|Publication number||US7296430 B2|
|Application number||US 10/714,116|
|Publication date||Nov 20, 2007|
|Filing date||Nov 14, 2003|
|Priority date||Nov 14, 2003|
|Also published as||US7650762, US20050103034, US20080053123|
|Publication number||10714116, 714116, US 7296430 B2, US 7296430B2, US-B2-7296430, US7296430 B2, US7296430B2|
|Inventors||Harold E. Hamilton, Chad M. Conroy|
|Original Assignee||Micro Control Company|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (32), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (2), Classifications (17), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present invention relates to apparatus for controlling temperatures of integrated circuit chips being tested on burn-in-boards in a burn-in oven or system. More particularly, the invention relates to a flow control valve that controls the flow of cooling air onto an associated heat sink for a circuit chip supported directly below the valve. The temperature of each integrated circuit chip is sensed and compared with a desired set point temperature to determine a temperature error signal and the amount of cooling air directed toward the heat sinks is varied as a function of the error signal to maintain precise temperature control.
Burn-in-ovens that are used for testing integrated circuits are well known. The prior art ovens have used various types of cooling devices for controlling the temperatures of the burn-in-boards within a selected range. Individual fans for providing cooling air directly on heat sinks, are shown in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/020,348, filed Dec. 12, 2001. The fans work well but do not provide the cooling capability of the present invention. A more passive way of controlling the heat has been to provide a flow of air from plenum chambers at the ends of an oven across a number of the chips supported on burn-in-boards and then exhausting the air out through exhaust panels.
The power required for testing has increased with the advent of circuits that consume more power in use. The ability to provide an adequate amount of cooling to each individual high power circuit under test to regulate the cooling and thus the temperature of each chip within acceptable limits has become more difficult.
The need for an easily controlled, highly responsive cooling airflow control continues to exist.
The present invention relates to a cooling airflow control system for a burn-in-board oven or enclosure that uses individual valves for controlling flow from a plenum chamber having a supply of cooling air onto one of the circuits, and in particular, onto a heat sink that is provided as part of a holder for the circuit chips for transferring heat away from the circuit. The valves are over openings in a tray, with each tray above a burn-in board. The heat sinks have radiating fins thereon and the cooling airflows help to dissipate the heat generated by the circuit devices under test, sometimes called DUTs.
The plenum chamber which forms an air supply for the valves is preferably, and as shown, an individual plenum chamber for each tray of valves used in the burn-in-oven. As will be shown, the valve trays are spaced so a burn-in-board with DUTs can be placed below each valve tray.
Each holder for the DUTs includes a temperature sensor that senses the temperature of the circuit chip and provides a signal to a control computer or processor. A temperature sensor may also be embedded in the DUT for the same purpose. The processor compares the sensed temperature with a desired set point temperature to develop an error signal if there is the need for more or less cooling air. This error signal is used for controlling the valves of the present invention as desired.
In the present invention, the temperature differential signal, or error signal, is used for controlling the opening of individual valves that are positioned on a valve tray spaced from and above the individual circuits supported on a burn-in-board. The valve tray is a solid wall tray or plate spanning the burn-in oven and supported on rails in the oven, and has openings through which a valve controls air flow.
A cooling air plenum chamber is formed above each of the valve trays a shown, and preferably by using a solid wall panel overlying the respective valve tray supported on three sides of the tray to form plenum chambers with one side forming an inlet slot. There is a cooling air inlet opening at one end of the oven for each cooling air plenum chamber that is open to the inlet slot when the valve tray assembly is installed. The exit or exhaust passage for air from the cooling air chamber is through the valves and corresponding openings in the tray to a heat sink chamber formed below the valve trays and above the respective underlying burn-in-board. The heat sinks are each in contact with a DUT to conduct heat away from the DUT.
The valve trays and burn-in-boards in the oven are alternated and stacked with spaces between the trays and boards so that the cooling air space or chamber above the valve tray may also be formed by another overlying burn-in-board. With any desired cooling air chamber above a valve tray, when a valve is opened, cooling air flows into the heat sink or heat exchange chamber between the valve tray and underlying burn-in-board and directly onto the heat sink below that valve. When all of the valves on a valve tray are closed, no cooling air flows onto the heat sinks for DUTS on the burn-in-board below the valve tray.
In use, the burn-in-oven will always have a full complement of valve tray assemblies, and may not have burn-in-boards under each valve tray assembly. If no burn-in-board is below a valve tray, the valves in such tray are left closed.
As shown, a conventional cooling air system is adapted to the desired oven configuration. An exhaust chamber receives air from each of the exhaust passageways for air from the heat sink chamber above the burn-in-boards after the air has been passed over the heat sinks for the individual circuits. The air exhausted from the heat sink chambers circulates through an air cooler and then is forced back to the air supply by a blower or fan.
The valves are individually controlled and provide for better modulation of flow. Since barrel valves can adjust the flow through valve openings more precisely than other types of valves in use, such as butterfly valves, barrel valves are preferred, but other controllable valves will work.
A typical burn-in oven 10, shown schematically, is provided with a frame 12 that has four corner posts 13, held together as desired and supporting a series of rails or guides 14 for holding burn-in-board trays, and guides 16 for holding valve trays or boards made according to the present invention. The burn-in-board trays (also just called burn-in-boards) shown generally at 20 will slide in on the rails 14, and completely fill the area between the side guides and the walls defined by the frame 12, so that the burn-in-boards block airflow vertically in the oven enclosure. Insulated side walls and a door enclose the oven or other enclosure for testing.
Individual air flow control valve tray assemblies made according to the present invention includes trays or boards shown generally at 22 and specifically numbered 22A, 22B, 22C, and 22D in
The cooling air plenum chambers 26A–26N of respective valve trays 22A–22N are above the valve trays and each valve tray 22A–22N is above an associated burn-in-board.
The space between the lower side of a valve tray and the underlying burn-in-board forms a heat sink chamber or heat exchange chamber. A first heat sink chamber 24 is formed above burn-in-board tray 20. A further valve tray 22B is positioned above the burn-in-board 20B, to form a heat sink chamber 24A above the burn-in-board 28B, and each subsequent burn-in-board 20 has an overlying valve tray 22 for a total 20N burn-in-boards, and 22N valve trays that form heat sink or heat chambers 24N stacked vertically.
The valve tray assembly a second cooling air plenum chamber 26B above the valve tray 22B is formed by walls 23 and 25. The stacked valve trays and overlying burn-in-boards form “26N” cooling air plenum chambers.
The cooling air is provided by a suitable fan or blower 28 that is coupled to a main cool air supply chamber shown schematically at 30 on one side of the oven 10. The cool air supply chamber 30 is open to the end inlet slots 27A–27D (up to 27N) of each of the cooling air chambers 26A–26N that are formed above the stacked burn-in-boards 22N. Only a few burn-in-boards and valve trays are shown for sake of simplicity in illustration, but they can be stacked vertically in as many of the slides or rails 14 and 16, as desired. Again, all of the positions for valve tray assemblies in the oven are filled, but if desired, only a selected number of burn-in-board trays are in the oven.
Cooling airflow is provided from the main cool air supply chamber 30 through slots or openings 32A–32D (up to 32N) through the side wall of the oven, and are shown schematically in
On the side of the oven enclosure opposite from the main cool air supply chamber 30 for cooling air, there are exhaust discharge slots or openings 34A and 34B (
The cooling air plenum chambers 26N above each of the valve trays have the inlet slots 27N at one end, but no constantly open exhaust openings. Cooling air is exhausted from plenum chambers 26 by passing through valves 40 that control flow into the heat exchange chambers 24–24N through openings 58 in the valve tray. However, some air will bleed out along the tracks or rails for the trays, and in order to provide some cooling air along the bottom surfaces of the burn-in-boards, a gap shown at 35 in
The cooling air for the main cool air supply chamber 30 is circulated by fan or blower 28 through an air cooler 42 in the flow path to exhaust air chamber 21, so that the air in the cool air supply 30 is cooled and is used for maintaining and reducing the temperature of the individual circuits.
Each of the circuits or devices under test (DUT) is supported in a socket or holder 44, that comprises a finned heat exchanger or heat sink, generally formed as shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/646,889, filed Jan. 14, 2002, and incorporated by reference. Each of the holders for the DUTs has a heater 45 and temperature sensor indicated schematically at 46 in
As can be seen, the typical valve tray 22 has a plurality of individual barrel valves 40. Each of the valves 40 is mounted over an opening 58 (
While barrel valves are preferred, and are illustrated as a best mode, other controllable valves can be used. Slide valves, rotary or pivoting cover valves, poppet valves and the like, which are capable of being opened and closed as a function of a control signal will work.
Each of the preferred form of valves 40 is provided with a valve body 60 that is made in two stacked sections 60A and 60B (see
The valve 40 has a rotary barrel valve element 76 that has mounting shafts 78 on both ends. The shafts 78 are rotatably mounted in suitable supports 80 on the end walls 62 and 64 of the valve body.
Each of the valve body sections 60A and 60B includes a portion of the end walls and the side walls formed to define the openings 72 and 70. The barrel valve element 76 is a part of a cylinder with parallel planar surfaces through which a central opening or passageway 88 is formed. The opening or passageway 88 is divided into four sections with transverse flow straightener walls 90. The opening or passageway 88 goes all the way through the part cylindrical valve element 76, as can be seen. The part cylindrical outer surface portions of the valve element 76 are along the top as indicated at 92. These part cylindrical surfaces extend between the parallel planar surfaces.
The side surfaces of the valve element opening in the valve body mate with the part cylindrical surface of the valve element 76. As can be seen in
The mating part-cylindrical surfaces are such that they will continue to seal as the barrel valve element rotates 76. The valve element 76 has planar side surfaces, as can be seen. The sealing will continue as the barrel valve element 76 is rotated.
The valve element 76 of each valve 40 is driven by a separate motor 96 that is connected to a suitable source of power through the controller 48 (
The direction of rotation of the valve element 76 can be reversed by the motor 96. Barrel valves can control the flow more precisely than a butterfly valve, for example, because the rotation of the barrel valve elements will proportionally open the flow path between a fully closed position and a fully open position.
It can be seen at
Use of the individual valves permits much better control of airflow for cooling relative to the heat sinks than can be achieved with other forms and very precise and high temperatures can be controlled with this arrangement.
While the preferred embodiment shown provides a separate cooling air plenum chamber formed above each valve tray, when a burn-in-board is in place above a valve tray, the overlying burn-in-board will form a cooling air plenum above the valve tray.
If all of the burn-in-board trays are installed in an oven, the separate walls forming the cooling air plenums above the valve trays can be omitted.
The valve trays or boards are relatively low cost, easily installed, and will provide for a direct, very controlled airflow path across the heat sinks on circuits being tested or burned in.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US4145620||Oct 5, 1977||Mar 20, 1979||Serel Corporation||Modular dynamic burn-in apparatus|
|US4682268||Feb 3, 1986||Jul 21, 1987||Nec Corporation||Mounting structure for electronic circuit modules|
|US4851965||May 23, 1988||Jul 25, 1989||Unisys Corporation||Directed air management system for cooling multiple heat sinks|
|US4897762||Jul 19, 1988||Jan 30, 1990||Hitachi, Ltd.||Cooling system and method for electronic circuit devices|
|US4912600||Sep 7, 1988||Mar 27, 1990||Auburn Univ. Of The State Of Alabama||Integrated circuit packaging and cooling|
|US4935864||Jun 20, 1989||Jun 19, 1990||Digital Equipment Corporation||Localized cooling apparatus for cooling integrated circuit devices|
|US5006796||Oct 27, 1988||Apr 9, 1991||Irish Transformers Limited||Temperature control instrument for electronic components under test|
|US5103168||Oct 27, 1988||Apr 7, 1992||Grumman Aerospace Corporation||Stress testing equipment with an integral cooling plenum|
|US5270572||Jun 24, 1992||Dec 14, 1993||Hitachi, Ltd.||Liquid impingement cooling module for semiconductor devices|
|US5277594||Dec 31, 1992||Jan 11, 1994||Yamaichi Electronics Co., Ltd.||Connector|
|US5359285 *||Jul 17, 1992||Oct 25, 1994||Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.||Method and apparatus for varying temperature and electronic load conditions of a semiconductor device in a burn-in test chamber while performing a burn-in test|
|US5361188||Sep 2, 1993||Nov 1, 1994||Hitachi Ltd.||Cooling apparatus of electronic equipment|
|US5428503||Sep 26, 1994||Jun 27, 1995||Hitachi, Ltd.||Jet cooling apparatus for cooling electronic equipment and computer having the same mounted thereon|
|US5515910||May 3, 1993||May 14, 1996||Micro Control System||Apparatus for burn-in of high power semiconductor devices|
|US5544012||Dec 28, 1994||Aug 6, 1996||Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba||Cooling system for cooling electronic apparatus|
|US5579826||May 2, 1995||Dec 3, 1996||Micro Control Company||Method for burn-in of high power semiconductor devices|
|US5582235||Aug 11, 1994||Dec 10, 1996||Micro Control Company||Temperature regulator for burn-in board components|
|US5807104||Jan 26, 1996||Sep 15, 1998||Texas Instruments Incorporated||Test socket for detachable IC chip|
|US5889651||May 30, 1996||Mar 30, 1999||Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba||Circuit board cooling apparatus|
|US5911897||Jan 13, 1997||Jun 15, 1999||Micro Control Company||Temperature control for high power burn-in for integrated circuits|
|US5923179||Mar 29, 1996||Jul 13, 1999||Intel Corporation||Thermal enhancing test/burn in socket for C4 and tab packaging|
|US5952842||Dec 12, 1997||Sep 14, 1999||Advantest Corp.||Test head cooling system|
|US5978218||Sep 15, 1997||Nov 2, 1999||Advantest Corp.||Cooling system for IC tester|
|US6043980||Dec 31, 1997||Mar 28, 2000||Fujitsu Limited||Heat sink and information processor using it|
|US6086387||May 14, 1998||Jul 11, 2000||International Business Machines Corporation||Cover assembly for a socket adaptable to IC modules of varying thickness used for burn-in testing|
|US6100706||Apr 7, 1998||Aug 8, 2000||Micro Control Company||Burn-in board support frame having inserter and ejector bars for racks of burn-in boards|
|US6144215||Apr 13, 1998||Nov 7, 2000||Intel Corporation||Setup for testing an integrated circuit in a semiconductor chip wherein the temperature of the semiconductor chip is controlled|
|US6175498||Jul 13, 1999||Jan 16, 2001||Micro Control Company||Burn-in board and heat sink assembly mounting rack|
|US6213806||Feb 22, 1999||Apr 10, 2001||Enplas Corporation||IC socket|
|US6698718 *||Aug 29, 2001||Mar 2, 2004||Wafermasters, Inc.||Rotary valve|
|US20020149911||Apr 12, 2001||Oct 17, 2002||Bishop Jerry L.||Cooling system for electronic equipment cabinets|
|US20030112025||Dec 13, 2001||Jun 19, 2003||Harold E. Hamilton||Temperature control system for burn-in boards|
|1||"Thermal Aspects of Burn-In for High Power Semiconductor Devices," Micro Control Company, Reprinted 2002, IEEE Proceedings from The Eight Intersociety Conf. On Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, California.|
|2||Burn-in Fixture for Modules, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 27, No. 7B, Dec. 1984, p. 4278.|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US20120206157 *||Aug 16, 2012||King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd.||Structure of burn-in oven|
|US20140306728 *||Apr 10, 2013||Oct 16, 2014||Teradyne, Inc.||Electronic assembly test system|
|U.S. Classification||62/259.2, 361/695, 165/80.3, 361/689, 361/690, 236/36, 165/104.33, 361/688|
|International Classification||H05K7/20, F28D15/00, G01R31/26, G01R31/28, F25D23/12, H01L21/02|
|Cooperative Classification||G01R31/2862, G01R31/2874|
|Nov 13, 2003||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: MICRO CONTROL COMPANY, MINNESOTA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:HAMILTON, HAROLD E.;CONROY, CHAD M.;REEL/FRAME:014710/0470
Effective date: 20031113
|Jan 12, 2011||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Jan 29, 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8