Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.

Jeffrey L Fish

Douglas John Garcia

Malcolm Vincent Hawkes

Kyung Young Kim

Vernon P Cooke

Steven David Swendrowski

Mitsuaki Tani

Evart David Shealey

Martin J Twite, Iii

Robert S Burgoyne

Hsang Wang

Jon Stuart Wright

Martin S Voshell

Recesses (), surface contours, contact tip modifications (), and/or other methods of ensuring pressure between a bottom surface () of a test plate () and top surfaces () of electrical contacts () are employed to enhance cleaning of the top surfaces () of the electrical contacts () to promote reliable measurements of DUTs ().

Vacuum ring designs for electrical contacting improvement

An apparatus for accurately locating a micro-electronic chip in a chip-holding cavity for visual testing, the chip having at least a front wall and a pair of opposed, spaced-apart side walls, wherein the front wall meets with each of the side walls to form opposed, spaced-apart first and second front edges, comprising a cavity side wall formed to juxtapositionally abut at least one of the side walls of the chip, the cavity side wall having formed therein a depression creating a shadow projecting forward from the depression, wherein the first front edge of the chip forms a border of the shadow to form an objectively measurable contrast in grayness between the shadow and the chip.

Shadow-creating depression for establishing microchip location during visual inspection

One or more concentric rings of component seats are rotatable about the rings' center. The seats are uniformly angularly spaced and the rings are incrementally rotated, the increment of rotation being the angular space between adjacent seats. The rings are inclined at an angle and a stream of components is poured onto the rings as they are rotating. Stationary fences adjacent to outboard sides of the seats, confine unseated components to tumble randomly, due to gravity, over empty seats passing through arcs of the rings' rotation paths. The random tumbling results in seated components. In the paths of the rotating rings are electrical contactors for coupling the components to a tester. Preferably there are five contactor stations to permit five different kinds of tests to be performed simultaneously. Tested components pass beneath an ejection manifold which defines a plurality of ejection holes which register with a set of seats each time the ring is rotated an increment. Ejection tubes are coupled to the ejection holes. The components are ejected from their seats by blasts of air from selectively actuated, respective pneumatic valves. Due to the blast of air and gravity, the ejected components travel down the tubes and are directed into sorting bins according to a tube routing plate. The stream of components can be selectively directed to each fence in response to a signal from a detector indicating that the fence is deprived of components. Sensors detect seated components that were not ejected by the ejection manifold.

Electrical circuit component handler

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey L Fish