Aehr Receives $23 Million in New Follow-on Orders to Meet Customers’ Growing Demand for Wafer Level Test and Burn-in of Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Devices

Fremont, CA (February 21, 2024) – Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and burn-in equipment, today announced it has received new follow-on orders totaling $23 million from existing customers for FOXTM wafer level test and burn-in products to be used for production and engineering qualification needs for wafer level burn-in and screening of their silicon carbide devices. Customer-requested ship dates for these orders range from immediate shipment through the end of Aehr’s current fiscal year, which ends May 31, 2024. 

The orders include a significant number of FOX WaferPakTM full wafer Contactors for both current design capacity increases as well as new device designs that are expected to drive additional orders in calendar year 2024 and beyond.

FOX WaferPak Contactors are used in conjunction with the company’s FOX-NP and FOX-XP wafer level test and burn-in systems to contact 100% of the die on a wafer up to several thousand devices at a time. These proprietary WaferPak designs are specific to a customer’s application as well as die layout and unique electrical contact pads. Aehr’s FOX systems and WaferPaks are currently being used on wafer sizes ranging from 4”, 6”, 8” and 12” wafers and can be configured for a wide range of device applications.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are excited to help our customers meet their new design and production capacity needs with our industry-leading lead times and capacity for wafer level stress tests, screening, stabilization, and burn-in. Our proprietary WaferPak Contactors are unique to each end customer’s device design and grow with the number of device designs and capacity needed for volume production of those devices. As we have stated in the past, we are able to quickly ship a large quantity of WaferPaks with very short lead times with our increased design resources, optimized supply chain, and manufacturing and test processes. We continue to believe our WaferPak business will grow in absolute revenue and also as a percent of the overall revenue for the company. In addition, we have increased our material availability and manufacturing capacity to shorten lead times on our FOX-NP and FOX-XP test and burn-in systems and automated FOX WaferPak Aligners.”

The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems and proprietary WaferPaks are capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors, silicon photonics integrated circuits as well as other optical devices, 2D and 3D sensors, flash memories, 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 leading provider of test solutions for testing, burning-in, and stabilizing semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and package part form, and has installed thousands of systems worldwide. Increasing quality, reliability, safety, and security needs of semiconductors used across multiple applications, including electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar and wind power, computing, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr Test products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-PTM families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPakTM Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems that can test, burn-in, and stabilize a wide range of devices such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based and other power semiconductors, 2D and 3D sensors used in mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices, memory semiconductors, processors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and photonics and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a low-cost single-wafer compact test solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The FOX WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full wafer contactor capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test, burn-in, and stabilization of full wafers on the FOX-P systems. The FOX DiePak Carrier allows testing, burning in, and stabilization of singulated bare die and modules up to 1024 devices in parallel per DiePak on the FOX-NP and FOX-XP systems up to nine DiePaks at a time. 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 WaferPakTM 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.

Contacts:
Aehr Test Systems
Vernon Rogers
EVP Sales and Marketing
(510) 623-9400 x215
vrogers@aehr.com
MKR Investor Relations Inc.
Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers
Analyst/Investor Contact
(323) 468-2300
aehr@mkr-group.com