A probe for characteristic inspection of a connector includes a plunger, a coaxial cable, a flange, and a housing having an end portion on one side including an increased diameter portion. A recessed portion which receives the increased diameter portion is in an upper surface of the flange. The increased diameter portion has side walls in contact with or facing respective inner side surfaces of the flange partly, with the inner side surfaces forming the recessed portion, and a bottom wall in contact with an upper recessed surface of the flange that forms the recessed portion. The increased diameter portion has connection surfaces connecting the bottom and side walls and inclined inward from one of the side walls toward the bottom wall. Alternatively, the inner side surfaces each have a first surface inclined downward, and a vertical surface extending downward from the first surface to the upper recessed surface.

A test socket for an IC includes a socket body, a rotational contact, and an elastomer retainer. The socket body includes a top surface that faces the IC, and a bottom surface that faces a load board. The socket body defines a slot extending from the top surface to an aperture in the bottom surface. The rotational contact is positioned in the slot. The elastomer retainer captures the rotational contact in the socket body and includes a round section about which the rotational contact rotates. The elastomer retainer compresses under translatory force from the rotational contact when translating from the free state to the pre-load state upon engagement with the load board, and compresses under rotational force from the rotational contact when rotating from the pre-load state to the loaded state upon engagement with the IC.

Pin probes and pin probe arrays are provided that allow electric contact to be made with selected electronic circuit components. Some embodiments include one or more compliant pin elements located within a sheath. Some embodiments include pin probes that include locking or latching elements that may be used to fix pin portions of probes into sheaths. Some embodiments provide for fabrication of probes using multi-layer electrochemical fabrication methods.

A plurality of batteries is stacked, together with spacers, in a compressed state. Charging and discharging units are arranged facing lead terminals protruding from the batteries and are independently operable for the respective batteries. The charging and discharging units each independently include substantially V-like shaped power-side and measurement-side contact elements elastically supported by compression coil springs and having floating freedom. When the batteries are moved all together toward the charging and discharging units, front end surfaces of the lead terminals are pressed against and electrically connected to flat surfaces of the power-side and measurement-side contact elements. By this, it is possible to smoothly perform charging and discharging inspection on the batteries even when the lead terminals protruding from the battery package are subjected in advance to surface treatment.

A probe tip structure that decreases the accumulation rate of Sn particles to the probe tip and enables considerably more efficient and complete laser cleaning is disclosed. In an embodiment, the probe structure includes an array of probe tips, each probe tip having an inner core; an interfacial layer bonded to the inner core; and an outer layer bonded to the interfacial layer, wherein the outer layer is resistant to adherence of the solder of the ball grid array package.

A contact terminal includes a tubular body and a first conductor. The tubular body has an end-side cutout provided in a shape cut out from one axial-direction end surface toward an other axial-direction side at one axial-direction end portion of the tubular body, a hole that is open at the one axial-direction end portion, and a pair of arms interposed between the end-side cutout and the hole. The first conductor includes a first insertion including an inclined portion having an outside diameter gradually increased toward one axial-direction side, and a first straight portion connected to the one axial-direction side of the inclined portion and having an outside diameter constant along the axial direction. The outside diameter of the first straight portion is larger than an inside diameter of the tubular body. The first straight portion is configured to be in contact with the pair of arms.

Embodiments are directed to microscale and millimeter scale multi-layer structures (e.g., probe structures for making contact between two electronic components for example in semiconductor wafer, chip, and electronic component test applications). One or more layers of the structures include shell and core regions formed of different materials wherein the core regions are offset from a symmetric, longitudinally extending position.

The terminals of a device under test are temporarily electrically connected to corresponding contact pads on a load board by a series of electrically conductive pin pairs. The pin pairs are held in place by an interposer membrane that includes a top contact plate facing the device under test, a bottom contact plate facing the load board, and a vertically resilient, non-conductive member between the top and bottom contact plates. Each pin pair includes a top and bottom pin, which extend beyond the top and bottom contact plates, respectively, toward the device under test and the load board, respectively. The top and bottom pins contact each other at an interface that is inclined with respect to the membrane surface normal. When compressed longitudinally, the pins translate toward each other by sliding along the interface. The sliding is largely longitudinal, with a small and desirable lateral component determined by the inclination of the interface.

It is described a contact probe for a testing head of an apparatus for testing electronic devices including a body essentially extended along a longitudinal direction between a contact tip and a contact head, that contact probe comprising at least one multilayer structure, in turn including a superposition of at least one inner layer or core and a first inner coating layer, and an outer coating layer that completely covers the multilayer structure and made of a material having a higher hardness than a material realizing the core.

Probe tip formation is described for die sort and test. In one example, the tips of wires of a test probe head are prepared for use as test probes. The wires are attached to a test probe head substrate. The end opposite the substrate has a tip. The tips of the wires are polished when attached to the test probe head to form a sharpened point.