Hprobe Announces New Generation of Magnetic Test Head for Wafer Sort of MRAM in Mass Production

Grenoble, France, November 30, 2021 – Hprobe, a provider of turnkey semiconductor Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) for magnetic devices, today announced a breakthrough magnetic test head revolutionizing MRAM Wafer Sort (WS). The new module, the H3DM-XL, is at the heart of the latest addition to Hprobe’s IBEX line, the IBEX-WS. The IBEX-WS test equipment integrates 3D magnetic field capabilities, while increasing field area and uniformity for wafer probing large MRAM arrays. It also features a unique patented robotized 3D Field Calibration Unit (FCU) for high-speed field mapping and monitoring. The test equipment platform integrating the new head is the only available commercial product designed to address the magnetic specificities of MRAM compared to traditional back-end testing in High Volume Manufacturing (HVM). Hprobe also confirms First Customer Shipment (FCS) of the IBEX-WS.

“We introduced this new test head as a result of close collaboration with MRAM technology and device engineers. We aim to enable our customers to implement new and specific test protocols dedicated to MRAM wafer sort and to successfully tackle ramp-up in high-volume manufacturing. The new-generation test head is designed to operate with the same test cell used for traditional logic probing and is key for STT-MRAM product yield management,” explains Siamak Salimy, CTO and co-founder of Hprobe.

The H3DM-XL test head enables the probing of large MRAM arrays (megabyte to gigabyte) under a magnetic field to accelerate per-bit retention testing and non-persistent bit failures in a production environment. The system, which features a high magnetic field and uniformity over a large surface, operates on single or multiple sites. It can also be used in product development, validation, and qualification phases. The new test head is driven by high-end instrumentation from select partners, can operate with any type of electric tester and any programming language, and is integrated using Hprobe’s proprietary building blocks. The H3DM-XL is specially designed for testing MRAM arrays with bit cells based on Spin Transfer Torque (STT-MRAM) and Spin Orbit Torque (SOT-MRAM) magnetic tunnel junctions. This newest test head is complementary to the existing test heads available for Wafer Acceptance Test (WAT).

Note: Hprobe will be exhibiting in San Francisco in December at SEMICON West (booth #727) as well as exhibiting (and presenting a paper) at the Magnetics Society event (booth #7) at IEDM 2021.

About Hprobe: Founded in March 2017 and based in Grenoble (France), Hprobe is a spin-off company of SPINTEC (one of the leading spintronics research laboratories worldwide). The company designs, manufactures, and markets equipment for wafer-level testing of magnetic devices in the semiconductor industry, which serves consumer, communication, industrial and automotive customers.