Patent ID: 7253608

Claim:
A microelectronic component test system comprising: a head adapted to support a diagnostic probe card or a test card and be electrically coupled to diagnostic probes carried by the probe card or test probes carried by the test card; a microelectronic component support adapted to carry a contact surface and to support a microelectronic component with respect to the head for testing; a programmable processor operatively connected to the head to receive data from the head, the processor being programmed to: record a first planarity data set corresponding to contact elevations of the diagnostic probes with a first location on the contact surface as a distance between the head and the microelectronic component support is changed; record a second planarity data set corresponding to contact elevations of the diagnostic probes with a second location on the contact surface as a distance between the head and the microelectronic component support is changed, the first location being spaced from the second location; compare the first data set and the second data set to determine at least one planarity characteristic of the microelectronic component test system; record a test data set collected with the test contacts in electrical contact with terminals of a microelectronic component; and process the test data set to determine at least one functional characteristic of the microelectronic component.