We present a new type of silicon micro-probe card using a three-dimensional probe beam of the cantilever type. It was fabricated using KOH and dry etching, a porous silicon micromachining technique, and an Au electroplating process. The cantilever-type probe beam had a thickness of 5 µm, a width of 50 µm, and a length of 800 µm. The probe beam for pad contact was formed by the thermal expansion coefficient difference between the films. The maximum height of the curled probe beam was 170 µm, and an annealing process was performed for 20 min at 500°C. The contact resistance of the newly fabricated probe card was less than 2 Ω, and its lifetime was more than 20,000 turns.

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A silicon micro probe beam using a curled cantilever was designed and fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, such as porous silicon micromachining, reactive ion etching (RIE) and Au electroplating. The stress analysis of a micromachined micro probe beam was performed using finite-element ANSYS software. As a result, the basic structure was a multilayer composed of Au/Ni–Cr/Si3N4/n-epi layers. The width and length of the micro probe beam were 40 µm and 600 µm, respectively. Annealing is performed for 20 min at 500°C. The result shows that a deflection over 130 µm can be achieved for a silicon epitaxial layer 5 µm thick. The contact resistance of the micro probe beam was less than 2 Ω.

The major limitation that restricts the cycle life of large-storage-capacity anodes for lithium-ion batteries is the large volume changes during cycling, which cause uncontrolled structural dilapidation and the lowering of...