Thermally actuated microprobes for a new wafer probe card

Zhang, Yanwei; Zhang, Yongxia; Marcus, R. B.

doi:10.1109/84.749401

Cited by 108 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Moreover, according to the progress in the development of system on chip (SoC) devices, probing technologies that can accommodate the complexity of the devices also need to be developed. Accordingly, the development of vertical (1.5 generation) or MEMS (2 nd generation) probe cards is accelerating beyond that of conventional cantilever probe cards (1 st generation) [13][14][15]. Conventional cantilever-type probe cards have the structure in which the ends of probe tips are bent, and thousands of probes are arrayed to fit the locations of chip pads.…”

Section: Mems/nano Fabrication Center Busan Techno-park Busan 609-7mentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly Productive Process Technologies of Cantilever-type Microprobe Arrays for Wafer Level Chip Testing

Lim¹,

Ryu²,

Choi³

2013

Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials

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This paper describes the highly productive process technologies of microprobe arrays, which were used for a probe card to test a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip with fine pitch pads. Cantilever-type microprobe arrays were fabricated using conventional micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) process technologies. Bonding material, gold-tin (Au-Sn) paste, was used to bond the Ni-Co alloy microprobes to the ceramic space transformer. The electrical and mechanical characteristics of a probe card with fabricated microprobes were measured by a conventional probe card tester. A probe card assembled with the fabricated microprobes showed good x-y alignment and planarity errors within ±5 μm and ±10 μm, respectively. In addition, the average leakage current and contact resistance were approximately 1.04 nA and 0.054 ohm, respectively. The proposed highly productive microprobes can be applied to a MEMS probe card, to test a DRAM chip with fine pitch pads.

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Section: Mems/nano Fabrication Center Busan Techno-park Busan 609-7mentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly Productive Process Technologies of Cantilever-type Microprobe Arrays for Wafer Level Chip Testing

Lim¹,

Ryu²,

Choi³

2013

Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials

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“…In addition, the probes and guide block used in the 1.5G probe card are made by a micromachining technology. The nickel (Ni) alloy probes used in the 2G probe card are fabricated using a micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) batch process which can produce probes in various shapes (Kim and Kim 2008;Wang et al 2006;Stephens et al 2001;Kim et al 2005;Zhang et al 1999;Mazza et al 1996). Ni alloy probes can be arranged a great deal within a relatively narrow area, because they can reduce their width and length compared to conventional tungsten probe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of a guide block for measuring a device with fine pitch area-arrayed solder bumps

Choi

Ryu

2012

Microsyst Technol

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This paper describes the design and fabrication of a guide block and micro probes, which were used for a vertical probe card to test a chip with area-arrayed solder bumps. The size of the fabricated guide block was 10 mm 9 6 mm. The guide block consisted of 172 holes to insert micro probes, 2 guide holes for exact alignment, and 4 holes for bolting between the guide block and the housing of a PCB. Pitch and size of the inserting holes were 80 lm, and 90 lm 9 30 lm, respectively. A silicon on insulator wafer was used as the substrate of the guide block to reduce micro probes insertion error. The micro probes were made of nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co) alloy using an electroplating method. The length and thickness of the micro probes were 910 and 20 lm, respectively. A vertical probe card assembled with the fabricated guide block and micro probes showed good x-y alignment and planarity errors within ±4 and ±3 lm, respectively. In addition, average leakage current and contact resistance were approximately 0.35 nA and 0.378 ohm, respectively. The proposed guide block and micro probes can be applied to a vertical probe card to test a chip with area-arrayed solder bumps.

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“…Additionally, the supporting electrical circuits can be integrated into the silicon substrate, and actuators or sensors can be built into the probes. 5,6 Recently, many MEMS probe cards have been developed, some of which have begun to be commercialized. 7-14 A major category of the MEMS probe card is the cantilever probe card due to its merit of the stiffer structure capable of withstanding a much larger probing force.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and fabrication of a micromachined bilayer cantilever probe card

Jing

Chen

et al. 2010

J. Micro/Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS

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We present a bilayer cantilever microelectromechanical systems probe card configuration aiming to achieve an optimization of the mechanical and electrical properties of the probes. This bilayer cantilever structure is analyzed by an analytical method, and then further validated by finite element analysis. A prototype probe card structure is designed for the parallel I/O pads layout with a pitch of 100 μm, and developed via combining Si micromachining and ultraviolet Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung (lithography, electroplating, and molding) (UV-LIGA) technique. The measured spring constant of the cantilever is 0.6362 Nm -1 , close to the theoretical prediction. The resistance from the probe tip to the end of the Cu conductive line is as low as 0.035 , indicating a very small electrical loss on the probe structure. In the radio frequency (rf) range of 0 to 40 MHz, the characteristic impedance is higher than 20 k , while the capacitance between two adjacent probes is around 0.13 pF. These measurement data indicate that the designed cantilever probe card structure has a good rf isolation property that makes it suitable for the testing of high-speed signal ICs. C 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

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Thermally actuated microprobes for a new wafer probe card

Cited by 108 publications

References 6 publications

Highly Productive Process Technologies of Cantilever-type Microprobe Arrays for Wafer Level Chip Testing

Highly Productive Process Technologies of Cantilever-type Microprobe Arrays for Wafer Level Chip Testing

Fabrication of a guide block for measuring a device with fine pitch area-arrayed solder bumps

Design and fabrication of a micromachined bilayer cantilever probe card

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