EVALUATING TECHNOLOGIES FOR TESTING HIGH SPEED HIGH DENSITY BALL GRID ARRAY PACKAGES

摘要

Very high clock speeds (GHz range), fine pin densities (below 0.8 mm pitch) and high pin counts (over 1000) are becoming common in integrated circuits. Packaging for such devices must feature finer interconnections as well as better electrical and thermal performance. Testing and troubleshooting these high-speed and high-density Integrated Circuit (IC) packages requires an innovative solution to the challenges of designing a high-quality, high-speed socket for test, burn-in, development and production stages. Testing can be classified into two categories — IC level and System level. IC level testing involves evaluating life and performance of the IC devices such as Microprocessors, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), and Microcontrollers. System level testing involves evaluating the functional application of those devices under different environments. Both kinds of testing need different sets of criteria for validating the final product. The intention of this paper is to compare two interconnect technologies (embedded wire on elastomer and spring probes) for testing high speed, high density IC packages to meet IC and System level characteristics. Both these technologies are compression style solder-less contactors. Experimental test results include continuity resistance measured using 4-wire setting, thermal cycling, compression force characteristics, current carrying capacity, stress analysis and endurance characteristics. A SPICE-compatible lumped element model for high frequency application is addressed for each contactor.