JP2006107977A - Ic socket - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an IC socket capable of conducting the highly reliable measurement of a semiconductor device. <P>SOLUTION: Since a contact pin 102 is mainly formed of conductive rubber which is a material having flexibility, not only its vertical movability but also its movability in other directions such as a horizontal direction or the like can be enhanced. Thereby, the contact pin 102 can move in the other directions such as horizontal directions in response to the movement of a solder ball 106 in the other directions such as the horizontal directions. Therefore, the reliability of electrical contact between the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be enhanced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an IC socket.

  As the package becomes thinner and smaller and the solder ball size is reduced, a socket capable of performing highly reliable measurement without deteriorating the appearance of the solder ball surface is required. There exists a thing of patent document 1 as this kind of technique. The socket described in Patent Document 1 shown in FIG. 6 includes a highly rigid socket body 1 in which a through hole is formed, and a conductive rubber 4 filled in a through hole provided in the socket body 1. The one end face and the other end face are conductively connected. For this reason, the movement of the conductive rubber 4 other than the vertical direction is restricted. Here, in the IC continuity test, the solder ball 804 electrically connected to the IC and the conductive rubber 4 are connected, and a tester or the like is applied to the lead wire 2 electrically connected to the conductive rubber 4 and the IC. Is done by.

JP-A-9-320715

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the contact pin of the socket has a structure in which the conductive rubber 4 is filled in the through-hole provided in the highly rigid socket body 1, and therefore, in the other direction such as the left-right direction. Movement was restricted. For this reason, there is a problem in the followability to the movement of the solder ball in other directions such as the left-right direction.

  According to the present invention, there is provided an IC socket comprising a main body and a contact pin provided on the main body and contacting a bump on a semiconductor element, and one end of the contact pin is fixed to the main body. In addition, an IC socket is provided in which the other end that contacts the bump extends from the main body, and the contact pin is mainly made of a material having conductivity and flexibility. .

  According to this invention, the contact pin is mainly made of a material having conductivity and flexibility, and the other end of the contact pin extends from the main body, so that the mobility of the contact pin can be improved. it can. Therefore, the reliability of the electrical connection between the bump and the contact pin can be improved. Therefore, it is possible to provide an IC socket capable of realizing highly reliable measurement of a semiconductor device.

  According to the present invention, the contact pin is mainly made of a material having conductivity and flexibility, and the other end of the contact pin extends from the main body, so that the semiconductor device can be measured with high reliability. A possible IC socket is provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In all the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the same components, and the description will be omitted as appropriate.

  An IC socket 100 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The IC socket 100 which is a semiconductor device test socket includes a substrate 109 on which an IC 108 which is a semiconductor element is mounted, and solder balls 106 (bumps) conductively connected to the IC 108 by wiring (not shown) provided inside the substrate 109. ) Is used when conducting a continuity test of a semiconductor device.

  The IC socket 100 includes a contact pin 102 and a housing 104 that is a main body of the IC socket 100.

  The contact pin 102 is mainly made of conductive rubber, and the conductive rubber is made of a base material 110 and a conductive material embedded in the base material 110 as shown in FIG. It has flexibility.

  Having conductivity means conducting in a range where measurement using a test board described later is possible, specifically 0.001-1 (Ω · cm). Also, having flexibility means having a property of returning to the original shape without being destroyed even if the contact pin is deformed as the solder ball moves during measurement using the test board. .

  As the base material 110, for example, rubber such as silicone rubber, olefin elastomer or the like is used, and as the conductive material, for example, carbon powder, carbon such as carbon fiber, metal powder such as copper, aluminum or the like is used. Further, as shown in FIG. 5A, inside the contact pin 102, a metal such as copper or aluminum is provided between the upper surface (the other end) and the lower surface (the one end) of the contact pin 102. Metallic substances such as particles 112 are dispersed and embedded. In the contact pin 102, the weight content of the conductive rubber is, for example, about 70% to 80%, and the weight content of the metallic substance is, for example, about 20% to 30%.

  The contact pin 102 is in contact with the lower surface of the solder ball 106 at the upper surface (the other end) in FIG. Here, the upper portion of the contact pin 102 is provided so as to extend from the housing 104, and is in contact with the lower surface of the solder ball 106 outside the housing 104. The lower surface (one end) of the contact pin 102 is fixed to the housing 104 and is electrically connected to the wiring of a test board for continuity testing. Further, the upper and lower surfaces of the contact pins 102 are electrically connected.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the contact pin 102 has a shape in which the diameter of the region entering the opening of the housing 104 is relatively smaller than the upper and lower diameters in FIG. 1. That is, the upper and lower portions of the contact pin 102 are regions having a relatively large diameter, and the region entering the opening of the housing 104 is a region having a relatively small diameter. The contact pin 102 is mainly composed of conductive rubber, and the conductive rubber has conductivity and flexibility. For this reason, the contact pin 102 is configured to be able to follow the displacement of the position of the solder ball 106 with a place fixed to the housing 104 as a fulcrum, and has mobility in other directions such as not only the vertical direction but also the horizontal direction. In particular, a region entering the opening of the housing 104, which is a relatively small diameter region, is relatively more movable in a direction other than the vertical direction, such as the left-right direction, relative to the upper and lower portions of the contact pin 102. The reason is considered as follows. Since the diameter is relatively small compared to the upper part and the lower part, the thickness of the region is relatively small. Therefore, when the contact pin 102 is bent in the left-right direction, the bending resistance caused by the presence of the contact pin 102 itself can be further reduced. Therefore, compared to a region having a relatively large diameter, it becomes easier to bend in directions other than the vertical direction such as the horizontal direction.

  The housing 104 is made of, for example, plastics such as polycarbonate, and has a function of housing the contact pins 102.

  The solder ball 106 is mainly composed of lead-free solder or the like, and has an oxide film on the surface.

  The IC socket 100 is manufactured using the above-described plastics as the material of the housing 104 and the above-described conductive rubber, metal particles, etc. as the material of the contact pins 102.

  Here, the contact pin 102 is formed by mixing metal particles or the like with conductive rubber.

  In the test of the semiconductor device composed of the substrate 109 and the IC 108 using the IC socket 100, the lower part of the contact pin 102 is mounted on a test board provided with a signal line and electrically connected to the IC 108. Is done by. By doing so, it is possible to measure the voltage applied to the semiconductor device and the amount of current to be applied. As shown in FIG. 2, the reliability of the test improves as the number of contact pins 102 used for measurement increases.

  Hereinafter, effects of the IC socket 100 in the present embodiment will be described.

  Since the contact pin 102 is provided so as to extend from the housing 104 and is mainly composed of conductive rubber, which is a flexible material, in addition to the vertical direction in FIG. The movability in other directions such as the left-right direction can be improved with the place fixed to the fulcrum. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the contact pin 102 can also move in other directions such as left and right in accordance with movement of the solder ball 106 in other directions such as left and right. Therefore, the reliability of the electrical connection between the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be improved.

  Further, in the socket described in Patent Document 1, it is difficult to remove the oxide film on the surface of the solder ball, and it is difficult to ensure conductivity because it contacts the solder ball only by contact pressure. On the other hand, the contact pin 102 of the IC socket 100 is made of a material having a relatively high conductivity such as a conductive rubber in which a metallic substance such as a metal particle is embedded inside to improve conductivity. . For this reason, the oxide film covering the surface of the solder ball 106 can be removed, and the conductivity between the contact pin 102 and the solder ball 106 can be ensured more reliably. That is, the contact pin 102 having high conductivity comes into contact with the surface of the solder ball 106. Therefore, the accuracy of electrical contact between the contact pin 102 and the solder ball 106 can be improved.

  Further, since the diameter of the region where the contact pin 102 enters the housing 104 is relatively smaller than the diameter of the upper and lower portions of the contact pin 102, the mobility in the left-right direction can be further enhanced. Therefore, the followability to the movement of the solder ball 106 in the left-right direction can be improved more effectively. Therefore, the reliability of the electrical connection between the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be improved more efficiently.

  Further, when the metal probe pin type contact pin 3 as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B is used, the reliability of electrical connection between the contact pin 3 and the solder ball 804 is high. Since the hardness of the contact pin 3 is large, the appearance of the surface of the solder ball 804 that is a surface in contact with the contact pin 3 may be damaged. On the other hand, since the contact pin 102 of the IC socket 100 is mainly made of conductive rubber, the flexibility of the upper surface of the contact pin in contact with the surface of the solder ball 106 can be improved. Therefore, the external shape of the surface of the solder ball 106 can be improved.

  Further, in the case where the pinching type contact pin 3 as shown in FIG. 7C is used, it may be difficult to cope with a form in which the pitch of the solder balls 804 is narrow. This is because the contact pin 3 needs to sandwich the solder ball 804, so that a space corresponding to the thickness of the contact pin 3 is required in the pitch direction of the solder ball 804. On the other hand, in the IC socket 100, the upper surface of the contact pin 102 and the lower surface of the solder ball 106 are in contact with each other. Therefore, space saving in the pitch direction of the solder balls 106 of the contact pins 102 can be achieved, and a configuration in which the pitch of the solder balls 106 is narrow can be dealt with.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described with reference to drawings, these are the illustrations of this invention, Various structures other than the above are also employable.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the form in which the shape of the upper surface of the contact pin 102 is a plane has been described. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the upper surface of the contact pin 102 may include a curved surface such as a mortar shape. . By doing so, it is possible to automatically correct (self-align) the deviation between the center position of the solder ball 106 in the left-right direction and the center position of the contact pin 102 in the left-right direction. Therefore, the contact area between the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be made substantially constant, and the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be brought into contact in a better state. Therefore, better contact between the IC socket 120 and the solder ball 106 can be realized by the automatic correction function (self-alignment function) of the IC socket 120 itself. As a result, the reliability of the electrical connection between the IC socket 120 and the solder ball 106 can be increased more effectively.

  As in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the contact pin 102 is movable in other directions such as the left-right direction. Therefore, the contact pin 102 can also move in the other direction in accordance with the movement of the solder ball 106 in the other direction. Therefore, the reliability of the electrical connection between the solder ball 106 and the contact pin 102 can be further improved efficiently.

  In the above embodiment, the embodiment in which the metal particles 112 are embedded in the base material 110 of the contact pin 102 has been described. However, as shown in FIG. 5B, other metal substances such as the metal wiring 114 may be embedded. Good.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the shape of the contact pin 102 in which the diameter of the region entering the opening of the housing 104 is reduced has been described. However, if the contact pin 102 is movable in the left-right direction, the shape of the contact pin is Other shapes such as a cylindrical shape may be used.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the form using a conductive rubber was demonstrated as a material which comprises the contact pin 102, it has electroconductivity and flexibility and can acquire the effect similar to the effect of the said embodiment. Any material can be used.

  In the above-described embodiment, the form in which the metallic material such as metal particles is embedded in the contact pin 102 has been described. However, the reliability of the electrical connection between the contact pin 102 and the solder ball 106 is improved. Any form can be used. For example, a form in which a metallic substance is not embedded is also effective.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the weight content rate of the electrically-conductive rubber in the contact pin 102 demonstrated about 70%-80% and the weight content rate of a metallic substance was demonstrated about 20%-30%, What is necessary is just the weight content rate of the range which can show | play the effect of embodiment.

It is sectional drawing which showed typically the socket which concerns on embodiment. It is sectional drawing which showed typically the socket which concerns on embodiment. It is sectional drawing which showed typically the socket which concerns on embodiment. It is sectional drawing which showed typically the socket which concerns on embodiment. It is the figure which showed typically the contact pin which concerns on embodiment. It is sectional drawing which showed the socket which concerns on the prior art typically. It is sectional drawing which showed typically the contact pin which concerns on the prior art.

Explanation of symbols

100 IC socket 102 Contact pin 104 Housing 106 Solder ball 108 IC
109 Substrate 110 Base material 112 Metal particle 114 Metal wiring 120 IC socket

Claims (9)

The body,
Contact pins provided on the main body and in contact with bumps on the semiconductor element;
An IC socket comprising:
The contact pin has one end fixed to the main body and the other end contacting the bump extends from the main body.
The IC socket is characterized in that the contact pin is mainly made of a material having conductivity and flexibility. The IC socket according to claim 1,
The IC socket according to claim 1, wherein the contact pin is configured to be able to follow the displacement of the bump with a portion fixed to the body as a fulcrum. The IC socket according to claim 1 or 2,
The IC socket is characterized in that the material is conductive rubber. The IC socket according to claim 3,
An IC socket, wherein a metallic substance is embedded in the conductive rubber. The IC socket according to claim 4,
An IC socket, wherein the metallic substance is metal particles. The IC socket according to claim 4,
An IC socket, wherein the metallic substance is a metal wiring. The IC socket according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
An IC socket, wherein the metallic substance is dispersed in the conductive rubber. The IC socket according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
An IC socket, wherein the other end of the contact pin includes a curved surface. The IC socket according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
The contact pin includes an area having a relatively large diameter and an area having a relatively small diameter.

Images