News Article
FormFactor doubles DRAM test capacity
The company introduces test equipment with new wafer probe card capability to bring the industry closer to one touch down wafer testing.
FormFactor introduced DC-Boost, an advanced TRE test technology to increase probe test capacity. The new wafer probe card capability enables more efficient use of tester channels on test equipment to double the number of devices that can be tested simultaneously. By using probe cards equipped with FormFactor's DC-Boost technology, IC manufacturers and test service providers can significantly increase test cell throughput on new test equipment, extend the life of their existing test equipment, and reduce their overall cost of test. Tera Probe, a wafer test services provider, is one of several customers adopting the new technology.
"At Tera Probe, our mission is to provide total testing solutions for our customers that boast greater efficiency, lower costs and ensure higher levels of reliability in order to help them meet their production goals," stated Masahide Ozawa, chief technology officer at Tera Probe, "FormFactor's DC-Boost capability supports that mission by allowing us to utilise the latest in advanced wafer test technology to enable more efficient, reliable testing of our customers' product wafers."
As DRAM manufacturers move to tighter design configurations, the number of die per wafer continues to rise, in some cases approaching 1500 die or more. At the same time, test managers are driving to maximise the productivity of their test cells. "Reducing the number of touchdowns in wafer testing is the primary driver for reducing test costs," stated Stefan Zschiegner, senior vice president of the DRAM product business unit at FormFactor. "Our DC-Boost test technology brings a new degree of intelligence to our wafer probe cards through the integration of application specific ICs, enabling FormFactor to take wafer test parallelism to the next level. With this technology we can help our customers optimise their existing equipment investment today and provide a clear roadmap for further parallelism improvements on new device designs and tester platforms."
In addition to increasing the device under test, or DUT, capacity of test equipment, DC-Boost minimises drops in voltage that could lead to over testing or under testing of devices. The new technology also provides the ability to test devices in isolation to obtain precise voltage measurements. As a result, customers can achieve a more reliable test result, thereby improving yields.
"At Tera Probe, our mission is to provide total testing solutions for our customers that boast greater efficiency, lower costs and ensure higher levels of reliability in order to help them meet their production goals," stated Masahide Ozawa, chief technology officer at Tera Probe, "FormFactor's DC-Boost capability supports that mission by allowing us to utilise the latest in advanced wafer test technology to enable more efficient, reliable testing of our customers' product wafers."
As DRAM manufacturers move to tighter design configurations, the number of die per wafer continues to rise, in some cases approaching 1500 die or more. At the same time, test managers are driving to maximise the productivity of their test cells. "Reducing the number of touchdowns in wafer testing is the primary driver for reducing test costs," stated Stefan Zschiegner, senior vice president of the DRAM product business unit at FormFactor. "Our DC-Boost test technology brings a new degree of intelligence to our wafer probe cards through the integration of application specific ICs, enabling FormFactor to take wafer test parallelism to the next level. With this technology we can help our customers optimise their existing equipment investment today and provide a clear roadmap for further parallelism improvements on new device designs and tester platforms."
In addition to increasing the device under test, or DUT, capacity of test equipment, DC-Boost minimises drops in voltage that could lead to over testing or under testing of devices. The new technology also provides the ability to test devices in isolation to obtain precise voltage measurements. As a result, customers can achieve a more reliable test result, thereby improving yields.
