Teradyne Announces Partnership with FormFactor to Drive Down DRAM Test Costs with 128 Device in Parallel Probing Solution

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 2000--Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE:TER) announced today that it has entered into a contract with FormFactor, Inc. to develop a 128-device-under-test (DUT) DRAM probe card. Announcement of the highly parallel probe development program was made at the industry trade show SEMICON Taiwan.

"Teradyne and FormFactor have had a model partnership since 1997, when we started development of a 32-DUT DRAM probe solution with Teradyne," said Mark Brandemuehl, Vice-President of Probe Card Marketing at FormFactor. "Once again, we're jointly helping our customers achieve their cost reduction and capacity roadmaps by delivering an integrated, fully characterized probing solution that provides increased yield, superior performance, and the lowest total cost of test."

According to industry analysts, DRAM price per megabit has historically declined at a rate of 25% per year, while total DRAM bits shipped have increased an average of 60% per year. This constant price erosion forces DRAM producers to constantly reduce costs across the DRAM process, including probe test. Historically, the DRAM industry has found that the most effective method of reducing probe costs is to increase the parallelism of each touch and test of a wafer. Economic models used by Teradyne and FormFactor show that increasing from 32-DUT in parallel to 128-DUT in parallel testing can reduce the total probe test capital budget for a new 30,000 wafer start per month 200 mm wafer fab by as much as $50 million or more.

"A 128-DUT probe card that takes advantage of Teradyne's next generation test technology will allow full probing of a 256Mbit DRAM wafer in as few as 4 touches," according to Harold LaBonte, DRAM Probe Marketing Manager at Teradyne. "This will significantly reduce the number of testers required to test the output of the fab, saving capital costs, expensive floor space, and equipment operation costs. "In addition," continued LaBonte, "we will build on our experience with the 125 MHz J996FA to optimize FormFactor's probe card to enable full core speed test at up to 200 Mhz, an emerging DRAM test requirement that allows reduced test times and improves final test yields."

The 128-DUT probe card from FormFactor will be an extension of FormFactor's successful MicroSpring(TM) contact 32-DUT and 64-DUT probing technology. In order to enable 4 touch testing of 200 mm wafers, the probe card will have an active probing area slightly larger than 100 mm by 100 mm. FormFactor will use the MicroSpring contact technology and probe card architecture that has proven to improve yields and eliminate maintenance and probe card downtime at over 30 DRAM manufacturing sites worldwide. FormFactor plans to ramp production capacity for the 128-DUT technology by mid-2001.

The joint probe card development project will include releasing an approved specification for the 128-DUT technology, building samples, and testing the samples at Teradyne and jointly with customers. FormFactor and Teradyne will also work with other partners in the probe process, including prober vendors and probe card metrology tool suppliers, to insure availability of infrastructure required to support the new technology.

About FormFactor, Inc.

FormFactor is the world's leading supplier of wafer-level packaging processes and of wafer-level test consumables to the semiconductor industry. With over 125 key technology patents issued or pending, the company was recently named by Red Herring magazine as "One of the 100 Most Important Companies in the World." FormFactor's MicroSpring technology was recently inducted into the Smithsonian Museum's Year 2000 permanent collection. Privately held FormFactor is headquartered in Livermore, California. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.formfactor.com.

About Teradyne

Teradyne is the world's largest supplier of automatic test equipment and related software for the electronics and telecommunications industries and a leading supplier of high-performance backplane assemblies and connectors. Its products and services address the test requirements of a broad range of semiconductors, electronic assemblies, telephone access networks and software applications. Teradyne supports its products through an extensive service and applications engineering network, with technical centers located throughout the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Teradyne reported sales of approximately $1.8 billion in 1999 and currently has approximately 8,000 employees worldwide. Teradyne's World Wide Web address is www.teradyne.com.

“Teradyne and FormFactor have had a model partnership since 1997, when we started development of a 32-DUT DRAM probe solution with Teradyne”