A Low Cost C-V Meter for Characterizing Semiconductor Devices

A simple and low cost quasi-static capacitance-voltage (C-V) meter was designed and developed to obtain C-V characteristics of semiconductor devices based on a C8051F006 SoC (system on-a-chip). The developed C-V meter consists of a capacitance meter based on feedback charge amplifier, a programmable voltage source, a C8051F006 SoC-based slave controller, and a personal computer (PC) as a master controller. The accuracy of the C-V meter is guaranteed by the calibration functions, which are employed by the program in the PC and it is obtained through the calibration processes of analog to digital converter (ADC), digital to analog converters (DACs) of the C8051F006 SoC, and the programmable voltage source. Examining 33-pF and 1000-pF capacitors as well three different p-n junction diodes, it was found that the capacitances of common capacitors are in the range of specified values and typical C-V curves of p-n junction diodes are achieved.