Fine-pitch probing on TSVs and microbumps using a chip prober having a transparent membrane probe card

For the chip-level pre-bond testing of a three-dimensional integrated circuit, we fabricated a transparent membrane probe card which had 20-μm-pitch probes on a polyethylene naphthalate film. It was fabricated by photolithography, Ti-Au sputtering, Au electroplating, Ni electroplating, electroless Au plating, and wet etching of the seed layer. Using the transparent membrane probe card and the chip prober, we could successfully conduct direct probing of 20-μm-pitch Cu-SnAg microbumps and through-silicon vias even when the tested chip was very thin (thickness: 30-50 μm).