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New T5221 Platform Leverages Multi-Prober Design to Reduce Cost of Test and Improve Productivity for Cost-Sensitive Memory Market
Advantest Announces New Versatile, High-Throughput Test Solution for NAND/Nonvolatile Flash Memory ICs
T5221 High-Throughput Test Solution for NAND/Nonvolatile Flash Memory ICs
TOKYO, Nov. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) has introduced a new high-throughput memory tester for NAND flash devices that can perform functional testing of chips while delivering highly accurate timing, repeatability and failure detection. With data-transfer speeds that are more than five times faster than its predecessor, the new T5221 system is designed to improve production efficiencies while reducing test costs for wafer sorting, built-in self-testing (BIST) and wafer-level burn-in (WLBI).
Worldwide sales of NAND wafer test equipment for multi-stacked type probers are approximately US$100 million per year, accounting for an estimated seven percent of the total memory market. As the market grows, customers are shifting away from high-functionality wafer-sorting test equipment toward more cost-effective design-for-test (DFT) and BIST strategies using multi-probe systems.
The T5221 is optimized for use with a multi-wafer prober. The system controller can simultaneously manage up to 12 test stations, each with independent testing capabilities. The combined-array architecture reduces test times while the tester’s massive parallelism allows it to perform wafer-level testing on up to 1,152 devices at once.
The system’s test stations do not add to the overall footprint because they are housed within the multi-wafer prober. This allows the T5221 platform to use much less floor space than Advantest’s previous nonvolatile memory tester and a standalone prober.
The new tester can be docked with either a 12-stage multi-wafer prober for use in mass production or single- or dual-wafer probers in engineering environments.
Probe card design has been simplified to lower both the cost of ownership and cost of test. The unit incorporates a combined performance board that eliminates the need for a printed circuit board on the probe card.
System features include two driver pins and one I/O pin for each device under test as well as a flexible algorithmic pattern generator (ALPG), a waveform generator and various self-diagnostic functions.
To further enhance the T5221’s performance range, an optional upgrade is available to boost the power-supply level as high as 28 volts while still measuring small currents down to one nanoampere (nA). These capabilities are not available in many competitive products.