Probes with self-cleaning blunt skates for contacting conductive pads
US7759949B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 29, 2006 |
| Grant date | Jul 20, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 13, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01R3/00
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A probe having a conductive body and a contacting tip that is terminated by one or more blunt skates for engaging a conductive pad of a device under test (DUT) for performing electrical testing. The contacting tip has a certain width and the blunt skate is narrower than the tip width. The skate is aligned along a scrub direction and also has a certain curvature along the scrub direction such that it may undergo both a scrub motion and a self-cleaning rotation upon application of a contact force between the skate and the conductive pad. While the scrub motion clears oxide from the pad to establish electrical contact, the rotation removes debris from the skate and thus preserves a low contact resistance between the skate and the pad. The use of probes with one or more blunt skates and methods of using such self-cleaning probes are especially advantageous when testing DUTs with low-K conductive pads or other mechanically fragile pads that tend to be damaged by large contact force concentration.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.