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Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon.
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John, nice write up. I wished you would have also written what Linux or Windows does in comparison.
This comment was edited by shturmovik on September 24, 2009 08:54
Finally some sanity on the matter.
OS X needs a registry. Problem solved!
I liked this article a lot. However ... now that I'm an Apple outsider :-) I can tell you with my years of hard-earned wisdom exactly where you've gone wrong.
Right here. You're implicitly assuming that Apple wants to keep the same behavior they've always had.
Wrong. Bad assumption. Apple doesn't want this. They never said they wanted it. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say they change things drastically all the time in other areas; why would creator info be any different?
Me, I'm betting that Apple wants to simplify the experience. Creator codes are too hard. They actually lead to weird behaviors -- why does a .txt file sometimes open this way and sometimes open another way?
If you were Apple and you wanted to simplify the way files are handled, ditching creator info entirely is a perfectly valid option. You may not like it personally, because you have N! years of experience with the way the Mac used to do things, but Windows has never had per-file creator information. On Windows you generally set your bindings correctly so that you use the default app 99% of the time. The few times you want to open it in a different app, it's just a right-click away.
You don't have to like it. But it's simpler. And arguably better, even, in its simplicity.
A lot of people who are used to Windows say this, but I don't understand why. Let's look at the most simple interaction a user has with this.
1. User opens application
2. User creates new document
3. User saves document
4. User quits application
The next day:
5. User double-clicks on document
Now, are you telling me that at this point, the most simple experience is for the OS to open a *different* application than the one the user wrote the document in? That makes absolutely no sense at all to me.
How about:
1. macl0t opens photoshop.
2. opens holiday pic.
3. photochops the burro out and replaces it with teh steve.
4. saves document.
The next day:
5. macl0t double clicks on file.
now, according to you it should open up the file in big bloated photoshop, instead of some small elegant pic viewer.
Your problem is you are thinking in ms-dos. When you say opens a ".txt" file you are implicitly stating that you think of text files as ".txt" files. File extensions make sense in a command-line environment so you can - say - separate out your .c files from your .h files and your .sh scripts but why do you need files to be called ".cs" in Visual Studio or ".m" in XCode?
There's no reason in a modern operating system for file types to be controlled by a file extension. The only reason it exists in Windows is for backward compatibility. The only reason it exists on the Mac is because it exists in Windows.
I don't know why they don't go over to mime-types and actually introduce some consistency.
Photoshop doesn't use files a small elegant pic viewer will display. It uses massive files with multiple layers.
Those files would reopen in photoshop. Other files would be opened by "preview" anyway.
Windows uses the filename extension. The registry stores a mapping of filename extension->default handler.
Linux uses MIME type as the primary representation to decide which application to launch. This can be derived either from the filename extension or magic numbers within the file.
Neither has a per-file override that I know of, nor do they store file type or creator as metadata anywhere.
A user almost never wants a file to open in an application other than the one they have explicitly defined as the default for that file type. In the rare case that they do, they can simply drag the file to the correct icon in the dock.
Your assumption that Apple wants to retain the old, and in my opinion incorrect behaviour seems to be flawed. If that's what they wanted, they would never have made this change.
Instead it seems that Apple is thinking like I am: that applications on Mac should never deign to know better than I do, and should never override my choice of default app for a file type.
Which means that Apple have gone for simplification: an in-memory UTI representation, and a simple mapping from UTIs to file extensions (the default), magic numbers, MIME type, type-creator codes and what-may-you. It's simple, it's interoperable, it doesn't defy users' expectations and IT WORKS.
I'm not assuming anything; I'm merely explaining the cause of all the consternation.
It doesn't defy your expectations, you mean. As I wrote, "Apple is faced with the daunting task of matching a single policy with thousands of different mental models of 'how computers should work.'" That's why I recommended that Apple make the application binding policy configurable. Your only remaining quibble is that I recommended that the default behavior stay the same as it as been for the past few decades. (Okay, and that I called your policy "crappy" )
As John states in the article, whatever policy Apple chooses is upto them (whether to open based on creator code, or file type).
Even if Apple chooses file type, this decision should be based on file-type based on the extended attributes of the file, rather than the extension. The extension should only exist for graceful degradation while transferring files to and from other OSes.
Yes. Because if you just wanted to preview the picture fast you'd hit the space bar after selecting the file in the Finder.
Sure is pull stats directly out of your ass around here. Where's your double blind random sampled study about what "a [Mac] user almost never wants" gypsumfantastic? Oh, you don't have one? You just made that up based on your own personal biases? In that case feel free to not make retarded blanket statements with no sort of clear evidence.
The clarity of your exposition makes Apple's intransigence even more perplexing.
Are you being repugnant because you disagree, but know that almost everybody will agree?
I suppose part of why I love Ars is because it's one of the few places where as statement like "people want their computers to do what they tell them" is controversial.
Maybe you've done a study yourself which shows that users just ADORE it when their computer does something different from what they expect and ask it to?
Not really. John's simply starting from a flawed premise: that Apple WANTS Mac OS X to have Mac OS 9-style behaviour but can't figure out how/hasn't got round to it yet.
Apple's declaration of intent with file extensions, UTIs and the ignoring of Type/Creator codes is pretty explicit to me. But for the dying breed of Old School Mac faithful, it seems that a decade-spanning body of evidence is not quite enough.
Opening a file of a particular type in the program you have explicitly asked the OS to open that type in shouldn't defy *anybody's* expectations, unless they're mad or used to the old, broken Mac OS 9 behaviour, or both.
And it's fair to say that Apple, quite rightly, doesn't care about those sorts.
The problem with that theory is the "explicitly asked the OS" part. For example, people who upgraded to Snow Leopard did not consider that process to be an explicit instruction to change the application binding policy. This is the nature of a "default policy." Users experience the behavior without taking any explicit action.
Good, well-reasoned write up. I have been struggling with this since upgrading to Snow Leopard. There are definitely arguments to be made one way or the other. As for me, I was used to the old creator code system. It came in handy when I wanted to open simple notes from a meeting in text edit (where I created them), but wanted a .txt with some sample code, SQL, etc in it to open in Smultron (where I created it). I think the Photoshop example is the perfect counter example though. (Or Final Cut or something for a movie file.)
Apple has let us know which way they went on this debate (bye bye creator codes) but I am disappointed that they haven't included a way to easily manage the behavior of all your extensions. It's quite frustrating. And I find that the icon for files does not always match what it will open in.
And if anyone can explain how the heck the right click, "open with" dialog determines what programs to populate that menu with, I'll give you a cookie. I cringe every time I have to use that menu. Why, when I right click on CSV's does it suggest TextEdit and Excel in my Fusion VM and Excel in a Fusion VM that doesn't even exist anymore? What about my other text editors? What about Excel for Mac? And it doesn't matter if I go and manually choose a program, that option isn't added to the list (like it is in Windows). I have to go through the same process again and again and again when I open that file. And as for finding the program to open it with... ugh. You'd think it would be a simple Spotlight search on the Apps directory for the program I'm looking for, but inexplicably Spotlight will sometimes return documents in addition to the program. I presume these are READMEs and such that are multiple layers deep in the application folder, but the end result is I type "smultron" into the Spotlight search box in the application chooser windows and I have to scroll down and find the stupid program EVERY TIME I want to open this particular file. (I don't want to change the association for all files, I just want this particular one to always open in X program.) Gah!
Sorry, a bit of a tangent there. Long story short, as it currently stands it's the least elegant and most frustrating part of my OS X experience by far. Apple needs to make it more transparent and definitely add a preferences pane to control all this behavior.
You're right there. But Apple has never shied away from making changes that break some people's expectations if it thinks the new way is the better and that their old expectations were wrong.
I understand that it can be wrenching for those so caught out, but let's be honest, we're Macheads. We should be well used to it by now.
To be honest, this change had been driving me batty. I have 3 different GUI editors on my system: BBedit, Textmate, and XCode. I use them for different things. Some file types I edit in BBedit all the time. Some I only edit in BBedit when they are remote, as Textmate and XCode really suck at remote editing. And that, right there, is the source of my frustration. I use ExpanDrive to access remote shares. I want to be able to set a policy that says:
"Use application X for file type Y except when on a volume mounted via ExpanDrive, in which case use BBedit"
Anyone know how to do that? I say "had been driving me batty" because I've developed a new habit of "drag file onto dock icon" style opening. But I really prefer keyboard filesystem navigation, and having to use the mouse to open a file irritates me. And no, using the "open -a App_I_Want " option isn't really an option.
norton_I, thanks for the overview. I guess coming from Windows where even though it seems simple compared to how OS X can work it "just works".
If I may throw a couple extra pennies into the cauldron with a question - what is currently the predominant method a typical computer user engages to access their files, and how have software/OS vendors contributed to or reinforced that behavior over the years? With over a decade in IT for various industries, I would be so bold as to say that users don't utilize the GUI interface to the filesystem at all - they start with the application they want to use, and if they need to navigate to a file they wish to open, THEN they browse the filesystem in an open/save dialog - and that behavior, to the dismay of long-time Mac users everywhere (myself included), began with Program Manager in Windows 3.1, and continued to the Start menu...
Or...they save every damn document they ever use on their desktop....
But if you look at it fairly closely, you'll see that more and more applications, specifically the ones most commonly used by the computing public, are taking it upon themselves to abstract away the filesystem anyway, and Apple in many ways is leading the charge with the iApps (including the iPhone, where the filesystem is invisible until jailbroken ). the iPhoto "library" is a good example, as one of our beloved bundles, but how many users of this app will "view package contents" to get to their photos? Probably only users sophisticated enough to read Ars... But we won't let this thread devolve into how (in)consistently even Apple is at abstracting away the filesystem between their apps...
Suffice it to say, most users, when they want to open a file, are probably already in the application they wish to use to manage that file, and if they need to launch any sort of helper (or even know that's a possiblity), have already configured that application to give them a contextual menu to get them there. Sometimes I think the only reason the Finder, Explorer on Windoze, and other filesystem management GUIs are still around is because...well...they're still around (and who wants to lose the smiley Finder face? )...more and more, the paradigm is shifting to the heavily application-centric every day - and with that fact, default application handling behavior from the filesystem GUI becomes more and more a moot point.
I do agree that it should be trivial to add a preference for users who wish to retain the "application who created a file continues to handle it" paradigm, but for most, I don't think they even care, because frankly, they probably don't even know what the Finder is except that happy smile on the left side of their Dock...and remember how the structure of Apple's growing user base is changing - people like us, who even know what a filesystem IS, are losing or have already lost our claim to Mac-using majority, so the bulk of Apple's customer base is now spending most of their time in iTunes, iPhoto, and Safari, and even if they are moving to the next level and using iWork, they probably have a "Documents" folder full of 10,000 items with no organizational hierarchy whatsoever...
OK everyone, this is my first post on an Ars forum, and I can't wait to hear how I'm wrong, but please, be gentle!!!!
freddie mac
As I commented in the second blog post from John C. Welch, I'm making a similar proposition, that I in fact posted as a radar some time ago, and (since it was posted before OpenRadar) this decided me to put it on OpenRadar: http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=77403 (for, you know, duping or whatever). The "tl; dr" version is:
- a new extended attribute to store the UTI of a file
- a new extended attribute to store the MIME type of a file (for files saved from emails or downloaded from the web, as they both come with a MIME type), but the UTI xattr takes precedence
- four-char type code and extension only used as fallbacks
- a new extended attribute to store the creator as a bundle identifier, and used much like the creator code was.
- keep the current system for setting an application for opening all files of a given type
- a new extended attribute to store the application which the owner has set to open this particular file if the owner has overridden the application with which to open the file; if it is not present, the creator xattr is used to know which application to open the file with, and if there is no creator, then file type is used (why not use the creator xattr for that? First, so that users other than the owner still use the creator rather than the preference of the owner; second, so that when the file is edited by an application, this application will change the creator xattr but leave the preference untouched so that the file keeps opening with the application the user has previously explicitely specified)
- if the user is not the owner of the file but wants to override the application with which to open it, then the preference is stored not in the file metadata but in the user preferences, with enough info to find the file even if it moves (similar to an alias).
the "tl; dr" version of that "tl; dr" version is "similar to what Siracusa said".
I am indeed afraid that what the "powers that be" actually want is to completely remove any sort of creator behavior; hopefully our discussions will show we do actually mind the removal of the functionality. But, while I don't know whether it's simpler, what I know is that it is a poorer experience. It's not a matter of having been a Mac user for 25 years either, because I wonder in which universe having the new SL behavior be mandatory makes sense; as Ross Carter said (via DF and others): "puh leez". I think it encourages "switching" applications for a given type, as if only one was supposed to be active at any given time, much like you would switch web browsers, and actually opening files only from within applications, making the system ostensibly file oriented (the new SL behavior is rather more file oriented, while the previous behavior is more application oriented) but actually more application oriented!
It is certain however that there actually are people who prefer the new way, but it's hard to tell if they actually have a point (most of their reactions leave out details), so I think we should try to confront the opinions, workflows, and use cases to try and reach a better model, or at least an understanding of each other. I'm not certain a preference switch would be best, but that's a possibility.
I think you nail it quite well, unfortunately. Especially with anyone that's ever suffered with Windows, as that's the mental model it encourages. Even the Mac OS X "Recent Items" and Spotlight menus put Applications before Documents.
And if someone is creating a file from scratch then they *have* to select the application, unless they've left a few blank documents around to double-click on (which only "power users" tend to do.)
Even though most of the "iApps", and others using "bundle" library files (e.g. Aperture), support running the application with the file that has been double-clicked, many users are conditioned to instead expect to change the open library or catalogue by selecting it within the application.
(But, I do think that if a document has a Photoshop icon, say, then it should cause Photoshop to load when it is opened. It's just that, now, it's less likely that a file will have that icon even if it's been created from within the app.)
I've found some of the moaning from the likes of Macworld tiresome. However, I think the "bynkii" article and this one between them do succeed in showing that the current system is broken.
As the "bynkii" guy (what makes him think "shepherd" - someone who herds sheep - is spelt "shepard"? - never mind) points out, if you remove the file extension, the system doesn't know what to do with your file. That seems broken to me.
I just removed the ".html" extension from a spare webpage I had in ~/Documents. Snow Leopard now doesn't know what to do with it. If I double-click it a blank page (not the file) opens in Safari. But if I right-click it, I see that TextEdit is the first choice. (I also get offered OpenOffice, Safari and two instances of TextMate - I guess the doubling-up of TextMate just goes to show how broken Launch Services is.)
I just removed the ".jpg" extension from a graphic. If I click it, it opens in Preview. However, if I right-click it, the default application is, again, TextEdit ... although I'm also offered HoudahGeo, OpenOffice, Safari, and Xcode ... but not Preview.
In practice, users aren't likely to be removing extensions, but the fact that the behaviour of the OS is so bizarre and unpredictable when you do is telling. AFAIK, a Unix/Linux system makes some kind of attempt to look at the contents of a file to know what to do it with. It's not clear to me what Snow Leopard is doing: how it decides what to open in when double-clicked in Finder, how it decides what to offer on the "Open With" menu, and why the two don't match. And the blank page opening in Safari really takes the biscuit.
What's the reason behind that behaviour?
nope, that wouldn't open in photoshop, because it wasn't *created* in PS. so PS should not set its creator code in the file.
It does open Photoshop if you saved the jpg as a new renamed file (steve_is_a_burro.jpg) This is a common workflow for many people. It means my folder full of images is totally random: some open in Photoshop and some in Preview. I have to select all and override the "open with" property in the get info panel, and I keep having to do this over and over to keep it cleaned up. I prefer the new way. You clearly prefer the old way. Hence, Apple should make it a configurable option or they have to tell one of us to shove it. As of now, it looks like they said it to you. Sorry! You can get the behavior you want by always using an application specific file type like psd until you are ready to save the final product as a jpg. Until 10.6, I had no easy way to get the behavior I wanted.
That's usually not true since editing a file and re-saving it is most often treated as the creation of an entirely new file. The obvious fix is to add "last modified by application XYZ" as yet another piece of officially supported metadata that the application binding policy can (optionally) reference.
What this person is experiencing demonstrates the primary drawback of the new policy:
And that is where you are wrong. In Leopard you can tell it at that point to always open all files of this type with, say, Preview, and from then on all JPEGs will open in Preview, ignoring the creator information.
About the .m issue, it may be an edge case, but it does demonstrate how hopelessly collision-broken the extension system is.
BTW, warning, this article has just been fireballed. Commenter influx is to be expected (and of people who will have an opinion on the matter).
I think Apple is moving in the direction of deprecating the idea of using the Finder to choose a document to edit. If you use the Finder you're going to get a basic least-common-denominator app. Apple's preferred approach seems now to let the user choose an app to manage each specific file type and turn the process of picking a file to edit on its head. For example, consider iTunes, iPhoto, xCode, etc. These apps are all about organizing files of a particular type without regard to how those files are stored. If you're going to work with music files you launch iTunes, you don't use the Finder to dig into your music folder.
At one point early in the life of Mac OS X, there was an idea floating around that the Finder could become some BeOS inspired general purpose metadata handling customizable workhorse. You wouldn't need iTunes because you could customize a Finder window to do everything iTunes does directly. I don't know if that would have been better or worse, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
And I think this is really the gist that John is getting at. Anyone who's read his Metadata article should "get it". Metadata is a "Good Thing". Certainly too much metadata is a waste, but there is such a thing as just enough. Maintaining the 'creator' and 'kind' of a file makes as much sense as maintaining when it was created and when it was modified. I mean, that info is as important as when it was last backed up, no? Additionally, as many Mac users (content creators typically) have learned through the years, files often have different creators than utilizers. Both should be stored per file. If they were, John's suggested policy would work wonderfully.
Of course, the UNIX solution of 'magic' seems to point to a more elegant solution to me, not in the 'magic' binary, but in the idea that file structures should be including "public" metadata within them, like ID3 tags and EXIF data. Intelligent files would be better. To me, at least, Creator is more "inherent" to a file than Utilizer. One is a fact, the other is a choice. But 'magic' and its ilk won't work well in multi-user environments for metadata any more extensive than "facts". Clearly Apple needs to develop a multi-user friendly version of extended attributes, which it does NOT have right now, before they can go forward.
John is right, TLEs have to die. A horrible fiery death. They were inadequate from day 1, and the much more brilliant implementation on the Mac only spotlighted that. OS X's, nay Apple's comical intransigence towards moving forward from them is puzzling, especially considering how close they've come to killing them off. But without a multi-user solution, nothing much is going to change.
If macl0t double-clicks the file, my assumption would be that he intends to photoshop it some more, so yes. Photoshop should open. This assumption is based on the idea that if macl0t wanted to simply look at the file, he would select it and hit space.
As you say, Mac OS X used to basically repeat the last action the user took, which for many users is what they expect to happen. The traditional behavior is more likely to be what most casual users expect. Save a document in application X, double-click it, application X opens the document.
As for non-casual users, what you prefer depends on your workflow. Both solutions cause problems. Since Mac OS X has always used creator codes, my assumption would be that most Mac users are either happy or okay with this; otherwise, they wouldn't be Mac users. So far, the change has only caused problems for me: .txt files which are associated with the wrong application (this is a problem I can't solve in Snow Leopard, since I use different text editors for different types of text files). .ogg files are especially problematic, too, because some of them are music files and should open in Audacity, while others are movie files and should open in QuickTime player. Then there are all the .xml files which I need to edit in different XML editors, depending on the content of the files. And the .html files, some of which I need to open in Safari, others I need to open in BBEdit.
The change has caused a ton of issues for me, and they are issues I can't possibly solve because Snow Leopard has removed the solution to them.
ScooterComputer's post above emphasizes a point I don't think I leaned on heavily enough in the article: more metadata is good. We should encourage the application of as many truthful pieces of metadata that we can imagine ever being useful or interesting. (Within reason, of course; I'm not advocating megabytes of metadata on tiny text files.) A symptom of conceptual failure is any discussion of applying false metadata or arguing against the addition of truthful metadata in order to trigger or avoid a policy decision.
The key (which I did emphasize in the article) is to understand and maintain the distinction between the metadata and the policies based on it. Metadata: good. Policies: maybe bad, maybe good, but always changeable—but absolutely hopeless if the metadata is missing or false!
There is still one remaining confusion, I think. On what basis do you distinguish between different files that are the same data type but are different file "types"? E.g. one text file is just a list of stuff to do. One is XML. Another is C code with a .c extension.
These are files where the user might "convert" the file from one kind to another just by renaming them. How does the OS keep up with this? Or must the user learn a new behavior?
It should be UNchecked by default.
I like the new change, and I would support storing creator information so that people can opt into John's preferred policy.
But it's nuts to think that the old way was suitable for the masses. The only people that want per-file or by-creator binding seem to be graphic designers and coders.
The lowly masses who use email, web browsing, and office applications want their defaults honored, almost always.
If the world were to ever move on from using extensions, it would be much harder for the world to ever talk about a file.
Every display of a file name would have to also display the file type metadata: not every file listing is graphical, and one thing I hate about Mac OS pre-OS X is having to try to distinguish files from one another based on some inscrutable (and always changing) icon.
You also don't want a situation where you have identically-named files, distiguished only by some invisible piece of metadata. But what about times when you want the same thing in different formats? Say, you want an OGG and an AAC of the same song, or just a backup of the currently open file. The only way to give these files different names that are still the same name is to use different... extensions. Which is what everyone would still do. Backup files would still be .bak.
Right now, if you display just the name of a file, you get some approximation of its type, a piece of metadata you always want to see, for free.
I can appreciate that extensions should not be relevant to determining anything useful. But they're always going to be used. A lot of the Mac-type objection to them seems to just be that they're really ugly. But I can't imagine them entirely ever going away.


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Great hire!!! Get'r dun!!!! Happy days
Great hire!!! Get'r dun!!!! Happy days
I don't have any idea how Phil will do. I do know being a Buss family member, i'm sure he has a good feel for what GM';s do....Honestly, it will be a improvement imo over most GM's we had over the years
Im excited. My biggest question is if the knicks run the triangle or not. If they do I expect the 2015 FA to go entirely different than what people expect now. Instead of targeting Kevin love and/or Rondo. I expect the knicks to try to get Marc Gasol and Kwahi Leonard.
Thats a radical shift from trying to squeeze In to Max contracts and praying it works.
Also I expect Phil to get the best out of Melo these next few season.....
If Phil Jax sign on to be the Knicks President of Operation the Knicks organization should give a Parade down 5th Avenue.
Supposedly this is a done deal and they're just dotting the I's and crossing the T's but I don't know. Marv Alpert said it would be a bad move for Phil and if PJ asks Larry Brown I don't think he's going to have nice things to say about the Knicks. Other than Zeke I can't think of anyone who would tell Phil it's the job he should take.
Maybe Phil comes here just for the money and get's a 50M 5 year deal and he says what the hell, if the Knicks fire me in 2 years they still have to pay me 50M.
Yeah, its most likely a money thing for Phil but lets hope we're wrong....The other day he wanted to make sure Melo was staying on. So i guess the Knicks assured him he is, so he has a centerpiece to build with. The triangle may be coming to NYC....lol
We all respect PJ and know how good he is..... the real Question is, how Dolan and PJ will get along......
Recall .... Phil Jax last contract with the Lakers were made up by Phil Jax agent, and signed by Lakers Buss.
Will Dolan do the same????
Short of a Knicks press conference announcing this all the media outlets are reporting PJ will be President of Basketball Operations for the NY Knicks.
Most of the media analyst's are skeptical about PJ coming here and making a difference, citing Zeke, Walsh, Brown and even Grunny.
My take is the Knicks have to do something and they can't draft players or sign players to fix things so they had to start with a new GM because Steve Mills and Houston weren't going to cut it. Phil Jackson might not be the answer but I like him more than the guys he's replacing and it doesn't matter what Dolan is paying him because he doesn't count against the cap.
Announced via NBATV within the last hour...Greg Anthony main source
Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks have reached agreement on a deal to run the team's front office.
Jackson and the Knicks have been discussing a deal since the weekend.
Jackson has won 11 championships as an NBA head coach, but he has no previous experience as an executive.
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Last edited by Broadway; Mar 12, 2014 at 23:55.
I know that this keeps getting reported, but there's something funny about how this whole thing is playing out. Still not going to believe it until there is a press conference or official word from Knicks and PHil Jackson.
You wouldn't believe how pumped I'm at this moment. Phil coming back to New York is huge. News of the season of you ask me. Let's only hope he'll be as good as a FO runner as he was as a coach.
How about merging all these PJ threads. Makes it seem like the mods were picking on Metro for starting individual threads for what they saw as the same topic, seems to me all these PJ threads are exactly the same.
Damn shame losing Metrocard around here, he's gone and the place is a ghost town.

subset: commoncrawl


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BioLogos, unless we are careful, could evolve into a place for armchair philosophy. We could sit back in our comfortable chairs, coffee cups in hand, reading about biology, geology, biblical scholarship, theology, and the nature of science. We could dialog about this article or that blog and discuss ideas in a manner that leaves us feeling good about our intellect and frustrated with the intellect of those who can't see it our way. BioLogos could easily become a sort of coffee club, where people drop in for a chat now and then, but have no real sense of urgency as they enter and leave the discussion chambers.
The fact is, however, that we in the BioLogos community are, above all else, followers of Jesus Christ. There is nothing pedestrian about being a follower of Jesus. We, all of us, are on a journey together and—because of who we are following—it is a journey like no other. There is nothing in this world that is more important to each of us than knowing Jesus personally. Our journey is also our reason for being and we believe that to know and experience life in Christ is to live life to the full—to live it abundantly.
I love the fact that a section of the gospel of Luke is placed in the context of the journey of Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem. As they travelled along, Jesus kept defining the parameters of what it means to follow him. The parameters were hardly pedestrian. No armchair philosophy, this, when in the ninth chapter of Luke we're told:
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:57-60)
As the journey continues another man comes to him and says:
"I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (v. 61-62)
Further along, in the thirteenth chapter, we read this:
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13:22-24)
And, drawing closer to the destination, here is what we're told in Luke 14:
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (v. 25-27)
Jesus was laying out the guidelines for each of us as we move through life together. Clearly this is not to be a pedestrian experience to be lived out virtually from the comfort of our armchairs. Life, we believe, is only lived to the full, when it is experienced in Christ. Although, grace is free, discipleship costs. It is the "pearl of great value" for which we give everything we own (Matt. 13:45).
To us in the BioLogos community it is with great sadness that we listen to a large group of very influential leaders seeming to tell people that Christianity stands or falls on the belief that the earth is young and that God created through a process that is instantaneous and not gradual. It is a travesty that young people who begin the journey of following Jesus are told that they have to believe something which, a little science education makes clear cannot possibly be the case. Jesus gave his life for these young people and he calls us to the same level of commitment. It is also a travesty that this barrier is placed along the roadside so that those who would otherwise love to join the journey end up staying by the wayside because they've studied the science or trust those who have. We in the BioLogos community have put our hand to the plow. No turning back. God calls us to stay focused for the task ahead.
There is a proviso however that must not be overlooked. Yesterday, Joyce and I called a very dear couple, friends who are now in the 80's and in poor health. They get discouraged because of the pain and blindness that now encapsulate their lives. Sitting in a church pew is excruciatingly painful for her because of a badly deteriorating spine. For him, blindness has long since darkened his world; for seven years he has been deprived of that which brought him his greatest happiness—reading the Word of God. As we discussed their journey and what sustains them, they told us the name of the pastor who, through his radio ministry, serves as their source of inspiration, leading them on in their own journey to Jerusalem. The pastor who provides the spiritual nourishment that keeps them and hundreds of thousands others going leads a church known for its belief that the earth is young and that God has created through a process that is instantaneous and not gradual. My prayer is that his ministry might continue to thrive for the sake of this couple and the hundreds of thousands of others as they journey onward with Jesus to the New Jerusalem.
So God calls us in the BioLogos community to two tasks. The first is to help this leader and the hundreds of others like him see that they have one thing very wrong. Biblical Christianity does not stand or fall on the age of the universe or the mechanism God used to create life. The leaders themselves need not change their minds personally, but it is important that they stop telling people that biblical Christianity leaves us no choice but to discard scientific reality about past events. We in the BioLogos community have a second task and it is equally important. These leaders are shepherds, wonderful shepherds. They must be appreciated, loved, and sustained for their enormously important pastoral role in continuing to guide people in their own personal journeys as followers of Jesus. Their ministries, which provide such rich nourishment for others, must not fail. We need to work for the sustaining of these ministries.
So BioLogos is not armchair philosophy. It is a social movement to help the Church come to grips once and for all with the fact that people don't have to choose between age of the earth and Bible-believing Christianity, nor between evolutionary biology and Bible-believing Christianity. How does a little band of people at BioLogos (there are only four of us who are full-time and five more who are part-time) catalyze change? The answer, of course, is that we can't and we won't on our own. The BioLogos community is growing rapidly. Growth is exhibited by the scores of people who have written blogs and scholarly articles on this site throughout the past sixteen months. It has grown through those who have participated in the BioLogos workshops for church leaders, for teachers in Christian high schools, for Christian college professors and others. It has grown through those who join in the conversation by engaging each other in discussion in our Comments section. And it has grown by fostering conversation at locations far removed from the internet. Together all of us need to sense the importance of the task. We have put our hands to the plow and we won't look back. Given the importance of the task, we need to find new ways of building the BioLogos community so that the Church will finally accept that Christianity, biblical Christianity, doesn't stand or fall on the age of the earth and how God created all of life. After all, how many people in your church have even heard of BioLogos? Not many, I'm sure.
If you care about this matter as much as we do, please be sure we have your email address by sending a note to firstname.lastname@example.com. The core, of course, is still a tiny group, so we won't be able to organize more programs overnight. But let us know if you care about this issue in a manner that extends beyond your armchair. In coming days, we'll see how the Lord enables us to take this issue to the next stage. But for now, let us know, and have your friends let us know. We'll build the BioLogos community one person at a time.
The Church will change. But it must change by evolution, not revolution and the BioLogos community will, Lord willing, play a significant role in facilitating that change. This is the cross that we carry, this is the plow to which we set our hands, this is that for which we have no place to lay our heads, this is that for which we would even distance ourselves from mother, father, sister and brother if need be. The days of putting evangelicalism in a context that pits it against scientific reality about past events must end. We're on a journey to the New Jerusalem and it is God who defines the parameters of what it means to take this journey, not the all-too-human shepherds who, although doing the best they can, don't always speak for God.


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CHICAGO -- International coffee industry leader Juan Esteban Orduz will deliver the keynote address at the National Automatic Merchandising Association's 2013 Coffee, Tea and Water conference. The event will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN, Nov. 12 through 14.
Orduz presently serves as president of the Colombian Coffee Federation Inc. (New York City), the North American subsidiary of the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (Bogotá). A leading authority on the business of coffee, Orduz has held a number of high-profile posts in the Colombian government and the private sector. He is a past president of the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. (New York City).
"Juan Esteban is a coffee expert who will focus on the link between quality and sustainability -- an important topic, one of growing interest for our members," said NAMA director, coffee and water service Roger Stewart. Orduz will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers, founded in 1927, represents the interests of more than 563,000 coffee-growing families. It is one of the largest agricultural non-governmental organizations in the world, working to improve the well-being of coffee growers and their families by providing assistance in sustainable and competitive practices within the coffee industry, as well as promoting social investments. It maintains overseas offices in the U.S., The Netherlands, Japan and China.
NAMA's Coffee, Tea and Water conference is the largest education and networking event for coffee, tea and water service operators nationwide. Again this year, it will co-locate with the International Bottled Water Association's annual business conference and trade show.
Registration for the CT&W conference is available here.
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text:
|Número de publicación
|Tipo de publicación
|Número de solicitud
|Fecha de publicación
|15 Jul 2008
|Fecha de presentación
|3 Feb 2004
|Fecha de prioridad
|14 Jul 1998
|También publicado como
|Número de publicación
|Reed Gleason, Michael A. Bayne, Kenneth Smith, Timothy Lesher, Martin Koxxy
|Cesionario original
|Cascade Microtech, Inc.
|Exportar cita
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Citas de patentes (100), Otras citas (6), Citada por (4), Clasificaciones (39), Eventos legales (6)
|Enlaces externos: USPTO, Cesión de USPTO, Espacenet
The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/814,594 filed Mar. 22, 2001 which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,882.
The present invention relates to probe assemblies of the type commonly used for testing integrated circuits (IC) and, in particular, the present invention relates to a membrane probing assembly having contacts which scrub, in a locally controlled manner, across the respective input/output conductors of each device so as to reliably wipe clear the surface oxides that are normally found on those conductors thereby ensuring good electrical connection between the probing assembly and each device.
The trend in electronic production has been toward increasingly smaller geometries particularly in integrated circuit technology wherein a very large number of discrete circuit elements are fabricated on a single substrate or "wafer." After fabrication, this wafer is divided into a number of rectangular-shaped chips or "dice" where each die presents a rectangular or other regular arrangement of metallized contact pads through which input/output connections are made. Although each die is eventually packaged separately, for efficiency sake, testing of the circuit formed on each die is preferably performed while the dies are still joined together on the wafer. One typical procedure is to support the wafer on a flat stage or "chuck" and to move the wafer in X, Y and Z directions relative to the head of the probing assembly so that the contacts on the probing assembly move from die to die for consecutive engagement with each die. Respective signal, power and ground lines are run to the probing assembly from the test instrumentation thus enabling each circuit to be sequentially connected to the test instrumentation.
One conventional type of probing assembly used for testing integrated circuits provides contacts that are configured as needle-like tips. These tips are mounted about a central opening formed in a probe card so as to radially converge inwardly and downwardly through the opening. When the wafer is raised beyond that point where the pads on the wafer first come into contact with these tips, the tips flex upwardly so as to skate for-wardly across their respective pads thereby removing oxide buildup on the pads.
The problem with this type of probing assembly is that the needle-like tips, due to their narrow geometry, exhibit high inductance so that signal distortion is large in high frequency measurements made through these tips. Also, these tips can act in the manner of a planing tool as they wipe across their respective pads, thereby leading to excessive pad damage. This problem is magnified to the extent that the probe tips bend out of shape during use or otherwise fail to terminate in a common plane which causes the more forward ones of the tips to bear down too heavily on their respective pads. Also, it is impractical to mount these tips at less than 100 micron center-to-center spacing or in a multi-row grid-like pattern so as to accommodate the pad arrangement of more modern, higher density dies. Also, this type of probing assembly has a scrub length of the needle tips of 25 microns or more, which increases the difficulty of staying within the allowed probing area.
In order to reduce inductive losses, decrease pad wear and accommodate smaller device geometries, a second type of probing assembly has been developed that uses a flexible membrane structure for supporting the probing contacts. In this assembly, lead lines of well-defined geometry are formed on one or more plies of flexible insulative film, such as polyimide or MYLAR™. If separate plies are used, these plies are bonded together to form, for example, a multilayered transmission line structure. In the central portion of this flexible structure or membrane, each conductive line is terminated by a respective probing contact which is formed on, and projects outwardly from, an outer face of the membrane. These probing contacts are arranged in a predetermined pattern that matches the pattern of the device pads and typically are formed as upraised bumps for probing the flat surfaces conventionally defined by the pads. The inner face of the membrane is supported on a supporting structure. This structure can take the form, for example, of a truncated pyramid, in which case the inner face of the center portion of the membrane is supported on the truncated end of the support while the marginal portions of the membrane are drawn away from the center portion at an angle thereto so as to clear any upright components that may surround the pads on the device.
With respect to the membrane probing assembly just described, excessive line inductance is eliminated by carefully selecting the geometry of the lead lines, and a photolithographic process is preferably used to enable some control over the size, spacing, and arrangement, of the probing contacts so as to accommodate higher density configurations. However, although several different forms of this probing assembly have been proposed, difficulties have been encountered in connection with this type of assembly in reducing pad wear and in achieving reliable clearing of the oxide layer from each of the device pads so as to ensure adequate electrical connection between the assembly and the device-under-test.
One conventional form of membrane probing assembly, for example, is exemplified shown in Rath European Patent Pub. No. 259,163A2. This device has the central portion of the sheet-like membrane mounted directly against a rigid support. This rigid support, in turn, is connected by a resilient member comprising an elastomeric or rubber block to the main body of the assembly so that the membrane can tilt to match the tilt of the device. Huff U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,383 shows a closely related device wherein radially extending leaf springs permit vertical axis movement of the rigid support while preventing it from tilting so that there is no slippage or "misalignment" of the contact bumps on the pads and further so that the entire membrane will shift slightly in the horizontal plane to allow the contacts to "scrub" across their respective pads in order to clear surface oxides from these pads.
In respect to both of these devices, however, because of manufacturing tolerances, certain of the contact bumps are likely to be in a recessed position relative to their neighbors and these recessed bumps will not have a satisfactory opportunity to engage their pads since they will be drawn away from their pads by the action of their neighbors on the rigid support. Furthermore, even when "scrub" movement is provided in the manner of Huff, the contacts will tend to frictionally cling to the device as they perform the scrubbing movement, that is, there will be a tendency for the pads of the device to move in unison with the contacts so as to negate the effect of the contact movement. Whether any scrubbing action actually occurs depends on how far the pads can move, which depends, in turn, on the degree of lateral play that exists as a result of normal tolerance between the respective bearing surfaces of-the probe head and chuck. Hence this form of membrane probing assembly does not ensure reliable electrical connection between each contact and pad.
A second conventional form of membrane probing assembly is exemplified by the device shown in Barsotti European Patent Pub. No. 304,868A2. This device provides a flexible backing for the central or contact-carrying portion of the flexible membrane. In Barsotti, the membrane is directly backed by an elastomeric member and this member, in turn, is backed by a rigid support so that minor height variations between the contacts or pads can be accommodated. It is also possible to use positive-pressure air, negative-pressure air, liquid or an unbacked elastomer to provide flexible backing for the membrane, as shown in Gangroth U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,339, Ardezzone U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,772, Reed, Jr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,228 and Okubo et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,365, respectively. These alternative devices, however, do not afford sufficient pressure between the probing contacts and the device pads to reliably penetrate the oxides that form on the pad surfaces.
In this second form of membrane probing assembly, as indicated in Okubo, the contacts may be limited to movement along the Z-axis in order to prevent slippage and resulting misalignment between the contacts and pads during engagement. Thus, in Barsotti, the rigid support underlying the elastomeric member is fixed in position although it is also possible to mount the support for Z-axis movement in the manner shown in Huff U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,637. Pad damage is likely to occur with this type of design, however, because a certain amount of tilt is typically present between the contacts and the device, and those contacts angled closest to the device will ordinarily develop much higher contact pressures than those which are angled away. The same problem arises with the related assembly shown in European Patent Pub. No. 230,348A2 to Garretson, even though in the Garretson device the characteristic of the elastomeric member is such as to urge the contacts into lateral movement when those contacts are placed into pressing engagement with their pads. Yet another related assembly is shown in Evans U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,638 which uses a pivotably mounted support for backing the elastomeric member so as to accommodate tilt between the contacts and the device. However, the Evans device is subject to the friction clinging problem already described insofar as the pads of the device are likely to cling to the contacts as the support pivots and causes the contacts to shift laterally.
Yet other forms of conventional membrane probing assemblies are shown in Crumly U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,253, Barsotti et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,898 and Evans et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,638. In Crumly, the center portion of a stretchable membrane is resiliently biased to a fully stretched condition using a spring. When the contacts engage their respective pads, the stretched center portion retracts against the spring to a partially relaxed condition so as to draw the contacts in radial scrub directions toward the center of the membrane. In Barsotti, each row of contacts is supported by the end of a respective L-shaped arm so that when the contacts in a row engage their respective pads, the corresponding arm flexes upwardly and causes the row of contacts to laterally scrub simultaneously across their respective pads. In both Crumly and Barsotti, however, if any tilt is present between the contacts and the device at the time of engagement, this tilt will cause the contacts angled closest to the device to scrub further than those angled further away. Moreover, the shorter contacts will be forced to move in their scrub directions before they have had the opportunity to engage their respective pads due to the controlling scrub action of their neighboring contacts. A further disadvantage of the Crumly device, in particular, is that the contacts nearer to the center of the membrane will scrub less than those nearer to the periphery so that scrub effectiveness will vary with contact position.
In Evans et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,079 each contact constitutes a spring metal finger, and each finger is mounted so as to extend in a cantilevered manner away from the underlying membrane at a predetermined angle relative to the membrane. A similar configuration is shown in Higgins U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,518. It is difficult, however, to originally position these fingers so that they all terminate in a common plane, particularly if a high density pattern is required. Moreover, these fingers are easily bent out of position during use and cannot easily be rebent back to their original position. Hence, certain ones of the fingers are likely to touch down before other ones of the fingers, and scrub pressures and distances are likely to be different for different fingers. Nor, in Evans at least, is there an adequate mechanism for tolerating a minor degree of tilt between the fingers and pads. Although Evans suggests roughening the surface of each finger to improve the quality of electrical connection, this roughening can cause undue abrasion and damage to the pad surfaces. Yet a further disadvantage of the contact fingers shown in both Evans and Higgins is that such fingers are subject to fatigue and failure after a relatively low number of "touchdowns" or duty cycles due to repeated bending and stressing.
Referring to
The probe head 40 includes a probe card 52 on which the data/signal lines 48 and 50 are arranged. Referring to
Referring to
When the support element 54 is mounted on the upper side of the probe card 52 as shown in
A feature of the probing assembly 42 is its capability for probing a somewhat dense arrangement of contact pads over a large number of contact cycles in a manner that provides generally reliable electrical connection between the contacts and pads in each cycle despite oxide buildup on the pads. This capability is a function of the construction of the support element 54, the flexible membrane assembly 72 and their manner of interconnection. In particular, the membrane assembly is so constructed and connected to the support element that the contacts on the membrane assembly preferably wipe or scrub, in a locally controlled manner, laterally across the pads when brought into pressing engagement with these pads. The preferred mechanism for producing this scrubbing action is described in connection with the construction and interconnection of a preferred membrane assembly 72 a as best depicted in
The membrane assembly is interconnected to the flat support surface 70 by an interposed elastomeric layer 98, which layer is coextensive with the support surface and can be formed by a silicone rubber compound such as ELMER'S STICK-ALL™ made by the Borden Company or Sylgard 182 by Dow Corning Corporation. This compound can be conveniently applied in a paste-like phase which hardens as it sets. The flat support surface, as previously mentioned, is made of incompressible material and is preferably a hard dielectric such as polysulfone or glass.
In accordance with the above-described construction, when one of the contacts 88 is brought into pressing engagement with a respective pad 100, as indicated in
Because the elastomeric layer 98 is backed by the incompressible support surface 70, the elastomeric layer exerts a recovery force on each tilting beam 90 and thus each contact 93 to maintain contact-to-pad pressure during scrubbing. At the same time, the elastomeric layer accommodates some height variations between the respective contacts. Thus, referring to
Referring to
Unfortunately, the aforementioned construction technique results in a structure with many undesirable characteristics.
First, several beams 90, contact bumps 92, and contacting portions 93 (each of which may be referred to as a device) proximate one another results in different localized current densities within the electroplating bath, which in turn results in differences in the heights of many of the beams 90, contact bumps 92, and contacting portions 93. Also, different densities of the ions with-in the electroplating bath and "random" variations in the electroplating bath also results in differences in heights of many of the beams 90, contact bumps 92, and contacting portions 93. The different heights of many of the beams 90, contact bumps 92, and contacting portions 93 is compounded three fold in the overall height of many of the devices. Accordingly, many devices will have a significantly different height than other devices. Using membrane probes having variable device height requires more pressure to ensure that all the contacting portions 93 make adequate contact with the test device than would be required if all the devices had equal overall height. For high density membrane probes, such as 2000 or more devices in a small area, the cumulate effect of the additional pressure required for each device may exceed the total force permitted for the probe head and probe station. The excess pressure may also result in bending and breaking of the probe station, the probe head, and/or the membrane probing assembly. In addition, the devices with the greatest height may damage the pads on the test device because of the increased pressure required to make suitable contact for the devices with the lowest height.
Second, the ability to decrease the pitch (spacing) between the devices is limited by the "mushrooming" effect of the electroplating process over the edges of the polyimide 77 and photoresist layers 79 and 81. The "mushrooming" effect is difficult to control and results in a variable width of the beams 90, contact bumps 92, and contacting portions 93. If the height of the beams 90, the contact bumps 92, or the contacting portions 93 are increased then the "mushrooming" effect generally increases, thus increasing the width of the respective portion. The increased width of one part generally results in a wider overall device which in turn increases the minimum spacing between contacting portions 93. Alternatively, decreasing the height of the beams 90, the contact bumps 92, or the contacting portions 93 generally decreases the width of the "mushrooming" effect which in turn decreases the minimum spacing between contacting portions 93. However, if the height of the contacting portions 93 relative to the respective beam 90 is sufficiently reduced, then during use the rearward end of the beam 90 may sufficiently tilt and contact the test device in an acceptable location, i.e., off the contact pad.
Third, it is difficult to plate a second metal layer directly on top of a first metal layer, such as contacting portions 93 on the contact bumps 92, especially when using nickel. To provide a bond between the contact bumps 92 and the contacting portions 93, an interface seed layer such as copper or gold is used to make an improved interconnection. Unfortunately, the interface seed layer reduces the lateral strength of the device due to the lower sheer strength of the interface layer.
Fourth, applying a photoresist layer over a non-uniform surface tends to be semi-conformal in nature resulting in a non-uniform thicknesses of the photoresist material itself. Referring to
Fifth, separate alignment processes are necessary to align the beams 90 on the traces 76 a, the contact bumps 92 on the beams 90, and the contacting portions 93 on the contact bumps 92. Each alignment process has inherent variations that must be accounted for in sizing each part. The minimum size of the contacting portions 93 is defined primarily by the lateral strength requirements and the maximum-allowable current density therein. The minimum size of the contacting portions 93, accounting for the tolerances in alignment, in turn defines the minimum size of the contact bumps 92 so that the contacting portions 93 are definitely constructed on the contact bumps 92. The minimum size of the contact bumps 92, in view of the contacting portions 93 and accounting for the tolerances in alignment, defines the minimum size of the beams 90 so that the contact bumps 92 are definitely constructed on the beams 90. Accordingly, the summation of the tolerances of the contact bumps 92 and the contacting portions 93, together with a minimum size of the contacting portions 93, defines the minimum device size, and thus defines the minimum pitch between contact pads.
What is desired, therefore, is a membrane probe construction technique and structure that results in a more uniform device height, decreased spacing between devices, maximized lateral strength, desired geometries, and proper alignment.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing a substrate, preferably constructed of a ductile material. A tool having the desired shape of the resulting device for contacting contact pads on a test device is brought into contact with the substrate. The tool is preferably constructed of a material that is harder than the substrate so that a depression can be readily made therein. A dielectric (insulative) layer, that is preferably patterned, is supported by the substrate. A conductive material is located within the depressions and then preferably planarized to remove excess from the top surface of the dielectric layer and to provide a flat overall surface. A trace is patterned on the dielectric layer and the conductive material. A polyimide layer is then preferably patterned over the entire surface. The substrate is then removed by any suitable process.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The currently employed construction techniques for membrane probes involves starting with the flat rigid substrate to support additional layers fabricated thereon. To decrease the pitch and provide devices with increased uniformity requires increasingly more complex and expensive processing techniques. In direct contrast to the current techniques of constructing layers from the "bottom up" upon a supporting substrate, the present inventors came to the realization that by using a suitable tool a substrate may be coined to create the desired beams, contact bumps, and contacting portions. The remaining layers are then constructed "top down" on the beam. The substrate itself is thereafter removed.
Referring to
Referring to
It is to be understood that any other suitable dimpling machine may likewise be used. Referring to.
Referring to
It is expensive to manufacture masks for exposing the polyimide layer 220 that have tolerances sufficient to precisely align the openings for the depressions 216. The tool 210, in combination with the dimpling machine, can be aligned to the actual location of one of the openings that results from exposing and etching the polyimide layer 220 with a relatively inexpensive, and somewhat inaccurate mask. The present inventors came to the realization that localized regions of the mask, and thus the openings resulting therefrom, tend to be relatively well aligned for purposes of dimpling. Likewise, regions of the mask distant from one another tend not to be relatively well aligned for purposes of dimpling. Accordingly, automatically dimpling the substrate 200 to match an anticipated pattern with many depressions 216 distant from one another, with an accurate dimpling machine, will result in the dimpling tool not accurately being aligned with the openings at regions distant from the initial alignment point. To improve the accuracy of the alignment process the present inventors came to the realization that the dimpling machine may be realigned to the actual openings in the polyimide layer 220 at different remote locations, so that each localized region is relatively accurately aligned, while the overall alignment may be somewhat off. In this manner a relatively inexpensive mask may be used.
Preferably the dimpling machine includes accurate z-axis movement so that the depth of each depression is identical, or substantially identical. Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The aforementioned "top-down" construction process provides numerous advantages over the traditional "bottom-up" processing technique of constructing layers upon a supporting substrate. These advantages also permit the capability of constructing devices with improved characteristics.
First, there are no limitations to the height of the resulting devices which were previously imposed by limitations of photoresist processing. The ability to construct devices having any suitable height also relieves the limitations imposed by attempting to electroplate into a tall narrow openings in photoresist, which is difficult.
Second, the elevation of the contacting portions 260 of the devices is extremely uniform because it is defined solely by the tooling process, which is mechanical in nature. Different localized current densities of the electroplating bath, different densities of the ions within the electroplating bath, and "random" variations in the electroplating bath are eliminated from impacting the overall shape and height of the resulting devices. With substantially uniform elevation of the devices, less force is required for the devices to make adequate contact with the test device which, in turn, decreases the likelihood of bending and breaking the probe station, the probe head, and/or the membrane probing assembly. Also, the substantially uniform elevation of the devices decreases the likelihood of damaging contact pads on the test device with excessive pressure.
Third, the contacting portion 260 of the devices are stronger because the device is constructed of a single homogenous material during one depositing process requiring no interfacial layers, as previously required for the multiple processing steps. This permits reducing the size of the contacting portions to the limitation of the maximum current density allowable therein during testing and not the minimum sheer force of the interfacial layers.
Fourth, the shape of the resulting devices are customizable to effectively probe different materials. The shape of the device may have steep sidewall angles, such as 85 degrees, while still providing mechanical strength, stability, and integrity. The steep sidewalls permit narrower devices to be constructed which allows or a greater density of devices for increasingly denser arrangements of contact pads on the test device. Moreover, the angle of the sidewalls are not dependent (e.g. independent) on the crystalline structure of the substrate.
Fifth, the shape of the contacting portion is known precisely, and is uniform between devices, which permits uniform contact with the contact pads of the test device.
Sixth, the alignment of the different portions of the resulting device are exactly uniform between devices because each device was constructed using the same tooling process. With exact alignment of the lower portions of each device (beam and contact bump) in relation to the contacting portion, there is no need to provide additional leeway to accommodate processing variations inherent in photoresist processes and in electroplating processes. Also, the "mushrooming" effect of the electroplating process is eliminated which also reduces the required size of the device. The alignment variability reduction, and virtual elimination, of different devices 300 allows a significantly decreased pitch to be obtained, suitable for contact pads on the test device that have increased density.
Seventh, the shape of the resulting devices may be tailor shaped to provide optimal mechanical performance. To provide the scrubbing function, as described in the background portion, the device should have a beam and bump structure that tilts upon contact. The device 300 may include an inclined surface 304 between its tail 302 and the contacting portion 260. The inclined surface 304 provides for increased strength along portions of the length of the device 300 which permits the tail 302 to be thinner than its head 306. The torque forces applied to the device 300 during the tilting process of the device 300 tend to decrease over the length of the device 300 which has a correspondingly thinner material defined by the inclined surface 304. With a thinner tail 302 and material proximate the tail 302, the tail 302 of the device 300 has less likelihood of impacting the test device if excess tiling occurs. The improved shape of the device 300 also decreases the amount of metal material required.
Eighth, "look-up" cameras are used to obtain an image of the lower portion of the membrane probe to determine the precise location of the devices 300 relative to the contact pads on the test device. Using "look-up" cameras permits automatic alignment of the membrane devices relative to the contact pads so that automatic testing may be performed. In order to obtain an image of the devices 300 on the membrane probe the "look-up" cameras normally utilize light to illuminate the devices 300. Unfortunately, the traditional planar processing techniques result in relatively flat surfaces on the beams, contact bumps, and contacting portions, in a perpendicular orientation to the "look up" cameras each of which reflects light back to the "look-up" camera. The light reflecting back to the "look up" camera from all the surfaces frequently results in some confusion regarding the exact location of the contacting portions 260. The inclined surface 304 of the devices 300 tends to reflect incident light away from lowerly disposed "look-up" cameras, while the contacting portions 306 tend to reflect incident light back to lowerly disposed "look-up" cameras. Light returning to the "look-up" camera primarily from the contacting portions 306 results in less potential confusion regarding the exact location of the contacting portions.
Ninth, the initial polishing of the top surface 202 of the substrate 200 results in a matching smooth lower surface for the polyimide layer 220 patterned thereon. After etching away, or otherwise removing, the substrate 200 the lower surface of the polyimide layer 220 is smooth and the resulting polyimide layer 220 is generally optically clear. Accordingly, the spaces between the traces and the metallized devices 300 is relatively optically transmissive so that an operator positioning the device can readily see through the device between the traces and devices. This assists the operator in manually positioning the membrane probe on the devices which are otherwise obscured. In addition, the pyramidal shape of the devices 300 allows the operator to more easily determine the exact location of the contacting portions relative to the contact pads on the test device, which were previously obscured by the wide beam structures (relative to the contacting portions).
Tenth, referring to
Eleventh, the texture of the contacting portion 260 may be selected to provide the described scrubbing effect on the contact pads of the test device. In particular, the tool may include a roughened surface pattern on the corresponding contacting portion to provide a uniform texture for all devices.
Thirteenth, using the construction technique of the present invention is relatively quick to construct the devices because of the decreased number of processing steps, resulting in a substantial cost savings.
The aforementioned construction technique also provides several advantages related to the shape of the devices which would be otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to construct.
First, the tool may provide any desired shape, such as a simple bump, if no scrubbing action is desired.
Second, the inclined supporting sides of the test device up to the contacting portion 260 provides superior mechanical support for the contacting portion 260, as opposed to merely a portion of metal supported by a larger contact bump. With such support from the inclined sides, the contacting portion may be smaller without risk of it becoming detached from the device. The smaller contacting portion provides improved contact with the contact pad of the test device when the device tilts to penetrate the oxide buildup on the surface of the contact pad. In addition, the tail 302 of the device may be substantially thinner than the remainder of the device which decreases the likelihood of the tail 302 portion impacting the contact pad of the test device during testing when the device tilts.
Third, the pressure exerted by the contacting portions of the devices, given a predefined pressure exerted by the probe head, is variable by changing the center of rotation of the device. The center of rotation of the device can be selected by selecting the length of the device and the location/height of the contacting portion relative thereto. Accordingly, the pressures can 35 be selected, as desired, to match characteristics of two different contact pads.
Fourth, referring to
Fifth, the capability of constructing contacting portions that are raised high from the lower surface of the device, while still maintaining uniformity in the device height and structural strength, allows the device to provide scrubbing action while the lower surface of the device requires little movement. The small movement of the lower surface of the device to make good electrical contact during testing decreases the stress on the layers under the lower surface of the device. Accordingly, the likelihood of cracking the polyimide layers and the conductive traces is reduced.
When probing an oxide layer on solder bumps, or solder balls on wafers that are to be used with "flip-chip" packaging technology, such as the solder bumps on the printed circuit boards, the oxide layer developed thereon is difficult to effectively penetrate. Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Previous device construction techniques resulted in devices that included contacting portions that were rather large and difficult to assure alignment of. Referring to
It is to be noted that none to all of the aforementioned advantages may be present in devices constructed accordingly to the present invention, depending on the technique used, desired use, and structure achieved.
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|Clasificación de EE.UU.
|324/755.09, 29/426.1, 29/876, 29/882, 29/846, 29/874
|Clasificación internacional
|Clasificación cooperativa
|Clasificación europea
|3 Feb 2004
Owner name: CASCADE MICROTECH, INC., OREGON
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|27 Feb 2012
|Maintenance fee reminder mailed
|13 Jul 2012
|Fee payment
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|13 Jul 2012
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|17 Nov 2015
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|12 Jul 2016
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Effective date: 20160624


text:
The Dover School District hosted an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday for the recently completed safe room at Dover Elementary School.
The district hosted a ribbon cutting for the high school's safe room, constructed at roughly the same time and actually completed after the elementary facility, in November.
Superintendent Jerry Owens said the public reaction to the completion of the facilities has been extremely positive.
"We've got a building rated for 250 mile-per-hour winds so people can make sure that — first and foremost that the students are safe — and also it's available for the community," Owens said.
School board member Thomas Hill noted the facilities are equipped with a feature that automatically unlocks the building when sirens are activated.
"You have to live fairly close, but with the weather we've had in years past, if you watch the forecast you can kind of track the line and know when it's coming," Owens said. "It's nice for people to know they have a safe place to go."
Owens said a large portion of the funding for the construction of the two safe rooms, for which the district received an original bid of $1,079,050 from Van Horn Construction in March, came from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.
"One thing a lot of people don't know about, FEMA paid for 75 percent of this," Owens said. "We got a really, really nice room at only 25 percent cost of the local dollar. It's a really good deal for us to have those funds available, because they aren't always available. There's only certain times when you can get those FEMA funds, so we were fortunate to get two of them."
Dover Elementary Principal Donny Forehand said the elementary safe room is expected to be used as a PE facility, holding area for afternoon pickup on rainy days, as well as other classroom and community uses yet to be determined.
"Another thing the teachers have started doing is using it when they do labs," Forehand said. "They can come out here and set up and do the whole lab out here. A class was doing a math activity a couple of weeks ago and they came out here because they were getting in groups. You can do that and you can use these lines that are set up (on the floor). It's a big space we can't fill with a lot. We hope to get some chairs to keep up against the wall, but other than that we don't want to fill it because it has to be ready for an emergency."
Forehand said he requested bids for LCD projectors, which would ease the waiting time for students should an emergency strike and could be utilized for training sessions both by the school and the community, and other technology.
"If there's an emergency, or when we come in here for a drill this room is packed — it's wall-to-wall kids," Forehand said. "There was a tornado when I first started and we were in the hall for a good hour and a half. We'd be ready to go and then we'd hear there was another one on the way. So you never know how long it will take, so if we had an LCD projector we could show movies in here and of course, we could use it for training."
Forehand said the school has conducted an emergency drill utilizing the safe room, which went smoothly. He said the school could add awnings to allow a dry walkway for students from the main buildings to the safe room.
"I feel like we need to get some awnings out there because if we do have to use the room in an emergency it's going to be pouring down rain," Forehand said. "The awnings don't lead to this building. We need that so they don't get soaking wet. When you have 500-plus kids walking in from the rain, their shoes are going to be wet, and then they'll be sitting in a bunch of wet mess. But the drill went really well. We got them in and out."
Forehand also seized the opportunity while parents and community members were present to seek some feedback on possible uses for the building as well as a couple of academic items. Five suggestion sheets were placed along the walls of the new facility with space provided for feedback.
"One thing we're asking is, 'How do you think we can use it?'" Forehand said. "'How can we get information out to the general public to know that when in an emergency and 911 system kicks in and the alarms go off, these doors will open automatically so the general public can come in here for safety?' We want to get some feedback about how they think we can use the building publicly. It's a perfect space for training activities. A lot of small businesses don't have a big area like this, so if they want to do CPR training for their staff —here's a great place to do it. It doesn't cost them, and there's a lot of space to lay dummies down."
Other questions posted on the wall of the safe room were:
• Measurement is an area of concern with our student achievement. How can we improve this skill to help our students become more prepared for work?
• Practical text is an important skill in the workforce. How can we improve this with our students? (Recipes, graphs, directions and brochures.)
• What can we do to get you as a business more involved with our school and our parent organization?
• Character education is a life skill which transcends the school environment. How can we together as a business and school provide students with a quality character education program?
"Math is an area we have difficulty getting kids to excel in —measurements and geometry in the young grades," Forehand said. "... There are some things you can do to help with that — when you're doing projects at home. As a dad, I know it's easier to say 'Go ride your bike. I'm working on the deck.' But think about how you can show them how to cut boards and measure boards. And helping with literacy can be simple things like helping to read a manual when you're trying to put something together or helping mom in the kitchen."
Forehand also provided attendees a printed sheet containing the questions and welcomed feedback by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Using Google's suite of applications, including Google Docs, Gmail and, of course, Google's web browser, Chrome, the Chromebook will run entirely off of software housed on servers accessed remotely through a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.
Chromebooks will be available for purchase online starting June 15 in the United States and will also be sold at outlets like Amazon and Best Buy.
Google is boasting that, much like the iPad and other solid state hard drive netbooks, the Chromebooks will turn on instantly, with little to no warm up time.
Google is not the first company to posit that a computer could run entirely on web-based applications, but back when the idea for the technology was originally proposed by [Web Link Oracle's Larry Ellison in the mid-1990s]. But back then, the technology just wasn't there to make the dream a reality.
Fast-forwarding to 2011, with just about every tech company and their mother talking about "the cloud" and the technology is very real. It will be interesting to watch how the Chromebook.
Americans are certainly used to the idea of using the cloud, whether they know it or not. But it will be interesting to see how consumers handle a laptop that runs all of its programs and stores everything it produces on faraway servers.