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US 10,481,175 B2Granted
Contactor with angled depressible probes
AssigneeEssai, Inc.
InventorsNasser Barabi, Oksana Kryachek, Chee-Wah Ho
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spring probe contactor includes an angled spring probe configuration that causes the tips of the spring probes to “swipe” the contact pads/solder balls of an IC device under test as the contacts are made. The angulation of the spring probes permit penetration through foreign material layers on the pad/ball surfaces with less contact force.
Claims22
A contactor for providing electrical contact between an array of contacts of an IC device under test (DUT) and a test board, said contactor comprising:
- a body portion having substantially parallel top and bottom faces defining a contactor interface wall which lies in an x-y plane and which has a perpendicular z-axis, the top face of said contactor interface wall receiving a DUT which is placed contacts down on said top face, and
- a plurality of depressible probes extending through said contactor interface wall, said depressible probes having probe tips and being angled relative to the z-axis of said interface wall such that the probe tips of said depressible probes emerge at an angle from the top and bottom faces thereof, and wherein the depressible probes are arranged in different arrays of depressible probes, the depressible probes of one array of depressible probes being angled oppositely from the depressible probes of another array of depressible probes, and wherein the oppositely angled arrays of depressible probes exert equally opposing forces in the x-y plane on the DUT thereby self-aligning and self-centering the DUT with respect to the body portion.
A contactor for providing electrical contact between an array of contacts of an IC device under test (DUT) and a test board, said contactor comprising:
- a body portion having substantially parallel top and bottom faces defining a contactor interface wall lying in an x-y plane and having a perpendicular z-axis, said body portion having a plurality of probe retention cavities angled relative to the z-axis of said interface wall, and
- a plurality of depressible probes in the angled probe retention cavities of said contactor interface wall, each of said depressible probes having a probe barrel which is contained within its probe retention cavity and oppositely extending probe tips which extend through the top and bottom faces of said interface wall at an angle relative to said z-axis, at least one of the angled probe tips of each of said depressible probes being depressible in the probe barrel, and wherein the probe retention cavities in said contactor interface wall are arranged in different arrays, one array of probe retention cavities being angled oppositely from another array of probe retention cavities, and wherein the oppositely angled arrays of depressible probes exert equally opposing forces in the x-y plane on the DUT thereby self-aligning and self-centering the DUT with respect to the body portion.
A contactor for providing electrical contact between an array of contacts of an IC device under test (DUT) and a test board, said contactor comprising:
- a body portion for receiving a DUT, and
- a plurality of depressible probes extending through said body portion for providing electrical contact between the array of contacts of a DUT placed in the contactor and the test board to which the contactor is mounted, said depressible probes having probe tips that emerge from the body portion of the contactor at an angle so as to contact and swipe across the contacts of the DUT as the DUT is pressed against said depressible probes, and wherein the depressible probes are arranged in different arrays of depressible probes, the depressible probes of one array of depressible probes being angled oppositely from the depressible probes of another array of depressible spring probes, and wherein the oppositely angled arrays of depressible probes exert equally opposing forces in the x-y plane on the DUT thereby self-aligning and self-centering the DUT with respect to the body portion.
A method of providing electrical contact between an array of contacts of an IC device under test (DUT) and a test board, comprising:
- mounting a contactor having an array of depressible probes to a test board wherein the probe tips of the contactor depressible probes emerge from an interface wall of the contactor at an angle relative to the perpendicular z-axis of said interface wall, and wherein the depressible probes are arranged in different arrays of depressible probes, the depressible probes of one array of depressible probes being angled oppositely from the depressible probes of another array of depressible probes, and wherein the oppositely angled arrays of depressible probes exert equally opposing forces in the x-y plane on the DUT thereby self-aligning and self-centering the DUT with respect to the body portion,
- selecting a DUT having an array of contacts that correspond to the array of depressible probes of the contactor,
- pressing the DUT into the contactor against the contactor interface wall in the direction of the z-axis of the interface wall such that the array of contacts on the DUT are pressed against the angled depressible probes of the contractor, and
- removing the DUT from the contactor after test.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.