Coulombmeter

A Coulombmeter is a tool for measuring the electrostatic charge of a material. A Coulombmeter is used in combination with a Faraday cup or a metal probe for taking charge measures of a material.

In the field of semiconductor design, a coulombmeter consists of a meter used in combination with a metal probe tip to pinpoint locations of excess charge on for instance a semiconductor device. This application of a coulombmeter is useful because electrostatic discharge is a leading cause of failure in semiconductor chip designs, and may occur during the fabrication, inspection, assembly, and other processes. A coulombmeter allow this electrostatic buildup to be easily measured simply by applying the instrument's probe to its lead.

The coulombmeter was devised in 1984 for the Revised Nuffield Advanced Physics course.

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