Customers can choose the package that best suits their needs, including hardware, software, and testing equipment. This can be done through short-term or long-term rentals, or by purchasing new or used equipment. Rented products can be easily upgraded or replaced if the testing process changes at any point.
 
These are some of the aspects covered by the Semiconductor Tool Box, now available through Microlease:
 
• Power Testing – Clearly, one of the main challenges facing the semiconductor industry lies in verifying the power losses of integrated circuits (ICs). Doing so ensures that the final products incorporating these ICs will have low power consumption, thus taking advantage of longer battery life (in the case of consumer electronics) or achieving a higher energy rating (in household appliances). Furthermore, advances in power technology mean less heat needs to be dissipated, resulting in lower thermal management requirements (with the consequent advantages in terms of cost and system space requirements). Among the numerous rental and purchase options offered by Microlease is an extensive catalog of power supplies and power testing solutions, such as the Keysight B1500 parameter analyzer (with a 100µs sampling rate) and the Keithley/Tektronix 26xx series of supply power meters.
 
• RF IC Testing – With the introduction of new wireless standards, such as LTE Advanced Pro, 5G, and 802.11ax, as well as next-generation techniques to enhance RF performance, such as envelope tracking (ET) and digital pre-distortion (DPD), test engineering teams are under more pressure than ever before. They need to find more effective ways to shorten test times and maintain high throughput, all without additional costs and without compromising accuracy. Among the tools offered by Microlease for RF testing are the Keysight N9040B signal analyzer (which has a bandwidth of up to 50 GHz and a spurious-free dynamic range of 78 dBc) and the high-performance E8267D signal generator (with numerous configuration options).
 
• Design testing – Oscilloscopes form the basis for virtually all testing procedures. Thanks to its comprehensive range of oscilloscopes, Microlease is able to provide customers with a fully optimized solution tailored to their specific technical and budgetary requirements. This range includes standard analog and digital models, as well as high-performance 40GHz models. Also included are mixed-signal systems (combining the oscilloscope with a logic analyzer) and mixed-domain systems (comprising the oscilloscope and a built-in spectrum analyzer).
 
• Physical Layer Testing – Ensuring that the physical parameters of the ICs meet the intended specifications will often require the use of an RF network analyzer with a time domain reflectometer (TDR) function. Microlease has a wide range of equipment from leading manufacturers, including the Rohde & Schwarz 67GHz 4-port ZVA-67 and the Keysight 50GHz PNA-X series.
 
“With annual IC shipments approaching 1 billion units, the use of smaller architectures, and the emergence of new processes like GaN and SiC, along with the increasing proliferation of MEMS devices, the semiconductor industry is facing greater demands than ever before,” says George Acris, Marketing Director at Microlease. “Thanks to Microlease’s robust and extensive inventory, supported by our application experts, testing professionals have virtually unlimited access to the advanced testing technology they need in the most cost-effective and flexible way. And all this can be achieved without worrying about long lead times, equipment obsolescence, or hidden costs associated with maintenance or calibration.”.

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