Testing Head Contact Probes With Offset Tips For Reduced Mutual Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current testing heads face challenges in maintaining effective contact between contact probes and closely packed contact pads on electronic devices, particularly with decreasing pitch values and multiple device configurations, leading to positioning issues and increased risk of probe contact.
Innovation Solution
The testing head incorporates contact probes with projecting arms that offset the contact point, allowing for a larger lateral size extension beyond the probe body's diagonal, enabling alternative opposed positions and reducing the risk of probe contact, with rectangular cross-sections and guide holes to ensure precise alignment and prevent rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If contact probes are closely packed to accommodate smaller pitch values, then the testing head can handle modern integrated devices with smaller pitch, but the risk of mutual contact between adjacent probes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The contact probes are arranged in alternatively opposed positions rather than symmetric alignment, creating an asymmetric pattern that increases lateral spacing between adjacent probes while maintaining alignment with contact pads, thereby reducing mutual contact risk despite close packing
Solution Approach 2:
The probe arrangement transitions from a simple linear grid to a two-dimensional alternating pattern, utilizing lateral positioning in addition to vertical alignment, which effectively increases the usable spacing between probes without increasing the overall footprint
2Reliability
If contact probes are positioned to avoid mutual contact, then the risk of probe contact is reduced, but positioning precision and alignment with contact pads becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The probe bodies maintain uniform rectangular cross-sections for precise manufacturing and alignment, while only the contact tips are offset to alternating sides, creating local asymmetry at the contact point without compromising the overall structural precision and ease of manufacturing
Solution Approach 2:
The rectangular cross-section of probe bodies is designed to fit within guide holes that prevent rotation, pre-establishing precise orientation before the probes contact the device, ensuring that the alternating offset positions are maintained with high precision throughout the testing process
3Ease of manufacture
If contact probes have circular cross-section, then manufacturing is simpler, but positioning precision and rotation control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The probe cross-section changes from circular to rectangular, introducing geometric asymmetry that provides inherent orientation references, allowing the probes to be inserted into guide holes in only one rotational position, thereby achieving precise positioning and rotation control
Solution Approach 2:
The rectangular cross-section is designed to match the guide hole geometry, pre-establishing the correct orientation of the probe before insertion, so that the probe is automatically positioned with the correct rotation angle without requiring additional alignment steps during testing
Data Source
AI summary
A testing head for a test equipment of electronic devices of the type includes a plurality of contact probes inserted into guide holes which are realized in at least an upper guide and a lower guide separated one another by an air zone. Each of such contact probes include at least a probe body having a substantially rectangular section and a projecting arm from the probe body which ends with a probe tip for contacting one of a plurality of contact pads of a device to be tested. The projecting arm projects outside the probe body so as to have a lug with respect to both faces of the probe body which converge in an edge in order to define a probe tip offset and external with respect to the probe body.