- ATE:
- Automatic Test Equipment.
- Balanced Contact Force:
- Measured as a « ±% » BCF is the allowable deviation from the floating average contact force.
- Beam length:
- The distance, measure horizontally, from the center of the probe tip to the point the probe enters the epoxy.
- Blade card:
- Probe card that uses ceramic or metallic blades.
- Bond Pad:
- The metalized locations on an integrated circuit where the test probes will make contact.
- Bond Pad Pitch:
- The distance between adjacent bond pad centers.
- Bond Pad Size:
- The measurement of that portion of the bond pad metalization that’s usable for probing.
- Burst Current:
- A current pulse of less than 10ms duration.
- Contact Force:
- The force presented by a probe at overdrive on a bond pad or bump, measured in grams/mil of overdrive (OD).
- Contact Resistance:
- The resistance that occurs at the junction between the probe tip and the device contact surface metalization.
- Dielectric Constant:
- A measure of the ability of the material to resist the formation of an electric field within it.
- Die:
- A single square or rectangular piece of semiconductor material onto which a specific electrical circuit has been fabricated also called a ship or Dut.
- Edge Sensor:
- An edge sensor (E/S) is a two–wire or three-wire probe configuration that forms a switch to detect contact with the wafer.
- Fab-lite:
- Any semiconductor company that out sources less than 75% of it’s wafer manufacturing and is a silicon provider.
- Fabless:
- Any semiconductor company that out sources 75% or greater of its wafer manufacturing and sells silicon to an end-customer.
- Fanout Angle:
- The angle made by a probe with respect to the side of the die, measured from the perpendicular to the die side.
- Floating Average:
- A range of acceptable average values. Applies specifically to contact force.
- FR4:
- A PCB material.
- FWLT:
- Full Wafer Level Test.
- Glassivation:
- Passivation using silicon dioxide as the coating.
- IDM:
- Any integrated device manufacturer that produces 75% of their silicon internally.
- Leakage Current:
- Parasitic loss of current in an electrical circuit.
- Mask:
- A patterned screen, usually of glass, used to allow exposure of selected areas of photoresist-coated wafer by a light source.
- Measure THD:
- Total Harmonic Distortion.
- Micron:
- A metric unit linear measure that equals on millionth of a meter. Same as micrometer (mm); equal to 25,4 µm.
- Mil:
- One Thousandth of an Inch. Equal to 25,4 microns.
- MotherBoard:
- Tool measure probe card.
- Needle:
- Probe.
- OHM (Ω):
- Unit of measurement used for resistance.
- Overdrive:
- Z axis (vertical) distance measurement calculated from the first contact point of the probe to the device surface.
- Passivation:
- A protective coating placed on a wafer surface. Sometimes called glassivation.
- PCB:
- Printed Circuit Board.
- PCB Aperture:
- A hole opened in the center of the pcb to support attachment ring.
- Planarization:
- The ideal probing operation would result in simultaneous contact of all test pads on each and every device across the substrate.
- Polyimide:
- A PCB material that used for probe cards designed for probing temperatures greater than 100°C.
- Probe Angle:
- The angle of the probe shank where it passes through the epoxy relative to the horizontal plane of the PCB.
- Probe Card Analyzer:
- A piece of test equipment used to measure critical probe card parameters.
- Probe Shank:
- The portion of the probe that isn’t tapered.
- Probe Solder Point:
- The location on the PCB where the probe tail is connected.
- Probe Stability:
- The ability of a probe to retain its performance characteristics over time.
- Probe Tail:
- The portion of a probe outside the ring.
- Probe Tip Alignment:
- Probe tip placement at overdrive with respect to the targets on a coordinates glass mask or bond pads on a wafer.
- Probe Tip Depth:
- The distance from the reference plane of a probe card to the plane formed by the probe tips. This is typically measured from the bottom of the pcb to the probe.
- Probe Tip Length:
- The Vertical distance from the tip of the probe to the bend in the probe.
- Probe Tip Shape:
- The contour of the probe tip; typically flat or radiused.
- Probe Tip Diameter:
- The diameter of the wire material from which the finished probe is made.
- Probing:
- A term used to describe the electrical testing that employs very finely tipped probes applied sequentially to a wafer.
- Raidissor:
- Mechanical part above the spider.
- Ring:
- A ceramic or metallic piece machined to proper dimensions to support probes on a PCB.
- Ring Aperture:
- The opening (hole) in the center of the ring.
- Scrub Mark:
- Mark on the contact surface created by scrubbing action as the probe tip moves across the device metalization when over drive is applied.
- SNR:
- Signal to Noise Ratio.
- Spider:
- Assemby ring with needles.
- Stiffener:
- Mechanical part above the PCB.
- Target:
- A shape on a glass mask that represents the final position of the probe tip.
- Tip length:
- Probe tip length is measured from the tip of the probe to the bend in the probe.
- Touchdown:
- The point of initial contact between probe and bond pad. The number of times the probe card is overdriven onto a wafer during the lifetime of the probe card.
- Wafer:
- A thin disk of semiconducting material on which many separate circuits can be fabricated and then cut into individual ICs.
- WLBI:
- Wafer Level Burn In.
- WLCSP:
- Wafer Level Chip Size Package.
- WLT:
- Wafer Level Test.
- Yield:
- The number of acceptable units produced compared to the maximum number.
International System of Units
The 20 SI prefixes used to from decimal multiples and sub-multiples of SI units are shown here:
