Non Contact Wafer Evaluation

“We needed a partner firm that could take an idea and turn it into a product and Unbounded Labs was the right choice.” – Dr. Kubilay Sertel

Project Summary

Industry

Technology

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Business Situation

Ohio State University spin out that had a patent and needed a product.

Technical Situation

Teraprobes is a start-up company that had to outsource design, engineering, and manufacturing so they could have a prototype to secure funding

Solution

Unbounded Labs designed, engineered, and built their Gen 1 product in 6 months

Benefits

The customer only had to deal with one company that could do the entire project in-house.

Services

  • Industrial design
  • Design engineering
  • Manufacturing engineering

Bringing the next generation chip testers to market

In the heart of the Midwest lies the Ohio State University College of Engineering.  The school offers renowned programs in technology allowing opportunities for research and real-world experience for its students and professors.  Dr. Kubilay Sertel is a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department who created a spin-off company called TeraProbes in 2014.  The company was constructed to sell a non-contact metrology solution for high frequency electronic devices.   This machine would inspect the silicon wafers that are used in the manufacturer of computer chips.

Unbounded Labs was excited to be chosen as the engineering team that would commercialize TeraProbes intellectual property.  Our mission was to work from industrial design through engineering, to manufacturer both machined components and molded parts, and to even develop the maintenance and operating procedures that would be included with each Wafer Tester.

The Unbounded Labs Industrial Design Team was focused on creating a design that would be right at home at Intel because  the first product that we produced was going to end up there.

We have the capability to design in Solidworks, CREO, SolidEdge, Inventor and CATIA but for this program everything was done in SolidWorks because that is what the the client wanted. Several rounds of simulation were performed so we knew the design was right when we went to production

The production parts where machined, 3D printed, and thermoformed to get the prototype made to the timeline and budget we were working with for this program.

It is exciting to see this product now available across the globe in Asia, Europe, USA, and the Middle East.