Patent ID: 7632749

Claim:
A semiconductor device comprising: a pad metal layer having a perimeter area and a center area wherein said center area is formed to accommodate a probe; a lower metal layer having a plurality of apertures below said center area of said pad metal layer, wherein said apertures are arranged into a plurality of rows each row comprising more than one of said apertures and a plurality of columns each column comprising more than one of said apertures; an interlayer dielectric formed between said pad metal layer and said lower metal layer wherein said interlayer dielectric covers a portion of both the bottom and the sides of said pad metal layer; a plurality of vias formed in said interlayer dielectric, wherein said plurality of vias electrically couple said pad metal layer and said lower metal layer, and wherein said plurality of vias form a ring arrangement that is located above and outside of the region occupied by said apertures in said lower metal layer and below an outermost perimeter area of said pad metal layer; and an insulating dielectric layer that covers said perimeter area of said pad metal layer wherein said insulating dielectric layer covers a portion of both the top and the sides of said pad metal layer and extends in the direction of said center area laterally inside of the innermost perimeter of said plurality of vias with said area inside of said innermost perimeter being free of vias.