High-performance test handler for SoC devices

The M4871 also features a new handler data visualization framework that enables users to conduct real-time monitoring of a test cell’s production status from any network-enabled connection.

Hiroki Ikeda, factory automation division manager of Advantest, commented: “With our new handler, we can supply customers with fully integrated SoC test cells. This reaffirms our commitment to providing the semiconductor industry’s most cost-effective, high-performance and flexible test solutions.”

Test yields are improved and cycle times reduced thanks to the visual-alignment capability on the new M4871 handler. Further increasing productivity, it also features positioning accuracy to within 0.3 mm ball/pad pitch and precision alignment to enable faster set-up and calibration.

Using eight times parallelism to achieve total throughput of up to 8,000 devices per hour, the M4871 pick-and-place system is ideally suited to handle fine-pitch devices as well as semiconductors with both top- and bottom-side contacts. Installed handlers can be upgraded in the field to boost parallelism as high as 32X. This accommodates higher-pin-count devices, reduces power consumption for temperature control, lowers the cost of change-over kits and achieves other performance enhancements too.

Provide users with 20 or more additional hours of productive testing time per month, the M4871 minimises downtime. This improves overall equipment effectiveness and reduces the cost per device.

For example, the system’s new thermal technology “dual-fluid design” allows downtime from potential jams to be held to a minimum clearing time. This is in contrast to chamber-based handlers which require 60 minutes or more to cool down the chamber, clear a jam and then ramp back up to operating temperature.

Operating over a wide temperature range, the M4871 handler also features a significantly reduced defrosting cycle time for low-temperature testing. It can run at -10˚ C for up to 14 days without defrosting. Reducing this scheduled maintenance to approximately twice a month, the M4871 offers much greater productivity than existing handlers that use liquid nitrogen. These can require defrosting 10 or more times per month. The Advantest M4871 pick-and-place system completes the defrosting cycle in less than 10 minutes compared to two hours or more for other systems.

The M4871 handler is scheduled to begin shipping to customers in the Q1 2014.