The Probe II Wafer Prober by Pacific Western Systems

A little system that was to become one of the most favored probers on the west coast was manufactured by PWS, Pacific Western Systems Inc., in Mountain View California. It received wide coverage on the west coast and overseas manufacturing sites, but was fairly obscure elsewhere.

The unit shown here was a later upgrade to the original Probe I, as no photos are available of the latter. The system was small enough to sit easily in front of a, typically female, operator. It was easy to learn, easy to operate and had an uptime that was out of this world. As with the Energizer Bunny^®, it just kept going and going.

If PWS would have had the marketing skills to place it worldwide, it would surely have become the major player among wafer probers.

Industry code: 1343.33

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Mfr’s Code: PWS

The PII Controller hardware was designed by Carl Jungvig and the software by Jim Hartwell. Frank Namdaran assisted with hardware and later took over the software. George Staudacher designed the PII’s Prober to Tester Interface and put the PII into production.