Verigy Adds Direct-Probe Solution to its V93000 Platform for the Wafer-Level CSP Market

Verigy has extended the scalability of its production-proven V93000 platform by adding the Direct-Probe(TM) solution. This high-performance probe test capability for digital, mixed-signal and wireless communication ICs delivers one of the highest signal integrity levels available for production-volume, multi-site probe testing.

The innovative new Direct-Probe RF solution reduces the cost of test for radio-frequency (RF), high-pin-count digital and complex mixed-signal devices, addressing the global semiconductor market's rapid shift to performance probe test and wafer-level chip scale packages (WLCSP). By removing the conventional mechanical interface between the wafer and tester, Verigy's V93000 platform equipped with the Direct-Probe RF solution reduces the length and number of signal-path connections, significantly improving signal integrity for RF device testing.

The V93000 with Direct-Probe RF solution can be designed to use a single-load board for both wafer probe and final test. This reduces the time between IC development and production, minimizes the correlation effort between probe and final test, and enables high multi-site capability. Verigy's Direct-Probe RF capability also provides the largest component area for application use while maintaining planarity of +1 mm over a 44,000-square-millimeter area.

In addition, V93000 Direct-Probe solutions offer full platform compatibility with all tester configurations while the V93000's scalable architecture provides the versatility to test the full spectrum of RF-based semiconductor devices.

As wafer-level chip scale packaging gains momentum, testing currently done with handlers on singulated packaged devices is moving to multi-site, non-singulated testing on wafer probers, said Hans-Juergen Wagner, Verigy's vice president of SOC test solutions. Essentially, this means that device packaging is becoming the last step in wafer processing, driving final testing onto the probe line. Addressing this trend, we believe our new Direct-Probe RF solution delivers the industry's highest performance for wafer probing and provides the lowest cost of test while maximizing test resources for a broad range of ICs including wireless devices used in Bluetooth products, global positioning systems and wireless LANs (local area networks).