RF Probe Technology: History and Selected Topics

Today, radio-frequency (RF) wafer probes play an important role in almost every step of the RF products lifecycle: from technology development, model parameter extraction, design verification, and debug to small-scale and final production test. By using RF probes, it became possible to measure true characteristics of the RF components at the wafer level. This halved research and development times and lowered the enormous costs of developing new products.