It started in a classroom

The problem we set out to solve

Diodes and transistors are the building blocks of every semiconductor and every electronic product, and countless textbooks describe their characteristics. Measuring those characteristics properly in an undergraduate lab, however, was hard.

• Existing I-V instruments were built for research and development and did not fit a teaching environment.
• One expensive instrument serves one group at a time, which makes a class inefficient to run.
• Applying a voltage, reading a current and copying it into a spreadsheet by hand was still the norm.

Teaching-lab I-V measurement does not need the precision or the extra features of a research instrument. Building only what is needed, so that a lab can afford several units, is where Semi Otter Edu began.