High density probe card

Claim 1

A method of forming a high density epoxy ring probe card for enabling testing apparatus to contact and test unsevered large scale integrated circuit dies replicatively formed on a planar semiconductor wafer, said method comprising the steps of: forming a unitary printed circuit board with a central opening, a first set of conductive traces on a lower major surface thereof, and a second set of traces formed on an upper major surface thereof, there being in number at least as many traces as there are probes of said probe card to be formed; forming a probe array by: forming an annular frame, forming said two sets of spaced apart discrete wire probes by: spacing said first set of probes adjacently apart from the second set thereof so that said first set lies in a first cone and the said second set lies in a second cone substantially congruent with the first cone, and wherein the probes of said first set are interleaved in vertical cross section with respect to the probes of said second set, adapting said first set of probes for electrical connection to said first set of traces located entirely within an outer region on said lower surace and adapting said second set of probes for electrical connection to said second set of traces on said upper surface, via an inner region formed entirely inside of and separated from the outer region by a separation zone on the lower surface, and bonding said sets to said annular frame by curable resin material in alignment position relative to respective connection pads of each said die, aligning and mounting said formed array in said central opening with curable resin material, and electrically connecting said probes of said second set to said second set of traces via the lower surface and electrically connecting said probes of said first set to said first set of traces on the lower surface, so that said probe card is formed with a capacity for providing a probe wire plan view density of not less than 0.7 probes per degree of rotation about a center axis of and normal to said central opening of said unitary printed circuit board.

Claim 2

A method of forming a high density epoxy ring probe card for enabling testing apparatus to contact and test unsevered large scale integrated circuit dies replicatively formed on a planar semiconductor wafer, said method comprising the steps of: forming a unitary printed circuit board with a central opening, a first set of conductive traces on a lower major surface thereof, and a second set of traces formed on an upper major surface thereof, there being in number at least as many traces as there are probes of said probe card to be formed; forming a probe array by: forming an annular frame, forming said two sets of spaced apart discrete wire probes by: spacing said first set of probes adjacently apart from the second set thereof so that said first set lies in a first cone and the said second set lies in a second cone substantially congruent with the first cone, and wherein the probes of said first set are interleaved in vertical cross section with respect to the probes of said second set, adapting said first set of probes for electrical connection to said first set of traces located entirely within an outer region on said lower surace and adapting said second set of probes for electrical connection to said second set of traces on said upper surface, via an inner region formed entirely inside of and separated from the outer region by a separation zone on the lower surface, and bonding said sets to said annular frame by curable resin material in alignment position relative to respective connection pads of each said die, aligning and mounting said formed array in said central opening with curable resin material, and electrically connecting said probes of said second set to said second set of traces via the lower surface and electrically connecting said probes of said first set to said first set of traces on the lower surface, so that said probe card is formed with a capacity for providing a probe wire plan view density of not less than 0.7 probes per degree of rotation about a center axis of and normal to said central opening of said unitary printed circuit board.