Pyramid Probe Card Technology
Products
Cascade Microtech has developed our own patented clean-room processes for depositing, lithographic patterning, etching and plating probe structures on flexible substrates that are similar to the processes used in making semiconductor chips.
These processes have allowed us to develop Pyramid Probe cores with high frequency electrical connections and probe tips that are close together to address narrow pitch requirements. These processes have also enabled us to develop our proprietary MicroScrub probe tip design, which improves probe contact while minimizing bond pad damage during touch-downs.
The Challenges
As feature sizes decrease, bond pads become smaller and the distance between the centers of adjacent pads or pitch decreases. In addition, all probe touch-downs deform the bond pad metal and can cause damage to the material surrounding the bond pad if the probe tip is misaligned. Damage to material surrounding bond pads results in diminished yields. Excessive bond pad damage can cause unreliable electrical connections to the pads when the chip is packaged. [View more]
Pyramid Probe Card Advantages
Cascade’s Pyramid Probe Card responds to these challenges in a way that traditional needle probe technology cannot. Known Good-Die (KGD) - Ship KGD to customers. Multi-Chip Modules - Reduce package or module scrap. Better screening, bin sort - Increase yield with less guard-banding of specs. Test device desings at wafer - No expensive package development to test designs [View more]
Interfacing
Pyramid Probe Cards operate in numerous combinations of automated wafer probe and automated test equipment (ATE) environments. These environments typically include an ATE tester with docking head, a prober, and an interface module with several components. [View more]
Cascade Microtech's Thin Film Technology
Probe tips, as well as the metal layers and vias between layers, are photolithographically defined and processed using methods similar to semiconductor manufacturing. Layers of polyimide on the top and bottom of the membrane encapsulate the conductors so that the only exposed contacts are the probe tips. Non-oxidizing nickel alloy probe tips are plated and connected to the different conductor layers through vias. [View more]
