The WaveForms has a nice feature that allows us to perform characterization of elements like diodes or transistors. By default, it requires a dedicated adapter. However, there is an option to use a breadboard and a simple circuit. For example, to characterize a diode we need to make the following connections.
Below are the I/V characteristics for the BAV18 diode and 1N5819 Schottky diode:
Similar characterization can be done for transistors. For example, for an NPN transistor we need to make the following connection:
Below a Ic/Vce(Ib) characteristics for three different NPN BC546B transistors:
This functionality is really useful, especially in the case of characterizing elements or selecting components which should behave similarly.
