Aehr Announces Over $5.5 Million in Sonoma Ultra-High-Power System Orders to Test and Burn-in AI Processors; Introduces New Fully-Automated Sonoma for Next-Generation AI Applications

FREMONT, CA / ACCESS Newswire / January 8, 2026 / Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR), a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and burn-in solutions, today announced that during its fiscal third quarter to date it has received orders from multiple customers totaling more than $5.5 million for its Sonoma™ ultra-high-power packaged-part burn-in (PPBI) systems. These orders are from a premier global Bay Area lab and leading-edge artificial intelligence (AI) companies for multiple next-generation Sonoma systems designed to support next-generation CPUs, GPUs, and high-performance networking processors used in AI, data center, and communications applications where each device can reach up to 2000W.

Gayn Erickson, President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, commented, "Orders for Sonoma systems received in the third quarter to date have already exceeded total Sonoma orders for the entire second quarter, highlighting the accelerating demand we are seeing for our package-level burn-in of high-powered AI and compute devices. These include initial orders from a premier Silicon Valley test services lab for our newly introduced next-generation fully automated Sonoma platform, expanding their installed base of Aehr systems.

"We are particularly excited about the introduction of the fully automated Sonoma configuration. It extends the Sonoma family while maintaining full compatibility with the large installed base of Sonoma systems at test houses and OSATs worldwide, providing customers with a seamless path from device qualification to volume production."

Seamless Transition from Qualification to Production

A key advantage of Aehr's next-generation Sonoma platform is that customers can move from engineering qualification to production burn-in without changing hardware, software, test programs, or burn-in modules. The same Sonoma system used for qualification can be paired with Aehr's Automated Loader/Unloader (ALU) to enable fully automated, high-volume production burn-in.

"This continuity eliminates requalification risk and reduces time to production," Erickson added. "Customers adopting Sonoma for qualification are effectively laying the foundation for scalable production burn-in on the same platform."

Systems scheduled for delivery by the end of Aehr's current fiscal year will be fully compatible with the ALU, allowing customers to optimize throughput and manufacturing efficiency as they scale.

Fully Automated, Continuous-Flow Burn-In

The new fully automated Sonoma delivers hands-free operation in production environments, supporting standard JEDEC tray handling and compatibility with automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for continuous, lights-out material flow. Devices are automatically picked and placed into precision test sockets, each with independent active thermal control.

The automated Sonoma is designed for continuous-flow operation, enabling devices to begin testing immediately upon insertion, unlike traditional batch-flow burn-in systems that require full system loading before testing begins. This architecture maximizes equipment utilization, throughput, and return on investment for both engineering qualification and high-volume manufacturing environments.

Lowest Cost of Ownership and Backward Compatibility

The fully automated Sonoma maintains full compatibility with existing Sonoma systems, including:

• Pin electronics and vector formats

• Device power supply resources

• Test program development and GUI environment

• Existing burn-in modules (BIMs), test fixtures, and device sockets

This backward capability provides customers with a low-risk upgrade path while preserving prior investments and accelerating time to market for new high-power device families. With the smallest footprint and lowest utility costs in its class, Sonoma offers customers the lowest total cost of ownership from initial qualification through full-scale production burn-in.

Strategic Advancement of Sonoma Platform

The fully automated Sonoma platform was developed over the past year following Aehr's acquisition of the Sonoma product line from Incal Technology in August 2024. The system represents a significant advancement in throughput, automation, and production efficiency, strengthening Aehr's position as a leader in ultra-high-power semiconductor test and burn-in solutions.

About Aehr Test Systems

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a leading provider of test solutions for testing, burning-in, and stabilizing semiconductor devices in wafer level, singulated die, and packaged part form, and has installed thousands of systems worldwide. Increasing quality, reliability, safety, and security needs of semiconductors used across multiple applications, including electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar and wind power, computing, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr's products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-P™ families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPak™ Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak^® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full-wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems that can test, burn-in, and stabilize a wide range of devices such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based and other power semiconductors, 2D and 3D sensors used in mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices, memory semiconductors, processors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and photonics and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a low-cost single-wafer compact test solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The FOX WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full-wafer contactor capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test, burn-in, and stabilization of full wafers on the FOX-P systems. The FOX DiePak Carrier allows testing, burning in, and stabilization of singulated bare die and modules up to 1024 devices in parallel per DiePak on the FOX-NP and FOX-XP systems up to nine DiePaks at a time. Acquired through its acquisition of Incal Technology, Inc., Aehr's new line of high-power packaged part reliability/burn-in test solutions for AI semiconductor manufacturers, including its ultra-high-power Sonoma family of test solutions for AI accelerators, GPUs, and high-performance computing (HPC) processors, position Aehr within the rapidly growing AI market as a turnkey provider of reliability and testing that span from engineering to high volume production. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems' website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr's future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "going to," "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr's expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, future requirements and orders of Aehr's new and existing customers; Aehr's ability to receive orders and generate revenue in the future, as well as Aehr's beliefs regarding the factors impacting the foregoing, including the growth of the markets referred to herein; Aehr's ability to integrate Incal efficiently; and the timing and extent to which the acquisition is accretive. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr's recent Form 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

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SOURCE: Aehr Test Systems