• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.592-596
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• 2008

Spring constants (displacement per unit applied load) of MEMS socket pins of given structures were computed by theoretical analysis and confirmed by the finite element method (FEM). In the theoretical analysis, the displacement of pins was calculated based on the 2-dimensional bending theory of the curved beam. For the 3-dimensional modeling, CATIA was used. After modeling, the raw data were transferred to ANSYS, which was employed in the 3-dimensional analysis for the calculation of the stress and strain and loaddisplacement The theoretical analysis and the FEM results were found to agree, with each showing the spring constants as 63.4 N/m within a reasonable load range. These results show that spring constants can be easily obtained through theoretical calculation without resorting to experiments and FEM analysis for simple and symmetric structures. For the some change of shape and structural stiffness, this theoretical analysis can be applied to MEMS socket pins.

• 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.