The system also features a revolutionary probe card interface that guarantees accurate contact while allowing the use of lower cost probe cards. Until today, the same system architecture has been used to handle two very different worlds of device testing - probe and package test. Speed of test is dictated by the application and yields are high, so there is little need for data collection. In contrast, the world of probe test makes different demands on a test system. The number of pads per die varies, with the trend moving toward fewer pads.
Parallelism is a function of the tester and probe cards.
Speeds are set by the test strategy of the manufacturer. Probe-One is the first system designed specifically for the world of probe test. At probe test, the minimum number of touchdowns possible varies for every new wafer and probe card combination. The goal of a probe system is to minimize the number of touchdowns needed to test a new wafer. The problem is that today's systems, which are really package systems with Catch RAM and RA added, limit parallelism with rigid site boundaries.