This paper presents a new type of electroplated nickel micromachined probe with out-of-plane predeformation for next generation integrated circuit (IC) chip testing probe card applications. The probe card was fabricated using silicon bulk micromachining, titanium (Ti) deposition, nickel (Ni) electroplating and laser scribing processes. We use the effect of the residual stresses of thin-film deposition on flexible micromachined probes to produce a large out-of-plane predeformation and combine the post-electroplating technique to further increase the probe's thickness and therefore enhance its stiffness. The typical micromachined probe had a thickness of 10–25 µm, a width of 20 µm and a length of 150 µm. The maximum out-of-plane deflection of the fabricated nickel probe was approximately 55 µm. The probe's pitch can be designed to be less than 50 µm to meet the demands of fine pad pitch probing. This probe card is potentially capable of providing a very large number of micromachined probes in an array format, and this is designed also to satisfy the requirements for high resolution and low cost wafer-level testing.
Abstract. This paper present a new type of electroplating Nickel micromachined probes with out-of-plane predeformation for the next generation integrated circuit (IC) chip testing probe card application. It was fabricated using silicon bulk etching, Ti deposition and Ni electroplating process. We use the residual stress effect of thin films deposition to cause the flexible micromachined probe with a large out-of-plane predeformation and combine postelectroplating technique to further increase beam's thickness and therefore enhance its stiffness. The typical micromachined probe had a thickness 5~10 m, a width of 20 m, and a length of 100 m. The maximum deflection of the fabricated Nickel probe beam was 28 m. This micromachined probe is capable of providing a very larger number of testing probe card, including the array pad format, and this designed also to satisfy the requirements for high frequency, high resolution and low cost wafer-level testing.…
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