Patent Application
20210199692
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0174957, filed on Dec. 26, 2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a probe pin including an outer spring.
Generally, probe pins are classified into a double pin type in which both plungers slide and a single pin type in which only one plunger slides.
In the case of the double pin type, there is provided a pipe-shaped housing, upper and lower plungers installed in upper and lower portions of the housing, and a coil spring installed in the housing to provide an elastic force between both of the plungers.
In this arrangement, a test is performed by the upper and lower plungers relatively sliding to approach or recede from each other and also by transmitting or receiving electrical signals by contact upon approach.
(Patent Document 1) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2019-0009233
The disclosure of this section is to provide background information relating to the invention. Applicant does not admit that any information contained in this section constitutes prior art.
Aspects of the present invention provide a probe pin including an outer spring resistant to a stroke despite repetitive load.
Aspects of the present invention provide a probe pin including an outer spring that has excellent durability and that is easy to stretch and contract like a rod antenna.
Aspects of the invention provide a probe pin that operates in an antenna manner in which a bottom plunger and a top plunger are loaded, that is equipped with an outer spring outside a rod to be resistant to a stroke, and that has a varying ball connection tip to improve a contact characteristic.
According to aspects of the present invention, a probe pin for performing an electrical inspection between a contact pad of a test apparatus and a conductive ball of a semiconductor device includes a cylinder-type bottom plunger connected to the contact pad and configured to slide vertically, a piston-type top plunger connected to the conductive ball and configured to slide vertically, and an outer spring configured to provide an elastic force between the bottom plunger and the top plunger.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by describing embodiments thereof in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Advantages and/or features of the present invention and implementation methods thereof will be clarified through the following embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete and fully conveys the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims. The sizes and relative sizes of layers and regions marked in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity of description. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.
The embodiments described herein will be described with reference to the top views and the sectional views, which are ideal schematic diagrams of the present invention. Therefore, the diagrams may be modified due to manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the shown specific forms and may include modifications made according to the manufacturing process. Therefore, the regions illustrated in the drawings have schematic properties, and the shapes of the regions illustrated in the drawings are illustrative of specific shapes of regions of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
In one implementation of a probe pin, a spring is installed inside a housing. In the case of such an inner spring type, since an inner spring is installed in a housing, the inner spring have a smaller diameter than the housing, and thus it is difficult for the inner spring to operate normally, i.e., elastically with respect to a vertically applied load and stroke.
In particular, as a design rule shrinks, the pitch between terminals decreases, and thus the size of the probe pin also tends to decrease. In the case of the inner spring type pogo pin, the durability of the spring gradually weakens, and thus a smooth inspection process cannot be performed.
A probe pin including an outer spring according to embodiments of the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Probe pins will be described as being used in final test sockets for convenience of description but are not limited thereto and may be used in burn-in test sockets as well.
It is assumed that for an electrical inspection of a semiconductor device such as a wafer with an integrated circuit formed therein, a semiconductor integrated circuit device (e.g., a package integrated circuit (IC), a multi-chip module (MCM), etc.), and the like, a test socket is disposed between a semiconductor device to be inspected and a test apparatus in order to electrically connect a connection terminal (e.g., a contact pad) of the test apparatus and a connection terminal (e.g., a conductive ball) of the semiconductor device.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The top plunger 200 includes a ball connection tip 210a brought into direct contact with the conductive ball B, a ball fastening pole 220a extending backward (or downward) from the ball connection tip 210a, and a rod 230a functioning as a piston and extending integrally with the ball fastening pole 220a.
Each of the pad fastening pole 120a and the ball fastening pole 220a have a cylindrical shape with a stepped portion, and the outer spring 300a may be caught and fixed on the stepped portions of the pad fastening pole 120a and the ball fastening pole 220a. At this time, the outer spring 300a includes a finishing portion where both ends have a higher winding density than an elastic portion at the center thereof. Since the finishing portion has a large number of windings, the finishing portion may be caught and firmly fixed on the above-described stepped portion.
The pad fastening pole 120a is shorter than the ball fastening pole 220a, and the barrel 130a is coupled to the pad fastening pole 120a to provide a cylinder. The ball fastening pole 220a is more elongated than the pad fastening pole 120a to provide a piston. Thus, the ball fastening pole 220a may slide in the barrel 130a.
Referring to
Accordingly, according to another embodiment, the barrel 130a may be provided separately and bonded to the pad fastening pole 120a. At this point, the barrel 130a may be caulked at multiple points (e.g., four points) along an outer diameter thereof to bind the barrel 130a to the pad fastening pole 120a. Here, methods such as spot welding and laser welding as well as mechanical caulking using a jig tool or rolling may be used.
According to this configuration, the configuration according to embodiments the present invention provides high durability against the load of the rod 230a, stroke (or impact), and the like because the rod 230a is stretched and retracted in the barrel 130a in a sliding manner, and in particular, the outer spring 300a is installed outside the rod 230a.
A method of manufacturing the probe pin of the first embodiment will be described below.
Referring to
One end of the outer spring 300a is inserted through the barrel 130a, and the outer spring 300a is forcibly pressed onto the pad fastening pole 120a. A finishing portion having a higher winding density than an elastic portion may be provided at both ends of the outer spring 300a, and the finishing portion may be caught on and forcibly coupled to the stepped portion of the pad fastening pole 120a.
Likewise, the other end of the outer spring 300a is inserted through the rod 230a, and the outer spring 300a is forcibly pressed onto the ball fastening pole 220a. The above-described finishing portion may be caught on and forcibly coupled to the stepped portion of the ball fastening pole 220a.
The bottom plunger 100 and the top plunger 200 that have been described above may be assembled in the reverse order or simultaneously.
Referring to
The top plunger 200b includes a ball connection tip 210b brought into direct contact with the conductive ball B, a rod 230b functioning as a piston and extending backward (or downward) from the ball connection tip 210b, and a stopper 240b formed on one end of the rod 230b and bound to the caulking 140b.
An inner diameter of a specific part (hereinafter referred to as a first part, for example, a part protruding outward or a part with the maximum outer diameter) of the bottom plunger 100b and an inner diameter of a specific part (hereinafter referred to as a second part, for example, a part protruding outward or a part with the maximum outer diameter) of the top plunger 200b are smaller than an inner diameter of the outer spring 300b, and an outer diameter of the first part and an outer diameter of the second part are greater than the inner diameter of the outer spring 300b. Thus, the outer spring 300b is caught on the first portion and the second portion to provide a repulsive force between the bottom plunger 100b and the top plunger 200b.
At this time, despite the repulsive force, the stopper 240b is bound to the caulking so that the bottom plunger 100b and the top plunger 200b do not fall out. However, the outer spring 300b does not need to be provided with a separate finishing portion because the outer spring 300b is not fastened to other components by itself.
Meanwhile, the barrel 130b is formed in a relatively short section, and thus is excellent in workability and precision even when the drilling method is applied. Accordingly, the barrel 130b may be formed integrally with the bottom plunger 100b.
A method of manufacturing the probe pin of the second embodiment will be described below.
Referring to
In spite of the outer spring 300b, the pad connection tip 110b and the ball connection tip 210b are sufficiently pressed and coupled to each other, and the stopper 240b passes through the caulking 140b. In this situation, when a caulking process is performed, the stopper 240b is bound to the caulking 140b.
Referring to
The ball connection tips 210a and 120b are provided in a three-dimensional shape as a whole. However, a probe region may be provided in a crown shape (see (a)), a reduced crown shape which is a kind of crown shape that has contact portions closer to each other (see (b)), a needle shape with one pointed end (see (c)), a typically spherical or round shape (see (d)), an 8-pointed crown shape having eight probes arranged circumferentially (see (e)), and a 9-pointed crown shape having nine probes aligned horizontally and vertically (see (f)). Also, the probe region may be provided in a central Kelvin-T shape (see (g)) and a laterally eccentric Kelvin-L shape (see (h)). In the case of the Kelvin pin, two probe pins make contact with one contact point.
When multiple contact points are provided in this way, stable contact characteristics may be acquired in spite of alignment tolerance that occurs upon coming in contact with the conductive ball.
Kelvin Pin
Among tests for a semiconductor device, the Kelvin test is for precisely measuring the resistance and the like of the semiconductor device. The measurement is made while two contact terminals are brought into contact with a conductive ball B of the semiconductor device.
Referring to
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However, since the two Kelvin pins 1000A and 1000B are brought into contact with one conductive ball B, it is preferable that the ball connection tips 210 of the Kelvin pins 1000A and 1000B have a Kelvin-L shape or a Kelvin-T shape and have pointed ends placed adjacent to each other and facing toward the center direction of the conductive ball B. That is, each of the Kelvin-L shape and the Kelvin-T shape of the ball connection tips 210 is in a laterally eccentric form in which the pointed ends are biased to one side, that is, in a form in which the one side protrudes not toward the center but toward the ball connection tips 210.
When such a shape and arrangement are made, the separation distance of each of the Kelvin pins 1000A and 1000B may be kept to a minimum to cope with the dense arrangement of conductive balls B or the small area of the conductive ball B, that is, fine pitches. For example, in order to cope with fine pitches, an interval between the pair of ball connection tips 210 may be adjusted so as not to exceed 50 μm.
In detail, the Kelvin-L-shaped or Kelvin-T-shaped ball connection tips 210 may be represented using perspective views (see (a)), left side views (see (b)), right side views (see (c)), top views (see (d)), bottom views (see (e)), and front views (see (f)), as shown in
The first Kelvin pin 1000A may be connected to a current supply circuit, and the second Kelvin pin 1000B may be connected to a voltage measurement circuit. In this case, the pair of Kelvin pins 1000A and 1000B have ball connection tips 210 disposed above and connected to the conductive ball B in common and ball connection tips 110 disposed below and connected to two-port contact pads P1 and P2 of the test apparatus, respectively.
Referring to
Socket holes H arranged alongside each other such that the first Kelvin pin 1000A and the second Kelvin pin 1000B are installed symmetrically to each other and have ball connection tips 210 protruding upward may be formed in the socket block C.
Referring to
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Meanwhile, enlarged side views of
As described above, according to the configuration of embodiments of the present invention, the following effects can be expected. First, it is possible to provide high durability against vertical loads by installing a spring outside a rod.
Second, it is possible to improve production yield by simplifying the assembly of both plungers and a spring.
Third, it is possible to enhance a consumer's convenience by appropriately responding according to an inspection purpose by variously changing the shape of a ball connection tip.
As described above, it can be seen that the technical spirit of the present invention is the configuration of a probe pin that stably provides an elastic force against load applied to both plungers by having a rod inserted into and stretched and retracted in a pipe-shaped antenna and an outer spring installed outside the rod.
It can also be seen that the technical spirit of the present invention is the configuration of a pair of Kelvin pins capable of coping with fine pitches by having ball connection tips with pointed ends placed facing toward each other and also facing toward the center of a conductive ball.
Within the scope of the basic technical spirit of the present invention, many other modifications will be possible to those skilled in the art.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2019-0174957 | Dec 2019 | KR | national |
