International Business Machines Corporation

On Demand Cooling Systems, Inc.

Terence W Spoor

Louis H Faure

Yuet-Ying Yu

Thomas Weiss

Charles Hampton Perry

Mukta S Farooq

Paul F Bodenweber

Daniel George Berger

Scott Ira Langenthal

Charles J Hendricks

Vincent P Peterson

Kathleen M Wiley

Andrew T Pomerene

Philo B Hodge

Ralph R Comulada

Camille Proietti Bowne

Anthony V DiStefano

Robert R DeVenuto

A self scrubbing buckling beam contactor for contacting an array of pads positioned on a device under test is described. The contactor consists of three insulating dies: a top, an offset and a lower die separated from each other by an insulated spacer of variable thickness. Each die is provided with holes. The buckling beam has an array of flexible wires positioned substantially perpendicular to the dies, each of the flexible wires crossing a corresponding hole in each of the top, offset and lower dies to allow each wire respectively contact a pad of the device under test. By shifting the center of the hole of the lower die relative to the center of the offset die, the tip of the wire exits from the lower die at an angle with respect to the plane formed by the pads of the device under test. The exit angle of the wire tip is controlled by the relative displacement of the offset die relative to the bottom die, such that the exit angle of the tip of the wire at the bottom die changes when the probe wire is under compression. By applying a reciprocating motion to the tip of the wire contacting the surface of the device under test, a scrubbing motion is achieved that lowers the resistance between the pad of the device under test. In this manner, the tip of the wire cleans the surface of the pads and prevents contaminants from adhering to the tip of the wire.

Self-scrub buckling beam probe

Disclosed is an interposer and test structure for making contact between a substrate and a test bed. One embodiment of the interposer has a floating, rigid conductive element in a nonconductive body which makes temporary contact between the test bed and the substrate. In another embodiment of the invention, the interposer includes two layers of material, in which one layer includes pogo pins for contacting the substrate and the other layer includes pads for contacting the test bed. The pogo pins are on a grid spacing corresponding to that of the substrate input/output pads while the interposer pads are on a grid spacing corresponding to that of the pogo pin contactors of the test bed.

Interposer for maintaining temporary contact between a substrate and a test bed

Testing probes in a testing apparatus are supported in a unitary structure to provide rigidity of the supports for the probes in testing. The spring probes have a contact head at the distal end from the probe tip with a set of antirotation tabs which lock in a cooperating antirotation slot in the probe guide. The contact head has a cone-shaped pilot at its tip which is engaged with a gold-plated contact spring. The inner diameter is integrally in contact with the pilot by mechanical engagement or bonding by soldering or laser welding or the like. A method of forming a probe tip on an array of test probes in a support member of a test apparatus includes inserting a plurality of probes into an array of probe cylinders in the member with the ends of the probes extending below the ends of the cylinders, the probes being retained by fixturing means at a predetermined position in the cylinders, the ends of the probes are planarized to provide a smooth surface of the member with the probes flush therewith, apply a layer of resist to the lower surface of the member covering the guide plate and the newly planarized lower ends of the probes, after the resist has been exposed to a pattern through a high precision mask, a set of rings at the base of the planarized probes is formed in the resist by etching the tips through the resist, and then remove the fixturing means.

Method of making spring probe with piloted and headed contact

Method of tip formation for spring probe with piloted and headed contact

Spring probe with piloted and headed contact and method of tip formation

A manifold design which provides for highly efficient cooling or heating of flowing liquids using a small number of thermoelectric elements is constructed of a thermally insulting material. On exterior surface of at least two sides of the manifold, open channel are formed for use in defining a liquid flow path. On the interior of the manifold there are a plurality of internal chambers, one internal chamber for each side having an exterior channel. These internal chambers are essentially equal in size and are preferably symmetrically disposed within the manifold in alignment with the sides. The channels on the outside of the manifold and the chambers on the inside of the manifold are connected in such a way that liquid would flow in an alternating series of channel and chamber in a single liquid flow path through the manifold. The channels on the exterior of the manifold are sealed by placing a thermally conductive cover plate over each side of the manifold. A thermoelectric device is then placed on the outside of each cover plate. Finally, means for transferring heat to or from the exterior surfaces of the thermoelectric devices provided.

Apparatus for cooling or heating liquids and method of using same

A test probe assembly is disclosed having bucking beam displacement test probe units which are easily replaceable. Each test probe unit includes a wire and a slotted tube containing the wire,one end of the wire being attached to one end of the tube and the other end of the wire protruding from the other end of the tube. The wire slidably engages an inner diameter of the tube. Each tube is slotted at a plurality of locations along the longitudinal axis thereof to provide spaces for the buckling beam displacement of the respective wire when the protruding end of the wire is brought to bear against a device point to be tested. The slots are staggered so that adjacent ones are disposed radially opposite to each other with some overlap along the longitudinal axis of the tube. The test probe units are inserted in predetermined respective holes of an apertured block of insulating material in accordance with a pattern of device points to be tested.

Test probe assembly using buckling wire probes within tubes having

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Marlboro, NY, United States of America

Terence W Spoor