3-8 Pulse Current Measurements
A. SENSe:FUNCtion ‘PCURrent’
The parameter name can instead be enclosed in single quotes (as shown above).
B. SENSe:PCURrent:AVERage <NRf>
1. When requesting a single reading (FETch?, READ?, or MEASure?), average count
specifies the number of pulse current measurement conversions to average for the read-
ing. For example, with the average count set to 10, READ? will trigger 10 pulse current
measurement conversions and return (and display) the average of those 10 conversions.
2. When requesting an array of readings (FETCh:ARRay?, READ:ARRay? or MEA-
Sure:ARRay?), average count specifies the number of pulse current measurements to
place in an array. For example, with the average count set to 10, READ:ARRay? will
trigger and return 10 readings.
3. For pulse current digitization, use an array reading command (such as READ:ARRay?)
to return the digitized readings.
4. Signal oriented measurement commands (e.g., READ?) are covered in Section 9.
C. SENSe:PCURrent:TIME
The response for the query commands (:HIGH?, :LOW? and :AVERage?) is affected by
the GPIB output format. For decimal formats, the response has four decimal places,
otherwise it is in exponential format. See Section 6 to select the output format.
D. SENSe:PCURrent:SYNChronize <b>
Boolean parameters:
• ON or 1 - Enables trigger synchronization for pulse current measurements. A pulse
current reading will not trigger until the specified trigger level is detected and the spec-
ified trigger delay period expires.
• OFF or 0 - Disables trigger synchronization and selects pulse current digitization. See
“Pulse current digitization” for details on digitizing a current pulse or waveform.
E. :TLEVel Commands
A valid trigger level for detecting the pulse is needed whether trigger synchronization is
ON or OFF (see Ref D).
F. SENSe:PCURrent:SYNChronize:DELay <NRf>
1. The smallest step size for trigger delay is 10µsec. If you specify a smaller step size, it is
adjusted up to the next 10µsec step value (e.g., 43µsec is adjusted up to 50µsec).
2. There is an internal trigger delay of 25µsec after pulse detection (for code execution), to
triggering the first reading.