Arizona Tribune - Aehr Wins Major New Silicon Photonics Customer with High-Power FOX-XP Wafer-Level Burn-In System for Hyperscale Data Center Optical Interconnect Market

The order includes multiple systems for both engineering qualification and high-volume production, including a FOX-XP^™ wafer-level burn-in (WLBI) system configured to test nine wafers in parallel, a fully integrated WaferPak^™ Auto Aligner, multiple FOX-NP WLBI systems, and multiple full sets of FOX WaferPak full-wafer Contactors for production, engineering and new product introduction. The systems are scheduled to ship in Aehr's fiscal fourth quarter ending May 29, 2026. The customer has also provided Aehr with a forecast for additional systems, with follow-on orders possible as early as later this calendar year as it ramps capacity to support next generation hyperscale data center deployments.

"Data center architectures are rapidly evolving as AI infrastructure scales, driving a major transition from traditional copper interconnects to fiber optic communication links to meet the increasing demands for bandwidth, latency, signal integrity, thermal performance, and power efficiency," said Gayn Erickson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aehr Test Systems. "Silicon photonics-based optical transceivers are a critical enabling technology for this transformation, and we believe this order is particularly significant because it comes from a major new customer that is a leading supplier of networking products and solutions for the data center market.

"What makes this win especially exciting is that the customer is purchasing systems for both engineering qualification and high-volume production up front, reflecting the urgency of the ramp now underway to support the massive buildout of hyperscale AI and cloud data centers. We believe this customer engagement further validates WLBI as an increasingly important part of the silicon photonics manufacturing flow and highlights the potential for silicon photonics to become a meaningful long-term growth driver for Aehr's WLBI business.

"We believe this win positions Aehr to participate in what could be a significant multiyear expansion of silicon photonics production driven by the growth of fiber optic interconnects in hyperscale AI data centers."

As data center architectures scale to support AI, cloud computing, and high-performance networking, fiber optic interconnects offer significant advantages over copper wiring, including higher data rates, lower power consumption, longer reach, improved thermal performance, and reduced electromagnetic interference. These advantages are driving rapid adoption of silicon photonics transceivers across hyperscale and enterprise data centers worldwide and increasing demand for cost-effective, production-proven burn-in solutions that can ensure device quality and long-term reliability at volume.

Aehr is the market leader in WLBI for silicon photonics transceivers, with a large installed base at leading global semiconductor and photonics companies. The Company's FOX-XP platform enables high-parallelism, high-temperature, and high-power WLBI, allowing customers to identify early-life failures before packaging while significantly reducing cost of test.

"With our high-power FOX-XP configuration, which we began shipping last year, we offer the highest power-per-wafer WLBI capability in the industry - up to 3,500 watts per wafer," Erickson added. "This proven system is already installed and in production at a world-leading silicon photonics integrated circuit supplier supporting data center and optical I/O applications. In this case, we were able to demonstrate production-ready systems on our manufacturing floor that met the customer's performance and throughput requirements. That capability, combined with our leadership in WLBI for silicon photonics and our ability to support customers from qualification through high-volume production, was a key factor in the customer's decision to select Aehr."

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 packaged 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, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr's products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-P^™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak^™ 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. Acquired through its acquisition of Incal Technology, Inc., Aehr's new line of high-power packaged part reliability/burn-in test solutions for AI semiconductor manufacturers, including its ultra-high-power Sonoma family of test solutions for AI accelerators, GPUs, and high-performance computing (HPC) processors, position Aehr within the rapidly growing AI market as a turnkey provider of reliability and testing that span from engineering to high volume production. 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; Aehr's ability to receive orders and generate revenue in the future, as well as Aehr's beliefs regarding the factors impacting the foregoing, including the growth of the markets referred to herein; Aehr's ability to integrate Incal efficiently; and the timing and extent to which the acquisition is accretive. 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.

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Aehr Test Systems
Vernon Rogers
EVP of Sales & Marketing
[email protected]

PondelWilkinson, Inc.
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Analyst/Investor Contact
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SOURCE: Aehr Test Systems

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H.Romero--AT