APPROACH FOR FABRICATING PROBE ELEMENTS FOR PROBE CARD ASSEMBLIES USING A REUSABLE SUBSTRATE

摘要

An approach is provided for fabricating probe elements for probe card assemblies. Embodiments of the invention include using a reusable substrate, a reusable substrate with layered probe elements and a reusable substrate with a passive layer made of a material that does not adhere well to probe elements formed thereon. Examples of probe elements include, without limitation, a cantilever probe element, a vertically-oriented probe element, and portions of probe elements, e.g., a beam element of a cantilever probe element. Probe elements, or portions of probe elements, may be formed using any of a number of electroforming or plating processes such as, for example, plating using masking techniques, e.g., using lithographic techniques such as photolithography, stereolithography, X-ray lithography, etc.