|Publication number||US7259580 B2|
|Application number||US 10/906,483|
|Publication date||Aug 21, 2007|
|Filing date||Feb 22, 2005|
|Priority date||Feb 22, 2005|
|Also published as||US7332927, US20060186909, US20070285116|
|Publication number||10906483, 906483, US 7259580 B2, US 7259580B2, US-B2-7259580, US7259580 B2, US7259580B2|
|Inventors||Paul J. Aube, Normand Cote, Roger G. Gamache, Jr., David L. Gardell, Paul M. Gaschke, Marc D. Knox, Denis Turcotte|
|Original Assignee||International Business Machines Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (20), Non-Patent Citations (1), Referenced by (10), Classifications (6), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present invention relates to the field of integrated circuit chip testing; more specifically, it relates to a method and an apparatus for temporary thermal coupling of an integrated circuit chip to a heat sink during testing of the integrated circuit.
As the transistor density and size of high performance integrated circuits, such as micro-processors increases, power usage and attendant heat generation increase as well. This becomes a significant problem during test of the integrated circuit chip, as the integrated circuit must be cooled to avoid thermally induced test result errors or even integrated circuit chip failures. Testing is often performed with the integrated circuit chip temporarily mounted on a test substrate. Increasingly, conventional cooling employed during test is insufficient to maintain the integrated circuit chip at a precise temperature. Therefore, there is a need for an efficient method and apparatus for thermally coupling an integrated circuit chip under test to a heat sink.
A first aspect of the present invention is a method of testing an electronic device, comprising: (a) forming a liquid heat transfer layer on a surface of the electronic device; after step (a), (b) placing a surface of a heat sink into physical contact with a surface of the heat transfer layer; after step (b), (c) electrically testing the electronic device; after step (c), (d) removing the heat sink from contact with the heat transfer layer; and after step (d), (e) removing any heat transfer layer remaining on the electronic device from the surface of the electronic device.
A second aspect of the present invention is a system for testing an integrated circuit, comprising: means for forming a liquid heat transfer layer on a bottom surface of the integrated circuit, a top surface of the integrated circuit chip having signal and power pads and the bottom surface of the integrated circuit having no signal or power pads; means for placing a surface of a heat sink into physical contact with the bottom surface of the heat transfer layer; means for electrically coupling the integrated circuit to a tester, electrically testing the integrated circuit and electrically de-coupling the integrated circuit from the tester; means for removing the heat sink from contact with the heat transfer layer, all or a portion of the heat transfer layer remaining on the bottom surface of the integrated circuit; and means for removing the heat transfer layer from the bottom surface of the integrated circuit.
A third aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for testing integrated circuit chips at a test temperature, comprising: means for loading and unloading substrates from and to substrate carriers, the integrated circuit chips electronically connected to the substrates; means for applying a layer of a heat transfer material to a bottom surface of the integrated circuit, a top surface of the integrated circuit chip electrically connected to the substrate; means for loading and unloading the substrates from and to burn-in boards and for loading and unloading burn-in boards loaded with substrates from and to one or more test racks; means for removing the heat transfer material from the back surface of integrated circuit chips; means for moving the substrates between the means for loading and unloading substrates from and to the substrate carriers, the means for applying the layer of the heat transfer material to the bottom surface of the integrated circuit, means for loading and unloading the substrates from and to the burn-in boards and the means for removing the heat transfer material from the back surface of integrated circuit chips; means for supplying cooling fluid to heats sinks mounted on the test rack; means for bringing surfaces of the heat sinks into physical contact with the heat transfer material; and means for testing electrical function of the integrated circuit chip.
The features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Integrated circuit chips need to be tested not only for yield but also for reliability. Yield testing and reliability testing differ in two ways. First yield testing is often, but not exclusively, performed on individual integrated circuit chips while reliability testing is often, but not exclusively, performed on multiple integrated circuit chips at the same time. Second, yield testing time is measured in seconds or minutes while reliability testing generally takes hours or days. While both types of testing may be performed at room temperature (i.e. about 24° C.) or at elevated temperatures (i.e. above room temperature), for yield testing elevated temperature testing is used to assure compliance to integrated circuit chip temperature specifications while for reliability testing, elevated temperature testing is used to accelerate potential failure rates. Both types of testing can generate large amounts of heat that need to be dissipated. In both types of testing the integrated circuit chip temperature needs to be precisely controlled in order to ensure accurate test results. In one example, burn-in testing is performed with the integrated circuit chip at a temperature of about 80° C. or greater. In a second example, the burn-in testing is performed with the integrated circuit chip at a temperature of about 140° C. or greater.
Since reliability testing, and a particular type of reliability testing called burn-in generally presents the more severe temperature and heat dissipation problems, the present invention will be described in terms of burn-in testing with the individual integrated circuit chips mounted on substrates. However, the present invention is applicable to all types of integrated circuit chip testing where thermal cooling of the integrated circuit chip is required.
Reliability stressing and testing (also referred to as Burn-In) is typically performed on a wide variety of integrated circuit chip package and carrier types. The package and/or carrier type are typically dependent on the manufacturing process flow or the end use requirements. Since worst-case chip powers are often experienced on high-end microprocessors, a typical high power server class microprocessor package will be used to illustrate the present invention. While this is a single example, the present invention is applicable to various other multiple package types such as, lidded packages, encapsulated packages, few chip module packages and multi chip module packages. The present invention is also applicable to various types and constructions of integrated circuit chip carriers or substrates.
Also illustrated in
A mechanism (not shown) in the burn-in chamber presses heat sink fixture array plate 176 toward integrated circuit chip 100. A heat transfer layer 210 (previously applied to bottom surface 205 of integrated circuit chip 100) of thermally conductive and electrically non-conductive material is thus forced into intimate contact with top surface 200 of heat sink 175 and bottom surface 205 of integrated circuit chip 100. Heat transfer layer 210 provides a temporary thermal coupling of integrated circuit 100 to heat sink 175. The composition and properties of heat transfer layer 210 are described infra.
Spring 177 assures heat sink 175 will be in intimate contact with some areas of the integrated circuit chip 205. The exact points of contact and the thickness T of the heat transfer layer 210 will be defined by the flatness of both integrated circuit chip 100 and top surface 200 of heat sink 175. In one example, top surface 200 of heat sink 175 is machined to a flatness of less than about 1 micron and the flatness integrated circuit chip 100 is about 3 microns or less depending on the residual stress within integrated circuit chip 100 from the manufacturing process. The thickness T of heat transfer layer 210, thus ranges from about zero to about 3 microns.
Second temperature sensor 190 may also be spring loaded in order to prevent damage to integrated circuit chip 100, but still maintain physical contact with bottom surface 205 of the integrated circuit chip. Both second and third temperature sensors 190 and 195 may be used to control the temperature and flow rate of the cooling fluid circulated through cavity 180.
In an alternative embodiment, second temperature sensor 190, is replaced with a temperature sensor “built into” integrated circuit chip 100. Various types of on-chip temperature sensors are known to those skilled in the art.
In some applications, powering and operation of the integrated circuit generates the heat to be dissipated by the hneat sinks. In other cases heat must be supplied by the burn-in chamber (acting as an oven) or by a heater (not shown) directly attached to heat sink 175 or by using a heating fluid instead of a cooling fluid. In either case, the heat sink maintains integrated circuit chip 100 at a precise test temperature.
In a first alternate embodiment, each heat sink 175 is attached to the lid of a corresponding burn in socket 120 (see
As will be described infra, heat transfer layer 210 (see
Other methods of dispensing a heat transfer material onto the bottom surface of an integrated circuit chip include rolling, brushing and spraying. Heat transfer liquid may be include liquid, solid or gel materials dispersed or dissolved in a carrier liquid.
The heat transfer material should be a thermal conductor, an electrical insulator, have a flash point above about 20° C. above the burn-in or test temperature, have a low volatility (i.e. a vaporization or boiling temperature above about 20° C. above the burn-in or test temperature), be non-reactive with the ambient atmosphere, the integrated circuit chip or the heat sink, not degrade or decompose over the time the integrated circuit chip is at test temperature and be easily removed. The heat transfer material, in the case of a liquid, should have a viscosity high enough to allow controlled coating of the back surface of the integrated circuit chip without running over the edges of the integrated circuit chip but low enough to allow intimate contact of the integrated circuit chip and the heat sink over the range of spring force and burn-in temperatures expected.
In a first example, four classes of materials that may be used as heat transfer materials include synthetic inorganic oils, natural inorganic oils, synthetic organic oils and natural organic oils. In a second example, a particular class of oils that may be used as heat transfer materials are polyalphaolefines (PAOs). In a third example, a particular PAO material that may be used as heat transfer material is hydrogenated 1-decence homopolymer available under the name of Synton PAO 40;100 manufactured by Daychem Labortories, Vandalia, Ohio. Synton PAO 40;100 was selected as a superior heat transfer material for the purposes of the present invention after exhaustive testing of many materials.
In step 410, the substrates are inserted into sockets on a burn-in board and the burn-in board is inserted into the burn-in chamber. In step 415, heat sinks in the burn-in chamber are brought into contact with the layer of heat transfer material on the individual integrated circuits in order to form heat transfer layer 210 (see
In step 425, the heat sinks are brought out of contact with the heat transfer material on individual integrated circuit chips. All or a portion of the heat transfer material remains on the back surface of the integrated circuit chips and a portion may remain on the heat sinks. In a first example, the heat transfer material is removed immediately or periodically from the heat sinks (e.g. by wiping with a clean dry cloth or solvent containing cloth) after testing just a single integrated circuit chip or after testing multiple integrated circuit chips. In a second example, the heat transfer material left on the heat sinks. In the second case it is helpful if the heat transfer material is chemically stable and non-volatile when exposed to burn-in temperatures for extended numbers of burn-in cycles.
In step 430, the burn-in boards are removed from the burn-in chamber and the substrates are removed from the burn-in boards.
In step 435, the heat transfer material is removed from the backside of the integrated circuit chips. In one example, wet cleaning is performed using one or more solvents that dissolve the heat transfer material. When the heat transfer material is a PAO, a suitable cleaning process includes one or more xylene spray cleaning followed by an isopropanol (IPA) spray cleaning, followed by a nitrogen spray dry. The method of the present invention is now complete.
Thus, the present invention provides an efficient method and apparatus for thermally coupling an integrated circuit chip under test to a heat sink.
The description of the embodiments of the present invention is given above for the understanding of the present invention. It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various modifications, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the following claims cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
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|Cooperative Classification||G01R31/2875, G01R31/2867, G01R31/2868|
|Feb 22, 2005||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:AUBE, PAUL J.;COTE, NORMAND;GAMACHE, JR., ROGER G.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:015694/0254;SIGNING DATES FROM 20050127 TO 20050221
|Mar 28, 2011||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|Aug 21, 2011||LAPS||Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees|
|Oct 11, 2011||FP||Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee|
Effective date: 20110821