JP2528910Y2 - Contact probe support cover - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contact probe support cover, and more particularly to a support cover capable of accurately setting a characteristic impedance around a contact probe mounted on a circuit board in a test head of a semiconductor device test apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a test apparatus for testing a semiconductor device such as an IC tester, a printed circuit board on which a plurality of contact probes are upwardly mounted by a suitable supporting means such as a connector is usually provided in a test head. A plurality of them are stored standing. Then, a board (DU) on which the device under test (DUT) is mounted on the test head
A T boat is mounted, and the tip of the contact probe is brought into press contact with each terminal surface formed on the lower surface of the DUT board to exchange electric signals between the test head side and the DUT. Note that those contact probes which are biased by a spring are used. By the way, in recent years, as semiconductor devices such as ICs have become highly accurate, highly integrated, and operated at high speed, the characteristic impedance of each signal line based on the high-density mounting of a contact probe attached to a circuit board and the surrounding wiring has been increased. There is a growing demand for maintaining a constant value.

Conventionally, as a connection device between a contact probe and a printed circuit board, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-110
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 26, a circuit test probe using a coaxial cable is known. However, in the above-described probe, since the printed circuit board and the probe are connected by a coaxial cable, the characteristic impedance cannot be arbitrarily selected and the transmission loss increases. In addition, the positioning of the contact probe is not always accurate, and the deterioration of the electrical characteristics due to the displacement is inevitable. Further, since the length and arrangement of the coaxial cable differ for each probe, it is not easy to keep the characteristic impedance constant, depending on the specifications of the coaxial cable. In addition, in the probe, other coaxial cable, requires a component such as a connector for connecting the said cable and the probe, the manufacturing cost is <br/> bulk Mutotomoni, connection between the cable and connector, etc. There is also a problem that the work takes a long time.

[0004]

[Purpose of the Invention] The present invention improves transmission characteristics by arbitrarily selecting the characteristic impedance around the contact probe and keeping it constant, and reduces the number of parts required to attach the contact probe to the circuit board. It is an object of the present invention to provide a contact probe support cover that can be used.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the contact probe support cover of the present invention has a slit that is fitted to a protruding piece that forms a part of a circuit board, and is opposite to the fitting side of the slit. From the side toward the fitting side, a plurality of contact probe sockets are inserted through and parallel to each other, parallel to the longitudinal wall surface of the slit and exposing a part of the side surface of the socket to the longitudinal wall surface. It is characterized by becoming.

The material of the support cover body of the present invention includes:
Conventionally used insulating materials such as Teflon-based and polyimide-based materials are used for insulating portions of connectors and the like of ordinary contact probes. Usually, since the contact probe is soldered to a circuit board, a probe having particularly excellent heat resistance is preferably used. The slit to be fitted into the projecting piece of the circuit board, or the hole through which the contact probe socket is inserted and inserted, can be formed simultaneously with the molding when the support cover body is integrally molded, and the insulator block Can be formed by a drill or the like. The width of the slit (length in the longitudinal direction on the side where the slit is fitted) and the vertical width (width in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction) of the slit of the support cover body are respectively set to widths that can be fitted to the projecting pieces of the circuit board. The width of the protruding piece and the thickness of the circuit board are substantially the same so that no displacement occurs in the horizontal width direction or the vertical width direction when the fitting is performed. The slit may extend from one surface of the support cover main body (the surface on the side fitted to the protruding piece of the circuit board) to the opposite side thereof. In order to facilitate alignment (positioning of the contact probe in the axial direction) or to reinforce the strength when the contact probe comes into contact with the DUT board, etc., the slit is usually provided so as not to penetrate the opposite surface. Can be Slit depth (depth)
Is too small, the support body easily falls off the circuit board if it is too shallow, so it is usually several mm, but is not limited to this value.

[0007] The support cover body is provided with a hole through which the contact probe socket is inserted from the side opposite to the side where the slit is fitted. Since the central axis of this hole is provided close to the longitudinal wall surface of the slit, a narrow groove formed by this hole is formed on the wall surface. When the contact probe socket is inserted into the hole from the rear end side from the side opposite to the insertion side toward the insertion side, a part of the side surface of the socket is exposed on the longitudinal wall surface. Therefore, when the support cover of the present invention is fitted to the projecting piece of the circuit board, the circuit board comes into contact with the contact probe socket. The hole for inserting the contact probe can be provided only on one side of the longitudinal wall surface of the slit, but usually, terminals for signal and grounding are formed on both sides of the circuit board by solder pads or the like. Therefore, a plurality of each are provided on both sides of the longitudinal wall surface. The arrangement of the hole for inserting the contact probe socket (the arrangement in the longitudinal direction of the slit) is such that when the socket is inserted into the hole, the rear part of the socket corresponds to a pad formed on the circuit board. The pads and the like on the circuit board are formed so as to be in contact with each other (or, conversely, are formed in accordance with the positions of the holes provided in the support cover body).

After the support cover of the present invention is fitted to the circuit board in this manner, the rear end of the contact probe socket and a terminal such as a pad are electrically connected by appropriate means such as soldering, crimping, and bonding. Connecting. The contact probe is inserted into the probe socket of the support cover configured as described above. As described above, in the support cover of the present invention, the positional relationship between the contact probe and the circuit board is accurately determined, and the contact probe is held on the circuit board. Further, the length of the protruding portion of the contact probe from the circuit board can be shortened. Further, the contact probe socket and terminals such as pads of the circuit board are directly connected by solder or the like, and no coaxial cable is used . I
Accordingly , the connection between the circuit board and the DUT board can be realized in the shortest and inexpensive manner, and an electrically good transmission path can be realized. Further, since the dimensional accuracy is kept good, it is possible to correct the change in the characteristic impedance due to the loading of the support cover by adjusting the width of the pad.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a contact probe support cover according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG.
The support body 2 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape is usually made of an insulating material such as a Teflon-based or polyimide-based resin. Excellent as the insulator in heat resistance is preferably used. On one surface (the lower surface in the figure) of the support cover body 2, a slit 3 is provided with a projecting piece 10 provided on a circuit board to be described later.
(See FIGS. 3 and 4). In addition, a plurality of contact probe sockets 4 are provided on one side (S1 in FIG. 1) of the longitudinal wall surface of the slit 3.
Book, 8 on the other side (not shown), total 12
2), the rear end portion 4a is positioned from the S2 surface side opposite to the opening side of the slit 3 (the insertion side of the protruding piece 10) to the opening side (FIG.
(A) to (C), S3 side shown in FIG. 3). Here, a contact probe 5a for grounding is mounted on the socket 4 inserted on one surface S1 side of the longitudinal wall surface of the slit 3, and a contact probe for signal is mounted on the socket 4 inserted on the other surface side. 5b are respectively inserted and supported. Thus, the support cover 1 of the present invention is provided.
Is composed of the support cover body 2 and the socket 4.

The number of the sockets 4 into which the ground contact probes 5a are inserted may be the same as the number of the sockets 4 into which the signal contact probes 5b are inserted. The number may be less than the number of sockets 4 into which the probes 5b are inserted. To make the characteristic impedance around the contact probes 5a and 5b constant for each signal line, the contact probe 5 for each signal is used.
It is necessary to keep the distance between a and the corresponding contact probe 5b for grounding constant. Therefore, the signal contact probe 5a and the ground contact probe 5a
The number ratio of b must be up to a 2: 1 relationship.
Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in the figure, the number of sockets 4 corresponding to each of the contact probes 5a and 5b is increased to eight for the socket of the signal contact probe 5a.
The number of sockets of the contact probe 5b for grounding is four. These contact probes 5a, 5
The structure of the contact probe 5b is well known and will not be described in detail. However, when pressed, the contact probes 5a and 5b are configured to slide elastically by a spring built in the probes 5a and 5b. ing. The reason why the contact probes 5a and 5b are held in the socket 4 is to facilitate replacement of worn probes.

In the support cover of the present invention, the rear end 4a of the socket 4 inserted through the support cover main body 2 projects from the support cover main body 2 by a predetermined length. The insertion interval of these sockets 4 is determined by a solder pad 11 described later.
(See FIGS. 3 and 4). In addition, these sockets 4 are parallel to the longitudinal wall surface of the slit 3 (S1 and the other surface opposite thereto) and parallel to each other. The specific size of the support cover 1 in FIG.
The longitudinal length L1 is more than 30 mm, the width L2 is about 6 to 7 mm, and the height L3 is about 5 mm. The width of the opening of the slit 3 is, for example, less than 30 mm, and the vertical width is, for example, about 2 mm according to the thickness of the circuit board, and the depth of the slit 6 is, for example, about 3 mm. Note that the sizes of the support cover 1 and the slit 6 of the present invention are not limited to the above numerical values. FIG. 2 (A),
(B), (C) is a figure for demonstrating the support cover 1 shown in FIG. 1 in more detail, (A) is a support cover main body 2
Is viewed from the side where the slit 3 is opened, (B) is a longitudinal sectional view (α-α sectional view in (A)), and (C) is a cross section in a direction perpendicular to the wall surface of the slit of the support cover body 2. It is a figure (β-β sectional view in (A)).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which the support cover 1 of FIG. 1 is mounted on a circuit board. In FIG. 3, solder pads 11 are formed on the surface S4 of the projecting piece 10 of the circuit board. In this example, eight solder pads 11 are formed at predetermined intervals by solder plating. In this embodiment, although not shown in the drawing, a solder pad for a ground signal is formed on the back surface S5 of the projecting piece 10 of the circuit board. When the slit 3 of the support cover 1 is fitted to the projecting piece 10 of the circuit board, the projecting piece 10 of the circuit board is fitted to the slit 3 of the support cover 1. When the support cover body 2 is made of a material having some flexibility such as Teflon, for example, the protruding piece 10 is fitted into the support cover body 2 while receiving an appropriate pressure. Then, in a state where the fitting is completed, the side surface of the contact probe socket 4 is formed with the pad 11 formed on the protruding piece 10.
Contact As shown in FIG. 4, while pressing the tip ends of the contact probes 5 a and 5 b against the flat surface 21 of an appropriate member (for example, a small vise) 20, the protrusion at the rear end of each socket 4 is Or protruding piece 1
The work is facilitated by soldering to the solder pads on the back surface S5 of the No. 0, respectively.

According to the present embodiment, the contact probes 5a and 5b are arranged in the vicinity of the test circuit on the circuit board while maintaining an arbitrary characteristic impedance over substantially the entire length thereof. And high-speed signal transmission can be satisfactorily performed. In addition, a simple configuration using inexpensive components can be achieved without the need for a coaxial cable connector or the like in the prior art. Pad 1 on the projecting piece 10
The work of soldering to 1 etc. makes it easy to assemble. In the above-described embodiment, the contact probe socket 4 is electrically connected to the solder pad 11 or the like by soldering. However, the probe socket 4 is electrically connected to the protruding piece 10 of the circuit board by pressing or bonding. May be connected.

[0014]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the signal terminals (solder pads, etc.) of the circuit board are connected to the contact probe socket without using a coaxial cable, the following effects can be obtained. (1) The protruding portion of the contact probe from the circuit board can be shortened, and the characteristic impedance can be set to a constant arbitrary value over almost the entire length of the spring probe. (2) The connection distance between the signal terminal and a terminal such as a DUT board can be minimized. (3) Although based on (1), (2), etc., high-speed transmission can be realized with little loss in electrical transmission. (4) Since expensive components such as a connector for the cable and the like are not required in addition to the coaxial cable, the signal terminal of the circuit board is
The means for connecting to the UT board or the like can be realized at low cost .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view showing an embodiment of a contact probe support cover according to the present invention.

2A is a plan view of the support cover of FIG. 1 as viewed from the slit side, FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1A along the line α-α, and FIG.
Is a β-β sectional view in the same manner.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state before the support cover of FIG. 1 is attached to a circuit board.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an attaching method when attaching the support cover of FIG. 1 to a circuit board.

[Description of Signs] 1 Contact probe support cover 2 Support cover body 3 Slit 4 Contact probe socket 5a, 5b Contact probe 10 Projecting piece of circuit board 11 Solder pad

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A contact probe support cover attached to a projecting piece that forms a part of a circuit board and supporting a contact probe, the contact probe supporting cover having a slit fitted to the projecting piece, and a fitting side of the slit. From the side opposite to the fitting side, a plurality of contact probe sockets are parallel to the longitudinal wall surface of the slit and partially expose the side surface of the socket to the longitudinal wall surface, and penetrate in parallel to each other. A contact probe support cover, which is inserted and attached.