PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15934672
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["324", "755110"]

Abstract:
Probe systems and methods including electric contact detection. The probe systems include a probe assembly and a chuck. The probe systems also include a translation structure configured to operatively translate the probe assembly and/or the chuck and an instrumentation package configured to detect contact between the probe system and a device under test (DUT) and to test operation of the DUT. The instrumentation package includes a continuity detection circuit, a test circuit, and a translation structure control circuit. The continuity detection circuit is configured to detect electrical continuity between a first probe electrical conductor and a second probe electrical conductor. The test circuit is configured to electrically test the DUT. The translation structure control circuit is configured to control the operation of the translation structure. The methods include monitoring continuity between a first probe and a second probe and controlling the operation of a probe system based upon the monitoring.

Claim (Index 1):
A probe system for electrically testing a device under test (DUT), the probe system comprising:\n a probe assembly including a first probe and a second probe; a chuck including a support surface configured to support the DUT; a translation structure configured to operatively translate at least one of the probe assembly and the chuck along a contacting axis; an instrumentation package configured to detect contact between the probe system and the DUT and to test the operation of the DUT; a first probe electrical conductor extending between and electrically interconnecting the first probe and the instrumentation package; a second probe electrical conductor extending between and electrically interconnecting the second probe and the instrumentation package; and a translation structure communication linkage extending between the translation structure and the instrumentation package; wherein the instrumentation package includes: (i) a continuity detection circuit in electrical communication with the first probe electrical conductor and the second probe electrical conductor and configured to detect electrical contact between a contact location of the DUT and both the first probe and the second probe of the probe assembly by detecting electrical continuity between the first probe electrical conductor and the second probe electrical conductor; (ii) a test circuit configured to electrically test the operation of the DUT; and (iii) a translation structure control circuit configured to control the operation of the translation structure based, at least in part, on the continuity detection circuit.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 21.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 3.0566
- Patent Class: 324.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15471199', '15821101', '14625385', '15708681', '15184374']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.5345992866405366
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4708505784552728
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.5282244158220102
- Mean Citation Score: 201.389012
- Max Citation Score: 207.35338
- Similarity Product: 175.19656866176246

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test