The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 05, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 04, 1997
Blane Holden, Boise, ID (US);
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Abstract
A probe card design method is described which optimizes the number of die probed per touchdown and minimizes the number of steps required to test an integrated circuit wafer. The method analyses rows of a wafer in sets. Assuming a specific probe card matrix, the number of touchdown steps required for each set is determined and a total number of touchdown steps required for the wafer is determined. This method is repeated for a plurality of probe card matrixes. The size of the first set can be varied to determine an optimum offset which reduces the number of touchdown steps required to test the wafer. Each set is analyzed by dividing the longest row of the set by the width of the probe card matrix and rounding a result up to the nearest integer. The result of each set is summarized to indicate a minimum number of touchdowns required to test a wafer. A probe card matrix design can be selected based upon the minimum number of touchdowns, number of test sites in a probe card matrix, and a physical size of the matrixes.