N2820A/21A High-Sensitivity, High Dynamic Range Current Probes

N2820A/21A High-Sensitivity, High Dynamic Range Current Probes

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Key features and specifications

  • Measure current as low as 100 nA*
  • Measure current as high as 120 A*
  • Measure AC and DC
  • Bandwidth
    * 3 MHz - Zoom-Out channel
    * 500 kHz - Zoom-In channel
  • 2-channel vertical zoom mode enables accurate peak and idle current measurements
  • New oscilloscope measurement current consumption over time (Charge)
  • AutoProbe interface driving 1 MΩ input to oscilloscope
  • Wide dynamic range – > 20,000:1 or 86 dB
  • Probe accessories included with the probe or available separately: interchangeable Rsense heads (20 mΩ, 100 mΩ, and user-defined), MBB receptacles, headers, and hook-up wire

Industry’s highest sensitivity, highest dynamic range AC/DC current probes

As modern battery-powered devices and integrated circuits become more ‘green’ and energy efficient, there is a growing need to make low level, wide dynamic range current measure­ments to ensure the current consumption of these devices is within acceptable limits.

The new N2820A Series high-sensitivity current probes address the need for high-sensitivity current measurements with a wide dynamic range. These probes also offer the advantage of small physical connections to the DUT because today’s application environments require an extremely small form factor. The N2820A Series probes have higher sensitivity – up to 200X greater than existing clamp-on current probes with sub-milliampere low level sensitivity.

See the details without losing sight of the big picture

This N2820A current probe comes with two parallel amplifiers possessing different gain settings. The low gain side allows you to see the entire waveform (or the ‘zoomed out’ view) and the high gain amplifier provides a ‘zoomed in’ view.

The precision sense resistor is positioned in the interchangeable Rsense head that is plugged into the probe body. The probe body can be found at the same location as the differential amplifier. On the ‘user-defined’ sense head, there is no resistor, which allows the probe to be used with the user’s sense resistor on the target. The user will need to enter the sense resistor value into the scope.

The supplied Make-Before-Break (MBB) connectors allow you to quickly probe multiple locations on your DUT without having to solder or unsolder the leads. The MBB header may be mounted on the user’s target board. It fits into standard 0.1” spacing for 0.025” square pins. Users should plan their PCB layouts accord­ingly. The MBB can be used with all sense resistor probe heads including the user-defined probe head. The MBBs are a great way to easily connect and disconnect across multiple locations on the target board without interrupting the circuit under test.

Two channel versus one channel

Keysight offers two current probe models in the N2820A Series: N2820A two-channel and N2821A one-channel. The N2821A looks identical to the N2820A probe but does not include the secondary cable that is shown in Figure 4. The N2820A probe connects to two oscilloscope channels to provide simultaneous low and high gain views for wider dynamic range measurement, while the N2821A probe provides one user-selectable view at a time.

Current consumption over time measurement

With current waveforms captured, you now want to calculate the average current consumption of the system over time. Keysight’s Infiniium oscilloscopes provide an area under the curve mea­surement (Charge) where you can easily calculate the integrated current consumptions over time.

Oscilloscope compatibility

The N2820A and N2821A current probes are compatible with Keysight oscilloscopes shown in the characteristics table. The N2820A Series current probes, together with Keysight’s Infiniium S-Series high-definition oscilloscopes with 10 bit vertical resolution, deliver the ultimate high definition measurement solution, letting users view and resolve small current details not traditionally seen on 8-bit oscilloscopes.