Patent ID: 7211997

Claim:
A method of verifying planarity of a microelectronic component support of a microelectronic component test system with respect to a head of the test system, comprising: juxtaposing a probe card with a contact surface that is carried by the microelectronic component support, the probe card having probes extending toward the contact surface; changing a distance along a Z axis between the probe card and the contact surface and recording in a first data set a Z coordinate of the contact surface at which each probe changes a contact condition with respect to a first location on the contact surface; spacing the probes from the contact surface; translating at least one of the probe card and the contact surface with respect to an X-Y plane; thereafter, changing a distance along the Z axis between the probe card and the contact surface and recording in a second data set a Z coordinate of the contact surface at which each probe changes a contact condition with respect to a second location on the contact surface which is spaced from the first location; and processing the first data set and the second data set with a processor of the test system to determine a planarity characteristic.