JPH1019991A - Test head for circuit board tester - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a test head for circuit board tester which can deal with a circuit board having short terminals arranged at a fine pitch by providing a resilient member while abutting against the back of the board touching the end part of a contact pin on the side opposite to the contact end thereof. SOLUTION: When a contact pin 28 is brought into contact, at the lower end thereof, with the upper surface of an object 5 and then lowered by a micro distance, a stopper 38 abuts on the upper surface of the object 5. Consequently, the contact pin 28 ascends by a micro amount to touch the upper end of a flexible printed board 32 which is then pushed up by a small diameter part 27 on the upper end side and bend toward a rubber plate 34 side. The bend is absorbed through the deformation of the rubber plate 34 and thereby fluctuation in the vertical contact of the contact pin 28 with the object 5 is absorbed and a reliable contact is ensured regardless of difference in the height of terminals of the object 5. Furthermore, a force for pressing the object 5 is generated in the contact pin 28 through reaction to the deformation of the rubber plate 34 and reliable contact with the object 5 is ensured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal panel, an IC,
In particular, the present invention relates to a test head of a circuit inspection device capable of handling a circuit board having a fine pitch circuit that cannot be handled by a contact probe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional inspection apparatus used for circuit inspection of a circuit board such as a liquid crystal panel and an IC, there is known an inspection apparatus as shown in FIG.

The circuit board inspection apparatus 1 includes a support base 2
There are four guide posts 3 standing upright.
A movable table 4 is provided at the upper part of the upper part so as to be vertically movable by a drive mechanism (not shown). And support base 2
A test object 5 such as a circuit board or a liquid crystal panel is held on the upper part of the base. A plurality of contact probes 6 are vertically penetrated on the movable base 4.

As shown in FIG. 13, the contact probe 6 has a cylindrical body 8 having a narrowed end 7 formed by narrowing one end thereof, and a plunger having a contact member 9 provided at one end surface inside the cylindrical body 8. 10 is provided so as to be slidable in the vertical direction.
Is connected to a wiring 12 connected to the inspection equipment 11. And, between the plunger 10 and the wiring 12,
A coil spring 14 having a connection piece 13 connected to an end of the wiring 12 is mounted. Therefore, the contact member 9 is always urged downward by the coil spring 14 in FIG. 13, and the contact of the contact member 9 with the inspection object 5 is ensured.

Since the circuit board 1 is configured as described above, when the moving table 4 is lowered by the driving mechanism to bring the tip of the contact member 9 of the contact probe 6 into contact with the object 5, A circuit is formed between the device and the inspection device 11 via the contact probe 6, and the inspection device 11 performs a circuit inspection of the inspection object 5.

[0006]

However, in the conventional circuit inspection apparatus 1 described above, since the plunger 10 constituting the contact probe 6 is provided inside the cylinder 8, the cylinder 8 having a predetermined diameter is required. Becomes However, recently, liquid crystal panels have been miniaturized as much as possible in order to improve the performance (for example, increase in brightness, improvement in color clarity, etc.). Since the length of the terminals becomes shorter as the panel becomes smaller, there is a problem that it is difficult to cope with the case where the contact probes 6 each having the cylindrical body 8 are arranged in a staggered arrangement of many rows.

Further, even if a tungsten probe card is used, the arrangement of the tungsten probe card is very difficult, complicated, and expensive, with respect to the arrangement of terminals having a fine pitch. there were.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and can cope with an object to be inspected in which the terminal pitch of an element such as a liquid crystal panel is small and the terminal length is short. An object of the present invention is to provide a test head for a circuit board inspection device.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, a test head of a circuit inspection apparatus according to the present invention has a support base and a movable base relatively movable with respect to the support base. A test head mounted on one of the support bases and a means for holding a test object on the other of the support base and the movable base, wherein the test heads are arranged in a vertical direction. Having a large number of contact pins provided thereon, a pin block for slidably holding these contact pins, and a current-carrying circuit for contacting an end of the contact pin opposite to a contact end with the object to be inspected. And an elastic member provided in contact with the back of the substrate.

Preferably, the contact pins are configured as solid pins.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a test head of a circuit board inspection apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The circuit board inspection apparatus 20 has a support base 21 as shown in FIG. 1, and four guide posts 22 are erected on the support base 21, for example.
A movable table 24 having a test head 23 mounted on the lower surface thereof is provided at an upper portion of the movable member 2 so as to be vertically movable by a driving mechanism (not shown). The inspection object 5 (for example, a liquid crystal panel or a mounted circuit board) is held above the support base 21. In addition, 11 is an inspection device,
Reference numeral 12 denotes a wiring between the test head 23 and the inspection device 11.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the test head 23 has a pin block 2 having a laterally-U-shaped vertical section at a side end.
5 is provided with a contact pin 28 extending vertically. The contact pin 28 is solid and has a large-diameter portion 26 and small-diameter portions 27 at both ends, as shown in FIG. 6. The small-diameter portion 27 has a pointed shape at both ends. 3.6
mm, the diameter of the large diameter part is about 80 μm, and the diameter of the small diameter part is about 50 μm. The contact pin 28 is provided to penetrate the U-shaped portion of the pin block 25 in the vertical direction. A guide plate 30 having a hole 29 shown in FIG. 7 is fixed to the upper surface of the pin block 25. On the upper surface of the guide plate 30, a flexible printed circuit board 32 as a substrate on which a current 31 is formed as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is supported. The circuit pattern of the flexible printed circuit board 32, that is, the positioning of the energizing circuit 31 and the contact pins 28 is accurately performed.

A pressing block 35 is provided on the upper surface of the flexible printed board 32. In the holding block 35, a region corresponding to all the contact pins 28 is a missing portion 33, and a rubber member 34 as an elastic member is attached to the missing portion 33. And the pin block 25,
The guide plate 30, the flexible printed board 32, and the holding block 35 are integrated by screws 36, 37 as shown in FIG. Also, on the lower surface of the pin block 25,
A stopper 38 is provided for keeping the stroke of the contact pin 28 constant and preventing the contact pin 28 from being applied with a pressing force of a certain degree or more from below. And
The stopper 38 is, as shown in FIG.
When the contact pin 8 is not in contact with the inspection object 5,
Is mounted on the pin block 25 such that the difference (S) between the protruding distances of the lower end of the lower end and the lower surface of the stopper 38 is about 50 to 70 μm.

FIG. 5 shows that the arrangement of the contact pins 28 is a two-row staggered arrangement. Reference numeral 39 shown in FIG. 2 denotes a spring disposed on the holding block 35. After the stopper 38 abuts on the inspection object 5, the contact pin 2
Even if the contact stroke of No. 8 is large, the contact pin 28
The test head 23 is provided so as to be able to move upward against the elasticity so as not to damage the test head.

Next, the operation of the circuit board inspection apparatus 20 will be described.

The moving table 24 is lowered by the driving mechanism, and the lower end of the contact pin 28 is brought into contact with the upper surface of the inspection object 5.
Next, when the movable table 28 is further lowered by a minute distance, the lower surface of the stopper 38 comes into contact with the upper surface of the inspection object 5. Then, the contact pin 28 rises by a very small amount, and the upper end of the contact pin 28 comes into contact with the energizing circuit 31 of the flexible printed circuit board 32, and the flexible printed circuit board 32 is connected to the small diameter portion on the upper end side of the contact pin 28 as shown in FIG. It is pushed upward by 27 and bends. Then, the force due to the deformation of the flexible printed board 32 toward the rubber plate 34 due to the bending is absorbed by the deformation of the rubber plate 34. Therefore, the bending of the flexible printed circuit board 32 absorbs variations in the vertical contact of the contact pins 28 with the object 5, and ensures that all of the contact pins 28 are in contact with the object 5 even if there is a height difference between the terminals. Contact securely.

Further, a reaction force due to the deformation of the rubber plate 34 generates a pressing force on the contact pin 28 against the object 5 to be inspected.
The contact pin 28 reliably contacts the inspection object 5. Therefore, by the contact between the inspection object 5 and the contact pin 28,
A circuit is formed between the inspection object 5 and the inspection device 11 via the contact pins 28, and a circuit inspection of the inspection object 5 by the inspection device 11 is performed.

FIG. 11 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the inspection object 5 is held on the movable table 24 side, and the holding of the inspection object 5 on the movable table 24 is performed, for example. The same test head 23 as in the above-described embodiment is provided on the side of the support base 21, and the movable table 24 is lowered with respect to the test head 23 so that the test object 5 contacts the contact pins 28. By doing so, the circuit inspection of the inspection object 5 is performed in exactly the same manner as in the above-described embodiment.

Reference numeral 40 denotes an inspection window, from which a lighting state of the object to be inspected, for example, a liquid crystal panel (a state of a screen of the liquid crystal panel) can be visually inspected. Has become.

In this embodiment, a liquid crystal panel is mainly described as an example of an object to be inspected. However, it is also used for a circuit type such as a COG type in which an IC is directly mounted on a panel glass and a circuit inspection for an IC wafer or the like. can do. These are collectively called a circuit board.

[0022]

According to the present invention, the circuit inspection is performed by bringing the contact pin having a small outer diameter into contact with the object to be inspected.
It is possible to sufficiently cope with elements having terminals that are densely packed at a fine pitch that cannot be handled by a contact probe and have a short length. Then, since the substrate on which the energizing circuit is in contact with one end of the contact pin can be deformed, the length of the contact pin varies, or
It is possible to cope with the height difference of the terminal position. Further, since the elastic member is in contact with the substrate, the deformation of the substrate is absorbed, and all the contact pins can be reliably brought into contact with the inspection object by the reaction force due to the deformation of the elastic member. Has a simple structure, so that effects such as a low cost of a test head of a circuit board inspection device can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a circuit board inspection apparatus using a test head according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view of a test head.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional side view of the test head.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional front view of the test head.

FIG. 5 is a top view showing an arrangement of contact pins.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a contact pin.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view of an energizing circuit of the substrate.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between a current supply circuit of a substrate and contact pins.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the test head.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional relationship between a contact pin and a stopper.

FIG. 11 is a schematic front view showing another embodiment of the circuit board inspection apparatus using the test head according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic front view of a conventional circuit board inspection device.

FIG. 13 is a longitudinal sectional view of a contact probe used in a conventional circuit board inspection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 circuit inspection device 23 test head 25 pin block 28 contact pin 30 guide plate 31 conducting circuit 32 flexible printed circuit board 34 rubber plate 35 holding block 38 stopper

Claims (2)

[Claims] An apparatus has a support base and a movable table which can move relative to the support base. A test head is mounted on one of the movable table and the support base, and a test head is mounted on the other of the support base and the movable table. A test head in a circuit board inspection device provided with means for holding an object to be inspected, wherein the test head includes a number of contact pins provided in a vertical direction, and a pin block that slidably holds these contact pins, A test head, comprising: a substrate on which an energizing circuit is formed for contacting an end of the contact pin opposite to a contact end with an object to be inspected; and an elastic member provided behind and in contact with the substrate. . 2. The test head according to claim 1, wherein the contact pins are solid pins.