Wentworth Laboratories Limited

William F Thiessen

Francis T McQuade

Arthur Evans

Stephen Evans

William H Fulton

Zbigniew Kukielka

An improved device for cleaning probe pins of a probe head assembly is presented. The device includes a first holding plate, a second holding plate and a cleaning cartridge. The first holding plate secures the probe head assembly. The second holding plate secures the cleaning cartridge in proximity to the first holding plate. The cleaning cartridge has a chamber. The chamber includes a cleaning solution and an absorbent pad located therein. The absorbent pad is saturated with the cleaning solution and prevents leakage of the cleaning solution out of the chamber. During cleaning operations, the first holding plate is positioned about the second holding plate such that the probe pins of a probe head extend into and contact the absorbent pad in the chamber. Once contact is established, the cleaning solution acts upon the probe pin tips to remove unwanted debris. A depth of penetration of the pins into the pad is controlled by a surface of the cartridge.

Probe pin cleaning system

An improved vertical pin probing device is constructed with a housing with spaced upper and lower spacers of a metal alloy, each having a thin sheet of silicon nitride ceramic material held in a window in the spacer of adhesive. The spacers may be composed of 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 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

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 using Invar, which substantially matches the coefficient of thermal expansion of the silicon wafer being probed. Spaced dies with Invar foils supporting the probe pins are coated with wear-resistant dielectric materials having lubricity to permit the probe pins to slide in the holes during probing.

An improved vertical pin probing device is constructed with a housing spaced upper and lower dies of Invar.RTM., which substantially matches the coefficient of thermal expansion of the silicon wafer being probed. Spaced slots in the top and bottom dies of the housing contain inserts of Vespel.RTM.. The inserts are provided with matching patterns of holes supporting probe pins and insulating the probe pins from the housing.

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Newtown, CT, United States of America

William F Thiessen