New Wafer Level RF Testing for E-band Semiconductor Products
Presto Engineering, Inc. has announced the launch of its new wafer-level E-band RF (radio frequency) testing service for semiconductor products. The production-scale testing service delivers a high throughput, cost competitive, end-to-end solution and is the first such service to be offered by a non-captive provider. Demand for testing in the 71-86 GHz band is being driven by rapid growth in the telecom backhaul segment, which transports data from cell sites in the peripheral radio access network (RAN) to the wireless packet core.
"The testing needs of the industry are simply now too large in volume, and aggressive in cost, to rely only on functional application testing," said Cédric Mayor, Presto's Vice President Marketing. "We have developed a production-ready wafer sorting pilot line that enables us to scale test cell productivity to production-worthy throughput on 4- to 8-inch wafers, while reducing test cost and maintaining test quality. We designed this line to specifically address the advanced testing needs of E-band power amplifier manufacturers-- and we are now ready to roll out capacity."
Mayor continued, "We are currently capable of testing more than 300 wafers per year per test cell. The full waveguide design avoids potential problems of connectors and cables and delivers repeatability of less than 0.2 dB wafer-to-wafer between insertions, despite an output power of 25 dBm per site. The service is completely turn-key, including state-of-the-art incoming and outgoing inspection and conditioning processes for ultrathin 50-micrometer-thick gallium arsenide wafers." Mayor adds, "In fact, we have achieved near-zero breakage rates on gallium arsenide wafers, and we are currently developing similar test capability for gallium nitride, which we expect to be ready to be rolled out in 2015, pushed by the RF power amplifier market demand."
