Aehr Receives $3.0 Million in Orders to Support Production Test and Burn-in of Silicon Carbide Power Semiconductors for Electric Vehicles

FREMONT, Calif., Aug. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced it has received purchase orders totaling $3.0 million from its lead silicon carbide test and burn-in customer for multiple WaferPak™ Contactors and a FOX WaferPak Aligner to meet their increased production capacity needs for power semiconductors for the electric vehicle market. This customer is a leading Fortune 500 supplier of semiconductor devices with a significant customer base in the automotive semiconductor market. These WaferPaks and the WaferPak Aligner are expected to ship within the next six months to accompany the previously ordered FOX-XP systems announced last month.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “These follow-on orders for additional WaferPaks and an Aehr WaferPak Aligner signify a strengthening of our relationship with this lead customer to supply them with the high-volume production solution necessary to meet the critical quality and reliability requirements of the electric vehicle power conversion and electronic engine controllers. This customer continues to forecast orders for multiple additional FOX systems and WaferPak Contactors this fiscal year and a significant number of systems and WaferPaks over the next several years driven by electric vehicle semiconductor test and burn-in demand. 

“The majority of the WaferPaks in these orders are for test of yet another device that has been qualified by an Electric Vehicle manufacturer that is ramping into production, while a few WaferPaks are being used in the qualification of a new electric vehicle device. Aehr’s proprietary WaferPaks are used with our silicon carbide-focused FOX-XP systems, which are configured to test eighteen silicon carbide wafers in parallel in the footprint of a typical single wafer test solution. The Aehr FOX WaferPak Aligner is used to optically align the customer wafers in our WaferPaks to contact 100% of the devices on the wafer. Aehr provides a unique, fully integrated solution that includes the test systems, full wafer WaferPak Contactors, and WaferPak Aligners that can not only test 100mm and 150mm diameter silicon carbide wafers, but can test the future 200mm wafers planned to be introduced over the next several years.

“Silicon carbide power semiconductors have emerged as the preferred technology for battery electric vehicle power conversion in on-board and off-board electric vehicle battery chargers, and the electric power conversion and control of the electric engines. These devices reduce power loss by as much as > 75% over power silicon alternatives like IGBT (Insulated-gate bipolar transistor) devices, which has essentially changed the entire market dynamic. The challenge with silicon carbide is that it is known to have high infant mortality rates. However, with the reliability burn-in and screening that Aehr is able to offer with our FOX product solutions, these defects can be removed to provide extremely reliable devices for these mission-critical applications.  

“The power semiconductor market for electric vehicles is expected to triple between 2020 and 2026, growing at a nearly 26% CAGR to $5.6 billion, according to Yole research. And a report from Deloitte forecasts total electric vehicle sales will grow at a CAGR of 29% from 2020 to 2025, before reaching 31.1 million by 2030 and securing approximately 32% of the total market share for new car sales. Market research firm Exawatt (exa-watt.com) estimates that the total market for silicon carbide wafers for power semiconductors for electric vehicles in 2021 will be 133,000 150mm equivalent wafers and the total market will exceed 1.23 million 150 mm equivalent wafers in 2030. These stats highlight the tremendous opportunity Aehr Test has in front of it with its wafer level test and burn-in solution for electric vehicle semiconductors.”

The FOX-XP system, available with multiple WaferPak Contactors (full wafer test) or multiple DiePak^TM Carriers (singulated die/module test) configurations, is capable of functional test and burn-in/cycling of integrated devices such as silicon carbide (SiC) 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^TM and FOX-P^TM families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak^TM 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^TM 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 Form 10-K for fiscal 2020, Form 10-Q for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2021 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	MKR Investor Relations Inc.
Vernon Rogers	Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers
EVP of Sales & Marketing	Analyst/Investor Contact
(510) 623-9400 x215	(323) 468-2300
vrogers@aehr.com	aehr@mkr-group.com