A probe card assembly includes a probe card, a space transformer having resilient contact structures (probe elements) mounted directly to (i.e., without the need for additional connecting wires or the like) and extending from terminals on a surface thereof, and an interposer disposed between the space transformer and the probe card. The space transformer and interposer are “stacked up” so that the orientation of the space transformer, hence the orientation of the tips of the probe elements, can be adjusted without changing the orientation of the probe card. Suitable mechanisms for adjusting the orientation of the space transformer, and for determining what adjustments to make, are disclosed. The interposer has resilient contact structures extending from both the top and bottom surfaces thereof, and ensures that electrical connections are maintained between the space transformer and the probe card throughout the space transformer's range of adjustment, by virtue of the interposer's inherent compliance. Multiple die sites on a semiconductor wafer are readily probed using the disclosed techniques, and the probe elements can be arranged to optimize probing of an entire wafer. Composite interconnection elements having a relatively soft core overcoated by a relatively hard shell, as the resilient contact structures are described.

Probe card assembly and kit, and methods of making same

A probe card is provided for contacting an electronic component with raised contact elements. In particular, the present invention is useful for contacting a semiconductor wafer with resilient contact elements, such as springs. A probe card is designed to have terminals to mate with the contact elements on the wafer. In a preferred embodiment, the terminals are posts. In a preferred embodiment the terminals include a contact material suitable for repeated contacts. In one particularly preferred embodiment, a space transformer is prepared with contact posts on one side and terminals on the opposing side. An interposer with spring contacts connects a contact on the opposing side of the space transformer to a corresponding terminal on a probe card, which terminal is in turn connected to a terminal which is connectable to a test device such as a conventional tester.

Probe card for probing wafers with raised contact elements

A technique to share a local oscillator signal between two radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). The local oscillator signal generated internally by one RFIC is ported to the other RFIC for use in transmit or receive operation. The local oscillator signal that is ported may be an RF local oscillator signal. Each RFIC may include a bi-directional port circuit that can be operated to make the RFIC a master, slave or may be totally disabled to disable the porting feature. This is particularly useful in RFICs that are used to communicate using MIMO radio algorithms which rely for optimum performance on phase and frequency coherency among a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers.

Master-slave local oscillator porting between radio integrated circuits

A clock data recovery (CDR) circuit to recover a clock signal and data signal from an input signal. The CDR circuit includes a control circuit, a select circuit and a phase adjust circuit. The control circuit generates a first control signal according to a phase relationship between the input signal and a first clock signal. The select circuit is coupled to receive the first control signal from the control circuit and coupled to receive a second control signal. The select circuit is responsive to a select signal to select either the first control signal or the second control signal to be output as a selected control signal. The phase adjust circuit is coupled to receive the selected control signal from the select circuit, the phase adjust circuit being responsive to the selected control signal to adjust the phase of the first clock signal.

Clock data recovery with selectable phase control

A probe card is provided for probing a semiconductor wafer with raised contact elements. In particular, the present invention is useful with resilient contact elements, such as springs. A probe card is designed to have terminals to mate with the contact elements on the wafer. In a preferred embodiment, the terminals are posts. In a preferred embodiment the terminals include a contact material suitable for repeated contacts. In one particularly preferred embodiment, a space transformer is prepared with contact posts on one side and terminals on the opposing side. An interposer with spring contacts connects a contact on the opposing side of the space transformer to a corresponding terminal on a probe card, which terminal is in turn connected to a terminal which is connectable to a test device such as a conventional tester.

Probe card assembly for contacting a device with raised contact elements

A method for synchronizing multiple subsystems using one voltage-controlled oscillator. The method includes transmitting a phase and frequency aligned output of a voltage-controlled oscillator to each subsystem within a digital system. A first subsystem of the multiple subsystems generates a first internal clock and outputs a synchronization signal to each of the other subsystems. The synchronization signal has a marker that defines a known point in time of the first internal clock. The other subsystems sample the synchronization signal using the output signal of the voltage controller oscillator to determine a starting indicator that indicates the known point in time of the first internal clock. Upon detection of the marker in the synchronization signal, the other subsystems starts a second internal clock that is synchronized with the first internal clock.

Method and system for synchronizing multiple subsystems using one voltage-controlled oscillator

A configurable adaptive filter that is used for echo cancellation is disclosed, which includes a method of detecting a voice or no-voice signal. The presence of a voice or no-voice signal is determined by calculating a histogram of signal amplitude value over a period of time. If this histogram has more than a predefined number of samples that are above a threshold then the signal is classified as no-voice or periodic otherwise the signal is classified as a voice signal. A variable maximum amplitude limit and lower amplitude thresholds are disclosed to detect a voice or no-voice from the histogram signal faster than traditional methods utilized in echo cancelers. A configurable hysteresis time is used to ensure the signal register primarily contains voice signal when the filter coefficients of the echo canceler are allowed to adapt.

Adaptive filter divergence control in echo cancelers by means of amplitude distribution evaluation with configurable hysteresis

A combination echo canceller and compression encoder/decoder. Each compression encoder/decoder has a
number of channels which are individually programmable to select a companding law used to make a
conversion of a telephone signal between a compressed format and a linear format and vice versa. By
individually programming the channels, a single echo canceller and encoder/decoder can receive telephone
signals from and transmit signals to regions that utilize different companding laws.

Integrated echo canceller and programmable compression encoder/decoder

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To flexibly convert dissimilar companding rule telephone signals to be transmittable and to improve flexibility by individually controlling a companding rule of a channel of a programmable compression encoder/decoder. SOLUTION: Compression encoder/decoders (hereafter referred to as converters) 104, 108, 114 and 116 independently make a companding rule selectable by a register 130 including a pointer for a look-up table. A received signal from a near end is separated to a multiplexer 102 and inputted to the converter 104, and a companding rule to be used in each channel is selected according to a command from a controller and added to a converter 108 via an echo canceler 106. A program selecting an individual companding rule again is applied to each channel, and the each channel is multiplexed by a multiplexer 110 and transmitted to a target destination. Also, when a signal is received from a far end, it is similarly transmitted in a prescribed format to a near side subscriber by the converter 114, the canceler 106 and the converter 116.

Echo canceler compression encoder/decoder multiple unit and echo eliminating method

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize a board space and to obtain a stable synchronous signal of high quality by generating a synchronous signal which marks a prescribed side edge for an internal clock having its phase matched with that of an external system clock. SOLUTION: An external system clock is supplied to a subsystem called a 'master' 24 among plural subsystems 22. The master 24 includes a voltage- controlled oscillator(VCO), which has the frequency equal to a multiple of the external system clock and generates a VCO clock signal, having its frequency matched with that of the external system clock. An internal system clock is generated in the master 24 and has the frequency which is equal to that of the external system clock and is matched with the phase of the VCO clock signal. Then the master 24 generates a synchronous signal which marks a prescribed side edge of the internal clock signal. The VCO clock signal, which functions to secure the synchronization of all subsystems 22, is supplied to every subsystem 22 so as to make these clock signals arrive at the same phase.

Erik Hogl

Papers

Method and system for synchronizing multiple subsystems using one voltage-controlled oscillator

Adaptive filter divergence control in echo cancelers by means of amplitude distribution evaluation with configurable hysteresis

Integrated echo canceller and programmable compression encoder/decoder

Echo canceler compression encoder/decoder multiple unit and echo eliminating method

Synchronous clock for generating circuit