Wentworth Laboratories Limited

Wenworth Laboratories, Inc.

Stephen Evans

Francis T McQuade

Zbigniew Kukielka

William F Thiessen

Anthony Paul Martel

William F Theissen

A probe head assembly for use in a vertical pin probing device of the type used to electrically test integrated circuit devices has a metallic spacer portion formed from a plurality of laminated metallic layers. The laminated metallic layers are formed from a low coefficient of thermal expansion metal, such as Invar, a 36% nickel&mdash;64% iron alloy. By orienting the metallic grains of the laminated metal layers to be off-set from the orientation of metallic grains of adjacent metallic foil layers, increased strength and flatness is achieved.

Nickel alloy probe card frame laminate

An improved vertical pin probing device is constructed with a housing with spaced upper and lower spacers of Invar&reg;, each having a thin sheet of silicon nitride ceramic material held in a window in the spacer by adhesive. The sheets of silicon nitride have laser-drilled matching patterns of holes supporting probe pins and insulating the probe pins from the housing. The Invar spacers and silicon nitride ceramic sheets have coefficients of thermal expansion closely matching that of the silicon chip being probed, so that the probing device compensates for temperature variations over a large range of probing temperatures.

Temperature compensated vertical pin probing device

An improved vertical pin probing device is constructed with a housing with spaced upper and lower spacers of Invar&reg;, each having a thin sheet of silicon nitride ceramic material held in a window in the spacer by adhesive. The Invar spacers may be composed of Invar foils adhered to one another in a laminated structure. The sheets of silicon nitride have laser-drilled matching patterns of holes supporting probe pins and insulating the probe pins from the housing. The Invar spacers and silicon nitride ceramic sheets have coefficients of thermal expansion closely matching that of the silicon chip being probed, so that the probing device compensates for temperature variations over a large range of probing temperatures.

A universal design of a multiple layer printed circuit board incorporates a series of routing vias interconnecting the various layers. The routing vias are connected to conductive traces in the internal trace layers by internal junctions. The internal junctions are located on the via so that internal junctions may be selectively severed by means of a laser or high pressure water cutting system or other fine line cutting tool or mechanism to customize the circuit design for a particular semiconductor device or integrated circuit.

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Newtown, CT, United States of America

Stephen Evans