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. 14, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 28, 2000
Donald J. Cook, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Harvey Allard, Burlington, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system ( ) for and method of testing a device under test (DUT) ( ) having a plurality of probe pads ( ) utilizing a dual probe technique to overcome contact resistance that may be present. The system comprises a plurality of sensing probes ( ) and a plurality of forcing probes ( ) arranged in pairs consisting of one sensing probe and one forcing probe. Each pair of sensing and forcing probes is provided for contacting one of the probe pads on the DUT. Each forcing probe is in electrical communication with a power supply ( ) via a switching matrix ( ), and each sensing probe is in electrical communication with a voltage meter ( ) via the switching matrix. During testing, at least one of the power supplies provides a voltage to a corresponding forcing probe in contact with a particular probe pad. The sensing electrode at that particular probe pad senses a voltage, which is measured by the voltmeter and is used by a feedback controller ( ) to adjust the voltage supplied by the corresponding power supply to the forcing probe.