Probing From Home

The current stay-at-home, work-from-home situation challenges the semiconductor industry in a way we have never seen before. Social distancing and remote work put operational procedures in place that can be difficult. In a previous post, we shared information on our virtual demos designed to help keep your semiconductor measurements running no matter where you are physically located. In this post, we are bringing you information on our Auto RF, which lets you run your probe system from home.

Our Autonomous RF Measurement Assistant enables you to remotely manage your prober from home. Perform your S-Parameter Measurements completely unattended: Control the probe station remotely from home and let Auto RF do the rest.

The system will run over days without any operator intervention. Just push one button to start your measurement routine and come back when your single device or even a complete cassette of wafers is tested. We have simplified the majority of test sequences so that the test executive never needs to ask the system to calibrate, monitor or soak. It is all automatic. Just send temperature automation, wait until complete and then step to numbered die as normal. Next die commands will check for drift, recalibrate if needed and automate probe on die placement. The entire operation is embedded into the Velox Auto RF Tool and there is no need for any additional customer commands to monitor calibration, re-calibrate or correct for probe positioning errors.

• Motorized positioners automate the probe to pad alignment, delivering the highest accuracy and repeatability, while reducing soak time.
• RF TopHat and FlexShield for over temperature test.
• A loader that is available for the SUMMIT200 and CM300xi probe systems, the system combines fully-automated wafer test with highest accuracy and flexibility. The loader can handle up to fifty wafers provided in SEMI-standard wafer cassettes.
• Less experienced operators can perform an RF calibration up to 330 GHz by simply pushing a button. This reduces the need of experienced users full time on each system.
• Measurements can be left running over night or the weekend, testing all devices on the wafer, and at different temperatures without the need of an operator.
• System will continuously monitor calibration drift, and automatically re-calibrate the system should the drift exceed a predefined limit.
• It does not matter if there are devices of different probe spacings in the test run. With layouts in Velox this can be accommodated without user intervention after a test has started.

Autonomous RF Measurement Assistant allows customer to maximize their tool utilization while freeing key staff members up for other tasks and at the same time increasing measurement accuracy. The return on investment with Auto RF should be within months.

For more information, visit our website or download the Autonomous RF Measurement Assistant brochure (PDF).