Abstract: A contact pad including a compliant, electrically conductive polymer is provided in a substrate. The contact pad may include a metallic base, and a metallic upper surface wherein said polymer is intermediate said base and upper surfaces. The pad also may have a recessed upper surface, or have a metallic bump thereon depending upon the specific use intended. The contact pad may be incorporated into a substrate including a base substrate material having an upper surface, an interconnecting layer on the upper surface, a dielectric layer on the interconnecting layer, and at least one compliant, electrically conductive polymeric contact pad extending through the dielectric layer and in contact with the interconnecting layer. The substrate so formed may be a temporary substrate used, for example, in testing of integrated circuit chips.

Abstract: A semiconductor memory device is constructed so that a plurality of word lines may be simultaneously selected by the transfer of information through a plurality of shift register positions of a shift register, wherein the respective shift register positions are connected to individual word lines. Simultaneously with the selection of the word lines, data may be written in or readout from the memory. The shift register is part of an address decoder which also includes logic circuits providing first and second selector devices. The first selector device is connected between a control circuit and the initial shift register position, while the second selector device is connected between the control circuit and each of the plurality of shift register positions arranged in parallel. When the first selector device is activated by a first control signal from the control circuit, binary data is clocked through each of the shift register positions.