Aehr Receives Production Orders for WaferPak™ Full Wafer Contactors to Meet Growing Demand for Electric Vehicles

FREMONT, Calif., Aug. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment, today announced it has received over $4.0 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 and increased production capacity needs for power semiconductors for the electric vehicle market. These WaferPak Contactors are expected to ship by the end of Aehr’s fiscal third quarter ending February 28, 2023.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, “We are excited to receive these orders for additional WaferPak Contactors to meet this customer’s increased production capacity needs as well as for multiple new device configurations to be qualified by their customers. These WaferPak Contactor orders are for FOX™ systems previously ordered by this customer. We also expect them to order multiple new sets of WaferPak Contactors in the future to be used with the new system orders announced last month for current devices that have already been qualified by electric vehicle manufacturers.

“This customer recently announced that they expect their growth rate to accelerate faster than previously forecasted. They continue to forecast orders for a significant number of FOX systems and WaferPak Contactors over the next several years and into the future, driven by semiconductor demand for the electric vehicle market that is expected to grow at least 30 percent plus annually over the next decade. Multiple companies including this lead silicon carbide customer have announced their plans to significantly increase their output capacity, which is exciting for our business. Aehr has been increasing manufacturing capacity of both our systems and WaferPak Contactors to meet the anticipated capacity needs of the silicon carbide market this year and through the end of the decade.

“Aehr’s proprietary WaferPak Contactors 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’s wafers in our WaferPak Contactors 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 today’s 150mm diameter silicon carbide wafers, but can test the future 200mm wafers planned to be introduced over the next several years.

“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 2021 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.

“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 semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and package part form, 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 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 silicon carbide-based power semiconductors, 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.

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