Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090284273?dq=6246862
Timestamp: 2018-01-22 15:06:30
Document Index: 413799653

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 12', 'arts 12', 'arts 12', 'art 12', 'art 58', 'arts 12', 'arts 12', 'arts 58', 'arts 12', 'arts 12', 'arts 12']

Patent US20090284273 - Method for assembling electrical connecting apparatus - Google Patents
A method for assembling an electrical connecting apparatus having a support member, a probe board, and spacers arranged between the support member and the probe board. A height of at least either each abutting part of the support member or each abutting part of the probe board facing the abutting part...http://www.google.com/patents/US20090284273?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US20090284273 - Method for assembling electrical connecting apparatus
Publication number US20090284273 A1
Application number US 12/091,207
PCT number PCT/JP2005/019850
Also published as CN101297445A, CN101297445B, DE112005003731B4, DE112005003731T5, US7728608, WO2007046153A2, WO2007046153A8
Publication number 091207, 12091207, PCT/2005/19850, PCT/JP/2005/019850, PCT/JP/2005/19850, PCT/JP/5/019850, PCT/JP/5/19850, PCT/JP2005/019850, PCT/JP2005/19850, PCT/JP2005019850, PCT/JP200519850, PCT/JP5/019850, PCT/JP5/19850, PCT/JP5019850, PCT/JP519850, US 2009/0284273 A1, US 2009/284273 A1, US 20090284273 A1, US 20090284273A1, US 2009284273 A1, US 2009284273A1, US-A1-20090284273, US-A1-2009284273, US2009/0284273A1, US2009/284273A1, US20090284273 A1, US20090284273A1, US2009284273 A1, US2009284273A1
Patent Citations (1), Referenced by (6), Classifications (6), Legal Events (2)
Method for assembling electrical connecting apparatus
US 20090284273 A1
An electrical connecting apparatus at which the present invention targets has a support member, a flat-plate-shaped probe board arranged to be spaced from the support member, the probe board having one surface thereof opposing the support member and being provided on the other surface with numerous probes electrically connected to a tester and abutting at their tips on electrical connecting terminals of a device under test that undergoes an electrical test by the tester, and a plurality of spacers arranged between the support member and the probe board, both edges of each of said spacers abutting on both mutually facing abutting parts on mutually opposing surfaces of said support member and said probe board. In assembling the aforementioned electrical connecting apparatus, an assembling method according to the present invention comprises the steps of measuring a height of at least either each abutting part of the support member or each abutting part of the probe board facing the abutting part, measuring a length of each of the plurality of spacers formed in advance, and selecting the spacer appropriate for maintaining the tips of the probes on the same plane for each pair of the mutually facing both abutting parts of the support member and the probe board at least based on measurement values obtained by both the measurements.
In the assembling method according to the present invention, a height of each abutting part of at least either the support member or the probe board on which both edges of each spacer respectively abut is measured, and a length dimension of each spacer is measured.
Also, in addition to measuring a height of the abutting part of either the support member or the probe board, by measuring the height of the abutting part of the other one and determining the combination with use of three measurement results, which are respective measurement results of both mutually paired abutting parts and a measurement result of the spacer, respective process tolerances of the support member and the probe board and a process tolerance of the spacer can be considered, and thus variation of the probe tips can be restricted more effectively.
In a case where the electrical connecting apparatus is provided with a plurality of screw members passing through the support member and passing through the spacers and where a plurality of anchor portions are provided on the one surface of the probe board and formed as the abutting parts of the probe board, wherein the anchor portions having at their respective top portions screw holes in which tip edge portions of the respective screw members are screwed are opened and whose all top surfaces have undergone a grinding process in advance so as to be on height positions within a process tolerance, as measurement of a height of the abutting part of the probe board in the method according to the present invention, a difference between a reference plane of top surfaces of the anchor portions and the top surface is measured, and the spacer appropriate for maintaining the tips of the probes on the same plane can be selected for each pair of both the abutting parts based on the respective measurement values regarding at least the anchor portion and the spacer.
The probe board 18 comprises a substrate member 48 made of e.g., a ceramic plate and a multilayer wiring layer 50 formed on a lower surface 48 a of the substrate member or ceramic plate, as is conventionally well known, as shown in FIG. 2. The multilayer wiring layer 50 has multilayer plates made of e.g., an electrically insulated polyimide resin material and wiring paths formed between the respective multilayer plates, as is conventionally well known although not shown in the figure. On a lower surface 50 a of the multilayer wiring layer 50 are formed probe lands 18 b electrically connected respectively to the aforementioned wiring paths of the multilayer wiring layer. The upper edge of each probe 18 a is connected to the corresponding probe land 18 b, and thereby each probe 18 a is provided on the probe board 18 so as to be protruded downward from the lower surface 50 a of the multilayer wiring layer 50 and is connected to the aforementioned wiring path of the multilayer wiring layer 50 via each corresponding probe land 18 b.
In the example shown in FIG. 2, waved bent deformation occurs on the probe board 18 (48, 50) in a free state under no load. Such deformation is sometimes introduced in the ceramic plate 48 at the time of processing of the ceramic plate and sometimes shows height difference between the lowest portion and the highest portion of the lower surface of the probe board 18 to be several tens of micrometers to 100 micrometers, for example. Despite this bent deformation of the probe board 18, the lower edges of the probe lands 18 b are aligned on a plane PI parallel to a virtual plane P of the probe board 18, and the probes 18 a connected to the respective probe lands 18 b are formed to have the same length, and thus the lower edges or tips of the respective probes 18 a are aligned on a plane P2 parallel to the virtual plane P in a free state of the probe board 18.
As for the electrical connector 16, in an assembled state of the electrical connecting apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1, by the biasing force of the compression coil spring 16 c thereof, one pogo pin 16 b out of the pogo pins 16 b, 16 b as each pair is pressure-welded to the aforementioned connecting terminal of the wiring board 14 while the other pogo pin 16 c is pressure-welded to the aforementioned electrical connecting portion of the ceramic plate 48 corresponding to the aforementioned connecting terminal of the wiring board 14. Thus, the probe 18 a provided in each probe land 18 b is reliably connected to the aforementioned corresponding connecting terminal of the wiring board 14. Consequently, when the tip of the probe 18 a abuts on the aforementioned connecting pad of the aforementioned IC circuit formed on the semiconductor wafer, the connecting pad is connected to the aforementioned tester via each corresponding probe 18 a, the electrical connector 16, and the wiring board 14, and thus an electrical test of the aforementioned electrical circuit on the aforementioned semiconductor wafer by the tester is performed.
Thus, as shown in FIG. 4, when a design height dimension HI from the lower edge 60 b to the upper edge 60 a of each spacer 60 is set to be a reference length, in the actual length of each spacer 60, a tolerance a (errors a1 to a4) of the reference height H1±Δ1 where Δ1 is a process error caused. Also, similarly, as for the support member 12, when a design distance to the abutting part at the rim portion of the through hole 30 of the attachment surface 12 a as each abutting part, that is, a design distance at the abutting part is set to be a reference height level H2 with the upper surface 12 b set as a reference plane P4, in the height level at each abutting part 12 a′ of the attachment surface 12 a, a tolerance b (errors b1 to b4) of the reference height level H2±Δ2 where Δ2 is a process error occurs. Further, as for the probe board 18, when the plane P2, parallel to the virtual plane P of the probe board, on which the lower edges of the respective probes 18 a are aligned is set as a reference plane, and a design distance from the reference plane P2 to the top surface 58 b of the anchor portion 58 is set to be a reference height level H3 at the top surface 58 b as the abutting part of the probe board 18, in the height level at the top surface 58 b of each anchor portion 58, a tolerance c (errors c1 to c4) of the reference height level H3±Δ3 where Δ3 is a process error occurs. It is noted that the aforementioned deformation of the ceramic plate 48 is omitted, and the probe board 18 (48, 50) is shown to be flat in FIG. 4 for simplification of the drawing.
Although each of these tolerances is, e.g., ±10 micrometers, variation reaching +30 micrometers to −30 micrometers at the maximum may occur between the attachment surface 12 a of the support member 12 and the top surface 58 b of the probe board 18 despite the use of the spacer 60 depending on the combination of the tolerances Δ1 to Δ3 of the mutually corresponding abutting parts 12 a′, 58 b and the spacer 60 arranged between the abutting parts, and thus variation at the tips of the respective probes 18 a in the assembled electrical connecting apparatus 10 may exceed, e.g., +10 micrometers, which is an allowable error of the variation.
When the respective errors a1 to a4 of the spacer 60, the respective errors b1 to b4 at the respective abutting parts 12 a′ of the support member 12, and the respective errors c1 to c4 at the respective abutting parts of the probe board 18, which are the top surfaces 58 b of the anchor portion 58, are obtained by these actual measurements, each added value (a+c, that is, a1+c1, a2+c2, a3+c3, a4+c4) of the respective errors at each abutting part 12 a′ of the support member 12 and each abutting part 58 b of the probe board 18 corresponding to each other is derived. Subsequently, a spacer 60 to be arranged to each pair of the abutting parts 12 a′ and 58 b opposed to each other is selected so that, when each added value (a+b) of these errors and the error (c) of each spacer 60 are added (a+b+c), the variation among such combinations is least significant.
However, it is preferable for the purpose of restricting variation of the tips of the respective probes 18 a more accurately and reliably that, as described above, the respective heights of the abutting parts 12 a′ of the support member 12 and the abutting parts 58 b of the probe board 18 are measured, and their errors (a1 to a4 and c1 to c4) and the errors (b1 to b4) of the spacers 60 are considered, to select the spacers 60 for the respective pairs each consisting of the mutually corresponding abutting parts 12 a′ and 58 b.
Also, in addition to measuring the heights of the aforementioned both abutting parts 12 a′, 58 b and the lengths of the corresponding spacers 60, by measuring the lengths of the corresponding probes 18 a, displacement of the lower edge positions of the corresponding respective probes 18 a is also considered to select each combination of the both abutting parts 12 a′, 58 b and the spacer 60 arranged therebetween. By doing so, variation of the tips caused by a process tolerance of the respective probes 18 a can be restricted effectively as well.
US8149008 Jul 16, 2008 Apr 3, 2012 Nhk Spring Co., Ltd. Probe card electrically connectable with a semiconductor wafer
US9442160 Mar 10, 2014 Sep 13, 2016 Kabushiki Kaisha Nihon Micronics Probe assembly and probe base plate
US20160131700 * Sep 15, 2015 May 12, 2016 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Apparatus and method for testing semiconductor
Cooperative Classification H01R13/2464, H01R13/2407
European Classification H01R13/24A, H01R13/24P
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:HASEGAWA, YOSHIEI;REEL/FRAME:020843/0843