The present invention relates to a contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card allowing work efficiency for assembling a contactor block to a probe head module of a probe card to be improved and manufacturing costs to be reduced and a method of manufacturing the contactor block.
A semiconductor manufacturing process is performed through a fabrication process of forming patterns on a wafer, an electrical die sorting (EDS) process of testing electrical characteristics of chips included in the wafer, and an assembly process of assembling individual chips separated from the wafer on which the patterns are formed.
The EDS process is for determining defective chips among the chips included in the wafer, and a test device called a probe card which applies an electrical signal to each chip and determines defects through a signal checked from the applied electrical signal is mainly used in the EDS process.
The probe card includes a plurality of contactors which apply the electrical signals to a pattern of the chip included in the wafer, and generally, the contactors of the probe card are brought into contact with electrode pads of a device of the wafer, a predetermined current is applied through the contactors, and output electric characteristics are measured.
Generally, the probe card includes a probe head module supporting vertical contactors. As illustrated in
As another related art, a vertical probe card is disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1869044. As illustrated in
Meanwhile, since recent semiconductor devices have been highly integrated and extremely miniaturized while design rules has been further reduced, in order to come into contact with a pattern of the miniaturized semiconductor device, contactors of a probe card need to be miniaturized to have suitable sizes and narrow pitches disposed at narrow intervals that are smaller than a gap between connectors are needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,496 (Microstructure testing head)
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1869044 (Needle unit for vertical probe card with reduced scrub phenomenon and vertical probe using thereof)
In vertical probe cards according to the related art including technology disclosed in the patent documents, vertical contactors are inserted into insertion holes of guide plates, and a probe card is assembled using the guide plates. In the related art, since many insertion holes should be machined in the plurality of guide plates as the number of the vertical contactors is increased, manufacturing time is greatly increased, since vertical probes should be inserted one by one into the insertion holes formed in the plurality of guide plates spaced apart from each other at predetermined intervals when the vertical contactors are assembled to the probe card, the time and manpower required for assembly work increases, and since the insertion holes of the plurality of guide plates do not exactly match to correspond to each other, the insertion holes repeatedly come into contact with the vertical contactors, thereby damaging the vertical contactors, and thus there is a problem in that test failures occur.
The present invention is directed to providing a contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card allowing work efficiency for assembling the contactor block to a probe head module to be improved and manufacturing costs to be reduced, and a method of manufacturing the contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card.
One aspect of the present invention provides a contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card, including one or more vertical contactor arrays which are manufactured through a micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) process and in which a plurality of vertical contactors extending in a longitudinal direction are arranged parallel to a horizontal direction, and a molding layer which exposes upper ends and lower ends of a plurality of vertical contactors included in the vertical contactor array and surrounds and supports the plurality of vertical contactors.
The contactor block may further include base guide plates in which the vertical contactor array and the molding layer are integrally formed, wherein the plurality of base guide plates may be stacked in layers on a mounting base to form a contactor block, and the contactor block may be separated from the base guide plates using a laser cutting process.
A plurality of support rods having a predetermined height may be formed to protrude from a flat plate shaped body of the mounting base, and a plurality of insertion holes passing through the base guide plate may be fitted onto the support rods of the mounting base so that the plurality of vertical contactor arrays may be arranged.
In a case in which a molding restriction member for restricting a molding portion is formed on the base guide plate, when a molding process is completed, the molding restriction member may be removed by a selective etching process.
In the laser cutting process, a laser may be emitted to cut a connection tip formed on an end portion of the vertical contactor array.
The contactor block may further include first and second guide plates which are integrally formed with the vertical contactor arrays and distinguished according to a layout of a connecting element for coupling with each other, wherein one set of guide plates may be stacked to have a preset height by repeating a connection method in which the second guide plate is stacked on the first guide plate and another first guide plate is stacked on the second guide plate, and a molding layer may be formed by molding the plurality of vertical contactor arrays arranged in the first and second guide plates at the same time.
In a case in which a molding restriction member for restricting a molding portion is formed on the first and second guide plates, when a molding process is completed, the molding restriction member may be removed by a selective etching process.
Each of the first and second guide plates may include a flat plate shaped base plate and a connection plate, and connection elements formed in the base plate and the connection plate may include insertion protrusions and edge holes which are male-female couplable.
A cut groove, which passes through the connection plate to allow the vertical contactor arrays disposed above and below the connection plate to face each other, may be formed in the connection plate, and in a case in which the first and second guide plates are arranged by the connection elements, the plurality of vertical contactor arrays stacked in the first and second guide plates may be arranged based on a central axis.
In the base plate, the vertical contactor array may be integrally formed by a connection tip in a central portion and an edge hole is formed in an edge, an insertion protrusion may be formed to protrude from the connection plate, and the insertion protrusion formed to protrude from the connection plate of the first guide plate may be insertion-coupled to the edge hole formed in the base plate of the second guide plate.
The molding layer may be formed of an elastic material as an insulating material, and any one among polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyurethane (PU), polyurethane acrylate (PUA), and silicon rubber may be used for the elastic material as the insulating material.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card, the method including forming a seed layer on a substrate, forming probe holes disposed at predetermined intervals by applying a photoresist on the seed layer and removing the photoresist using a mask and an etching solution, forming a vertical contactor array by applying a nickel-copper alloy as a conductive material into the probe holes, performing a planarization process after the vertical contactor array is formed, forming a molding layer, which surrounds and supports the vertical contactor array using a molding restriction member, by removing the remaining photoresist through an additional photo process after the planarization process is performed, manufacturing individual base guide plates by removing the substrate and the seed layer, stacking the individual base guide plates to have a predetermined height, and forming a contactor block, which includes the vertical contactor array supported by the molding layer, by emitting a laser to the base guide plate to separate the base guide plate.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a contactor block of a self-aligning vertical probe card, the method including manufacturing first and second guide plates, which include vertical contactor arrays and are distinguished according to a layout of a connection element for coupling with each other, using a micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) process, assembling one set of guide plates, in which a plurality of vertical contactor arrays are arranged based on a central axis in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction, by alternately connecting and stacking first guide plates and second guide plates to have a predetermined height, forming a molding layer, which supports the plurality of arranged vertical contactor arrays, by injecting a molding member into the one set of guide plates and curing the molding member, and separating a contactor block, in which the plurality of vertical contactor arrays are buried in the molding layer, through a laser cutting process for separating the plurality of vertical contactor arrays from the one set of guide plates.
Each of the first and second guide plates may include a flat plate shaped base plate and a connection plate, connection elements formed on the base plate and the connection plate may include insertion protrusions and edge holes which are male-female couplable, a cut groove, which passes through the connection plate to allow the vertical contactor arrays disposed above and below the connection plate to face each other, may be formed in the connection plate, and in a case in which the first and second guide plates are arranged by the connection elements, the plurality of vertical contactor arrays formed in the one set of guide plates may be arranged based on the central axis.
The base plate of the second guide plate may be connected to the connection plate of the first guide plate, and the base plate of another first guide plate may be connected to the connection plate of the second guide plate.
In the base plate, the vertical contactor array may be integrally formed at a central portion and an edge hole is formed in an edge, an insertion protrusion may be formed to protrude upward from the connection plate, and the insertion protrusion formed to protrude from the connection plate of the first guide plate may be insertion-coupled to the edge hole formed in the base plate of the second guide plate.
The molding layer may be formed in a hexahedral shape in which the plurality of vertical contactor arrays are buried.
End portions of the vertical contactor arrays coupled to the first and second guide plates may be cut through a laser cutting process.
The molding layer may be formed of an elastic material as an insulating material, and any one among polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyurethane (PU), polyurethane acrylate (PUA), and silicon rubber may be used for the elastic material as the insulating material.
According to the present invention, since an assembly of contactor blocks can be simply manufactured by stacking individual guide plates in layers using a mounting base and simply installed on a probe head module, work efficiency for assembling a probe card can be improved.
According to the present invention, since, after a plurality of types of the guide plates in which vertical contactors are integrally formed are stacked in an assembly method of alternately connecting the plurality of types of the guide plates, the contactor block formed through a molding process can be simply separated, and the separated contactor block can be easily and simply assembled to the probe card, a work time and manpower for assembly work can be significantly reduced when compared to a method of inserting vertical contactors into many insertion holes formed in guide plates like the related art.
According to the present invention, the contactor block having micro-pitches can be manufactured using a micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) process and thus effectively respond to requirements for miniaturization of the probe card which tests a test target object.
Hereinafter the present invention will be described by describing embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals in the drawings. In addition, in the description of the invention, when it is determined that detailed descriptions of related well-known functions unnecessarily obscure the gist of the invention, the detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted. In addition, when a certain part “includes” a certain element, this does not exclude other components unless explicitly described otherwise, and other components may be further included.
Referring to
Since the contactor block 450 has a structure that is installed on a probe head module, which is not illustrated, using a jig plate, an assembly operation of inserting the contactor block 450 into an insertion hole of an upper plate and a lower plate may be omitted, and thus work efficiency can be improved.
Although a state, in which a molding restriction member 401 is not formed on individual base guide plates 200, is illustrated in
As illustrated in
The plurality of support rods 110 having a predetermined height are formed to protrude from an edge of an upper surface of a flat body, which corresponds to a size and a shape of the base guide plate 200, of the mounting base 100.
The base guide plate 200 is formed in a rectangular shape, a plurality of insertion holes 210 vertically passing through the base guide plate 200 are formed in the peripheral corners thereof. As the plurality of insertion holes 210 are correspondingly fitted onto the plurality of support rods 110, the base guide plate 200 is stacked on the mounting base 100. That is, as a plurality of base guide plates 200 are stacked in layers from a lower portion to an upper portion above the mounting base 100, the plurality of base guide plates 200 may be arranged.
Referring to
Since one end and the other end of the vertical contactor array 400 need to be exposed to come into contact with a space transformer and a test target object, the molding restriction member 401, which restricts the exposed portion from being molded is used. Referring to
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A first guide plate 510A and a second guide plate 510B are manufactured by a MEMS process.
In this case, the MEMS process may form a seed layer on a substrate using sputtering, deposition, and the like. The seed layer may be formed with a thickness of 1 to 2 μm. In this case, the substrate formed of an insulating material, such as ceramic, glass, and the like, may be used as the substrate, and copper, titanium, and chromium may be used as a material of the seed layer. The MEMS process may include a process of forming a probe hole by applying a photoresist on an upper portion of the seed layer and removing the photoresist using an etching solution and a mask. In addition, the MEMS process has a concept including a process of applying a copper-nickel alloy as a conductive material on the probe hole to form a vertical contactor array, a planarization process, a process of removing the remaining photoresist, a process of forming a molding restriction member, a process of injecting and curing a molding member, a process of removing the molding restriction member through selective etching, and the like.
Each of the first and second guide plates 510A and 510B includes a base plate 520 and a connection plate 530 which are a pair. Each of the first and second guide plates 510A and 510B has a structure in which the connection plate 530 is disposed on the base plate 520. Each of the base plate 520 and the connection plate 530 includes connection elements for coupling the base plate 520 and the connection plate 530.
The first and second guide plates 510A and 510B include insertion protrusions and edge holes which are the connection elements which have different layouts but are functionally the same.
When the base plate 520 is manufactured through the MEMS process, a vertical contactor array 521 extending in a longitudinal direction in a bar shape is integrally formed at a central position of a flat plate shaped body, and the vertical contactor array 400 is connected to the base plate 520 by connection tips formed on an inner edge of the base plate 520.
A material of the vertical contactor array 521 may be the same as a material of the base plate 520. In the embodiment, a nickel-copper alloy may be used as a conductive material in the vertical contactor array 521.
When the connection plate 530 is manufactured through the MEMS process, insertion protrusions 533 are integrally formed around a cut groove 531 at a central position of a flat plate shaped body. In the embodiment, the cut groove 531 is formed in a quadrilateral shape, but any shape is acceptable as long as the vertical contactor array 521 can be exposed. The cut groove 531 is for allowing exposed vertical contactor arrays 521 positioned in an upper portion and a lower portion to face each other.
In the base plate 520 of the first guide plate 510A, a plurality of edge holes 522 are formed around the vertical contactor array 521, and the edge holes 522 are disposed at body corners. Unlike this, in the base plate 520 of the second guide plate 510B, a layout in which the vertical contactor array 521 is positioned at the central position is the same as that thereof, but a layout in which a plurality of edge holes 522 formed around the vertical contactor array 521 are formed along an edge is different therefrom.
In the connection plate 530 of the first guide plate 510A, a plurality of insertion protrusions 533 are formed to protrude to face each other along an edge around the cut groove 531, and a plurality of edge holes 532 are disposed to face each other at body corners. Unlike this, in the connection plate 530 of the second guide plate 510B, a layout in which the cut groove 531 is positioned at a central position of a flat plate shaped body is the same as that thereof, but a plurality of insertion protrusions 533 formed around the cut groove 531 are disposed at the body corners, and edge holes 532 are disposed along the edge.
In the first guide plate 510A, the edge holes 522 of the base plate 520 and the edge holes 532 of the connection plate 530 are disposed at corresponding positions in a vertical direction. As the insertion protrusions 533 of the connection plate 530 of the second guide plate 510B are inserted into the edge hole 522 and 523, which are vertically arranged as described above, of the first guide plate 510B, the first and second guide plates 510A and 510B are connected to each other.
The first guide plate 510A and the second guide plate 510B have the coupling structures in which the first guide plate 510A and the second guide plate 510B may be stacked in the vertical direction by the connection elements which are functionally the same but has only different layouts for coupling with each other.
In
Referring to
When the base plate 520 of the second guide plate 510B is connected onto the connection plate 530 of the first guide plate 510A, the plurality of insertion protrusions 533 formed to protrude from the connection plate 530 of the first guide plate 510A pass through and are insertion-coupled to the plurality of edge holes 522 and 532 vertically arranged with the base plate 520 and the connection plate 530 of the second guide plate 510B. In this case, since the insertion protrusions 33 are exposed on the connection plate 530 of the second guide plate 510B positioned at an upper most portion, a new pair of the first guide plate 510A and the second guide plate 510B may be stacked and connected.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The molding layer 540 is formed of an elastic material as an insulating material, and for example, one of PDMS, PU, PUA, various synthetic rubbers such as silicon rubber, and various resins may be used as the elastic material.
As illustrated in
When the vertical contactor arrays 521 and end portions of the connection tips are cut in a laser cutting manner, as illustrated in
The number and a length of the vertical contactor arrays applied to the contactor block described in the embodiment may be changed according to a test environment of a test target object and the like, and a size of the contactor block may be adjusted in a manner of extending in all directions.
The above description is only exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the invention may be easily modified into other concrete forms without changing the technological scope and essential features.
The present invention can be applied to a test device called a probe card which applies an electrical signal to each chip and determines defects through a signal checked from the applied electrical signal. Particularly, the present invention can be suitable for a contactor block used in a probe head module of the probe card, can improve assembly work efficiency, and can reduce manufacturing costs.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2018-0174001 | Dec 2018 | KR | national |
10-2019-0165195 | Dec 2019 | KR | national |
10-2019-0177633 | Dec 2019 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/KR2019/018689 | 12/30/2019 | WO | 00 |