FREMONT, Calif., June 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and production burn-in equipment, today announced a new silicon carbide semiconductor customer and initial order for a FOX-XP^TM multi-wafer test and burn-in system, multiple WaferPak^TM Contactors, a WaferPak Aligner, and a high-volume production support kit to be used for volume production of silicon carbide MOSFETs for electric vehicles, trucks, and train traction inverter modules. The turnkey system including the FOX-XP, WaferPak Contactors and WaferPak Aligner is expected to ship within the next two quarters. 

In addition, Aehr has also signed a long-term supply agreement with this new customer covering FOX-XP systems, WaferPaks, WaferPak Aligners, and support. This new customer is a multinational industrial conglomerate and manufacturer of semiconductors, including power semiconductors.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are very excited that after conducting an evaluation of technical and commercial requirements, this new customer has decided to move very quickly to purchasing our production FOX-XP solution to accelerate their time to market. This evaluation included cost of ownership, customer device module yield improvement, system capacity and throughput, and device test, burn-in, and stabilization coverage. They see the enormous opportunity in the silicon carbide market, particularly for the traction inverters used in electric vehicles including trucks, and in electric commuter trains where they believe they can provide a superior product of long-term reliability and useful life. Importantly, these new applications represent new market drivers for our system. This customer is forecasting to grow their silicon carbide business significantly, which we believe will drive incremental capacity for our FOX systems as well as WaferPak Contactor purchases for capacity and new designs.

“Our momentum with this newest customer reflects the acceleration in customer benchmarks and evaluations we are seeing, including shifting from on-wafer evaluations and moving straight to placing orders for our systems and WaferPaks. 

“Several companies are describing an even stronger and broader shift to multi-die modules for the electric vehicle market, particularly for the main traction inverters used on each electric engine or drive unit. The reduction in size and cost of implementing traction inverters using multi-die modules becomes more critical in achieving cost reductions in electric vehicles that are smaller and that have multiple drive units per vehicle. Unlike traditional internal combustion vehicles with only one engine per vehicle, it is becoming more and more typical to see electric vehicles that come standard or have the option of more than one motor or drive unit in them. 

“Wafer level burn-in is critically important to remove infant mortality or early failures of devices before they are put into modules, where the failure of any device would cause the entire module to fail and be scrapped. A single module for use in large traction inverters such as commuter trains might include up to 10, 12, or even 32 devices. Our FOX-XP wafer level system can test and burn-in up to 18 wafers at a time and enables contact to 100% of the die in a single touchdown up to several thousand die per wafer, with 100% confidence of test burn-in of each device. This is key to companies wanting to put these devices in electric vehicle applications, where up to one percent or more of the die would fail in the field if not burned in.

“In addition, beyond screening out weak devices or early failures before they are put into a module, there is a need to stabilize the inherent early life drift of threshold voltages of devices that is critical to the module reliability. Silicon carbide devices have voltage thresholds, which is effectively the voltage at which each individual device turns on and will drift during the first use, or during burn-in stress conditions under thermal loads. This can cause individual die in a multi-die module to turn on prematurely relative to the other die in parallel, which can create a disproportional stress on the die leading to its early failure. This in turn will lead to the failure of the entire module. This failure must be screened out to prevent a “walk home event,” whereupon with the failure of the traction inverter module, the drive unit will fail, leading to the driver and all the passengers having to get out of the electric vehicle and walk home.”

The FOX-XP system, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePak^TM Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, is capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of integrated devices such as silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, Gallium Nitride (GaN), 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 worldwide provider of test systems for burning-in semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and package part form, and has installed over 2,500 systems worldwide. Increased quality and reliability needs of the Automotive and Mobility integrated circuit markets are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products in package, wafer level, and singulated die/module level test. Aehr Test has developed and introduced several innovative products, including the ABTS^TM and FOX-P^TM families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak^TM Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak^® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The ABTS system is used in production and qualification testing of packaged parts for both lower power and higher power logic devices as well as all common types of memory devices. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems used for burn-in and functional test of complex devices, such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based power semiconductors, memories, digital signal processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a new low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full wafer probe card capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test and burn-in of full wafers on Aehr Test FOX systems. The DiePak Carrier is a reusable, temporary package that enables IC manufacturers to perform cost-effective final test and burn-in of both bare die and modules. 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^TM 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.