Built-in modules

ArC2Control comes with an ever expanding collection of experiment modules. They are tailored with crosspoint operations in mind, although they should apply to any kind of two-terminal DUT. More modules will be made available in subsequent releases. All built-in modules typically feature a graph page and a data page which allows you to export the data to an external file.

Retention

Retention is the archetypal “read over time” experiment. It will read one or more crosspoints in fixed intervals at the specified read-out voltage.

Experimental parameters for Retention

Parameter	Description	Default value
Read every	Interval between subsequent reads	1 second
Read for	Total retention duration	1 minute
Read at	Read-out voltage	Global read-out
Use global read-out?	Whether global read-out should be used	Yes

A typical result from a Retention experiment: graph (left) and raw data (right).

Curve Tracer

CurveTracer is another typical experiment that applies a voltage ramp and reads at a specified voltage. It is used to produce an I–V curve of the DUT.

Experimental parameters for CurveTracer

Parameter	Description	Default value
Initial voltage	Voltage starting point	0.0 V
Positive Vmax	The maximum positive polarity voltage	1.0 V
Negative Vmax	The maximum negative polarity voltage	(-)1.0 V
Voltage step	Voltage increment per measurement	0.1 V
PW	Pulse width or step time	100 ns
Inter	Delay between pulses (pulsing mode only)	100 ns
Cycles	Repetition of each measurement loop	1
Pulses	Number of voltage pulses per step	1
Bias Type	Modality of pulsing (pulsed or staircase)	Staircase
IV direction	Loop direction	V₀ → V+ → V– → V₀
Read At	Read-out voltage (at bias or global read-out)	Bias

CurveTracer has two different modalities of operation, either Staircase or Pulsed. In the first case bias is never removed from the DUT; it just increases at each step the width of which is governed by the PW attribute. The latter option will apply one or more PW-wide pulses per step followed by an interval specified by the Inter attibute when the voltage is reverted to 0.0 V.

Visualisation of the algorithm used by a pulsed CurveTracer test for 1 cycle, 1 pulse per step, ReadAt bias voltage and loop direction order V₀ → V+ → V– → V₀.

A typical result from a CurveTracer: graph (left) and raw data (right). Graph view shows linear and logarithmic current as well as resistance of the DUT.