Abstract:
An improved apparatus and method for testing experiment is disclosed. The apparatus includes a motherboard and a stress module. The motherboard includes a component under test. A stress module connects the component and contacts the component directly. The stress module can provide the component with various rages of temperature and voltage for test. Besides, the stress module also can provide an anti-electrostatic device to prevent electrostatic disturbance.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to testing apparatus and method, and more particularly relates to testing apparatus and method by providing a motherboard to test a component under test.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     For the process of manufacturing integrated circuit (IC) chips, the reliability of products is a very important factor. Reliability is defined as the lifetime of a product under normal conditions. For knowing the lifetime of the products in a short time, the manufacturers usually put products to the accelerated lifetime tests to predict the average lifetime of products. The tests utilize tougher working conditions than normal, i.e. higher temperature, voltage, current, or pressure, for testing the lifetime of product in the harsh conditions and use the lifetime model to simulate the lifetime in normal conditions.  
         [0005]     Typical reliability tests are divided into wafer-level reliability (WLR) tests and package-level reliability (PLR) tests. The WLR test means to test the wafer directly on a tester in a production line. The PLR test means to segment and package a wafer as devices-under-test (DUT), and to insert those DUTs into a DUT board to test in a high temperature oven. The stress condition of the PLR test is closer to normal working conditions of products, and the test result is more accepted by manufactures.  
         [0006]     A typical IC PLR electric property tester is illustrated in  FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of an IC tester  10 . The IC tester  10  contains a temperature control oven chamber  12  and a heat-resistance material  16 . The thermal-resistance material  16  is fixed in the oven door  14  and cannot be moved for isolating a temperature of the temperature control oven chamber  12 . The heat-resistance material  16  has some sliced crevices  18 , therefore many DUT boards  13  can pass through the sliced crevices  18  to load on the oven door  14 . The DUT board  13  comprises a socket  19  to put a DUT  17 , a testing lead  15  and a testing interface  11  to contact a DUT contacting port (not shown in this FIG). Steps of executing the IC test according to the prior art include inserting DUT  17  into sockets  19  on the DUT boards  13 , loading the DUT boards  13  into sliced crevices  18  of the oven door  14 , closing the oven door  14 , and supplying the needed current, voltage, and high temperature conditions with the temperature control oven to perform the test.  
         [0007]     The prior-art IC high temperature lifetime test uses a burn-in oven with functions to install patterns to increase temperature and voltage. The oven usually has bandwidth less than 250 channels, clock frequency less than 5M HZ, and the vector memory size of stress pattern less than 128 K.  
         [0008]     However, there are disadvantages for high pin count products (the north and south bridge chips): The prior-art oven usually has bandwidth less than 250 channels, so it does not fit the chips with many pins that it can only do stress test with some signal pins, i.e. it can only uses 1 or 2 of many patterns to be stress pattern. And the vector memory size of stress pattern is less than 128 K so the depth of stress pattern is restricted by memory size. These disadvantages result in low fault coverage rate that there are only few chances to reflect the problems of DUT. Moreover, the frequency is less than 5M Hz and too far to practical frequency that is usually more than 100M Hz. In the same condition of stress area and stress time, the DUT can stress 100 times with practical frequency but only does 5 times in test because limited by the oven. The disadvantage results in a very long time to reflect the problems of DUTs.  
         [0009]     Because the chances and request time to reflect the problems of DUTs are limited by prior-art burn-in oven tester and the result of DUT test is not the same as the result of chips in practical manufactures, a new testing apparatus is needed that can reflect the problems of practical manufactures correctly in a shorter time.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0010]     It is therefore a primary object of the claimed invention to provide a testing apparatus for reflecting the problems of practical products correctly in a shorter time.  
         [0011]     In the embodiment of the present invention, the testing component is coupled onto a motherboard and connected by a stress module. The stress module can be a heater with a heating piece of metal placed over testing component. The stress module can also be a hollow piece of metal that can cover the testing component and heat the component by heat convection or radiation. The stress module can also include a series variable resistor connecting to the testing component, so the voltage of the testing component is controlled to test properties of the component in high voltage condition. In the embodiment of the present invention, the motherboard can also be placed on an anti-electrostatic device like a metal mount for preventing electrostatic disturbance.  
         [0012]     The apparatus disclosed by the present invention makes the testing conditions such like voltage and clock frequency the same as the normal practical working conditions of product by heating the testing component at the motherboard by the heater directly. And the test is only for the single testing component of the products, every pin of the chip will be asked to test without the lack of bandwidth channels. So the tests can reflect the problems of the testing components more accurately and need shorter time to perform than prior-art. Furthermore the heater of the apparatus is smaller than prior-art, so the energy cost of test is decreased. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an IC tester according to the prior art.  
         [0014]      FIG. 2A  and  FIG. 2B  are schematic diagrams of the high temperature testing apparatus according to the embodiments of the present invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 3A  and  FIG. 3B  are schematic diagrams of the high voltage testing apparatus according to the embodiments of the present invention.  
         [0016]      FIG. 4A  and  FIG. 4B  are schematic diagrams of the high voltage testing apparatus placed on a metal mount according to the embodiments of the present invention.  
         [0017]      FIG. 4C  and  FIG. 4D  are schematic diagrams of the high voltage testing apparatus placed on a metal mount according to the embodiments of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0018]     The following detailed description of the present invention describes the testing apparatuses and methods necessary to provide an understanding of the present invention, but does not cover a complete structure composition and the operating theory. The portions relating to the conventional techniques are briefly described, and the parts of the drawings are not proportionally drafted. While embodiments are discussed, it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Except expressly restricting the amount of the components, it is appreciated that the quantity of the disclosed components may be greater than that disclosed.  
         [0019]     In the embodiments the testing component is coupled onto the motherboard and a stress module connects to the testing component. The stress module can provide a reliability stress to the testing component to conduct the test. The stress module can be a heater and the reliability stress is temperature stress, so the heater provides heat or temperature stress for the testing component at a required or target testing temperature.  FIG. 2A  is a schematic diagram of the testing apparatus according to one of the embodiments. The testing apparatus includes a piece of metal  21 , a heater  22 , a testing component  23  and a motherboard  24 . Still referring to  FIG. 2A , the piece of metal  21  connects to heater  22  with a wire. After the target temperature is set for the heater  22 , the piece of metal  21  can then be placed on testing component  23  and conduct the heating. After the piece of metal  21  reaches the target temperature, the testing patterns can be inputted to the testing component  23  from motherboard  24 . In contrast to the prior art that a heater heats without contacting the DUT and the reference temperature is set by the environment of DUT, the heating piece of metal  21  contacts the testing component  23  and the reference temperature is set by the temperature of the testing component  23 . Therefore the temperature of the testing component  23  is more accurate in the embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]     In one of the preferred embodiments, the heater does not have to utilize a piece of metal that contacts the testing component directly. Referring to  FIG. 2B , a hollow piece of metal  27  covers the testing component  23  and heats the testing component  23  by heat convection or radiation. Moreover, the testing component  23  can be south bridge chips, north bridge chips, multimedia chips, pocket hard drive chips, IA (Information Access) chips, network chips or other categories of chips.  
         [0021]     The motherboard provides practical working conditions the same as products working in a real or practical system to the testing component. For example, the stress patterns are used by the products in practical works, the clock frequency is applied by the products in practical works, and every pin of the testing component is used in practical works. Thus the practical problems of the products occur in the test directly, and the testing results are more accurate than prior-art testers.  
         [0022]     In another embodiment of the invention, the stress module includes a variable resistor and the reliability stress is voltage. Thus the voltage is provided to the testing component to test. Referring to  FIG. 3A , the testing apparatus may include a piece of metal  31 , a heater  32 , a testing component  33 , a motherboard  34 , and a variable resistor  35 . The piece of metal  31  is connected by a wire to the heater  32 . The variable resistor  35  connects the testing component  33  in series. By tuning the variable resistor  35 , the power supply can provide different voltage to the testing component  33 . Usually the voltage is adjusted to 1.2 times the practical power input. If the target temperature is set for the heater  32 , then the piece of metal  31  can be placed on testing component  33  and heat. After the piece of metal  31  reaches the target temperature, the testing patterns can be inputted to the testing component  33  to test. In contrast to the prior art that a heater heats without contacting the DUT and the reference temperature is set by the environment of DUT, the heating piece of metal  31  contacts the testing component  33  and the reference temperature is set by the temperature of the testing component  33 . Therefore the temperature of the testing component  33  is more accurate in the embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0023]     In another of the preferred embodiments, the heater does not have to utilize a piece of metal that contacts the testing component directly. Referring to  FIG. 3B , a hollow piece of metal  37  covers the testing component  33  and heats the testing component  33  by heat convection or radiation.  
         [0024]     In addition, an anti-electrostatic device supporting the motherboard can be added to the testing apparatus of the invention. The anti-electrostatic device can be a metal mount like iron mount. Referring to  FIG. 4A , the testing apparatus can include a piece of metal  41 , a heater  42 , a testing component  43 , a motherboard  44 , and an iron mount  46 . The piece of metal  41  is connected by a wire to the heater  42 . The motherboard  44  is placed on the iron mount  46  and the iron mount  46  can prevent electrostatic disturbance. If the target temperature is set for the heater  42 , then the piece of metal  41  can be placed on testing component  43  and heat. After the piece of metal  41  makes the target temperature, the testing patterns can be inputted to the testing component  43  to test. In contrast to the prior art that a heater heats without contacting the DUT and the reference temperature is set by the environment of DUT, the heating piece of metal  41  contacts the testing component  43  and the reference temperature is set by the temperature of the testing component  43 . Therefore the temperature of the testing component  43  is more accurate in the embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0025]     In another of the preferred embodiments, the heater does not have to utilize a piece of metal that contacts the testing component directly. Referring to  FIG. 4B , a hollow piece of metal  47  covers the testing component  43  and heats the testing component  43  by heat convection or radiation.  
         [0026]     In addition, the voltage of the testing component of the testing device on the iron mount can be adjusted to perform high voltage test. Referring to  FIG. 4C , the testing apparatus can include a piece of metal  41 , a heater  42 , a testing component  43 , a motherboard  44 , a variable resistor  45 , and an iron mount  46 . The piece of metal  41  is connected by a wire to the heater  42 . The motherboard  44  is placed on the iron mount  46  and the iron mount  46  can prevent electrostatic disturbance. By tuning the variable resistor  45 , the power supply can provide different voltage to the testing component  43 . Usually the voltage is adjusted to 1.2 times the practical power input. If the target temperature is set for the heater  42 , then the piece of metal  41  can be placed on testing component  43  and heat. After the piece of metal  41  reaches the target temperature, the testing patterns can be inputted to the testing component  43  to test.  
         [0027]     In another of the preferred embodiments, the heater does not have to utilize a piece of metal that contacts the testing component directly. Referring to  FIG. 4D , a hollow piece of metal  47  covers the testing component  43  and heats the testing component  43  by heat convection or radiation.  
         [0028]     The testing apparatus of the invention provides practical working conditions the same as products working in a practical system to the testing component; the stress patterns are used by the products in practical works, and the clock frequency is applied by the products in practical works. Thus the practical problems of the products occur in the test directly, the testing results are more accurate than prior-art testers, and the required time of the tests decrease. Because the test is only for the single testing component of the products, every pin of the chip will be asked to test without the lack of bandwidth channels.  
         [0029]     The foregoing description is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. In this regard, the embodiment or embodiments discussed were chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly and legally entitled.