Probes promise faster RF testing

Probe card cuts the cost of high-volume wafer testing of RF filters and switches by offering superior probe performance and longer life at a lower cost.

A new Pyramid Probe card from Cascade Microtech enables high-performance RF production testing with over 50% cost of ownership savings claimed over current approaches.

Cascade Microtech's new 20GHz P30 Pyramid Probe card lowers semiconductor manufacturers' cost of high-volume wafer testing of RF filters and switches by offering superior probe performance and longer life at a lower cost.

Using unique membrane probe technology, Pyramid Probe cards assure semiconductor manufacturers of higher yields, lower maintenance and minimal down time, resulting in lower overall cost of ownership.

"Paced by the explosive wireless infrastructure build-out in developing countries and widespread proliferation of wireless devices, RFIC production - especially for filters and switches - is growing at a rapid rate".

"Our customers look to Cascade Microtech to help them compete in this highly cost-sensitive marketplace", says Geoff Wild, Chief Executive Officer, Cascade Microtech.

"In today's ever-changing economic environment, reducing the cost of test for these critical cellphone components is of great value to our customers".

Using Cascade Microtech's exclusive Pyramid Plus membrane manufacturing process, the P30 brings unmatched performance to the market for low pin-count RF devices at a reduced cost of ownership.

Unlike other probe technologies, the P30's lithographic probes are highly accurate, alleviating uncontrolled impedance that is characteristic of other probe types, and their compact sise enables multi-site testing.

With the lowest contact resistance of any probe card, customers using the Pyramid Probe Technology report up to 5% better device yields.

Less accurate needle and spring probes require the device manufacturer to design undesirably large IC pads to accommodate a large scrub area, resulting in excess capacitance.

The P30's patented Microscrub creates a smaller scrub mark, reducing the material displacement by 15x, causing a dramatic reduction in particles created during wafer testing.

Needle probes also need regular realignment, resulting in down-time during production testing.

The P30 Pyramid probes never need to be realigned.

Incorporating a scalable architecture to support testing from low-pin-count filters to high-pin-count multiport RF SoC applications, the Pyramid Plus architecture provides a roadmap for future applications.

Configurations ranging from single device to multi-DUT (device under test) improve test cell efficiency, further reducing the overall cost of testing.

The P30 Pyramid Probe card for RF filter and RF switch test is available for order immediately.

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