Patent · US Expired

Assembly structure for making integrated circuit chip probe cards

US5884395A · kind A · utility

41Cited by
9References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 4, 1997
Grant dateMar 23, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 4, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10T29/5313
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

This disclosure proposes an assembly structure for building probe cards to test square integrated circuit chips. The test probe card assembly structure has one or more wings located at 90.degree. angles to each other upon which probes are laid in a parallel manner for attachment to a probe card. This allows construction of the probe card so that probes touch contacts directly. The probe tips do not touch the contacts at an angle .theta., called the fan out angle. The probes also do not differ in their inclination angles .beta.. As a result, the force at which the many probe tips touch the contacts is relatively constant throughout. In addition, the probe tips are less likely to scrub past the surface of the contact onto the insulation surface of the chip and in doing so damage it. The test probe card assembly structure also contains an epoxy groove, which controls epoxy flow so that the position of the probes stays aligned in the correct plane. The epoxy groove also prevents variance in beam length.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.