Aehr Receives Order from New Customer for FOX-NP™ Multi-Wafer Test and Burn-in System for Silicon Carbide MOSFETs

FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and burn-in equipment, today announced it has received an initial customer order for a FOX-NP™ wafer level test and burn-in system, multiple WaferPak™ Contactors, and a FOX WaferPak Aligner to be used for engineering, qualification, and small lot production wafer level test and burn-in of their silicon carbide devices. The customer is a US-based multibillion-dollar semiconductor supplier serving several markets including automotive, computing, consumer, energy, industrial, and medical. The FOX-NP system, including the FOX WaferPak Aligner and initial WaferPaks are scheduled per the customer’s requested accelerated schedule to ship by the end of the calendar year 2023.

The FOX-NP system is configured with the new Bipolar Voltage Channel Module (BVCM) and Very High Voltage Channel Module (VHVCM) options that enable new advanced test and burn-in capabilities for silicon carbide power semiconductors using Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors. This new order highlights Aehr’s continued progression within the growing silicon carbide global power market.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are very excited that after conducting a detailed financial evaluation and multiple onsite visits to Aehr’s application lab, this new customer selected our FOX-P solution for engineering, qualification, and production of their silicon carbide power devices. This evaluation included cost of ownership and system throughput, as well as device test, burn-in, and stabilization coverage. As their production capacity increases, they told us that they will quickly move to our FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in systems for high-volume production. In addition to the automotive electric vehicle device opportunity, this customer in particular sees the enormous opportunity for silicon carbide power devices in industrial, solar, and other power applications.

“William Blair forecasts that in addition to the 4.5 million six-inch equivalent wafers that will be needed to meet the demand for electric vehicle related silicon carbide devices in 2030, another 2.8 million wafers are needed to address industrial, solar, electric trains, energy conversion and other applications in 2030. The interesting part of this is that most of these applications will be served with discrete MOSFETs in single die packages. The cost of ownership of our solution proved to be more cost-effective and efficient for these devices than package part burn-in after the die are packaged in packages such as TO-247 or other discrete packages. This is a strong testimony of the advantage of wafer level burn-in as a better alternative to package part burn-in. This expands our silicon carbide test and burn-in market even more and this new customer helps expand Aehr’s presence in this market as our total addressable market (TAM) continues to grow.

“Aehr’s FOX-P systems and proprietary WaferPak full wafer Contactors enable our customers to do economical production volume test and reliability burn-in with processes such as High Temperature Gate Bias (HTGB) and High Temperature Reverse Bias (HTRB) very cost-effectively and ensure extremely high device quality. Our systems are typically used for long burn-in times lasting up to 24 hours or more. We can do this for under $5.00 per hour per wafer capital depreciation cost while testing and burning-in up to several thousand devices at a time per wafer. This is also in a test system footprint that is up to 94% less than a typical test system on a standard semiconductor wafer prober, which in a precious clean room wafer facility is extremely important and saves a great deal of cost.

“The FOX family of compatible systems including the FOX-NP and FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in systems and Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak full wafer contactors provide a uniquely cost-effective solution for burning in multiple wafers of devices at a single time to remove early life failures of silicon carbide devices, which is critical to meeting the initial quality and long-term reliability of the automotive, industrial, and electrification infrastructure industry needs.”

The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePak™ Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of devices such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.

About Aehr Test Systems

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a leading provider of test solutions for testing, burning-in, and stabilizing semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and package part form, and has installed thousands of systems worldwide. Increasing quality, reliability, safety, and security needs of semiconductors used across multiple applications, including electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar and wind power, computing, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak^® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems that can test, burn-in, and stabilize a wide range of devices such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based and other power semiconductors, 2D and 3D sensors used in mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices, memory semiconductors, processors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and photonics and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a low-cost single-wafer compact test solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The FOX WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full wafer contactor capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test, burn-in, and stabilization of full wafers on the FOX-P systems. The FOX DiePak Carrier allows testing, burning in, and stabilization of singulated bare die and modules up to 1024 devices in parallel per DiePak on the FOX-NP and FOX-XP systems up to nine DiePaks at a time. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems’ website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, future requirements and orders of Aehr’s new and existing customers; bookings forecasted for proprietary WaferPak™ and DiePak consumables; and expectations related to long-term demand for Aehr’s productions and the attractiveness of key markets. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr’s recent Form 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.