|Número de publicación||US7012442 B2|
|Tipo de publicación||Concesión|
|Número de solicitud||US 10/930,015|
|Fecha de publicación||14 Mar 2006|
|Fecha de presentación||30 Ago 2004|
|Fecha de prioridad||8 May 2002|
|También publicado como||US6784674, US20030210067, US20050024070|
|Número de publicación||10930015, 930015, US 7012442 B2, US 7012442B2, US-B2-7012442, US7012442 B2, US7012442B2|
|Inventores||Charles A. Miller|
|Cesionario original||Formfactor, Inc.|
|Exportar cita||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Citas de patentes (23), Otras citas (4), Citada por (13), Clasificaciones (11), Eventos legales (2)|
|Enlaces externos: USPTO, Cesión de USPTO, Espacenet|
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/142,549, filed May 8, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,674.
The invention relates in general to interconnect systems for providing signal paths between an integrated circuit (IC) tester and pads on the surfaces of ICs, and in particular to a system for distributing a single test signal output of an IC tester to multiple pads on one or more ICs.
An integrated circuit (IC) manufacturer fabricates an array of similar integrated circuits on a semiconductor wafer and then cuts the wafer to separate the ICs from one another. The ICs include pads on their upper surfaces providing points of contact for signal paths conveying IC output signals to other circuits or for receiving IC input signals from other circuits. The manufacturer may mount an IC in a package using bond wires to link the pads on the surface of the IC to package pins providing signal paths to external circuits. An IC can also be mounted directly on a printed circuit board (PCB) either by soldering pads on its surface to correspondingly arranged contact pads on the surfaces of the PCB or by providing spring contacts between pads on the surface of the ICs and the PCB's contact pads. The spring contacts may be attached to the IC's input/output (I/O) pads on the IC with their tips contacting the PCB's pads, may be attached to the PCB's pads with their tips contacting the IC's I/O pads, or may be attached to both the IC and PCB pads.
ICs are often tested at the wafer level before they are separated from one another. For example, as illustrated in
Various types of structures can be used to implement probes 22 including, for example, wire bond and lithographic spring contacts, needle probes, and cobra probes. When spring contacts are employed to implement probes 22, they can be formed on the I/O pads of ICs 12 when probe board assembly 20 includes pads on its lower surface arranged to contact the tips of the spring contacts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,213, issued May 16, 2000 to Khandros et al (incorporated herein by reference), exemplifies such a probe board assembly.
When spring contacts are not formed on the I/O pads of ICs 12, they can be formed on the lower surface of probe board assembly 20 and arranged so that their tips contact the I/O pads of ICs 12. U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662 issued Nov. 2, 1999 to Eldridge et al (incorporated herein by reference) describes an example of a probe board assembly employing spring contact probes. The following documents (also incorporated herein by reference) disclose various exemplary methods for manufacturing spring contacts: U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,269 issued Jan. 8, 2002, to Eldridge et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,126 issued Jul. 31, 2001 to Mathieu et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/710,539 filed Nov. 9, 2000, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/746,716 filed Dec. 22, 2000.
Probe board assembly 20 provides signal paths between cable connectors 16 and the pads on the lower surface of probe board assembly 20 that probes 22 contact. Some probe board assemblies 20 are formed by multiple-layer printed circuit board having traces formed on the various layers for conveying signals horizontally and vias for conveying signals vertically though the layers. Other probe board assemblies include several separate substrate layers interconnected through spring contacts. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662 issued Nov. 2, 1992 to Eldridge, et al, incorporated herein by reference.
To test all ICs 12 on wafer 14, the channels within tester 10 must be able to access all I/O pads of all ICs. For example, ICs 12 might be random access memories (RAMs), with each RAM having eight I/O pads acting as an 8-bit address input, another eight I/O pads acting as an 8-bit data input/output, and one or more additional I/O pads for receiving input control signals. To test such a RAM IC, tester 10 writes data to each of its addresses, reads the data back out of each address and determines whether the data read out of the RAM matches the data written into it.
Thus tester 10 might include seventeen or more channels for each RAM IC to be tested, including eight channels for supplying signals conveying the 8-bit address, eight bi-directional channels for transmitting and receiving the 8-bit data, and one or more additional channels for providing the RAM's control signal inputs. However since a wafer 14 typically includes a large number of ICs 12, tester 10 would require a very large number of channels to concurrently test all of the ICs. Thus wafer-level IC testers typically test only a portion of the ICs of a wafer at a time, with the wafer being repositioned under the probes after each group of ICs is tested so that a next group of ICs can be tested.
What is needed is an inexpensive interconnect system that can distribute a test signal from an IC tester to pads of several ICs at the same time without causing substantial distortion due to signal reflection, and without requiring transmission lines having more than one characteristic impedance.
The invention relates to an interconnect system for providing signal paths between an integrated circuit (IC) tester and input/output (I/O) pads of ICs formed on a semiconductor wafer so that the IC tester can test the ICs. The interconnect system includes a set of probes for accessing the I/O pads and a probe board assembly providing signal paths for conducting signals between the IC tester and the probes.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a branching signal path within the probe board distributes a test signal produced by one channel of the IC tester to several probes. Isolation resistors within the branching signal path resistively isolate the probes from one another with sufficient resistance that a fault at any IC terminal connecting that IC terminal to a potential source through a low impedance path will not affect the logic state of the test signal arriving at any other IC terminal.
The isolation resistors are also sized relative to characteristic impedances of signal paths in which they reside so as to substantially minimize test signal reflections at the branch points. For example a set of four 200 Ohm isolation resistors are provided at a branch node between a 50 Ohm incoming transmission line and a set of four outgoing transmission lines since the parallel combination of four 200 Ohm resistors provides an equivalent 50 Ohm impedance matching the impedance of the incoming transmission line.
An impedance mismatch can occur between each isolation resistor and the outgoing signal path to which it is linked, as for example when each 200 Ohm isolation resistor is connected to a 50 Ohm outgoing transmission line. Such an impedance mismatch causes the junction between each isolation resistor and an outgoing transmission line to reflect a portion of the test signal as it travels toward a probe. However the isolation resistors are sufficiently large to attenuate such reflections so that they do not substantially distort the test signal upstream of the isolation resistors. Thus a reflection of a test signal in any one branch of the path adds little distortion to the test signal passing into any other branch of that path.
The claims appended to this specification particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of the invention. However those skilled in the art will best understand both the organization and method of operation of what the applicant(s) consider to be the best mode(s) of practicing the invention, together with further advantages and objects of the invention, by reading the remaining portions of the specification in view of the accompanying drawing(s) wherein like reference characters refer to like elements.
The present invention relates to an interconnect system for routing a test signal from a driver in one channel of an integrated circuit (IC) tester to more than one IC input/output (I/O) pad. The specification below describes one or more exemplary embodiments and/or applications of the invention considered by the applicant(s) to be the best modes of practicing the invention.
As illustrated in
Interconnect system 53 includes a probe board assembly 58 providing a large number of signal paths between its upper and lower surfaces. A variety of structures may be used to provide signal paths between tester 54 and the upper surface of the probe board assembly 58. For example, as illustrated in
A set of probes 60 link pads on the lower surface of probe board assembly 58 to the I/O pads on the surfaces of ICs 50. Various kinds of probes known to those of skill in the art may implement probes 60 including, but not limited to, wire bond and lithographic spring contacts, needle probes, and cobra probes. When spring contacts are employed to implement probes 60, they can be formed on the I/O pads of ICs 50 when probe board assembly 58 includes pads on its lower surface arranged to contact the tips of the spring contacts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662 issued May 16, 2000 to Khandros et al (incorporated herein by reference) exemplifies such a probe board assembly.) When spring contacts are not formed on the I/O pads of ICs 50, they can be formed on the lower surface of probe board assembly 58 and arranged so that their tips contact the I/O pads of ICs 50.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662 issued Nov. 2, 1999 to Eldridge et al. (incorporated herein by reference) describes an example of a probe board assembly employing spring contact probes. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/810,871 filed Mar. 16, 2001 (incorporated herein by reference) also describes an example of a probe board assembly employing spring contact probes. The following documents (incorporated herein by reference) disclose various exemplary methods for manufacturing spring contacts: U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,269 issued Jan. 8, 2002 to Eldridge et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,126 issued Jul. 31, 2001 to Mathieu et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/710,539 filed Nov. 9, 2000, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/746,716 filed Dec. 22, 2000.
Probe board assembly 58 may, for example, be implemented by a single substrate having one or more layers with microstrip or stripline traces formed on or between the layers acting as transmission lines for conveying signals horizontally and vias for conveying the signal vertically through the layers. Alternatively substrate layers of the probe board assembly 58 may be vertically spaced from one another with spring contacts or other interconnect structures providing signal paths between the separate layers boards as illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662 issued to Eldridge, et al. Nov. 2, 1999 (incorporated herein by reference).
When one of the ICs 50 under test produces an output signal at one of the I/O pads on its upper surface, the output signal passes through one of probes 60 to a pad on the lower surface of probe board assembly 58 and then passes through a path provided by the probe board assembly and through cables 55 or pogo pins 57 to a receiver within a channel of tester 54. Conversely when a driver within tester 54 sends a test signal outward via one of cables 55 or pogo points 57 to probe board assembly 58, the test signal travels through a path provided by the probe board assembly 58 to one (or more) of probes 60. The probe or probe(s) 60 then conveys the test signal to one or more I/O pads on the surface of one or more of ICs 50.
To fully test every IC 50 on wafer 52, tester 54 must be able to access every I/O pad of every IC. Since wafer 52 may include a large number of ICs 50, and since each IC 50 may have a large number of I/O pads, tester 54 requires a large number of channels in order to concurrently test all ICs 50 on waver 52. To reduce the number of channels needed to test ICs 50, a probe board assembly 58 distributes the test signal output of any one tester channel to corresponding I/O pads of more than one IC 50, to multiple I/O pads on a single IC, or to a combination of the foregoing. The invention relates in particular to the nature of the signal path probe board assembly 58 provides for distributing a single test signal to several probes 60.
In accordance with the invention, the number of tester channels needed is reduced by employing one channel of tester 54 to drive corresponding inputs of several ICs. For example, when the ICs to be tested are RAMs, each having an 8-bit input address, a set of eight tester channels supplies the same 8-bit input address concurrently to several RAM ICs. Similarly a control signal generated by a single tester channel can be distributed to control inputs of several RAM ICs.
As illustrated in
A defective IC may have a low impedance path from any I/O pad 28 to a ground, power or other conductor. When I/O pads 28 of several ICs were directly connected to one another, such a fault at any one I/O pad 28 would substantially affect the test signal voltage applied to all other pads 28 to which it is connected. Accordingly isolation resistors 36 are provided to isolate the I/O pads 28 of ICs 50 from one another so that a fault at an I/O pad 28 of a defective IC 50 will not substantially affect the voltage of the test signal arriving at I/O pads 28 of the other ICs 50 driven by the same test signal. Thus a fault at the I/O pad 28 of any defective IC 50 will not interfere with the tester's ability to test the other ICs.
The interconnect system of
Since the magnitude of the reflection at each tap depends on the magnitude of the impedance mismatch, we reduce the reflection by increasing the size of isolation resistors 36, thereby decreasing the impedance mismatch. For example if resistors 36 were 400 Ohms each, then the output impedance of each tap 38 would be the parallel combination of 50 Ohms and 400 Ohms (about 44.5 Ohms) which would produce a smaller reflection at the tap. However increasing the size of isolation resistors 36 has a cost. In order to change the state of a test signal appearing at any IC I/O pad 28, it is necessary for the test signal to charge or discharge the capacitance 26 at the pad. By increasing the size of isolation resistors 36, we also increase the time the test signal needs to charge or discharge capacitance 26 at I/O pads 28 when it changes state. Since tester 10 has to wait longer between test signal state changes, it takes longer for it to test the ICs.
No test signal reflection occurs at node 41 because the parallel combination of two 100 Ohm transmission lines 42 conveying the test signal away from node 41 matches the impedance of the 50 Ohm via 40 conveying the signal into node 41. Similarly no test signal reflections occur at nodes 43 because the parallel combination of 50 Ohm impedances of the transmission lines 44 carrying the test signal away from each node 43 matches the 100 Ohm impedance of the transmission line 42 delivering the test signal into each node 43. Since all components of the signals paths downstream of nodes 42 are 50 Ohms there are no test signal reflections at the junctions of those components. A test signal reflection does occur at each I/O contact 28, but since that reflection is downstream of an isolation resistor 45, it is largely absorbed by the isolation resistor and does not substantially distort the test signal on the upstream side of the isolation resistor. Therefore a test signal reflection at any one I/O pad 28 is severely attenuated before it reaches any other I/O pad 28.
The tree-like test signal distribution system illustrated in
However the test signal distribution network of
Each isolation resistor 67 links branch node 66 to one end of a separate one of a set of 50 Ohm transmission lines 68, each of which conveys the TEST signal to a separate pad 74 formed on the lower side of probe board assembly 58. Each transmission line 68 may include horizontal traces residing on layers of probe board assembly 58, vias passing vertically though layers of the probe board assembly and from one another, transmission line 64 may also include spring contacts or other conductors extending between the layers when the layers are spaced apart. A set of 50 Ohm probes 60 provide signal paths between the pads 74 and the IC I/O pads 78.
Isolation resistors 67 isolate the I/O pads 78 of ICs 50 from one another so that a fault such as a low impedance path to ground, power or another signal conductor at any I/O pad 78 of a defective IC 50 will not substantially affect the test signal voltage applied to other I/O pads 78 driven by the same test signal. Thus a fault at the I/O pad 78 of any one defective IC 50 will not interfere with the tester's ability to test other ICs.
The four isolation resistors 67 are mounted on a layer of probe board assembly 58 with their ends close to branch node 66 so that the branch node acts as a single junction between the 50 Ohm transmission line 65 and the four 200 Ohm resistors 67. Thus a test signal entering branch node 66 through the 50 Ohm transmission line 65 encounters a parallel combination of four 200 Ohm resistors 67, which is the equivalent of 50 Ohms. There may be some signal reflection from node 78 back toward node 82, however the effect of any such reflection may be minimized by keeping the transit time between nodes 82 and 78 relatively short as compared to the rise time of the signal. Such reflections may be reduced or eliminated by terminating node 78 with a 50 ohm resistor. In such a case, the drive level voltage from the tester driver 62 may be increased to compensate for a voltage drop across the 50 ohm resistor.
The test signal distribution network illustrated in
Comparing the test signal distribution networks of
Unlike the test signal distribution networks of
Thus the branching signal path of
A signal path through probe board assembly 58 of
In accordance with this exemplary embodiment of the invention, some of the signal paths though probe board assembly 120 branch so that a channel of IC tester 122 employing a single one of pogo pins 134 as an output terminal can concurrently drive more than one IC pad 123. Isolation resistors (not shown in
While exemplary embodiments of an interconnect systems in accordance with the invention described herein above provide a branching signal paths between an IC tester and I/O pads of one or more ICs 50 that have not yet been separated from the semiconductor wafer 52 on which they are formed, similar branching signal paths can be provided in interconnect systems that linking IC testers to ICs after they have been separated from one another. For example, arrays of separated, unpackaged ICs held in trays can be concurrently accessed by the same IC tester using interconnect systems generally similar to that described above. When the ICs are packaged, the probes may be adapted access package pins or other types of IC package terminals I/O pads on the surface of the ICs.
The forgoing specification and the drawings depict the best mode(s) of practicing the invention, and elements or steps of the depicted best mode(s) exemplify the elements or steps of the invention as recited in the appended claims. However the appended claims are intended to apply to any mode of practicing the invention comprising the combination of elements or steps as described in any one of the claims, including elements or steps that are functional equivalents of the example elements or steps depicted in the specification and drawings.
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|Clasificación de EE.UU.||324/756.03, 324/762.03|
|Clasificación internacional||G01R31/319, G01R1/067, G01R1/073, G01R31/02|
|Clasificación cooperativa||G01R1/07378, G01R1/06772, G01R31/31905|
|Clasificación europea||G01R1/073B9C, G01R31/319C1|
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