Wafer-level testing with a membrane probe

Abstract

The authors describe a proprietary membrane probe card that addresses the needs of testing VLSI devices at the wafer level. The membrane probe allows the testing of devices with a high pin count at operating speed, while allowing a complete package test at the wafer level. The concepts and structure of the probe are examined, and its performance is demonstrated by time-domain and frequency-domain measurements of the typical electrical characteristics of a VLSI digital probe that accesses 272 pads at a pitch of 110 mu m. Applications to a bipolar ECL (emitter-coupled logic) flash A/D (analog-to-digital) converter, a bipolar ECL D/A converter, an application-specific CMOS IC, an NMOS VLSI central processing unit, and area-array solder bumps are presented.< >