Living daily with "monster" probe cards

Abstract

This not so seriously named title gives a hint to the breathtaking developments that have taken place in probing technologies during the last eight years. Breathtaking in two aspects: development speed and technology changes. High throughput and a fast ramp up in a 300 mm wafer test are connected with the using of ultrahigh parallel probe cards. Hard daily work and new thinking is necessary to earn these fruits really. To have a high production usage is a fight. What's new and what are the main challenges as well? At the beginning stand a new culture of partnership between probe card manufacturer and customer. It will be shown that this is a cooperation in each stage, connected with compromise less know how exchange and communication. The expanded engineering tasks and approaches make a transition from "probe card" to "probing process" engineering necessary. Finally a whole new handling concept is indispensable to make the LAA probe card usage successful.