• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.34-38
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• 2012

We have developed a cost effective test socket for ball grid array(BGA) integrated circuit(IC) packages using BeCu metal sheet as a test probe. The BeCu furnishes the best combination of electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance. The probe of the test socket was designed with a BeCu cantilever. The cantilever was designed with a length of 450 ${\mu}m$, a width of 200 ${\mu}m$, a thickness of 10 ${\mu}m$, and a pitch of 650 ${\mu}m$ for $11{\times}11$ BGA. The fabrication of the test socket used techniques such as through-silicon-via filling, bonding silicon wafer and BeCu metal sheet with dry film resist(DFR). The test socket is applicable for BGA IC chip.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.23.2-23.2
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• 2008

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.497-502
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• 2008

BGA test sockets failed earlier than the expected life-time due to abnormal signal delay, shown especially at the low temperature ($-50^{\circ}C$). Analysis of failed sockets was conducted by EDX, AES, and XRD. A SnO layer contaminated with C was found to form on the surface of socket pins. The formation of SnO layer was attributed to the repeated Sn transfer from BGA balls to pin surface and instant oxidation of fresh Sn. As a result, contact resistance increased, inducing signal delay. Abnormal signal delay at the low temperature was attributed to the increasing resistivity of Sn oxide with decreasing temperature, as manifested by the resistance measurement of $SnO_2$.

• 한국금형공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.175-181
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• 2008

The technologies of mold design, manufacturing, injection molding process and computer aided engineering(CAE) are developed rapidly with the growth of plastic product market. Injection molding process optimum design can not be easily determined. This study was determined factors and levels which carried out to analyze an influence of narrow pitch BGA socket warpage and performed investigating the main effect and interaction effect between factors using design of experiment. The result of this paper is injection time and packing pressure are affect on narrow pitch BGA socket warpage at injection molding.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.1-5
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• 2010

We developed a novel micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) test socket using silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate with the cantilever array structure. We designed the round shaped cantilevers with the maximum length of $350{\mu}m$, the maximum width of $200{\mu}m$ and the thickness of $10{\mu}m$ for $650{\mu}m$ pitch for 8 mm x 8 mm area and 121 balls square ball grid array (BGA) packages. The MEMS test socket was fabricated by MEMS technology using metal lift off process and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) silicon etcher and so on. The MEMS test socket has a simple structure, low production cost, fine pitch, high pin count and rapid prototyping. We verified the performances of the MEMS test sockets such as deflection as a function of the applied force, path resistance between the cantilever and the metal pad and the contact resistance. Fabricated cantilever has 1.3 gf (gram force) at $90{\mu}m$ deflection. Total path resistance was less than $17{\Omega}$. The contact resistance was approximately from 0.7 to $0.75{\Omega}$ for all cantilevers. Therefore the test socket is suitable for BGA integrated circuit (IC) packages tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.383-386
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• 2007

In this study, the analysis was carried out for Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) characteristics of the Cu electrodes by LIGA process. The shape of electrodes has 324 pins for the cavity of BGA(Ball Grid Array) type test socket mold. BGA test sockets are used in the inspection process of the semi-conductor I.C chip manufacturing. In the work, the machining performance for EDM of the electrodes was analyzed on dimensional accuracy and wear rate. The dimensional accuracy was measured for dimension of the pins, pitch size between the pins and the roundness of corner edge using optical measuring machine.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.73-76
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• 2010

A two-facet approach was used to investigate the parametric performance of functional high-speed DDR3 (Double Data Rate) DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) die placed in different types of BGA (Ball Grid Array) packages: wire-bonded BGA (FBGA, Fine Ball Grid Array), flip-chip (FCBGA) and lead-bonded $microBGA^{(R)}$. In the first section, packaged live DDR3 die were tested using automatic test equipment using high-resolution shmoo plots. It was found that the best timing and voltage margin was obtained using the lead-bonded microBGA, followed by the wire-bonded FBGA with the FCBGA exhibiting the worst performance of the three types tested. In particular the flip-chip packaged devices exhibited reduced operating voltage margin. In the second part of this work a test system was designed and constructed to mimic the electrical environment of the data bus in a PC's CPU-Memory subsystem that used a single DIMM (Dual In Line Memory Module) socket in point-to-point and point-to-two-point configurations. The emulation system was used to examine signal integrity for system-level operation at speeds in excess of 6 Gb/pin/sec in order to assess the frequency extensibility of the signal-carrying path of the microBGA considered for future high-speed DRAM packaging. The analyzed signal path was driven from either end of the data bus by a GaAs laser driver capable of operation beyond 10 GHz. Eye diagrams were measured using a high speed sampling oscilloscope with a pulse generator providing a pseudo-random bit sequence stimulus for the laser drivers. The memory controller was emulated using a circuit implemented on a BGA interposer employing the laser driver while the active DRAM was modeled using the same type of laser driver mounted to the DIMM module. A custom silicon loading die was designed and fabricated and placed into the microBGA packages that were attached to an instrumented DIMM module. It was found that 6.6 Gb/sec/pin operation appears feasible in both point to point and point to two point configurations when the input capacitance is limited to 2pF.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.545-551
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• 2012

In semiconductor manufacturing, the circuit integrity of packaged BGA devices is tested by measuring electrical resistance using test sockets. Test sockets have been reported to often fail earlier than the expected life-time due to high contact resistance. This has been attributed to the formation of Sn oxide films on the Au coating layer of the probe pins loaded on the socket. Similar to contact failure, and known as "fretting", this process widely occurs between two conductive surfaces due to the continual rupture and accumulation of oxide films. However, the failure mechanism at the probe pin differs from fretting. In this study, the microstructural processes and formation mechanisms of Sn oxide films developed on the probe pin surface were investigated. Failure analysis was conducted mainly by FIB-FESEM observations, along with EDX, AES, and XRD analyses. Soft and fresh Sn was found to be transferred repeatedly from the solder bump to the Au surface of the probe pins; it was then instantly oxidized to SnO. The $SnO_2$ phase is a more stable natural oxide, but SnO has been proved to grow on Sn thin film at low temperature (< $150^{\circ}C$). Further oxidation to $SnO_2$ is thought to be limited to 30%. The SnO film grew layer by layer up to 571 nm after testing of 50,500 cycles (1 nm/100 cycle). This resulted in the increase of contact resistance and thus of signal delay between the probe pin and the solder bump.