Resilient contact structures (430) are mounted directly to bond pads (410) on semiconductor dies (402a, 402b), prior to the dies (402a, 402b) being singulated (separated) from a semiconductor wafer. This enables the semiconductor dies (402a, 402b) to be exercised (e.g., tested and/or burned-in) by connecting to the semiconductor dies (702, 704) with a circuit board (710) or the like having a plurality of terminals (712) disposed on a surface thereof. Subsequently, the semiconductor dies (402a, 402b) may be singulated from the semiconductor wafer, whereupon the same resilient contact structures (430) can be used to effect interconnections between the semiconductor dies and other electronic components (such as wiring substrates, semiconductor packages, etc.). Using the all-metallic composite interconnection elements (430) of the present invention as the resilient contact structures, burn-in (792) can be performed at temperatures of at least 150 DEG C, and can be completed in less than 60 minutes.