Unisys Corporation

Terry Sinclair Connacher

James Rhodes

James Mason Brafford

David Jon Mortensen

Randy Neaman Siade

John Charles Montgomery

Robert H Carlson

Carl L Ostrowski

An electromechanical module, for holding IC-chips in a chip testing system, includes a circuit board having a plurality of sockets mounted thereon. Each socket is structured to hold one IC-chip that is to be tested, and each socket has a corresponding register on the circuit board. In addition, a bus is on the circuit board, which&#x2014;a) sends a timing pulse to a clock input on all of the registers in parallel, and b) concurrently sends a clock signal and N&#x2212;1 test signals to N data inputs on all of the registers. Further, each socket has N input terminals that are connected to N outputs on a respective set of signal translators on the circuit board, and each set of signal translators has N inputs that are connected to N data outputs on the socket's corresponding register.

Electromechanical module, for holding IC-chips in a chip testing system, that synchronizes and translates test signals to the IC-chips

An electromechanical system for testing IC-chips includes a total of N chip holding subassemblies, where N is an integer greater than one and where each chip holding subassembly has sockets for holding a group of IC-modules that include the IC-chips; a moving mechanism for automatically moving the i-th chip holding subassembly from a load position in the system to a test position in the system, and visa-versa, where i ranges from 1 to N and changes with time in a sequence; and a temperature control mechanism which contacts the IC-modules at the test position. Between the moving of the i-th chip holding subassembly and the next chip holding subassembly in the sequence, the IC-chips are burn-in tested on all N of the chip holding subassemblies. Also, while the i-th chip holding subassembly is being moved, burn-in testing of IC-chips on the remaining N-1 chip holding subassemblies continues.

System for testing one or more groups of IC-chips while concurrently loading/unloading another group

An electromechanical system for testing IC-chips includes a chip holding subassembly which has sockets for holding a group of IC-modules that include the IC-chips; a moving mechanism for automatically moving the chip holding subassembly from a load position in the system to a test position in the system, and visa-versa; a temperature control mechanism which contacts the IC-modules on the chip holding subassembly only when that subassembly is at the test position; and a chip handler mechanism for automatically moving the IC-modules into and out of the sockets, when the chip holding subassembly is at the load position. At the test position, the temperature control mechanism contacts the IC-modules to control their temperature. At the load position, the chip handler mechanism automatically unloads one group of IC-modules from the sockets on the chip holding subassembly and automatically loads another group of the IC-modules into the sockets.

System for testing a group of IC-chips having a chip holding subassembly that is built-in and loaded/unloaded automatically

An electromechanical system for testing IC-chips includes a total of N chip holding subassemblies; a moving mechanism for automatically moving the i-th chip holding subassembly from a load position in the system to the test position in the systems, and visa-versa, where i ranges from 1 to N and changes with time in a sequence; and a signal generator which sends test signals to the IC-chips at the test position. Between the moving of the i-th chip holding subassembly and the next subassembly in the sequence, test signals are sent to the IC-chips on all N of the chip holding subassemblies such that the signals are shifted in time from one subassembly to another. Also, while the i-th chip holding subassembly is being moved, the time shifted test signals continue to be sent to the IC-chips on the remaining N&#x2212;1 chip holding subassemblies.

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Scottsdale, AZ, United States of America

Terry Sinclair Connacher