a sequence?

Ben

[SLL00]

Hey Ben,

I have been able to generate pulse sequences with a single dT and your post made me realize I should build these arbitrary pulses based on the smallest dT value needed. This works perfectly, thank you.

Best,

Sam