JPH03139853A - Manufacture of probe supporting ring - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize the determination of the shape of a supporting ring simply and to make the free-end length of a probe equal by determining an occupied area model having a length which is longer than the length from the contact position of the probe to the inner diameter of the supporting ring. CONSTITUTION:At first, parameters are set in preparation for computation for manufacturing a ring. Various kinds of parameters are not necessarily fixed but can be changed in the middle of computation as required. Then, an occupied area model M which can include a groove 38 for the probe 14 is determined. The size of the occupied area model M for determining the position of the groove 38 of a supporting ring 30 and the machining data for the inner diameter can be changed variously in conformity with the shape of the probe 14. In order to make the free end length of the probe 14 constant, at least only the inner-diameter machining data of the supporting ring 30 are obtained based on the occupied area model M. Outer-diameter machining data are obtained by drawing a locus at a position which is separated by a constant distance L from each position of the inner-diameter machining data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a support ring for a probe needle.

(Prior Art) A probe needle 10 that tests the electrical characteristics of each chip by contacting the electrode pads of each chip on a semiconductor wafer.
As shown in FIGS. 14(A) and (B), the output terminal 1
2a and a printed circuit board 1 having a radial pattern 12b
2, probe needles 14 which are probe needles connected to the pattern on the printed circuit board 12, and a support ring 16 having grooves 16a for arraying and supporting the large number of probe needles 14.

By the way, the support ring 16 has a free end length of each probe needle 14! It was necessary to keep the distance constant and to insulate and support the probe needles 14, making it extremely difficult to determine their shape.

That is, for a rectangular chip as shown in FIG. 15, the contact position of the probe needle 14, that is, the IC
Using the 20 electrode pads 22 as a reference, draw an arc with a different center, radius, etc. for each side of the IC 20, and insert the probe needle 14.
The free end length! was set to be almost constant by arc approximation.

The above technique is described in many publications such as Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-43091.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) According to the method described above, the free end length of the probe needle 14! Since the shape of the support ring 16 was approximately approximated to an ellipse so that the length of the free end was approximately constant, the length of the free end! There was some variation.

When the overdrive amount is constant, the stylus pressure F of each probe needle becomes F-/l", and if the free end lengths are different, the stylus pressure of the probe needle 14, that is, the contact pressure will be different, and correct measurement will not be possible. There will be cases where this is not possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a support ring for a probe needle, which allows the shape of the support ring to be easily determined and also allows the free end lengths of the probe needles to be made equal.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) When manufacturing a support ring formed with grooves for arraying and supporting a large number of probe needles, the present invention provides a support ring having a width equal to or larger than the thickness of the probe needles. and has a length longer than the length from the contact position of the probe needle to the inner diameter of the support ring, and this occupied area model is designed to interfere with each other based on each contact position of the probe needle. and determining the inner diameter of the support ring for each probe needle based on an inner line connecting a position a predetermined free end length of the probe needle from the inner position of each occupied area model,
Further, the method is characterized in that the groove position is determined in each occupied area model and then machined.

(Function) According to the present invention, an occupied area model corresponding to the groove for positioning the probe needle is set in advance, and the occupied area models are arranged based on the probe needle contact position so as not to interfere with each other. Since the inner diameter and groove position of the support ring are determined based on the above, the shape of the support ring can be easily determined, and the length of the free end of the probe needle can all be made constant.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of a method for manufacturing a support ring to which the invention is applied will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

First, the attachment of the probe needle to the support ring will be explained with reference to FIG. 13.

(2) The template 42 is positioned and fixed at the lower center of the needle holder 40 by a positioning mechanism (not shown).

■ Attach and position the needle placement diagram on side A of the needle placement stand 40 to complete the assembly jig.

After this, it is preferable to apply a mold release agent on eight surfaces of the needle placement stand 40 to prevent adhesion between the support ring 30 and the needle placement stand 40, which will be placed later.

(2) Insert the needle tip of the probe 14 into the needle tip positioning hole 42a of the template 42, and place the probe needle 14 on the needle placement stand 40 so that the needle tip is aligned with the line on surface A. Then, all the required number of probe needles 14 are arranged on the needle placement stand 40 of the assembly jig.

(2) Inject a required amount of non-quick-drying adhesive such as epoxy resin into the groove 38 of the support ring 30 manufactured as described below.

■ Align the support ring 30 with respect to the needle holder 40,
As shown in FIG. 13, it is brought into contact with the probe needle 14 from above.

(2) After confirming that all the probe needles 14 are fitted into the predetermined grooves 38 of the support ring 30, the assembly jig is placed in a drying oven to harden the adhesive.

(2) After the adhesive has hardened, the support ring 30 is removed from the assembly jig, thereby completing the assembly in which the probe needle 14 is attached to the support ring 32.

Thereafter, the probe needle 14 is completed by connecting the base portion of the probe needle 14 to the radial pattern 12b of the printed circuit board 12 shown in FIG. 14(A) by soldering or the like.

In this embodiment, required data is transmitted as necessary to various machine tools, blocks, etc. connected online to a computer equipped with a CAM (or CAD) function, and the following steps (a) to (e) are performed. can be processed or manufactured automatically.

(a) Processing of the external shape of the support ring 30 This is processed as shown in FIG. 10. That is,
Hole portion 32 defined by inner diameter d1. An outer edge 34 defined by the outer diameter d2 and a slope 36 on which the probe needles 14 are arranged.
Process etc. Note that the hole portion 32 and the outer edge portion 34 are not necessarily perfectly circular.

(b) The groove 38 of the support ring 30 has been grooved. (Te) The hole 42a of the template 42 has been drilled (shown).The needle arrangement diagram attached to the A part of the needle holder 40Furthermore, if necessary, (e) Form a film on which the electrode arrangement of the object to be measured to be measured with the completed probe needle is printed in actual size.

This is used to confirm the positional accuracy of the tip of the probe needle when the actual circuit under test is not available.

In this embodiment, the length of the free end of the probe needle protruding inward from the hole 32 of the support ring 30 is determined by performing the above-described machining using various machining mechanisms connected online to the computer as described above. By keeping constant,
The needle pressure of each probe needle 14 can be kept constant.

Setting of Parameters When producing the above-mentioned (a) to (e), the following parameters are set in preparation for the calculations. Below (1)
) to (11) are shown in Fig. 2(A),
(B) corresponds to the symbols shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and these various parameters are not necessarily fixed and can be changed during the calculation as necessary.

(1) Probe needle free end length! For example, 5.5wn5
(2) Diameter D For example 0.25m
m(3)〃 Taber length T For example 4III
11(4) 〃 Diameter of bend 114g d For example, 0.07 order (5) 〃
Minimum gear g For example 0.
02mm (6) Support ring width L For example 5.
0m (7) Support ring groove width W 0.
3m So (8)〃 Wall width (old n) Ga1n
0.1 m+* (9) Printed circuit board product name - Register data such as external dimensions, edge index, terminal number, and terminal arrangement.

(10) Center line of probe needle 14 and connection tip 12a
Allowable deviation amount δ (Max) in the direction perpendicular to the center needle.

For example, δ-±3 (am) or ±3°.

(11) Needle tip movement amount due to overdrive Setting of S variableNext, the variables necessary for determining the external dimensions are the various variables (1) and (2) shown below.

(1) Pad number and its coordinates...P+ (x+ +
Y+ )+P2 (X2, Y2)*...P
n (X++, Va) (2) Connection destination of each pad・
・・Correspondence between pad number and printed circuit board terminal number P, -Am, P2-A I, -・-P, -Ax
Verification of Occupied Area Model M Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, an occupied area model M that can include the groove 38 for the probe needle 14 is determined. The dimensions required for this are as follows.

Probe needle: D-〇, 25. d-0,07,g-0
, 02 Support groove part 2 W-0.3, G-0, 1 The tip width d' of the occupied rear model M is, for example, d'-d + 0
．． 02-0.09 and calculate the dimension X shown in Figure 6 under the above conditions: x-d' + (W+G-d') mm probe needle 14
When using the above occupied area model M, if adjacent occupied area models M are arranged so as not to interfere with each other, the minimum wall width G on the support ring 30 can be ensured and contact with the adjacent probe needle 14 can be avoided. It can be seen that this can be guaranteed. Also, by using the probe needle 14 with different dimensions from the above example, the free end length can be adjusted! Even if the numerical values are different, it is sufficient to verify the occupied model area M in advance as in the case of upper tsuba.

Calculation (data creation) procedure (1) As shown in Figure 7, center the chip 20 at (x,
A pad layout diagram is created using the center coordinate values of each pad 22 as the origin (0,0) of the y) coordinate.

(2) As shown in FIG. 8, if y>Q, set the pad closest to the y-axis as P, (x,, yn).

(3) Connect P and the corresponding connection destination (output terminal) Ax on the printed circuit board 12 with a straight line, and connect P and
(The size of Mn is assumed to be M) (4) As shown in FIG.
, +, to the left and right of the line connecting A x + I, P
The model M is rotated within a range of ±δ with n+1 as the center of rotation, and its trajectory plane is defined as M0+1. At this time, M# and M 6 + 1 are made to touch each other and not overlap.

(5) As shown in Fig. 1, connect the adjacent pad P fl+2 on the opposite side of P, +1 and its connection destination A Rotate M and set its locus plane to M n +2.

At this time, M , , + l and M n + 2 may overlap each other, but a non-overlapping portion of at least M size is secured on the side closer to M7.

(6) M7+ that does not overlap with M and 2 by the operation in (5).

M, so that the deviation amount δfi is minimized within the area of
+, is positioned with the size of M.

(7) After that, repeat the operations (5) and (6) to determine the position of M for all pads.

(8) After completing (7), the positions of each M are adjusted and averaged again so that the intervals between all M's are averaged, and the positioning is completed.

(9) Each M (M +) positioned by (8).

...M n , M +++1 + ...) from the base point (pad),! Connect the points closer to the needle base side with a smooth curve using the circular interpolation function, etc., and attach the support ring 30.
(see Figure 9). At this time, if there is a place where this shape is unnatural (this may occur if there is a place where the distance between adjacent pads is extremely wide), manually change the dummy shape. By setting points, you can modify the shape to look natural.

Similarly, each occupied area model M (M, ,...Ml
l+...), the outer contour of the support ring 30 is obtained.

Machining data and processing (1) Support ring outer shape processing Based on the data of ① to ③ below, the outer shape of the support ring is processed using a vertical 3-axis NC milling cutter.

■Inner diameter machining data: Use the tool radius correction function, and the point that is inward from the inner diameter line in item (9) by the radius of the cutter becomes the position where the cutter should pass.

■Outer diameter machining data: The tool diameter correction function is used, and the point closer to the outside becomes the position where the cutter should pass.

■Slanted surface (jl is cut by i): As shown in FIG. 11, a cutter 50 with a predetermined cutting edge angle and a radius larger than L is used. The position where the cutter 50 should pass may be set a certain amount a outside of the outer diameter machining line (2).

By cutting the support ring 30 by using the cutter 50 having a predetermined cutting edge angle and always setting the center of the cutter 50 a certain distance a outside the outer machining line of the support ring 30, The slope 36 of 30 is cut at the same angle as the cutting edge angle of the cutter 50 no matter which cross section it is taken. Therefore, the angle of the slope 36 of this support ring 30 is kept constant, and the length of the free end of the probe needle 14 is maintained constant as described above. If this can be made constant, the tip positions of the probe needles 14 supported by the grooves formed on the slopes 36 of the support ring 30 can be set on the same plane. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the contact positions of a large number of probe needles 14 from varying in this height direction.

(2) Support ring groove cutting Process the support ring groove using a horizontal 4-axis (X, Y, Z, θ) NC milling cutter or a dicing machine with equivalent functionality. The processed data is obtained by converting the position data of the occupied area model M into θ data and X/Y data. Note that since the angle of the slope of the support ring is constant, for Z-axis control, a program for time control between the X-axis (or Y-axis) and the two axes may be provided as a subroutine.

(3) Hole drilling in the template The position of the hole 42a in the template 42 is a position moved by a certain amount S from the position of the pad 22 toward the needle base on the center line of each M, as shown in FIG. This is because the needle tip shifts toward the needle tip due to overdrive.

Using the support ring 30 and template 42 manufactured as described above, the probe is inserted into the valley groove 38 of the support ring 30 by performing the assembly work according to the steps ■ to ■ previously explained with reference to FIG. 13. The needles 14 can be arranged and fixed. Moreover, at this time, the length of the free end of the probe needle 14 that protrudes inward from the inner diameter line of the support ring 30! are all equal, and since the angle of the slope 36 of the support ring 30 is constant, the tip positions of the probe needles 14 can all be set on the same plane, and variations in the height direction can be reliably prevented. Then, the probe needles can be completed by connecting the base portions of the probe needles 14 arranged and fixed on the support ring 30 to the radial pattern 12b of the printed circuit board 12 by soldering or the like.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

For example, the position of the groove 38 of the support ring 30 and the size of the occupied area model M for determining its inner diameter machining data can be variously changed according to the shape of the probe needle 14. Yudancho! In order to keep constant, it is only necessary to obtain at least the inner diameter machining data of the support ring 30 based on the occupied area model M. Therefore, the length in the longitudinal direction of the occupied area model M is smaller than the contact position of the probe needle 14. Any material having a length equal to or longer than the inner diameter of the support ring 30 may be used. The outer diameter machining data can be obtained by drawing a trajectory at a position a certain distance away from each position of the inner diameter machining data obtained as described above.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, an occupied area model is determined in advance according to the shape of the probe needle, and this occupied area model is set based on each contact position of the probe needle so as not to interfere with each other. The inner diameter machining data and groove machining data of the support ring can be easily obtained based on each occupied area model arranged in sequence, and by using the support ring obtained in this way, the probe needle It is possible to provide a support ring for a probe needle that can always keep the length of the free end constant, reduce variations in contact pressure during measurement, and perform accurate measurements.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a method of arranging occupied area models so as not to interfere with each other in the support ring manufacturing method to which the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 2(A) and (B)
3 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining the shape of the probe needle, FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining the positional relationship between the electrode pad and the probe needle, and FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining the positional relationship between the electrode pad and the probe needle. 5 and 6 are schematic explanatory diagrams for explaining the shape and dimensions of the occupied area model, respectively. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the coordinates of the electrode pads. Figure 8 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining the positional relationship. Figure 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining the initial setting positions of occupied area models. Figure 9 is a diagram of occupied area models arranged so as not to interfere with each other. A schematic explanatory diagram for explaining a method of setting inner diameter machining data and outer diameter machining data of a support ring, FIG. 10 is a schematic sectional view of the support ring, and FIG. 11 is a method of cutting the slope of the support ring. 12 is a schematic sectional view for explaining the amount of displacement of the probe needle due to overdrive of the object during measurement; FIG. 13 is a support ring and its assembly jig. 14(A) and 14(B) are a plan view and a sectional view of the probe needle, respectively. FIG. 15 is a conventional method for setting the outer shape processing data of the support ring. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining. 0... Probe needle, 2... Printed circuit board, 4... Probe needle, 0... Measured object (IC chip), 2... Electrode pad, 30... Support ring, 6...・
Slope, 38...Groove, 2...Template,! ... Long end.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) When manufacturing a support ring formed with grooves for arraying and supporting a large number of probe needles, the support ring should have a width greater than the thickness of the probe needles, and be closer to the contact position of the probe needles. Determine an occupied area model having a length equal to or longer than the length reaching the inner diameter, arrange these occupied area models so as not to interfere with each other based on each contact position of the probe needle, and set the occupied area model in advance from the inner position of each occupied area model. Determine the inner diameter of the support ring for each probe needle based on the inner line connecting the positions separated by the determined free end length of the probe needle,
A method for manufacturing a support ring for a probe needle, characterized in that the groove position is determined in each occupied area model and then machined.