Measurement, Test & Control Equipment worked example

Probe Card Life Cost at 58% touchdown utilization share: a worked example

This worked example runs the probe card life cost numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 58% touchdown utilization share instead of the typical 80%. Estimate the total cost of ownership for a probe card over its useful life, including purchase price, scheduled rebuilds, and the per-touchdown cost that feeds into your cost-per-test model.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Number of probe cards in the program: 3 cards (held at the documented default)
  • Cost per probe card (purchase + rebuilds): 41,000 $ / card (held at the documented default)
  • Touchdown utilization share: 58 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 80)
  • Fixed program cost adder (NRE, mapping, setup): 15,000 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Variable probe card cost = number of probe cards x cost per card x touchdown utilization share.
  • Total probe card life cost works out to 86,340 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Cost per probe card (effective) works out to 28,780 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Variable probe card cost works out to 71,340 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed program cost adder works out to 15,000 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where touchdown utilization share sits at 80% and the headline result is 113,400 $, this scenario comes in 23.86% below the baseline at 86,340 $.
  • Use it when quoting a new test program, building a probe card capital plan, or comparing the cost impact of consolidating onto fewer, higher-parallelism cards. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Total probe card life cost: 86,340 $ (headline result)
  • Cost per probe card (effective): 28,780 $ / piece
  • Variable probe card cost: 71,340 $
  • Fixed program cost adder: 15,000 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Probe Card Life Cost calculator, set touchdown utilization share to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.