Patents by Inventor James F. Wenzel

James F. Wenzel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6577148
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and circuit distribution wafer (CDW) (16) are used to wafer-level test a product wafer (14) containing one or more product integrated circuits (ICs). The CDW (16) contains circuitry which is used to test the ICs on the product wafers (14). A connection from the product wafer (14) to the CDW (16) is made via a compliant interconnect media (IM) (18). Through IM (18), the CDW (16) tests the product wafer (14) under any set of test conditions. Through external connectors and conductors (20, 22, 24, and 26) the CDW (16) transmits and receives test data, control information, temperature control, and the like from an external tester (104). To improve performance and testability, the CDW (16) and heating/cooling (80 and 82) of the wafers may be segmented into two or more wafer sections for greater control and more accurate testing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2003
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Keith DeHaven, James F. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 6411116
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and circuit distribution wafer (CDW) (16) are used to wafer-level test a product wafer (14) containing one or more product integrated circuits (ICs). The CDW (16) contains circuitry which is used to test the ICs on the product wafers (14). A connection from the product wafer (14) to the CDW (16) is made via a compliant interconnect media (IM) (18). Through IM (18), the CDW (16) tests the product wafer (14) under any set of test conditions. Through external connectors and conductors (20, 22, 24, and 26) the CDW (16) transmits and receives test data, control information, temperature control, and the like from an external tester (104). To improve performance and testability, the CDW (16) and heating/cooling (80 and 82) of the wafers may be segmented into two or more wafer sections for greater control and more accurate testing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2002
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Keith DeHaven, James F. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 6150724
    Abstract: A bump-bonded multi-chip flip-chip device (100) is formed by manufacturing a mother chip (102) having a first set (207) of bumps (212) and a second set (209) of bump contacts (210). A daughter chip (104) is also formed which has conductive bumps (312). The daughter chip (104) and the mother chip (102) are placed face-to-face and contact is made between the daughter chips bumps (312) and the mother chips bump contact regions (210). After interconnection of the daughter chip (104) and the mother chip (102), the mother chip (102) is contacted to an IC package (106) using the bumps (212). The package (106) uses a plurality of metallic layers interconnected selectively by conductive vias in order to route signals between the mother chip (102), the daughter chip (104), and external terminals (112) of the package (106).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2000
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: James F. Wenzel, Robert K. DeHaven, Bryan D. Marietta, James P. Johnston
  • Patent number: 5701666
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and circuit distribution wafer (CDW) (16) are used to wafer-level test a product wafer (14) containing one or more product integrated circuits (ICs). The CDW (16) contains circuitry which is used to test the ICs on the product wafers (14). A connection from the product wafer (14) to the CDW (16) is made via a compliant interconnect media (IM) (18). Through IM (18), the CDW (16) tests the product wafer (14) under any set of test conditions. Through external connectors and conductors (20, 22, 24, and 26) the CDW (16) transmits and receives test data, control information, temperature control, and the like from an external tester (104). To improve performance and testability, the CDW (16) and heating/cooling (80 and 82) of the wafers may be segmented into two or more wafer sections for greater control and more accurate testing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 30, 1997
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Keith DeHaven, James F. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 5635767
    Abstract: A high frequency bypass capacitor (36, 36') is built into a thin-film portion (16, 16') of a polymer carrier substrate (15) of a PBGA (10). The carrier substrate (15) has both a stiffener (18) and a thin-film portion (16, 16') which has multiple metal layers (24, 28, 30, 32). The power supply planes (28, 30) of these metal layers are used to form built-in bypass capacitors (36, 36'), wherein the power supply planes are specifically designed to be adjacent and parallel layers. An ultra thin film laminate construction provides thin dielectric films (26) between the metal layers to allow the bypass capacitor to be placed very dose to the attached semiconductor die (12) to further reduce parasitic inductance and resistance between die connections (14) and the bypass capacitor. The built-in feature minimizes inherent parasitic series inductance and resistance, thus enabling the filtering of unwanted low pulse width glitches on a power plane connected to VLSI devices at operating frequencies at or above 100 MHz.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 3, 1997
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: James F. Wenzel, Mona A. Chopra, Stephen W. Foster
  • Patent number: 5534784
    Abstract: A method for probing a semiconductor wafer utilizes an array probe assembly (60) which includes a production package substrate (64). Substrate (64) is used to transform a configuration of conductive pads (74) on a probe card (62) into a configuration which matches that of conductive bumps (54) on a semiconductor die (52). Array probe assembly (60) may also include an array probe head (68) having probe wires (84) for coupling conductive pads (80) on substrate (64) with conductive bumps (54) on die (52). After probing the die, the die are assembled into a final packaged semiconductor device (110) which includes a substrate (90) which is nearly identical to the substrate used in the array probe assembly. Use of a production package substrate in the array probe assembly reduces the cost of the array probe assembly, and results in more accurate testing since the substrate in the array probe assembly will emulate the performance of the die in the final packaged device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1996
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas F. Lum, James F. Wenzel