Design and testing of a new MEMS contact element for microelectronic probing based on the buckling beam principle

This paper presents the first report of a new MEMS contact element for microelectronic probing which can work with pitch sizes down to 30 μm, e.g. for memory line-on-center. With outer dimensions of 15 μm × 110 μm × 1.3 mm and 6 lamellae having a width of 10 μm, the system exerts a well defined contact force of 2 cN for an overtravel up to 70 μm, and thus competing with the mechanical limits of materials having extremely good mechanical properties.