News: Suppliers
8 January 2025
Aehr receives initial FOX-XP system order from GaN power semi supplier
Aehr Test Systems of Fremont, CA, USA has received an initial production order from a top-tier automotive semiconductor supplier for a FOX-XP wafer-level test and burn-in system with fully integrated FOX WaferPak Aligner for production test of its gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor devices. The system was scheduled to ship immediately.
“We have been working closely with this customer for over a year to support their evaluation and qualification process for delivering GaN power semiconductor devices to their customers,” notes president & CEO Gayn Erickson. “We are thrilled to receive this initial production purchase order, signaling their commitment to move forward with volume production wafer-level burn-in of their GaN devices on our FOX-XP platform,” he adds.
“This customer has extensively utilized a FOX-NP system under an evaluation agreement for production qualification and reliability testing of their devices over the past year. As part of the evaluation, they purchased a significant number of our proprietary WaferPak full-wafer Contactors to successfully qualify a wide range of GaN device types designed for multiple end-use applications including industrial, solar, data center and automotive markets,” Erickson continues.
“Our FOX-P platform allows customers using the FOX-NP for device qualification and reliability testing of power semiconductors like GaN and silicon carbide (SiC) to transition seamlessly to the FOX-XP multi-wafer fully automated system, which is capable of testing up to nine wafers in parallel and is specifically designed to handle high-voltage testing and high-temperature gate and drain stress test requirements. By leveraging our FOX-XP system and our proprietary WaferPak full-wafer Contactors, customers can easily test wafers of varying sizes from 6- to 12-inches by simply purchasing new WaferPaks, while utilizing the same FOX-XP system and FOX WaferPak Aligner.”
“Like SiC, GaN semiconductor MOSFETs are wide-bandgap devices that offer significantly higher power conversion efficiency than silicon. GaN is particularly well suited for lower-power applications such as sub-1000W power converters (fast chargers) used in consumer electronics like cell phones, tablets and laptops. Additionally, it is increasingly being adopted for automotive power converters, supporting electrical systems in both electric and traditional gasoline-powered cars, as well as being targeted at data-center power applications where power efficiency and delivery are critical to support the massive amount of computing power and data storage being installed over the next decade. Along with the increased usage in automotive and data centers, many industry experts and analysts predict that GaN MOSFETs will eventually replace silicon as the preferred technology for power conversion in photovoltaic (solar panel) applications,” says Erickson.
“We view GaN as a transformative and rapidly growing technology in the power semiconductor market. With an anticipated compound annual growth rate of more than 40%, the GaN market is projected to reach $2.5bn in annual device sales by 2029 according to Yole Group’s Power SiC/GaN Compound Semiconductor Market Monitor. In addition, Frost & Sullivan estimates GaN semiconductors will account for over 10% of the worldwide power semiconductor industry by the year 2028. This represents a significant growth opportunity for Aehr’s wafer-level test & burn-in solutions,” he reckons.
Available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full-wafer test) or multiple DiePak Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, the FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of devices such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, artificial intelligence processors, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single- or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.
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Aehr wins first order for FOX-NP wafer-level test & burn-in system for GaN
