How to connect to your chip

This question comes up often. In this post, we outline some of the different approaches and discuss the interposers which we stock for various scenarios. If none of our existing interposers meet your needs, please contact us with your special product request.

We stock a variety of interposer PCBs. These take in the bulky 60 or 68-way cables from our line of docks and break them out into smaller connectors for wiring your devices. Most interposers present two or more identical output connectors. Some contain integrated patch panels, to allow manual re-wiring of the device. Others are directly wired, and rely on reconfiguration in software.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Multi-contact probe cards

Probes allow quick connection of devices at die and wafer scale. These integrate well with the automated die- and wafer-scale photonic testing systems of our partner, Maple Leaf Photonics.

GGB probe cards

MCW-14 and MCW-26 Multi-Contact Wedges: contacts are a dual row of 0.025 inch square pins on 0.1 inch centers. We stock 26-way and 14-way interposers to facilitate connection to these probe cards:

  • 26-way IDC × 2 interposer
  • 14-way IDC × 2 interposer

FormFactor probe cards

FormFactor (previously Cascade Microtech) has a large range of multi-contact probes and probe cards. WPH and Eye-Pass probes: contacts are a dual row of 0.025 inch square pins on 0.1 inch centers with 26 or 24 contacts, respectively. We stock 26-way interposers to facilitate connection to these probe cards:

  • 26-way IDC × 2 interposer

Wire-bonded to carriers

Wire-bonding facilitates a more permanent and reliable connection to devices, especially ones with very high pin count. A die is often mounted directly or via an intermediate socketed package to a carrier PCB, with wire (or bump) bonds making an electrical connection. We currently support flat flex cable (FFC) connections to these carrier PCB, with 40- or 50-way cables.

  • 40-way FFC × 2 interposer
  • 50-way FFC × 2 interposer

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

99 − = 93