FormFactor Reduces Test Costs with New HarmonyTM eXP Full-Wafer Contact Probe Card Solution
December 2, 2008
December 2, 2008
Enhanced platform targets advanced 300-mm DRAM wafer test requirements
LIVERMORE, Calif. – December 02, 2008 – FormFactor, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORM) today introduced HarmonyTM eXP, the latest evolution in its suite of advanced full-wafer-contact probe cards for DRAM testing. Harmony eXP enables customers to lower their test costs and improve their test yields on leading-edge DRAM devices through enhancements that offer both productivity and capability improvements. These features enable the Harmony eXP probe card to support chipmakers’ cost and test technology roadmaps as they transition to smaller device geometries.
The Harmony eXP platform has been qualified and adopted at several major memory manufacturers to test 60-nm DDR2 devices. The platform is designed to accommodate the testing of 1 GB and 2 GB DDR 2 and DDR 3 devices at design rules ranging to 55 nm and beyond.
“Now more than ever, DRAM manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to reduce their production costs in order to improve their bottom line,” stated Stefan Zschiegner, senior vice president of FormFactor’s DRAM product business unit. “As an advanced probe card supplier, FormFactor is investing in innovation to help our customers reduce their test costs. This investment enables us to bring out new technologies and products like our Harmony eXP solution that improve our customers’ test efficiency and provide more test capabilities.”
For higher productivity, mechanical enhancements in the Harmony eXP platform improve planarity by more than 25 percent, and enhance X/Y alignment precision compared to previous generation capabilities. This precision increases customers’ available operating margins within the demanding contact alignment requirements of shrinking device geometries. Harmony eXP also offers dual-temperature test capability in a single probe card, which allows customers to reduce their test costs while performing more comprehensive stress testing.
The Harmony eXP platform supports FormFactor’s recently introduced RapidSoakTM technology, which maintains thermal stability and improves scrub consistency independent of wafer chuck movements. RapidSoak technology not only helps ensure precise and consistent contact between the contactor on the probe card and the test pad on the wafer to maximize test yields, but also reduces the time required for the probe card to achieve thermal equilibrium by as much as 50%—increasing test cell productivity and uptime.
Continuing FormFactor’s technology innovation, the Harmony eXP also includes a new MicroSpring® contactor design that supports pad pitches as small as 60 microns and allows a 20 percent reduction in pad size over the previous-generation Harmony XP platform—to accommodate more devices per wafer. The new spring enables the Harmony eXP probe card to achieve pin counts of 60,000 probes and higher. Combining these advanced capabilities, the Harmony eXP platform can test more than 1,000 DRAM devices per touchdown and is capable (for some device designs) of supporting one touchdown testing of a full 300-mm DRAM wafer.
Harmony eXP probe cards are now available for ordering and shipping.
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 results the company’s customers’ might realize when using the company’s products, demand for the company’s products 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: the company’s ability to lower customers’ test costs and improve their test yields on leading-edge DRAM devices, to support chipmakers’ cost and test technology roadmaps as they transition to smaller device geometries; to improve customers’ test efficiency and provide them with more test capabilities, to increase customers’ available operating margins within the contact alignment requirements of shrinking device geometries, to enable more comprehensive stress testing, and the company’s ability to support its RapidSoak technology within the Harmony eXP platform and maintain thermal stability and improve scrub consistency independent of wafer chuck movements, and reduce the time required for the probe card to achieve thermal equilibrium. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statement is contained in the company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2007 and the company’s Form 10-Q reports for its fiscal quarters within 2008, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and subsequent SEC 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 from those anticipated in forward-looking statements.