Our journey in Surrey Research Park

Two years ago, we set foot in our current building located in Surrey Research Park. As time progressed, our team's growth surpassed all expectations. Just a few months ago, we made the move to another building within the same park. Our innovative manufacturing department now resides in this new space. We are thrilled with our continuous growth and the expansion of our capabilities in the Power Electronics industry. However, a question remains: How long will this new building adequately accommodate our achievements?

ipTEST Wins King's Award for Innovation 2023

ipTEST has been honoured with the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of advancing the test capabilities available for high power SiC and GaN semiconductors.

Wide bandgap SiC and GaN semiconductors have opened up new possibilities for power device performance. The benefits are widespread, from allowing electric vehicles to travel further on the same battery, to enabling more efficient, lower cost electricity conversion in power hungry data centres.

Testing power devices before they reach the customer is crucially important to ensure they perform reliably throughout their lifetime. For the most accurate results, devices should be tested as close to their operating speed as possible. However, this is a challenge for SiC and GaN which are switched at much higher speeds than conventional silicon. A silicon tester just cannot keep up.

To solve this problem, ipTEST developed the DS5 test generator. The whole layout of DS5 was designed from the ground up to operate at the highest speeds and perform the fastest dynamic tests. The result is that DS5 gives the clearest picture of SiC and GaN device performance at speed, allowing manufacturers to maximize the quality of their products. This is particularly important for electric vehicle applications where power devices are at the heart of the drivetrain, and nobody wants their electric car to fail on the freeway.

“DS5 has been tremendously well received by our customers and I’m so proud it’s been recognised in the Innovation category of the King’s Award.” says Dr Conor McCarthy, Managing Director at ipTEST. “This has been a true team effort by everyone at the company.”

Of course, this is not the end of the story as SiC and GaN semiconductors will continue to evolve and have much more performance to offer. As Demos Malaos, Technical Director at ipTEST says, “DS5 is the first step of the journey. We’ll continue to innovate to offer the highest performance testing capabilities for power devices.”

About the King’s Award

The King’s Awards for Enterprise was previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, and the new name reflects His Majesty The King’s desire to continue the legacy of HM Queen Elizabeth II’s by recognising outstanding UK businesses. The Award programme, now in its 57th year, is the most prestigious business award in the country, with successful businesses able to use the esteemed King’s Awards Emblem for the next five years.

Come and visit us at PCIM 2023 in May!

See our latest testers in action at PCIM!

It's an exciting time for power electronics right now with the adoption of wide bandgap SiC and GaN semiconductors. GaN is enabling a new generation of super compact chargers that are smaller, lighter and more energy efficient. SiC allows higher powers to be switched at higher operating temperatures and operating efficiencies than ever before. Si based power devices continue to evolve.

SiC, GaN and Si push the envelope of power device performance and accurately testing and characterizing high power packages and modules during manufacture has never been so important. And as wide bandgap devices go to higher power and switching speeds, the power tester must also meet those needs.

At ipTEST we are proud to supply production testers that specifically meet the testing needs of SiC, GaN and Si high power devices.

Meet us at PCIM in Nuremburg Messe to find out more - hall 7, stand 475.

Technical Director celebrates 18 years at ipTEST!

We are delighted to announce that our Technical Director Demos is celebrating his 18th year at ipTEST!

In those years Demos has led the R&D team and built a strong technical culture within the company to focus on developing market leading technologies. He has been the driver behind our new M2 platform and critical to the release of our Dynamic Switch Testers that enable the characterisation of Wide Band Gap Semiconductors.

He is pictured here with our Managing Director Conor who is celebrating his 2nd year at ipTEST. We wish them all the best for the future!

ipTEST attains IMAPS membership

ipTEST has become a corporate member of the UK chapter of IMAPS, the International Microelectronics Assembly & Packaging Society.

IMAPS is the largest microelectronic packaging society in the world and is is a global community of microelectronic related engineers, scientists, manufacturers, end-users and supply chain companies. The Society aims to support the development and growth of the Microelectronics and related industries and to aid the transfer of knowledge and information.

ipTEST will benefit from IMAPS trusted reputation within industry and academia and help us expand our understanding of packaging and handling technologies which goes hand-in-hand with device testing, especially as material technologies continue to push the envelope of speed and power and challenge device inductance and power ratings. In return, we aim to increase IMAPS profile within semiconductor test and widen their sphere of expertise.

ipTEST will be exhibiting at PCIM in Nuremberg

PCIM Europe is the world's leading exhibition and conference for power electronics, intelligent motion, renewable energy, and energy management.

ipTEST look forward to welcoming you at the exhibition at Stand 473 in Hall 7, where we will be demonstrating our world-leading M2 test system.

PCIM Europe will be held in a hybrid form - both on-site and digital. The fair itself will be held from 10 - 12 May in Nuremberg, Germany.

ISO award 2022

ipTEST is delighted to announce we have had our ISO:9001 certificate renewed for 2022. ipTEST has been certified under the ISO quality management system since 1996. The ISO standard gives companies a method of putting quality at the heart of all its processes and focusses on meeting customer expectations.

“This standard is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement.” https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html

The award was received by Demos Malaos (Technical Director) and Ian Wheeler (Manufacturing Manager), pictured below, who were the key members of the team who drive the quality process within ipTEST.

Receiving the ISO 9001 award for 2022