Load the wafer onto the chuck, making sure the probes are raised (out of the way).
After the wafer is on the chuck, turn on the vacuum to secure the wafer.
Using the microscope, select a device to characterize. To characterize a resistor only two probes are needed; for a transistor, three are needed.
To the probes, turn the knobs on top of the probe .
To the probes, turn the knobs on top of the probe .
You can tell when the probes are on the pad because they will begin to slide across it. You don't want to slide to probes across the pad excessively, since this will ruin the contact pad, possibly causing erroneous results. It also bends the probe tips.
The probes, labeled "S","D", and "G", can be seen above.
To characterize a resistor, place the probe labeled "S" on one contact pad located next to the resistor you want to characterize. Place the probe labeled "D" on the contact pad located on the other side of the resistor. The probe labeled "G" isn't used in resistor characterization.
To characterize a transistor, place the probe labeled "G" on the gate of the transistor, and the "D" and "S" probes on the drain and source contact pads of the transistor (The drain and source are actually interchangeable on discrete transistors).
Measure Resistance
Make sure that the curve tracer is on. To measure resistance, set the dial on step-gen, and you should see a I-V (current-voltage) curve. Adjust the scales until you get a typical characteristic.
Determine Threshold Voltage
To determine the threshold voltage set the dial to open and increase the power supply voltage until you can see the transistor turn on. The power supply is located above the curve tracer.
Once you know the threshold voltage, set the dial on the curve tracer to "Step-Gen" to get a family of curves for that particular transistor. You may need to adjust the offset-voltage on the curve tracer if your transistor has a high threshold voltage. Adjust the scale on the curve tracer to get nice-looking curves.
These are typical plots of a I-V characteristics for a PMOS transistor ...
... and a resistor.
Print Out Results
Once you get a represenitive plot of the device characteristics, move the probe to the "printing" curve tracer. Adjust the settings to get a good plot, then print the results.