In 1955, Pete Clerx served as an electrical and mechanical engineer working for Philips Semiconductor. Finding resistivity probing to be cumbersome with manipulators, Clerx designed the first self-contained four-point probe head. In the late fifties and early sixties, Clerx continued to improve on revisions of his 4-point probe head designs. After having made probe heads for various semiconductor companies, Clerx recognized a growing demand for these types of tools everywhere in what was becoming Silicon Valley. In 1965, Mr. Clerx founded the proprietorship called Signatron. Just a few of the early customers included National Semiconductor, Fairchild, Hewlett Packard and Signetics. In 1970, the four-point probe stand model S-301 became an instant success and there were requests from all around the country and some in Europe. In 1970 the company name was changed to Signatone.
Mr. Brent Dickson, who had worked at Motorola in Phoenix for six years then in 1968 moved to Silicon Valley and co-founded Advanced Memory Systems (acquired by Intersil, then GE), was ready to try his hand at running a small business. In 1976, Dickson purchased Signatone from Mr. Clerx and quickly began to expand the product lines, soon thereafter Three probe stations entered the market for the new 100mm wafer sizes with 25-micron geometries. In 1977, the stand-alone hot chuck was introduced and began to be a big seller for CV analysis applications. In 1978, the S-200-micron analytical probe station with a 200X magnification microscope entered the market, 1979 saw the introduction of the model S-1007 which was the first pattern probe station designed specifically for probing test pattern die and was well accepted. The S-1007 was also the first 125mm probe station.
As Signatone entered the 1980’s, the business had tripled in size since 1975 and now offered a product line of five probe stations and three hot chuck systems as well as the 4-point probe systems. In1981, Signatone introduced a 125mm sub-micron analytical probe station, the S-250 which will enjoy sales of over 500 systems during the next decade. Through the 1980’s Signatone continued to improve existing products and upgrade from 100mm to 125mm then 150mm models. Signatone introduced a compound sub-micron resolution micropositioner in 1983. In 1985, Signatone introduced the S-450 programmable semiautomatic analytical probe station. The S-450’s linear motor provided superior resolution and accuracy versus the competition and was well received in the market. As the company continued to expand product lines as well as overall growth in 1982 most of the operations were moved to Gilroy California into a much larger facility. Signatone would maintain headquarters and sales offices in Sunnyvale until 1997. In 1988, Signatone introduced the S-460 which was the first “hands-off”, completely controlled by a mouse, analytical probe station. The S-460 met with significant success.
In 1992, Signatone introduced the 200mm version of the S460 as the S480. In 1995, Signatone introduced a low current, Triaxial chuck, local dry/dark enclosure and Triaxial probes for use with parametric analyzers for measuring ±1 fA. In 1997 Signatone introduced the CheckMate series probe stations, which quickly became the company’s flagship analytical probe station. The highly configurable CheckMate series probe stations are designed for easy integration of various accessories including hot/cold chucks, local dry/dark enclosures, lasers, emission detection systems, RF probes and much more. The CheckMate series probe stations allow our customers the freedom to adapt their equipment as their applications may change in an ever-changing industry. In 1999 Signatone introduced the 300mm CheckMate line along with 300mm thermal chucks to accommodate the industry’s expansion into larger wafer architecture.
In the early 2000s the world market expanded greatly as many companies in the semiconductor industry began taking production off-shore. The dynamic shifted for much of the R&D of new products was now being funded to Universities around the world. Signatone capitalized on this opportunity with multiple sales representatives around the world and increased business on every inhabited continent.
Over the next 20 years Signatone has continued to advance product lines including the WaveLink series probe stations and focusing on the RF-HF markets that support the Wi-Fi world and AOT (Automation Of Things), from phones to -smart home security. With the ever growing EV (Electric Vehicle) market and demand for High Power products Signatone has created a line of products specifically used for safely probing 1kV -20kV, with the need for better power sources and battery longevity comes the requirement and research of new materials Signatone has responded to the need for testing of these new materials with TCR (Temperature Coefficient Resistivity) measurement systems that simulate the conditions of the material under test.
From political unrest of the cold war to the global COVID pandemic and everything in between, Signatone has worked alongside the industry and multi-generations of test engineers in need of Analytical testing, failure analysis and material research solutions. We look forward to serving the industry for many years to come.