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News from BiTS
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
As the 8th annual Burn-in Test and Socket Workshop (BiTS) March 1114 in Mesa, AZ draws to a close, SMT collected news, events, and products around the industry focused on test, sockets, and the event. Following is news from Antares, Advanced Interconnect, Aries, FormFactor, and more.
The BiTS program hosted more than 25 paper presentations, covering socketing and related industries, and housed more than 50 exhibitors in the sold-out BiTS EXPO. Keynote speaker Steve Appleton, CEO and president, Micron Corporation, was joined by invited speaker Steven Strauss, VP of engineering at Antares, whose perspective on the socketing industry was titled "From the Frying Pan into the Fire; Working on Both Sides of the Tooling Supply Chain." On tutorial day, March 11, Steve Arobio, chief operating officer (COO), Dynamic Test Solutions, led "ATE PCB Design; Performance vs. Design for Manufacturability vs. Time to Test." Charles Cohn, senior analyst for TechSearch International, offered a tutorial on critical issues in IC packaging, reviewing trends in body size, pin count, and package pitch, as well as other issues. For more information on the BiTS Workshop visit our Events page or www.BiTSworkshop.org.
Antares Advanced Test Technologies, based in Vancouver, Wash., also presented four papers: "Elastomeric Interconnects Reliable Enough for Production Test?," with Phoenix Test Arrays; a paper covering socket signal integrity and the impact on ICs and boards; "Minimizing Socket and Board Inductance Using a Novel Decoupling Interposer;" and "The Importance of the Mechanical Interface in Final Test Efficiency."
Ironwood Electronics (Burnsville, Minn.) introduced the SS-BGA256E-01, a high-performance, high-endurance BGA socket designed for 1.0-mm-pitch BGAs, such as Renesas 256 PBGA and Cypress 256 FBGA products. The sockets operate at up to 10-GHz with less than 1-dB insertion loss, and can dissipate up to 7W without added heat sinks. The contactor's self-inductance equals about 0.62-nH per spring-pin (pogo) contact. The product reportedly offers a 500,000 insertion capability with 30-g per ball per insertion. Operating temperatures range from -40°C to +150°C.
Aries Electronics of Frenchtown, N.J., released the ARI-A-7265 test and burn-in socket line for devices with pitches of 0.40 mm and above. These sockets suit chip-scale packages (CSPs), microBGAs, and manual testing of DSP, LGA, SRAM, DRAM, and flash devices. The line encompasses four package sizes: up to 13 mm2, 1427 mm2, up to 40 mm2, and up to 55 mm2. Solderless, pressure-mount compression spring probes allow mounting and removal without excessive hardware. Aries also launched an updated website, www.arieselec.com, with more than 200 full-spec data sheets for zero-insertion-force test sockets, Correct-A-Chip adaptors, BGA and LGA sockets, high-frequency (HF) RF test and burn-in sockets, and other products. Using the site, engineers can request product quotes, review inventory, or search for local distributors, and access company white papers.
FormFactor (Livermore, Calif.) hired Thomas Ho as vice president of applications, responsible for managing the company's global product-applications group for advanced wafer probe-card solutions. He will report to Igor Khandros, Ph.D., CEO. Ho will help create complete solutions to what Khandros refers to as growing wafer-test challenges and falling numbers of internal engineering resources for IC and packaging companies. He will also drive new business growth opportunities. Ho served in various management positions for more than 20 years with automated test equipment (ATE) and engineering firms, most recently as CTO at Credence Systems. He holds a BS in electrical engineering/computer science (University of California at Berkley) and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara.
Texas Instruments' (Dallas, Texas) interconnect business unit developed 0.4- and 0.5-mm burn-in test sockets, incorporating three primary contact designs. The sockets support higher I/O counts in packages and are available for tin/lead and lead-free devices. Contacts leave small witness marks on solder balls, opening to allow package insertion and touching the solder ball above the equator when closed. TI offers BGA memory sockets with small outlines and numerous platforms, as well as removable adapters.
Gold Technologies in San Jose, Calif., secured a patent for a test socket hand-test lid targeting high-volume manufacturing, class- and system-test for multifunctional digital consumer and cellular devices. The vertical cam-lid design provides up to 30:1 mechanical advantage, reportedly allowing fatigue-free testing of moderate to large pin-count devices. Gold developed the product through collaboration with several customers. Operators can remove the hand-testing lid when preparing a socket for ATE use.
Advanced Interconnections Corp. (West Warwick, R.I.) released an advanced BGA socket-adapter system that allows RoHS-exempt manufacturers to attach lead-free packages to tin/lead assemblies without reflow complications. Lead-free packages are soldered to lead-free adapters; PCBs are processed with a standard, tin/lead-terminated socket. The adapter assembly then plugs into the board-mounted socket post-processing. The company also introduced a hybrid socket adapter design, which features male and female pins placed in an interstitial pattern for BGAs and LGAs with 0.65-mm pitch. The design comprises screw-machined terminals with multi-finger contacts in a SMT socket that is 2-mm larger than the package. It suits BGA and LGA design and development processes, production-level socketing, and SMT board-to-board connector applications.
Interconnect Devices, Inc., a spring contact probe, test socket, and interconnect solution manufacturer in Kansas City, Kan., commissioned a spring-probe evaluation by Contech Research, an independent test-and-research laboratory, on four spring probes used in harsh medical environments. The devices experienced no physical damage, contact interruption below 1 µsec., and low resistance. The study, "Mechanical Shock and Random Vibration Testing on IDI Probes," is available from the manufacturer. IDI's medical contact product line integrates contacts into medical connector assemblies with high-reliability features.
Advanced Packaging and SMT Magazines are sole media sponsors of the BiTS Workshop.