Method of making a contact

US7363705B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microfabrica Inc. · US

Inventors

• Kieun Kim · Los Angeles, US
• Adam L. Cohen · San Fernando, US
• Willa M. Larsen · Calabasas, US
• Richard T. Chen · Burbank, US
• Ananda H. Kumar · Fremont, US
• Ezekiel J. J. Kruglick · San Diego, US
• Vacit Arat · La Cañada Flintridge, US
• Gang Zhang · Monterey Park, US
• Michael S. Lockard · Boulder Creek, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 3, 2005
• Grant date: Apr 29, 2008
• Expiry date: Mar 28, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T29/49222
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to the formation of microprobe tips elements having a variety of configurations. In some embodiments tips are formed from the same building material as the probes themselves, while in other embodiments the tips may be formed from a different material and/or may include a coating material. In some embodiments, the tips are formed before the main portions of the probes and the tips are formed in proximity to or in contact with a temporary substrate. Probe tip patterning may occur in a variety of different ways, including, for example, via molding in patterned holes that have been isotropically or anisotropically etched silicon, via molding in voids formed in over exposed photoresist, via molding in voids in a sacrificial material that have formed as a result of the sacrificial material mushrooming over carefully sized and located regions of dielectric material, via isotropic etching of a the tip material around carefully sized placed etching shields, via hot pressing, and the like.