FREMONT, Calif., March 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced it has received over $3.5 million in orders from its lead silicon carbide test and burn-in customer for WaferPak™ full wafer Contactors for multiple new silicon carbide device designs as well as volume production capacity orders for several silicon carbide devices now ramping in production to meet electric vehicle (EV) semiconductor volume capacity.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are pleased to receive these orders to meet the near-term needs of this customer for several silicon carbide devices now qualified and ramping into production for EV manufacturers, and also for multiple new devices that they are building to be qualified by their customers. We also expect them to order additional WaferPaks to fulfill the capacity of their previously ordered FOX™ systems, which are scheduled for shipment over the next six months. In addition, this customer forecasts additional capacity for their initial facility that is being used for silicon carbide fabrication, and also for additional systems to meet the needs that they have publicly and privately talked about to meet their goal to achieve a major market share in silicon carbide.

“During recent travels in the US and Europe, we met with multiple companies, and we are very encouraged by the feedback received. We look forward to talking about our progress with those companies, their forecasts for wafer level burn-in needs, and our expectations for winning this capacity during our conference call on March 31st to report our third quarter fiscal 2022 financial results.

“Aehr’s proprietary FOX WaferPak full wafer Contactors, along with the FOX-XP™ multi-wafer test and burn-in system, allow customers to contact 100% of up to several thousand devices at time on a single wafer and up to 18 wafers at a time on one FOX-XP system. Silicon carbide based semiconductor MOSFETs are being designed into electric vehicle on-board chargers and traction inverters that allow higher efficiency, smaller, and lighter weight power conversion than was possible with traditional pure silicon-based semiconductors. These devices have a wide range of sizes by design which then translates into a varying range of devices per wafer. For example, a typical traction inverter used in the electric vehicle motor controller typically has only 300-500 devices per 6-inch wafer, while on board chargers and other silicon carbide devices may have up to 3000 devices on an equivalent wafer size. Aehr’s proprietary WaferPaks and FOX-XP system allow both devices to be tested in one test insertion, which significantly increases the throughput in terms of wafers per hour, particularly compared to testing or burning in these devices in package form where parallelism is fixed for a given test system independent of size.

“Forecasts from Canaccord Genuity estimate that the silicon carbide market for devices in electric vehicles, such as traction inverters and the on-board chargers, is expected to grow from fewer than 150,000 wafers in 2022 to more than four million 6-inch equivalent wafers in 2030 to meet the demand of the automotive electric vehicle market, representing a growth rate of over 25 times the current wafer capacity just for the in-vehicle devices. Any company that wants to maintain their market share must grow their capacity by this much and will need to increase their capacity more than 25 times if they want to grow their market share. Our FOX-XP systems and WaferPaks not only support 6-inch (150mm) diameter silicon carbide wafers shipping in volume today, but also the future 8-inch (200mm) wafers, which we have been discussing with multiple companies and that are expected to ramp to volume as early as 2023.

“Canaccord also estimates that the silicon carbide market will require an additional four million silicon carbide wafers to meet demand in 2030 for electrification infrastructure, industrial and photovoltaic power devices.”

The FOX-XP system, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePak™ Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, is capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of integrated devices such as silicon carbide power devices, silicon photonics as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, Gallium Nitride (GaN), magnetic sensors, microcontrollers, and other leading-edge ICs in either wafer form factor, before they are assembled into single or multi-die stacked packages, or in singulated die or module form factor.

About Aehr Test Systems Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a worldwide provider of test systems for burning-in and testing logic, optical and memory integrated circuits and has installed over 2,500 systems worldwide. Increased quality and reliability needs of the Automotive and Mobility integrated circuit markets are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products in package, wafer level, and singulated die/module level test. Aehr Test has developed and introduced several innovative products, including the ABTS™ and FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX-XP WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The ABTS system is used in production and qualification testing of packaged parts for both lower power and higher power logic devices as well as all common types of memory devices. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems used for burn-in and functional test of complex devices, such as leading-edge memories, digital signal processors, microprocessors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a new low-cost single-wafer compact test and reliability verification solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The WaferPak contactor contains a unique full wafer probe card capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test and burn-in of full wafers on Aehr Test FOX systems. The DiePak Carrier is a reusable, temporary package that enables IC manufacturers to perform cost-effective final test and burn-in of both bare die and modules. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems’ website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,” “going to,” "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, future requirements and orders of Aehr’s new and existing customers; bookings forecasted for proprietary WaferPak™ and DiePak consumables; and expectations related to long-term demand for Aehr’s productions and the attractiveness of key markets. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr’s recent Form 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers

EVP of Sales & Marketing

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