I have the E3640A DC power supply and I am attempting to do a voltage sweep from negative to positive however the instrument is not allowing me to do that. Is the instrument capable of a negative voltage output? Or do we need to purchase a different instrument? I am trying to write the command to the instrument with the command VOLT -2
Hello,
E3640A is a single-quadrant power supply which means that it can only operate with either voltage or current positive values. Please refer to Table 3-2 from the User's Guide in order to see the output programming ranges:
For negative voltages you should consider B2900 series SMU, or four-quadrant N6784A Power supply, or even regular Power Supplies with either built-in or optional Polarity Reversal Relays (i.e. Option 760 for N6700 series power modules). Polarity reversal gives you some time glitch while switching so do not expect seamless transition through zero value when using this for voltage sweep.