Keithley Announces Advanced Parametric Probe Card

By DE Editors

Keithley Instruments, Inc. (Cleveland, OH) has qualified FormFactor, Inc. (Livermore, CA) to manufacture high-performance parametric test probe cards for Keithley’s semiconductor parametric testers.

FormFactor’s probe cards will be used with Keithley S600 Series parametric testers to measure very low level DC currents as well as standard DC parametric tests on pins that contact a semiconductor wafer. Wafer fabricators and foundries use S600 Series testers to qualify wafers for assembly and packaging as well as process monitoring.

FormFactor’s Takumi probe cards are being recommended as the ideal partner for the Model S680 DC/RF Parametric Test System, Keithley’s most advanced parametric tester. The Model S680 is designed for sensitive wafer-level parametric testing of advanced logic, memory, and analog ICs. It combines parallel testing capability, high DC sensitivity, femtoamp-level resolution, and RF s-parameter measurements up to 40GHz. Its signal preamplifiers, located in the test head, boost low-level signals within centimeters of the probe needles, then transmit the boosted signals over cables to the measurement instruments in the system cabinet.

Keithley considers FormFactor’s technology to be a leading edge design for demanding, small pad size, small pitch applications that must support high performance measurements in ever-shrinking test structures and scribe lines.

Details are available on Keithley’s Model S680.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.