FormFactor to License MicroSpring Contact TechnologyIdeal for Land-Grid Array -LGA- Production...

LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 1999--

Technology Pioneer Develops Cutting-Edge Socketing Solution That

Enables Build-to-Order Assembly And Simple Upgrades By Personal

Computer OEMs

FormFactor, Inc., today announced its intention to license its

Adoption of the cutting-edge contact technology would address the challenges of the current trend toward more expensive ball-grid arrays (BGAs) and chip-scale packages (CSPs).

Addressing BGA/LGA Adoption Challenges

"The IC frontier is driving towards BGAs, LGAs and CSPs, primarily due to technical factors," according to John Novitsky, FormFactor's Vice President of Sockets Marketing. Some of the technical factors include: increased I/O count; reduced package parasitics; single-sided assembly; and reduced X, Y and Z dimensions.

"However, the adoption rate of BGA/LGAs has been suppressed," Novitsky says, "primarily because of reliability and cost issues, that ripple through the IC interconnect, the IC package, the package to board interface, the board layer counts, and so on. Similarly, assembly of BGAs onto printed circuit boards works against a build-to-order computer model. Thus, socketability is desired, but no good solutions have existed, until now. This FormFactor solution should accelerate BGA/LGA adoption."

The MicroSpring contacts, which are true springs, embody the properties of low force, low height, low resistance, and fine pitch. The technology is ideal for use in LGA production sockets and in dense circuit-board-to-circuit-board connector applications. FormFactor believes that MicroSpring contact usage will be extended to the majority of fine-pitch connector applications.

The MicroSpring contact technology has proven reliable and has been in use for three years in FormFactor's industry leading Probe Cards. These Probe Cards are used to test DRAMs and microprocessors at the silicon-wafer level. Already, sockets utilizing FormFactor's MicroSpring contact technology have passed two EIA 701 socket mini-qualification tests.

Market Validation

The market potential of the MicroSpring contact is gaining validation both from market analysts and potential users, such as the former Berg/Framatone (now FCI Electronics).

According to Michael Knight, Vice President and General Manager of FCI's ASM/Socket Division, "FCI Electronics has evaluated the technology, and found that it performs as advertised. We see great potential in the technology for all types of Z-axis interconnect applications. Of particular interest," he noted, "is its ability to overcome the contact compliance issues that plague so many of the Z-axis technologies on the market today."

"In 1998, 1.5 billion array packages (BGAs, CSPs, Flip Chip Direct-Chip-Attach) were consumed worldwide. This number will grow to around 8 billion units per year by 2002. At least 10% of these packages are candidates for a low-cost, reliable, low-profile, low contact force, production socket. Only a small fraction of these packages are socketed today," states Charles Lassen, a managing partner with electronics industry consultant Prismark Partners LLC, in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

"Currently, there is no BGA/LGA production socket that meets all of the industry's requirements: height, pitch, contact force, reliability, and cost. FormFactor's MicroSpring contact technology could be effective for this application. When one or more of the major connector companies adopts this technology," Lassen continued, " it could become the industry standard for array package connectors, especially as pitches continue to decrease."

MicroSpring Contact Features

Specifically, the MicroSpring contacts require around one gram of compression force for every one mil of displacement. Even at low force, they exhibit low-contact resistance, typically below 30 mOhms per contact. Thus, they can be used as a fine-pitch (as low as 15 mils) contact in producing today's current array areas of thousands of contacts.

Featuring the industry's only Z-axis, low-force wiping contact for improved reliability, the MicroSpring contacts are compatible with surface-mount BGA motherboards and packages. What's more, they are scalable: down with pitch size; up with pin count and package body size; and up in volume and down in cost. "In high volumes, MicroSpring contacts are salable for less than a penny per pin," claims Novitsky.

Availability

Samples of the MicroSpring contacts are available today, either to prospective licensees, or to OEMs with high volume requirements. High-volume production ramp is expected for the second half of this year.

About FormFactor

Founded in 1993, FormFactor, Inc. is a private company located in Livermore. FormFactor is the world's leading supplier of process technologies and interfaces that enable Moore's Law to be extended to the back end of semiconductor manufacturing. (For more information on FormFactor check our website www.formfactor.com)

Note to Editors: FormFactor and MicroSpring contact are trademarks of FormFactor, Inc.