With ISO 9001:2015 certified and SPC driven processes, AKT ensures all specifications are measured and recorded for every Ring manufactured. All AKT products include full traceability. Maintaining the highly precise process of machining CMP rings and parts, AKT has been able to extend the life of its rings beyond their competitors.

All machined Rings are created:

• Under an ISO certified process.
• All parts are of 100% quality and verified with video and reports on customer portal before product ships, each receiving the same CMM machine measurement, also available in the reports.
• Extensive lapping and surface roughness characterization capability is applied to all metal and plastic parts.

AKT strives to machine all manufactured products, not only to comply with the define specifications, but also with impeccable quality to meet or exceed their customers’ expectations for a defect-free product. The process also includes validation of all specifications, each measured and recorded in the quality reports available via the customer portal. Each product is also visually verified by video recording available on their customer portal.

All CMP components, plastic or metal, are machined with extreme precision and tested with the same effort using CMM tools and detailed machining processes.

Who is AKT Components: AKT Components is a distinguished CMP consumable parts solution provider and other high precision plastic and metal components, specializing in the design and manufacturing of CMP retaining rings which AKT prides themselves as the world’s number one.

With three locations in Malaysia, AKT Components has found their success to be driven by the extensive precision and testing they have undergone to achieve ISO certification and high customer marks. Each shipment receives testing reports and video validation available in their Customer Portal.

All CMP components, plastic or metal, are machined with extreme precision and tested with the same effort using CMM tools and detailed machining processes.

About AKT Components

✓Located in Penang, Malaysia

✓ Customers include the largest semiconductor companies and equipment manufacturers in the world.

✓Proven CMP Consumable parts, high precision plastic/metal components manufacturing and assembling

✓Achieving lead times by using three separate teams and factories in Penang, Malaysia along with an extensive supplier network.

✓Ensuring long term satisfaction of clients through the quality of products.

About E Test Reps:

SURAGUS are specialists in high frequency (HF) eddy current testing systems. A wide measurement frequency range from 10 kHz to 100 MHz enables the characterization of diverse materials ranging from thick metal films to highly resistive semiconductors; all with only a single system. Additionally, frequency modulation enables penetration depth variation, which provides insight into vertical resistivity profiles.

SURAGUS tools measure:

• metal thickness
• sheet resistance
• resistivity
• magnetic permeability (beta)

HF eddy current systems only require approximately 20 ms per measurement and operate in a non-contact mode; two characteristics which are combined in SURAGUS’ mapping tools to create sheet resistance map images with anywhere from 49 to 90,000 measurement points. These measurement points are captured in just a few seconds or minutes, with the point density high enough to enable imaging without point-point interpolation. In contrast to conventional 4PP tools, the measurement quality is independent of the surface characteristics.

Click here for details about Eddy Current Technology
Testing Setups and Tools Portfolio

For wafer types Si, SiC, GaAs, GaN, glass, ceramic etc and for sizes 1” to 12”, SURAGUS’ full product portfolio includes manual single point tools, automated imaging tools and sensor integration kits for tool integration into existing or new tools.

What is Important to SURAGUS: Their solutions contribute to a sustainable use of resources in various industries. SURAGUS solutions for process control and quality assurance support efficient production processes with highest product qualities at high throughput and low scrap rates. Moreover, it is important to them that they offer an inspiring, professional work environment to their staff, which provides freedom for self-actualization as well as security and flexibility for their families.

SURAGUS GmbH is a German company that is specialized in providing solutions for nondestructive material testing. They got their start over a decade ago as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer-Society, one of the largest German research organizations.They use new technical opportunities and the technical advances in microelectronics, manufacturing and miniaturization technologies and computer technology to develop eddy current testing solutions optimized for customer needs.

The applied eddy current testing technology features a wide frequency range that encompasses high frequencies. This range flexibility combined with advanced measuring procedures allows for fast testing of both very low and well conductive materials.

Their portfolio comprises portable hand-held devices, table-sized benchtop testing solutions, robot based systems and standard and customized inline-solutions.

Quality is top notch. All of their processes are certified to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 and are continuously monitored and enhanced.

We look forward to testing your samples and engaging with your company about your metrology requirements.

About E Test Reps:

Advances in material quality and availability, device development and fabrication process maturity has pushed SiC MOSETs to the brink of adoption in a range of power electronics applications such as renewables/solar, transportation and aviation industries where size and weight reduction, increased functionality and reduced bill-of-materials cost are being realizable. While SiC MOSFET entitled performance benefits versus incumbent IGBTs have been widely reported, acceptance has been limited due to increased die cost and limited reliability data presented to date.

Tremendous progress has been made on SiC MOSFETs in the last few years. High voltage SiC devices offer the promise of efficient power conversion in areas that current silicon-based power semiconductors do not. System benefits such as improved efficiency, reduced part count, reduced size and weight will make this technology attractive for adoption in a variety of power conversion systems. In SiC MOSFETs, the intrinsic body diode may be used as the anti-parallel diode. When the diode is implemented in silicon, the reverse recovery of such diodes results in high switching losses. In applications utilizing IGBTs this has led to the use of SiC Schottky diodes in cases where performance outweighs cost. On the other hand the use of the SiC MOSFET body diode could provide significant cost and size benefits.

About GE Research: GE Research offers reliability testing of power semiconductor devices. Our in-depth expertise in high temperature and high voltage testing, environmental testing, failure analysis, root cause determination, and mitigation solutions enables us to fully characterize and analyze the performance of your parts. Due to our extensive industry experience with SiC, we also have significant know-how in SiC MOSFET reliability testing with equipment and tooling tailored for higher temperature SiC discrete and module packages.

Everyone needs to periodically collect reliability data on their WBG devices, but this can be quite expensive and labor intensive to do in-house. Many would be well served by contracting from an experienced supplier well versed in GaN and SiC devices. That’s where GE Research can help.

The team at GE Research and elsewhere have been developing semiconductors that can withstand high operating temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and beyond. GE began developing SiC MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) decades ago and achieved the strict standards required by the automotive industry. GE is a recognized leader in industrial applications and since 2015 GE Research has provided production SiC MOSFETs and power modules for GE Aviation products. In addition, the team has been expanding its application base to automotive, healthcare, renewable energy and the military.

Now, GE’s lab outside of Albany NY, and the technologists that run them, are open and available to take on the gamut of WBG reliability test requirements:

• Initial consultation, and reliability test planning to determine the scope of work
• Test execution
• Data analysis, consultation and reporting

About E Test Reps:

The mini-PS4L series of probe systems is an extension of SemiProbe’s popular and patented Probe System for Life (PS4L) family of probe systems. The mini-PS4L probe systems are kitted systems available in manual and semiautomatic versions. One of the best features of the mini-PS4L series is the perpetual field path.

Features of the mini-PS4L:

• Small Footprint & Lower Cost
• Manual and Semiautomatic Systems – 25mm to 100mm
• Kitted Configurations – DC, HF, OPTO
• 100% Credit for Upgrade

Automated vacuum testing with SemiProbe’s vacuum probers is helping drive down the cost of vacuum packaging in the manufacturing of MEMs devices by testing at the wafer level and under vacuum. Available in production applications to test wafers up to 300mm as well as trays of die, SemiProbe manufactures a family of vacuum probers which can be purchased and operated in fully, semi or manual mode at vacuum levels from 10-3 to 10-6 torr and temperature testing from -60C to 300C. A fully automatic prober can also be operated in semi automatic and manual modes if desired.

About SemiProbe: SemiProbe continues to expand our patented Probe System for Life (PS4L) family of probe systems, modules, and accessories. The PS4L probe system is the most modular in the world and is designed to reduce the cost of capital equipment. The systems are designed to provide a perpetual field upgrade path to address new applications and requirements.

Founded in Vermont in 2006, SemiProbe designs, manufactures and sells probing and inspection systems and accessories for manufacturers of semiconductor chips. Their customers include the world’s most advanced science and research institutions and many of the top semiconductor companies. The company’s founders are former SUSS MicroTec employees who believed they could build less expensive, more customizable test solutions in the $350M global analytical prober market than the other dozen competitors worldwide.

Fifteen years later, SemiProbe is a global supplier of test and inspection solutions for microelectronics, MEMS, high frequency, high power, nanotechnology, microfluidics, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and more. Their signature product, the Probe System for Life (PS4L) family of probing and inspection systems, embodies their patented adaptive architecture. All key building blocks are interchangeable. Because they’re easily customized, the PS4L systems enable customers to realize substantial time and cost savings over traditional probe systems when wafer size, levels of automation, or test requirements change. Customers can start with a system that meets their initial application and budget and then perpetually field upgrade it as their requirements change without having to purchase an entirely new system.

About E Test Reps:

Data is said to be the gold of the 21st century, and predictive data analytics can help industrial manufacturers improve their efficiencies, quality, output and yield by identifying production issues very early on.

Using YieldWatchDog software enables customers to:

• detect and contain problematic production material
• detect “early warings” of anomalies in production before they become a more serious issue
• avoid shipment of potentially quality-compromised parts to customers
• get deepinsights into production data and discoer hidden correlations
• save engineering time and costs by enabling fast and easy access to data

With monitoring rules, DRYEILD’s algorithms can predict failures based on early knowledge about deviations or anomalies in the data, essentially allowing manufacturers to act on early warning signs instead of re-acting to major manufacturing issues when it’s already too late – thereby avoiding costly production incidents. In addition, YieldWatchDog’s user-friendly data analysis capabilities provide further deep insights for production optimization.

By integrating all available data sources into one, highly-compressed database they create the basis for applying their statistical and artificial intelligence algorithms to detect outliers, anomalies and abnormal data. They can then warn their users about impending production problems. This can be a simple e-mail to the responsible engineer, or, with deeper integration with the production systems, they can also automatically stop certain equipment.

DR YIELD is a highly innovative company with a research quota of 27%. Over the past 16 years, they have developed data compression algorithms, statistical algorithms and pattern recognition methods to ensure the most thorough monitoring of production data in semiconductor and related high-tech, high-volume manufacturing, all with a very user-friendly and intuitive user interface.

Their yield management software was developed for the semiconductor industry but YieldWatchDog’s predictive data analysis may also uplift productivity in other industries that have similarly structured data. They know that the pharmaceutical, photovoltaics, automotive parts industries, and especially battery manufacturers all have data that are similarly structured to microchip manufacturing. DR Yield’s algorithms detect anomalies in all kinds of numerical data.

Thus, your high-volume manufacturing data contains valuable information that with their analysis software can predict failures and increase production efficiency. DR YIELD encourage’s you to keep digging for gold in your data!

About DRYIELD: DR YIELD software & solutions is a leading provider of yield management software in the silicon and compound semiconductor industry. With the smart solution YieldWatchDog and the latest addition YieldWatchDogXI DR YIELD offers a fast, flexible and innovative analytics software that can be perfectly integrated within the company’s manufacturing structures.

DR YIELD’s YieldWatchDog (YWD) software allows one to quickly identify yield issues and correlate test results from WAT/PCM, Wafer/Die Sort and Final Assembly/test, all within one tool. Hundreds of world-wide customers use (YWD) to improve yields, reduce test times, and help to get products to market faster while improving the bottom line. Most importantly, performance does not get bogged down as the volume of data grows, so it remains fast at finding wafer signatures regardless of the number of wafers in the database.

We welcome the chance to show how YWD works and addresses challenges like these in a cost effective fashion:

• Query efficiency and intelligent filtering of very large datasets
• Tracking and correlation by substrate lot and fab lot when they are not uniquely mapped
• Ability to quickly define and find wafer maps and test data signatures for failure mode tracking not tied to zonal regions

About E Test Reps:

Maintaining the same highly precise process of machining plastic CMP rings and parts, AKT has expanded their capabilities by adding:

• Precision Metal Machining
• CMP Rollers
• Brushes

All metal machined parts are created:

• Under the same ISO certified process used to create, test and validate the CMP plastic components.
• All parts are of 100% quality and verified with video and reports on customer portal before product ships, each receiving the same CMM machine measurement, also available in the reports.
• Extensive lapping and surface roughness characterization capability is applied to all metal and plastic parts.

No issues during twelve months of the pandemic, AKT has been able to expand to two additional locations with three separate manufacturing teams to minimize the risk of COVID-19.

AKT provides professional R&D services for consumable testing and qualification. They integrate design into innovative, materials and manufacturing processes to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations for defect-free product life, quality,practical and cost-effective. Through continuous R&D, their strict quality control is evident in all aspects of our delivery process.

All CMP components, plastic or metal, are machined with extreme precision and tested with the same effort using CMM tools and detailed machining processes.

• Precision CNC Machining
• Machining and Equipment Steep Structure
• Mechanical Assembly
• Flatness Lapping Finishing
• Tools & Jigs Fabrication
• Heat Treatment and Surface Finishing
• High Quality Service

Who is AKT Components: ISO certified, and SPC driven, AKT Components is located in Penang, Malaysia. AKT was established over a decade ago, and their customers include the largest semiconductor companies and equipment manufacturers in the world. Their focus is on making the world’s best and longest lasting CMP retaining rings and other high precision plastic and metal components.

With three locations in Malaysia, AKT Components has found their success to be driven by the extensive precision and testing they have undergone to achieve ISO certification and high customer marks. Each shipment receives testing reports and video validation available in their Customer Portal.

All CMP components, plastic or metal, are machined with extreme precision and tested with the same effort using CMM tools and detailed machining processes.

Strength & Capabilities

✓ 100% Quality – SPC with full closed loop corrective action. All critical specifications measured and certified. Continuous improvement with Kaizen system to improve cycle time, lower reject rate, and ensure only quality approved items ship to customers. ISO 9001:2015 certified, full traceability on all retaining rings. Clean room packing.

✓ Great Pricing and Volume – Exceed customer expectations in quality, delivery and built in Malaysian cost advantage. Always build safety stock of more than 3 months supply and always reserve 30% production capacity. This avoids surprises plus there are planned expansions to double capacity.

✓ Engineering Partnerships – Work directly with customers for data driven design and material decisions. IP is honored and respected – no loopholes.

✓ Continuity Planning – Have three separate factories, with three separate teams.

About E Test Reps:

The advanced development of new technologies, such as SiC and GaN, have created the opportunity for more efficient and higher voltage/power performance in switching and power management circuits. Their high cutoff frequencies, low on-state resistance, and very high breakdown voltages can increase power supply power handling densities approaching hundreds of watts/inch.

Reliability of these new technologies and techniques is critical for realizing practical applications. While Silicon devices have a rich history of proven reliability, these newer compound semiconductor technologies are too new to have a reliability history and have not been well proven. Further, process variations, even in well-controlled lines, yield widely varying results. This has driven the need for additional testing and to burn-in devices prior to delivery.

Accel-RF Instruments (ARF) has developed a test system capable of measuring reliability under a variety of conditions for switching power applications up to 1kV (off) and 25A (on) at a up to 1-MHz switching frequency (depending on high voltage level). By leveraging the existing RF burn-in tray platform, support for testing of multiple devices under elevated temperature stimulus in a small physical area is efficiently facilitated.

Click here for more information

Company Profile: STAr Technologies provides intellectual property, software, hardware, consumables, service and expertise to meet the requirements and challenges within the semiconductor industries. STAr expertise extents across parametric electrical tests (E-test), wafer-level and package-level reliability (WLR & PLR), mixed signal tests, assembly and packaging services, probe cards, load boards, test interfaces and sockets. STAr’s major customers include top tier players in the semiconductor industries such as tsmc, UMC, Global Foundries, SMIC, KYEC, ASE, Samsung, Hynix, Toshiba, Renesas, Maxim, OmniVision, etc.

“We have listened to users who long wanted per-pin SMU reliability test system, STAr has pioneered the next generation Pluto per-pin SMU reliability test system to meet this need. Pluto supports complete range of nanometer node process and device reliability qualification and with full-flexibility for user to develop customized test programs and qualification methodologies for their own needs. This all-in-one reliability open platform test system will revolutionize the reliability test industry with highest throughput and test capabilities enabling users to mix-and-match different reliability tests in one system. STAr’s Pluto reliability test system will significantly lower overall investments with increasing flexible capacity planning for all semiconductor wafer fabs,” said Dr. Choon-Leong Lou, CEO of STAr Technologies.

Let us know if this is of interest and we will schedule a call or online meeting to discuss your requirements.

Sincerely, ETR

About E Test Reps:

Eddy current measurement setups include single side and double sided setups. Both are widely used but there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

Double side transmission mode sensors and tools operate in large distances to the wafer and excel with high tolerance to vertical wafer surface positions. This means the same set can be used for immediate measurement of thin and thick wafers without requiring time consuming set up changes. With large sensor elements gaps up to 100 mm makes double sided transmission ideal for robot handling and the integration into process tools without requiring additional tool space or processing time.

Reflection mode tools are best for small spot sizes down to 1 mm. The tradeoff is that precise distance control and comes with limitations in sensitivity. This enables penetration depth modification, which allows focusing on resistivity measurements to the surface regions of SiC, GaAs and Si materials on ingot and boule level.

Click here for details about Eddy Current Technology
Mapping Wide Band Gap Materials

Requiring only 20 ms per measurement and operating in non-contact mode, SURAGUS systems can deliver far more detailed maps as compared to legacy tools. This key technology characteristics are combined in SURAGUS wafer imaging tools providing images with 49 to 90,000 measurement points in as little as a few seconds.

The growing demand for high power devices drives the demand for advanced and cost-efficient SiC and GaN, AlGaN processing. Ingot, boule, puck and wafer monitoring up and down the supply chain is supported by surface imaging or wafer resistivity imaging uncovering the material specific characteristics.

Who is SURAGUS: They are a German company that is specialized in providing solutions for non-contact electrical material imaging. They use new technical opportunities and the technical advances in microelectronics, manufacturing and miniaturization technologies and computer technology to develop eddy current testing solutions optimized for their customers’ needs.

SURAGUS is a breath of fresh air in the niche semiconductor sheet resistance business.

These “new guys” on the block have now been in business for well over a decade, and have grown to a staff of over 40. One distinct advantage of coming to the market a decade ago is that their tools and technology are not based on outdated sensor/head technology and aging software. By using modern software tools and smaller heads with latest chip designs/sets, they can deliver far more value and allow one to get far closer to the edge of the wafer than one can achieve with alternative approaches.

SURAGUS are quite willing to put their technology to the test. Customers routinely send them samples to see what they are missing and how modern tools give more insight into determination of sheet resistance, thickness, and resistivity or conductivity of thin films on wafer, glass, foils and substrates and the like.

SURAGUS has installed more than 1,000 sensors and instruments around the world. Quality is also delivered out of the box as SURAGUS has implemented comprehensive quality management system practices in accordance with international standards.

If you are considering upgrading your non contact metrology, take a look at SURAGUS. You won’t be disappointed.

About E Test Reps:

The never ending quest for more capable optoelectronic devices are challenging the prober companies to develop new methods of holding, integrating products and testing a variety of devices ranging from individual chips, modules, partial wafers and whole wafers up to 300 mm in size. Probing solutions range from R&D to Production. Some recent trends:

• Topside and Bottomside Bias or light detection

• Cold and Hot temperature testing in a double-sided probing application

• Non-Contact Height Measurement Sensors to precisely control the fiber locationin regards to the device under test (DUT)

• Integration of multi-axis Hexapods with fibers (single or multiple) with light optimization

• Moving from a single-purpose probing solution to a multi-purpose probing solution

• Providing turn-key probing and testing solutions

• SA-8 Semiautomatic 200 mm Probe System
  • 200 mm programmable X,Y,Z and theta stage
  • PILOT Software Suite – Navigator, Wafer Map, Autoalign and Programmable Manipulator Modules
  • Vibration Isolation Table
  
  
• Large Vacuum Chamber with removable top and front- loading door for easy loading and unloading of devices
• Thermal Chuck System that operates from -60 C to 200 C
• All Components in the vacuum chamber rated to 10-6 torr
• Agilent turbo-molecular vacuum pump
• Large Microscope Gantry for the simultaneous mounting of optics, black bodies and motion analyzer
• Compound Optics with CCTV System
• Programmable Manipulators and Probe Cards
  • Four (4) programmable three axis manipulators with DC and HF probe arms, cables and probes
  • Probe Card Holder – 4.5” cards
  
  
• Integrated with Keithley Instruments 4200 Parametric Analyzer

About SemiProbe: Denis Place, Mostafa Daoudi & Don Feuerstein founded SemiProbe in 2006 to address market voids in the analytical probing market. Collectively, before founding SemiProbe, they worked as managers at SUSS MicroTec North American Probing Division in Waterbury Center, VT for 35 years.

I’ve known Denis Place, one of the founders of SemiProbe, for going on four decades now. We first got introduced when Denis was a device engineer at Sprague, back in the day when they had a small fab in the Northeast. That was our first and only demo that I can recall which was interrupted by a fire alarm, sort of like the practice one’s that were popular in school.

We did not end up doing business with Sprague, but we have kept in touch over the years at conferences when Dennis joined the supplier side of the semiconductor space.

Denis has always impressed us by his willingness to stand behind his products and make things right for the customer. They are also really good at pushing the envelope in probing and delivering new capabilities first. They do so by listening closely to customers, and partnering with them and test equipment suppliers to deliver solid probe stations that work year after year.

And they stand behind their offerings with their “prober for life” practice, which is another way of saying their probe stations never need to become obsolete and can be readily repurposed as requirements advance and evolve.
We will be happy to coordinate discussions with you about SemiProbe – just let us know!

Sincerely, ETR

About E Test Reps: