Show Highlights: Semicon West

Semicon West, July 14–16, San Jose, CA, www.semi.org.

Nextest (www.nextest.com) debuted its Magnum, which can deploy 5120 pins over 640 test sites for flash-memory test....Advantest (www.advantest.com) announced the US debut of the T7721 test system for automotive and power integrated circuits, and it announced the T2000MS small-footprint version of its T2000 family of systems that comply with the Semiconductor Test Consortium's (www.semitest.org) OpenStar specification. Also, the company exhibited an OpenStar-compliant board that accommodates PXI instruments....GuideTech (www.guidetech.com) announced that Advantest (www.advantest.com) supports GuideTech's Femto 2000 timing analyzer on the Advantest T2000 Series of automated semiconductor test systems, and Wavecrest (www.wavecrest.com) announced that its SIA-3000 signal-integrity analysis instrument is also compatible with OpenStar and the T2000....DFT Microsystems (www.dftmicrosystems.com) demonstrated its load-board-mountable timing and jitter module and mixed-signal test module.

Quatrix sockets employ a single plane of contacts with no moving parts to enhance dimensional placement tolerance and to provide low contact resistance and inductance. Courtesy of Kulicke & Soffa.

FEI (www.feicompany.com) highlighted its new DA 300HP DualBeam system for automated in-fab defect analysis extendable to the 45-nm node. It also debuted its UltraView analysis tool. FEI's subsidiary Knights Technology (www.knights.com) was on hand to announce real-time enhancements to its YieldManager tool….HPL (www.hpl.com) described its yield-management software, test-chip services, and design-for-manufacture products and services.

Keithley Instruments (www.keithley.com) demonstrated the Model S470 parametric test system, which is optimized for production test of 200-mm wafers at the 130-nm CMOS node and beyond. Keithley also debuted its Model 2182A nanovoltmeter....Although not exhibiting at the show, representatives of Agilent Technologies (www.agilent.com) were on hand to direct visitors to Agilent's Santa Clara facility, where the company demonstrated its 93000 Series SOC and Versatest memory test systems as well as its new 41000 Series Integrated Parametric Analysis and Characterization Environment (iPACE) for lab and R&D semiconductor evaluation.

Cascade Microtech (www.cascademicrotech.com) was on the show floor, where it announced that its probe stations integrate with the Agilent 41000. Cascade also introduced a motorized-theta feature on all its Summit 12000 Series probe stations....Suss MicroTec (www.suss.com) introduced the PAP200 semiautomatic pressurechamber prober. The company also announced the PM8WLR ProbeShield analytical probe system, which targets multi-site wafer-level-reliability (WLR) testing, and it debuted its MicroAlign alignment method for vertical probe cards.

Johnstech (www.johnstech.com) introduced its PadKEL100 Series test contactor for Kelvin force-sense measurements and its Pad ROL200 Series contactors, which employ a patented "rolling" contact technology....FormFactor (www.formfactor.com) announced its PH150S high parallelism probe card, which tests 300-mm DRAM or flash-memory wafers in as few as four touchdowns….W.L. Gore (www.gore.com/electronics) demonstrated its PhaseFlex test-cable assemblies, which now operate to 110 GHz.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries (www.kns.com) introduced its Quatrix photolithographic package-test technology, which offers an alternative to traditional contactor approaches that rely on spring pins for test sockets....Nikon (www.nikonusa.com) demonstrated its Nexiv VMR series 3-D vision/laser noncontact measuring equipment, its L200IC microscope, and the DS-5M-L1 self-contained digital camera system....DVT (www.dvtsensors.com) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire MTI Machine Vision (Providence, RI), which develops semiconductor wafer-reading algorithms.

Coreco Imaging (www.coreco.com) demonstrated its line of products that perform the image acquisition, processing, and analysis that can help deliver submicron wafer-inspection capability.... Phoenix|X-ray Systems + Services (www.phoenix-xray.com) introduced two optional software modules for its line of x-ray inspection systems, the qfp|module and mlf|module. The modules target PCB assemblers and IC packaging companies.