August 2, 2007 — FormFactor Inc. says it has developed a breakthrough probing contact technology capable of full area wafer probing of high pin density, ultra fine-pitch devices. Compared to today’s probing capabilities, FormFactor’s new technology promises a 10x reduction in pitch (spacing between contacts), and potentially allow the probing of 1000x more contacts on a 300 mm wafer in a single touchdown. The new technology can be leveraged across memory, logic, SOC and parametric test applications, with either area array or peripheral test contacts, and will be commercially available within three to five years.

“This fine-pitch full-wafer contactor technology is well suited to address the future testing needs of all semiconductor devices, without the trade off between testing pad pitch, density and throughput,” says Ben Eldridge, FormFactor’s CTO.

Following Moore’s Law, device die size has been continuously shrinking while the number of testing pads for new device function and performance has increased. In order to cope with this trend, semiconductor device designers will need to reduce the physical dimensions of the testing pads while maintaining high throughput. FormFactor’s new technology can reduce the contactor pitch for an area array from approximately 200 microns to less than 20 microns. The technology, leveraging FormFactor’s leading MEMS expertise, employs a true vertical spring, improving contact precision well beyond existing capabilities.