Low Cost PC Based BJT Curve Tracer cum Binning Machine

I. Introduction In product development it is extremely important to know the characteristics of BJT accurately. It is possible to obtain a V-I plot by hand with an ammeter, voltmeter and an adjustable power source. But it is more convenient to display the complete curve in an automated measurement by using an instrument called curve tracer. Curve tracers are available in the market from various manufacturers. Since these instruments include power supplies, switches and X-Y display, they are expensive and take significant benchspace. It is possible to make a curve tracer utilizing plotting and other provisions of the personal computer. Transistor binning is a process of identifying different types of transistors into categories so that they could be easily used for required purposes. This paper presents theory, description, functioning and result of the low-cost PC-Based BJT Curve Tracer cum Binning Machine. The summary of the work along with conclusions is also presented. Section-2 describes the theory of the curve tracer. Section-3 gives the block diagram along with the description of each block and its functioning. Section-4 gives the process description. The results and conclusions are given in section-5. Summary of the work is given in section-6.