Patent ID: 6897645

Claim:
A docking system for docking a test head of a device tester to a device handler, said docking system comprising: a handler plate, mountable to said device handler and comprising at least one conversion bar, each of said at least one conversion bar comprising at least one lateral protrusion; and a tester plate, mountable to said test head and comprising at least one slot mount, each of said at least one slot mount having an escalating slot, said escalating slot being laterally oriented for respective linear engagement with said at least one lateral protrusion for said docking; wherein said escalating slot comprises a tapered section, a docking section and an unbound perimeter portion, said tapered section comprises a linear sloping edge and a linear non-sloping edge, and said docking section comprises a curved edge connecting to the linear sloping edge and a linear docking edge being linearly aligned with said linear non-sloping edge; thereby said at least one lateral protrusion is enabled to move linearly to the docking section along the linear sloping edge; wherein said tapered section further comprises a connecting portion for connecting the unbounded perimeter portion and the linear non-sloping edge of the tapered section so enabling substantially linear movement of said at least one lateral protrusion from said unbounded perimeter portion to said linear non-sloping edge and then to the linear docking edge along the linear non-sloping edge; thereby said escalating slot enables the docking system to be operable both manually and automatically.