News Article
Industry's first fully-automated high-power wafer measurement tool
There is now a new fully-integrated solution for testing silicon, silicon carbide, gallium nitride and GaN-on-silicon power device wafers
Cascade Microtech, a manufacturer of precision measurements of integrated circuits at the wafer level, has unveiled the new APS200TESLA.
APS200TESLA Wafer Power Device Testing System
The turn-key system combines the capabilities of its Tesla on-wafer power device characterisation measurement technology with Cascade Microtech's BlueRay production automation technology. Cascade boasts the system is industry's first complete on-wafer production solution to address the test challenges of discrete power devices.
As power semiconductors grow with the demand for energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly products, power device manufacturing will shift from silicon substrates to SiC, GaN, and GaN-on silicon These new substrate technologies offer improved efficiency and enable higher levels of power, and faster switching, in many applications using insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and MOSFETS, such as automotive and consumer electronics, electrical power distribution and large data centres.
Fast-growing applications in renewable energy and industrial power will challenge power device manufacturers to develop more efficient devices at a lower cost, driving the need for test solutions specifically designed for high-voltage and high-current probing.
This latest addition meets this challenge and is claimed to be the first fully-automatic on-wafer probe system for high-power device measurement. Rated up to 10k V/400 A, the APS200TESLA delivers excellent electrical performance for high-voltage and high-current device characterisation at production levels.
The system comes with a high-voltage, high-current probe card, a high-voltage, high-power chuck port, and the patent-pending MicroVac high-power chuck that can handle wafer thicknesses down to 50 µm, such as ultra-thin Taiko wafers.
An optimised electrical connection easily integrates the APS200TESLA with a variety of test instruments, and the interlock-enabled safety shield provides a safe environment for the operator. The arc-suppression feature allows the customer to optimise device layout to achieve better yields.
Auto-discharging and the unique probe-pin touch sensing capability prevent device damage due to high-voltage discharge during die-to-die moves. The APS200TESLA also offers advanced prober control software for automatic wafer and die stepping.
"The new APS200TESLA leverages our experience in achieving accurate on-wafer measurement. It is an advanced, turn-key power device measurement system that will help our customers improve cost-of-ownership, increasing test throughput and improving yields," comments Michael Burger, president and CEO, Cascade Microtech, Inc.
"It allows our customers to save time by avoiding unnecessary dicing and packaging prior to final test. By testing on-wafer in a production environment, the APS200TESLA enables our customers to reduce test costs and get their products to market faster."
