FormFactor Ships Industry’s First One-Touchdown 300-mm Wafer Probe Solution for Burn-In Test Applications
October 17, 2007
October 17, 2007
40,000-pin HarmonyTM Wafer-Level Burn-In card lowers test cost per die
LIVERMORE, Calif. – Oct 17, 2007 – FormFactor, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORM) today announced the introduction of the latest addition to its HarmonyTM family of full-area, 300-mm wafer probe solutions—the Harmony Wafer-Level Burn-In (WLBI) probe card. The Harmony WLBI probe card is designed to maximize throughput, as well as ensure higher quality and reliability of semiconductor devices. The Harmony WLBI probe card sets a milestone with the ability to contact approximately 40,000 test pads in one touchdown, enabling the testing of an entire 300- mm wafer at high temperature (up to 130 degrees Celsius). This capability helps IC manufacturers meet their reliability and performance requirements at the lowest cost of test.
FormFactor has shipped Harmony one-touchdown WLBI probe cards to multiple customers for reliability testing of leading-edge DRAM devices. With FormFactor’s Harmony WLBI cards, throughput can be increased by as much as an order of magnitude, to help reduce time-to- market.
The Harmony WLBI probe card incorporates advanced electronics and a new 3-D MEMS MicroSpring® contactor, designed to withstand the rigors of high-temperature burn-in testing and minimize cleaning—further increasing probe card availability and test cell productivity. FormFactor’s proprietary technology can also amplify the number of die simultaneously tested with existing tester resources, allowing manufacturers to better leverage their depreciated test equipment.
Harmony WLBI is an important component in FormFactor’s suite of probe card solutions for enabling known good die (KGD) applications, where devices must be tested to specification before packaging. Examples of KGD applications include mobile cell phones and portable
media players, where multiple device types are incorporated into a single system-in-package (SiP) or multi-chip package (MCP).
“The consumer market is extremely time-sensitive, with very short design cycles. Each day of delay in time-to-market can mean millions of dollars to manufacturers,” stated Ofer Bokobza, vice president and general manager of FormFactor’s DRAM Product Business Group. “Our Harmony WLBI probe card solution offers maximum throughput, which is critical to help our customers reduce their time-to-market. At the same time, the efficiency of one-touchdown burn- in allows our customers to migrate more reliability testing to the wafer-level, an important step forward in enabling KGD.”
FormFactor is now taking Harmony WLBI probe card orders.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding business momentum, demand for our products and solutions and future growth. These forward- looking statements are based on current information and expectations that are inherently subject to change and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results might differ materially from those in any forward-looking statement due to various factors, including, but not limited to: customer adoption of the company’s Harmony one-touchdown WLBI probe cards; the ability of the company’s Harmony one touchdown WLBI cards to offer maximum input and to meet IC manufacturers’ reliability and performance requirements at the lowest cost of test; and the ability of the company to enable its customers to migrate more reliability testing to the wafer level and to enable known good die applications. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially and adversely from those in any forward-looking statement is contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended December 30, 2006 and subsequent Form 10-Q and 8-K filings. Copies of the company’s SEC filings are available at http://investors.formfactor.com/edgar.cfm. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release, to revise any forward- looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in forward-looking statements.