• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2012

Probe tip, which should have not only superior electrical characteristics but also good abrasion resistance for numerous contacts with semiconductor pads to confirm their availability, is essential for MEMS probe card. To obtain good durability of probe tip, it needs thick and crack-free rhodium layer on the tip. However, when the rhodium thickness deposited by electroplating increased, unwanted cracks by high internal stress led to serious problem of MEMS probe tip. This article reported the method of thick Rh deposition with Au buffer layer on the probe tip to overcome the problem of high internal stress and studied mechanical and electrical properties of that. MEMS probe tip with double-Rh layer had good contact resistance and durability during long term touch downs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1210-1215
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• 2010

The probe card are test modules which are to classify the good semiconductor chips and thin film before the packaging process. In the rapid growth a technology of semiconductor, the number of pads per unit area is increasing and pad arrays are becoming irregular. Therefore, the technology of probe card needs narrow width and lots of probe tip. In this paper, the probe tip based on the MEMS(Micro Electro Mechanical System)technology was developed a new MEMS probe tip for vertical probe card applications. For the structural designs of probe tip were performed to mechanical characteristics and structural analysis using FEM(Finite Element Method). Also, the contact force of MEMS probe tip compared with FEM results and experimental results. Finally, the MEMS probe card was developed a fine pitch smaller than $50{\mu}m$.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1718-1723
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• 2007

The Probe Card is a test component which is to classify the good semiconductor chips before the packaging. The yield of semiconductor product can be better from analysis of probe test information. Recently the technology of the probe card needs narrow width and large amount of probe tip. In this research, the probe tip based on the MEMS(micro electro mechanical system) technology was designed and fabricated to improve the reliability of the test and to meet 2-dimensional Array of tip. The mechanical and electrical properties of proposed tip were evaluated and it has over 100,000 of repetition times in the condition of 5gf, $20{\mu}m$ Over Drive.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.4C no.4
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• pp.149-154
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• 2004

This paper presents a silicon probe tip for vertical probe card application. The silicon probe tip was fabricated using MEMS technology such as porous silicon micromachining and deep- RIE (reactive ion etching). The thickness of the silicon epitaxial layers was 5 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and 7 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, respectively. The width and length were 40 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and 600 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, respectively. The probe structure was a multilayered structure and was composed of Au/Ni-Cr/Si$_3$N$_4$/n-epi layers. The height of the curled probe tip was measured as a function of the annealing temperature and time. Resistance characteristics of the probe tip were measured using a touchdown test.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.361-364
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• 2008

Tips of probe card were fabricated using MEMS technology. P-type silicon wafer with $SiO_2$ layer was used as a substrate for fabricating the probe card. Ni-Cr and Au used as seed layer for electroplating Ni were deposited on the silicon wafer. Line patterns for probing devices were formed on silicon wafer by electroplating Ni through mold which formed by MEMS technology. Bridge structure was formed by wet-etching the silicon substrate. AZ-1512 photoresist was used for protection layer of back side and DNB-H100PL-40 photoresist was used for patterning of the front side. The mold with the thickness of $60{\mu}m$ was also formed using THB-120N photoresist and probe tip with thickness of $50{\mu}m$ was fabricated by electroplating process.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

We have developed the process of forming one body S-type cantilever probe in the recessed trench for fine-pitched MEMS probe card. The probe (cantilever beam and pyramid tip) was formed using Deep RIE etching and wet etching. The pyramid tip was formed by the wet etching using KOH and TMAH. The process of forming the curved probe was also developed by the wet etching. Therefore, the fabricated probe is applicable for the probe card for DRAM, Flash memory and RF devices tests and probe tip for IC test socket.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2007

Probe card is a test component which is to classify the known good die with electrical contact before the packaging in the ATE (automatic testing equipment). Conventional probe tip was mostly needle type, it has been difficult to meet with conventional type, because of decreasing chip size, pad to pad pitch and pads size increasingly. For that reason, probe cards using MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) technology have been developed for various semiconductor chips. In this paper, Area Array type MEMS Probe tip was designed,, fabricated, and characterized its mechanical and electrical properties. The authors found that good electrical characteristics under $1{\Omega}$ were acquired with gold (Au) and aluminium (Al) pad contact test over 0.5gf and 4gf respectively. And, contact resistance variation under $0.1{\Omega}$ were achieved with 100,000 times of repetition test. And, insertion loss (IS) for high frequency operation was ascertained over 300MHz at -3dB loss.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.152-152
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• 2008

Micro probe with Ni-Co tip was designed. Unit processes for fabricating the micro probe were developed. We are investigated the micro probe tip using by Ni-Co alloy. One-step and three-step needle was fabricated by plating process, CMP, and photolithography process. The plating thickness was varied by current density and time. Futher data will be extract by different process conditions.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.362-367
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• 2014

We report the design, fabrication of a $Si_3N_4$ probe and calculation of its mechanical properties for DPN(dip pen nanolithography), which consists of dual tips. Concept of dual tip probe is to employ individual tips on probe as either an AFM tip for imaging or a writing tip for nano patterning. For this, the dual tip probe is fabricated using low residual stress $Si_3N_4$ material with LPCVD deposition and MEMS fabrication process. On the basis of FEM analysis we show that the functionality of dual tip probe for imaging is dependent on the dimensions of dual tip probe, and high ratio of widths of beam areas is preferred to minimize curvature variation on probe.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.152-152
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• 2009

We investigate micro-tip properties as Ni-Co plating and CMP processes for MEMS probe card and units. The micro-tip are fabricated by using Ni-Co plating machine, lapping machine, and chemo-mechanical polisher. In order to get high conductive and reliable micro-tip, we control Co contents and thickness by CMP speed. We have found that about 20-25% of Co contents are required and have to lapping speed of 30 rpm. Also, we investigate photolithography and Ni-Co plating processes conditions for the one-step and the three-step micro-tips.