ATE Loadboard & Probecard Design

An ATE loadboard is the electrical interface between an automated test system and the device under test. These are among the most demanding PCBs built — extreme layer counts, enormous net counts, and unforgiving signal and power integrity requirements.

Scale we handle

• Up to 110 layers of routing and plane structure.
• 40,000+ nets across DUT sites, tester channels, and instrumentation.
• Multi-site arrays for parallel test throughput.

Signal and power integrity

Loadboards run full electrical simulation before fabrication — there is no cheap respin at this layer count. We model:

• Channel impedance and crosstalk from the pogo interface to the DUT socket.
• Power delivery network (PDN) impedance and decoupling for high pin-count devices.
• Relay, kelvin, and force/sense routing for parametric measurement paths.

Contacts and mechanicals

The tester interface uses gold fingers plated in hard gold (typically 30 µin over nickel) to survive thousands of insertion cycles. We coordinate socket cavities, stiffener plates, and flatness requirements so the board mates reliably to the pogo tower.

Every loadboard is delivered with a simulation-backed stackup, a documented net budget, and a fabrication package tuned to the small pool of fabs qualified for this class of work.