A BiCMOS active substrate probe-card technology for digital testing

Author

Zargari, Masoud ; Leung, Justin ; Wong, S. Simon ; Wooley, Bruce A.

Author_Institution

Center for Integrated Syst., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

34

Issue

8

fYear

1999

fDate

8/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1118

Lastpage

1135

Abstract

An active substrate silicon probe card has been implemented by forming a polyimide membrane on a silicon substrate. The probe card combines tungsten probe tips and aluminum interconnects in the polyimide membrane with active test circuitry integrated in the substrate. A monolithic prototype of the probe card designed to enhance the capabilities of conventional digital test systems has been fabricated in a 2-μm BiCMOS technology. The benefits of the proposed probe-card technology could be further exploited by integrating the timing measurement unit of a digital tester into the probe-card substrate. An integrated tester architecture based on time digitization is described. A prototype of a tester combining a time digitizer and two test channels has been integrated in a 0.6 μm BiCMOS technology. The time digitizer in the experimental circuit employs a two-stage ring oscillator that is phase-locked to an external reference and makes use of phase interpolation to achieve a timing resolution of 90 ps

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; automatic test equipment; integrated circuit testing; phase locked loops; probes; silicon; substrates; timing circuits; tungsten; 0.6 micron; 2 micron; 90 ps; ATE; Al; Al interconnects; BiCMOS technology; Si; Si substrate; W; W probe tips; active substrate probe-card technology; active test circuitry; digital testing; integrated tester architecture; monolithic prototype; phase interpolation; polyimide membrane; silicon probe card; time digitization; timing measurement unit; two-stage ring oscillator; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Biomembranes; Circuit testing; Integrated circuit technology; Polyimides; Probes; Prototypes; Silicon; Timing; Tungsten;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.777110

Filename

777110