JEM America and Teradyne announce 80-device probe card for high-parallel probe test systems

Teradyne and Japan Electronic Materials Corp. (JEM), a probe card manufacturer, have announced the development of an 80 device-under-test (DUT) probe card utilizing JEM's vertical-contact technology. This highly-parallel probe card supports Teradyne's ongoing development of DRAM probe test systems delivering the industry's highest parallelism.

Specifically designed for matrix and high-parallel probing, JEM's vertical-contact probe card (VCPC) significantly reduces the time required to test semiconductor wafers resulting in dramatically increased throughput for manufacturers. JEM's VCPC not only maintains planarity and alignment over time and use, it also provides uniform contact force at all probes regardless of layout. Announcement of the new JEM VCPC was made at the industry trade show SEMICON Taiwan.

Teradyne has been working with JEM and other DRAM probe card suppliers to increase parallelism for a decade. Proactive joint development was used on the recently introduced FLASH 750 Memory Test System. Probe card vendors were involved early in the design of the probe card, and jointly qualified the test cell through a process that included everything from prober integration to probe mark analysis using the Semi G78-0699 Test Method.

To move beyond 64 in parallel for the next DRAM probe system presented a challenge for the company, and a new approaches to provide a reliable interface with over 10,000 contacts was needed. JEM supported development for the DRAM probe system with the JEM 80 in parallel VCPC card.

JEM (Japan Electronic Materials) is a publicly traded company headquartered in Osaka, Japan. JEM Group has supplied probe cards and card-to-tester interfaces to semiconductor manufacturers. The company has manufactured probe cards for devices in technologies such as: Linear, Memory, Gate Array, Microprocessor, Power IC, ASIC, LCD, Thermal Head, Diode, Array, Optical IC, ECL, and GaAs.

Teradyne is a supplier of automatic test equipment and related software for the electronics and telecommunications industries and a supplier of high-performance backplane assemblies and connectors. Its products and services address the test requirements of a broad range of semiconductors, electronic assemblies, telephone access networks, and software applications.

JEM America Corp., Kaz Okubo, 510-683-9234; E-mail: Kokubo@jemam.com

Teradyne, Inc., Chris Johnson, 818-874-7238; E-mail: chris.johnson@teradyne.com

Edited by Paul O'Shea
Managing Editor, TestandMeasurement.com