Last week at the SWTest Conference, FormFactor had the privilege of delivering several presentations. Here’s a recap: Narrow Pitch Impedance Standard Substrates (ISS) for Pyramid Probe Applications – Pratik Ghate, FormFactor The growth of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, BING AI, and Google BARD/Gemini has led to a rapid increase in demand for faster and more efficient optical communication. To meet this need, operating frequencies and bandwidths must increase, driving demand for more integrated and compact solutions. This manifests in the need for higher data rates in IO devices (su ..read more

The semiconductor industry continues to pursue the relentless downscaling and development of new architectures for silicon-based transistor down to 2 nm and beyond. On state currents of such advanced transistors are increasing, while off-state currents are kept very low to reduce power consumption. Smaller test pads to reduce lithography and prototyping costs, and the use of copper backend metallization have increased the difficulties for probes to have low and stable contact resistance as there are inadequate fresh pad metal available for deeper probe scrubs or re-probing. These issues aggrav ..read more

FormFactor is pleased and honored to announce that it has again been named a top performer in TechInsight’s customer satisfaction survey earning five stars in three categories: 10 BEST Focused Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment, THE BEST Suppliers of Test Subsystems, and THE BEST Suppliers of Assembly Test Equipment. In this survey, worldwide semiconductor manufacturing companies rate their vendors for supplier performance, customer service, and product performance. The results mark eleven years running that FormFactor has been selected in THE BEST Suppliers of Test Subsystems which includes ..read more

FormFactor is pleased to announce that four papers were accepted for presentation at Test Vision Symposium, July 10-11, at The Moscone Center in San Francisco. Here’s a preview: Optical Edge Coupling Method for Fully Automated PIC Wafer-Level TestingDan Rishavy, Strategic Market Development Director As the field of silicon photonics grows, there is an increasing need for efficient optical on-wafer testing of photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Traditionally, grating couplers have been used for this purpose, but they come with limitations such as high polarization dependence, limited bandwidth ..read more

Join us for a collaborative webinar from FormFactor and Tabor Quantum Systems on Wednesday, May 22 and May 23 – How to Build a Quantum Computer. Quantum computing is reaching an inflection point. Once a technology developed and operated in experimental labs, is now being manufactured by large-scale industrial companies. The commercialization of superconducting quantum processing units (QPUs), FPGA-based microwave synthesis electronics, and ultra-low-temperature refrigerators, has resulted in the realization of a commercial-off-the-shelf, full-stack quant ..read more

FormFactor has now made available Dr. Hadi Najar’s COMPASS presentation – Maximizing CCC in a Probe Card and the March to an Unburnable Probe. The Senior Principal Engineer discusses why CCC matters, reviews a hybrid probe configuration, introduces the next generation probe that FormFactor is introducing, reviews the metallized guide plate, and looks at different configurations and how they maximized the CCC. Datacenters and High-Performance Compute (HPC) applications are rapidly approaching, and in some cases surpassing, 1kW of total power for a single chip under normal operating conditions ..read more

World Quantum Day – an annual day of celebrating and promoting awareness and understanding of quantum technology – was recently held on April 14th. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at Quantum Computing. Quantum computing devices are built using “quantum bits” or qubits, which utilize a principle known as superposition; this allows qubits to hold both one and zero values simultaneously, unlike traditional bits. When grouped, qubits can exhibit a fascinating phenomenon called entanglement, enabling them to interact in complex ways. By harnessing these quantum properties, systems based ..read more

FormFactor will be attending the SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing conference, April 21 – April 25, in National Harbor, Maryland. At the show – Booth #327 – we’ll be featuring our wafer test solutions for IR sensors, which include the PLC50, the PMC200, and the PAC200. PLC50 – 100 mm manual cryogenic probe system The PLC50 probe system is the most cost-effective and simple, yet highly-precise probing solution for wafers and substrates up to 80 mm at cryogenic temperatures. Specially designed for laboratory requirements, it supports a wide range of applications, including I-V, C-V and RF, and c ..read more

The growth in AI (such as ChatGPT and BING AI) is requiring large investments into the expansion of data centers, driving higher and higher data rates in IO devices.  In order to reach these data rates, wafer test is moving to bandwidth > 60 GHz. That said there are some challenges with high-speed wafer test, including considerations related to probe aging. In his COMPASS presentation, Pratik Ghate, Ph.D., Principal RF Engineer at FormFactor, discussed Pyramid Probes, RF calibration, and probe aging considerations in high-volume manufacturing for high-speed IO devices. By examining mar ..read more

FormFactor is thrilled to share that it has been honored with Intel’s EPIC Distinguished Supplier Award. This recognition comes as a result of FormFactor’s commitment to Excellence, Partnership, Inclusion, and Continuous (EPIC) quality enhancement, leading to a standard of performance that surpasses Intel’s expectations on a consistent basis. The Intel EPIC Distinguished Supplier Award is given in recognition of consistently exceptional performance across all evaluation metrics. Among the thousands of Intel suppliers globally, merely a select few hundred are eligible to be part of the EPIC Sup ..read more