Aehr Receives $1.4 Million in Orders for Full-Wafer WaferPak™ Contactors for Production Test and Burn-in of Silicon Carbide Devices

FREMONT, Calif., June 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced it has received orders totaling $1.4 million for WaferPak™ Contactors from its lead silicon carbide customer for production test and burn-in of the customer’s line of silicon carbide devices. The orders include additional WaferPaks to meet production capacity of previously designed and qualified WaferPaks as well as another new silicon carbide design win.

This customer is a leading Fortune 500 supplier of semiconductor devices with a significant customer base in the automotive semiconductor market, and is using Aehr’s FOX-XP™ system’s unique test and burn-in capabilities to ensure the highest device quality for high volume production burn-in and infant mortality screening of silicon carbide devices at wafer level for electric vehicle power modules.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “These orders from our lead silicon carbide customer for our proprietary WaferPak Contactors accompanies the order we announced on June 1st for an additional FOX-XP™ production test system and reflects their increased high volume production capacity needs. This FOX-XP system is configured to test eighteen silicon carbide wafers in parallel while contacting and testing 100% of the devices on each wafer. These WaferPaks enable the FOX-XP system to make electrical and thermal contact to the silicon carbide wafer and not only test and burn-in 100% of the devices on each wafer in parallel, but also accurately monitor the temperature of each WaferPak to ensure that the wafer under test is getting to the correct burn-in conditions as well as apply and monitor the electrical conditions on each and every device independently. This allows us to guarantee that each device is properly tested and burned in as well as determine exactly when a device fails in time.

“Being able to ensure a valid test and burn-in of these silicon carbide devices and monitor exactly when a device fails is critical to being able to provide the quality and reliability needed to address several markets, but particularly for the electric vehicle market that is about to see incredible growth. We expect this customer will order a significant number of FOX™ systems, WaferPaks and related consumables that they have forecasted to purchase from Aehr over the next several years.

“Silicon carbide continues to be promising as a key growth driver for Aehr, and we anticipate that silicon carbide wafer level burn-in will become the industry standard for low cost and 100% traceability for burn-in and reliability screening. The power semiconductor market for electric vehicles is expected to triple between 2020 and 2026, growing at a 25.7% CAGR to $5.6 billion, according to a March 2021 report from Yole Développement research. In addition, a July 2020 report from Deloitte forecasts total EV sales will grow from 2.5 million in 2020 to 11.2 million in 2025, a CAGR of 29%, before reaching 31.1 million by 2030 and securing approximately 32% of the total market share for new car sales.”

The FOX-XP system, available with multiple WaferPak™ Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePak™ Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, is capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of integrated devices such as silicon carbide power devices, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, Gallium Nitride (GaN), magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer formfactor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.

About Aehr Test Systems
Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a worldwide provider of test systems for burning-in and testing logic, optical and memory integrated circuits and has installed over 2,500 systems worldwide. Increased quality and reliability needs of the Automotive and Mobility integrated circuit markets are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products in package, wafer level, and singulated die/module level test. Aehr Test has developed and introduced several innovative products, including the ABTS™ and FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX-XP WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak^® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The ABTS system is used in production and qualification testing of packaged parts for both lower power and higher power logic devices as well as all common types of memory devices. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems used for burn-in and functional test of complex devices, such as leading-edge memories, digital signal processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a new low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The WaferPak contactor contains a unique full wafer probe card capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test and burn-in of full wafers on Aehr Test FOX systems. The DiePak Carrier is a reusable, temporary package that enables IC manufacturers to perform cost-effective final test and burn-in of both bare die and modules. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems’ website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, future requirements and orders of Aehr’s new and existing customers; bookings forecasted for proprietary WaferPak^TM and DiePak consumables; and expectations related to long-term demand for Aehr’s productions and the attractiveness of key markets. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr’s Form 10-K for fiscal 2020, Form 10-Q for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2021 and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

Contacts:
Aehr Test Systems               Vernon Rogers                        EVP of Sales & Marketing (510) 623-9400 x215 vrogers@aehr.com		MKR Investor Relations Inc. Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers Analyst/Investor Contact (323) 468-2300 aehr@mkr-group.com