JP2001168566A - Cooler for electronic part tester - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooler in which balance of flow rate can be adjusted easily while keeping a high accuracy of flow rate and saving the space. SOLUTION: The cooler 2 supplies cooling medium to each of a plurality of printed boards 3 fixed to an electronic part tester 1 through a branch header 22 having at least one outlet 222a of cooling medium provided with an orifice 223.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling device for cooling a substrate on which electronic components are mounted, and more particularly to a branch header for a cooling medium, and more particularly to a cooling device which is preferably used for a test head of an electronic component testing device. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic component test apparatus called a handler, a large number of ICs under test are transported into a handler, and each IC under test is brought into electrical contact with a test head.
A test is performed by an electronic component test apparatus main body (hereinafter, also referred to as a tester). When the test is completed, each IC under test is
From the test head, and sorting into categories such as non-defective products and defective products is performed according to the test results.

A test head to which an IC under test is electrically connected is provided with a printed circuit board on which an electric circuit for transmitting and receiving various test signals to and from a tester is constructed. In this type of printed circuit board, a large number of large-scale integrated circuit modules (hereinafter, also referred to as LSI modules) are mounted on one or both sides thereof, so that the higher the operating speed of the LSI module becomes, the more the LSI becomes. The higher the module integration, the higher the individual LS
The amount of heat generated from the I module increases.

For this reason, the printed circuit board is forcibly cooled using a refrigerant made of an insulating liquid such as perfluorocarbon or ultrapure water (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
-51169).

[0005]

By the way, in the above-described apparatus for cooling a printed circuit board using an insulating liquid refrigerant, a branch header is provided in a circulation circuit for flowing a cooling medium through a plurality of printed circuit boards. Here, the cooling medium is branched to each printed circuit board. Further, in order to adjust the flow rate of the cooling medium branched to each printed circuit board, a flow control valve and a flow meter are provided downstream of the branch header. Then, the opening of the flow control valve is adjusted while visually checking the flow meter so that the flow rate of the cooling medium branched to each printed circuit board becomes the target flow rate.

However, such a work of adjusting the flow rate in a try-and-error manner is extremely complicated and impractical, and it is extremely difficult to adjust the flow rate of a desired flow of refrigerant to each printed circuit board.

In addition, a plurality of printed circuit boards are inserted into the test head, and the number of printed circuit boards provided in the test head is also increased due to an increase in the number of simultaneously measured ICs to be tested and a complicated test content. Due to this tendency, the gap between the printed circuit boards tends to decrease more and more. For example, in recent test heads, printed boards are arranged with a gap of about 16 mm.

Accordingly, there is no space for mounting devices such as a flow control valve and a flow meter to be provided downstream of the branch header, and if these devices are to be mounted, the test head itself becomes large.

Although it is conceivable to adopt a constant flow valve in place of the flow control valve and the flow meter in order to solve the problem of space, the conventional constant flow valve is required to suppress an increase in the size of the test head. It is still too large, and the flow rate accuracy of the constant flow valve is around ± 8%, and the variation in cooling is large. In particular, in a test head of an electronic component testing apparatus, the higher the frequency of the test signal, the greater the amount of heat generated from the electronic components mounted on the LSI module, and the more strict cooling accuracy is required.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a cooling apparatus which can easily adjust the flow rate balance, has high flow rate accuracy, and saves space, and a method for evaluating the cooling apparatus.

(1) According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooling device for supplying a cooling medium via a branch header to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus, A cooling device for an electronic component test apparatus is provided, wherein at least one of an inlet and an outlet of a cooling medium of the branch header is provided with an orifice.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a cooling apparatus for supplying a cooling medium to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus, wherein the cooling medium is connected to a supply source of the cooling medium. Main pipe, a sub pipe for guiding the cooling medium to the respective substrates, and a cooling medium provided between the main pipe and the sub pipe and guided by the main pipe to branch to the respective sub pipes. With a branch header,
A cooling device of an electronic component testing device in which an orifice is provided at at least one connection portion between the branch header and the sub pipe can be given.

According to another embodiment, there is provided a cooling device for supplying a cooling medium to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus, wherein the cooling medium supply source includes: A connected main pipe, a sub pipe for guiding the cooling medium to the respective substrates, and a cooling medium provided between the main pipe and the sub pipe and guided by the main pipe to branch to the respective sub pipes A cooling device for an electronic component test apparatus, comprising a plurality of branch headers to be provided, wherein an orifice is provided at a connection portion between at least one branch header and the main pipe.

In the cooling device of the present invention, at least one of the inlet and the outlet of the cooling medium of the branch header is provided with an orifice, and the flow rate is balanced between the inlet and the outlet without the orifice. Since the opening area of the orifice is large enough to achieve the desired flow balance, once it is determined, there is no risk that the flow balance will be lost, and since the opening area is determined by the cutting accuracy compared to a constant flow valve etc. The flow rate accuracy is also greatly improved.

Further, since a valve element and a drive mechanism for the valve element are not required as in the case of a flow control valve or a constant flow valve, the valve can be installed in a small space, and a reduction in the size of an electronic component test apparatus can be expected.

(2) Although not particularly limited in the above invention, the branch header includes a joint for connecting each of the main pipe and the sub pipe, and a hollow branch header having an opening in which the joint is mounted. It is preferable that the joint and the branch header main body are joined by brazing in a furnace.

The narrower the space between the substrates to be cooled, the narrower the space between the joints for connecting the main pipe and the sub-pipe, especially the sub-pipe, and it becomes difficult to perform welding using a welding torch. If the brazing method in a furnace, that is, a method in which a brazing material is applied to a joint portion and then carried into a heating furnace to join the joints, is adopted, the joint is joined to the branch header body even when the distance between the substrates becomes narrow. can do.

(3) Although not particularly limited in the above invention, as a more specific embodiment, a plurality of second sub-tubes for guiding a cooling medium that has passed through each substrate;
One or more aggregation headers that are connected to the sub-tube and aggregate the cooling medium that has passed through the respective substrates, and a second main pipe that returns the cooling medium aggregated by the aggregation header to the supply source are further provided. A cooling device of an electronic component test device can be mentioned.

In this cooling device, the cooling medium can be circulated, so that the refrigerant can be effectively used and the cost can be reduced.

(4) According to a second aspect of the present invention, a cooling medium is supplied to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on the electronic component test apparatus via a branch header having at least one orifice. A method for evaluating the flow rate balance of each cooling medium flowing out of the branch header of the cooling device, wherein a dummy load corresponding to a flow load when the electronic device is mounted on the electronic component test device is provided for each of the branch headers. A method for evaluating a cooling device, which is provided in a pipe connected to an outlet of a cooling medium and evaluates a flow rate balance of each cooling medium flowing out from the branch header, is provided.

When adjusting the flow rate balance of the branch header described above, unless the board, tube, flow meter, and other members to be flow-loaded, which are actually mounted, are all mounted, the pressure caused by these members must be adjusted. The loss causes a flow error. Therefore, it is desirable to adjust the flow rate balance with all of the actual components installed, but in the manufacture of a branch header, preparing all of these components is cost, delivery, or space-saving. There's a problem.

However, as in the present invention, the distribution loads of all these members are obtained in advance by calculation or experiment,
With the same distribution load as the distribution load, preferably by providing a dummy load whose distribution load can be freely adjusted to the pipe connected to the branch header, at a low cost, in a short period of time, and with a space saving branch header, In particular, the opening area of the orifice can be determined.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an electronic component test apparatus to which the cooling device of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the test head of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the cooling device of the present invention. Circuit diagram,
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the branch header of FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, an electronic component test apparatus 1 to which a cooling device of the present invention is applied includes a handler 11,
It comprises a test head 12 and a tester 13, and the test head 12 and the tester 13 are connected via a cable 14. Then, the IC under test mounted on the supply tray of the handler 11 is pressed against the contact portion of the test head 12 by various transport devices, and the test of the IC under test is executed via the test head 12 and the cable 14. After that, the IC under test after the test is stored in the classification tray according to the test result.

The housing 121 of the test head 12 is provided with a back wiring board 122, and the input / output connector 123 of the back wiring board 122 is connected to the connector 31 of the printed circuit board 3. A low insertion connector or a zero insertion connector 32 is provided at the upper end of the printed circuit board 3, and a board having a contact portion (not shown) is connected to the connector 32.

The printed circuit board 3 includes a board called a pin electronics and a power supply board, on which a test signal input / output circuit and a control circuit for testing an IC chip as an electronic component under test are constructed. ing. Since an electronic component that generates a large amount of heat during operation is mounted on such an electric circuit, the electronic component test apparatus of the present embodiment is also provided with a cooling jacket 21 that sandwiches the printed circuit board 3 in a sandwich shape. Perfluorocarbon which is a cooling medium (insulating liquid), for example, Fluorinert (registered trademark) manufactured by 3M, or ultrapure water is circulated through the jacket 21 to absorb heat generated during operation.

The cooling device 2 of the present invention will be described. Since a plurality of printed circuit boards 3 are mounted on the test head 12, the cooling jackets 21 are provided on each of the printed circuit boards 3 as shown in FIG. A cooling medium is supplied to each of them, and after cooling the printed circuit boards 3, they are consolidated. For this reason, the branch header 22 is provided on the upstream side of the cooling jacket 21, and the aggregate header 23 is provided on the downstream side of the cooling jacket 21.

The branch header 22 and the aggregation header 2
FIG. 4 shows the external appearance of the cooling medium 3. The cooling medium, which is pressure-fed from the constant-temperature refrigerant circulator 24 for keeping the cooling medium at a constant low temperature and for pumping the same, is first passed through the feed-side main pipe 25, and then to a branch header. Inlet 221 formed at one end of the body 22
The cooling medium reaching the internal space of the main body of the branch header 22 from there is sent out a large number of outlets 222 (equivalent to the number of printed circuit boards 3) on the side surface of the main body of the branch header 22 (222a, 222b). ) Is supplied to each cooling jacket 21 through the feed-side sub-tube 26.

As shown in FIG. 4, the outlets 222 are provided in a zigzag pattern so that the intervals are as small as possible in accordance with the intervals at which the printed circuit boards 3 are mounted. This allows
Even when the intervals between the printed circuit boards 3 are narrow, the branch header 22 itself can be built in the test head 12 without increasing the size.

On the other hand, the consolidation header 23 also has basically the same structure as the branch header 22, and the cooling medium that has passed through each cooling jacket 21 is provided with a sub-pipe 27 for guiding to the main body of the consolidation header 23. Through the inlet 2
From 31 flows into the aggregation header 23 main body. Then, the cooling medium gathered in the body of the header 23 flows out of the outlet 232 formed at one end of the body of the header 23, and is returned to the constant-temperature refrigerant circulator 24 via the return-side main pipe 28.

The branch header 22 and the aggregation header 2
Reference numeral 3 denotes a joint in which the joints constituting the inlets 221 and 231 are joined to the header body by brazing in a furnace. Even if the mounting interval of the printed circuit board 3 is narrow and the welding torch is hard to enter as in the present embodiment, This can be dealt with by adopting an in-furnace brazing method.

Here, as the printed circuit board 3 to be cooled by the cooling medium, there are a pin electronics board which generates a relatively large amount of heat and a power supply board which generates a smaller amount of heat than the pin electronics board. Since the cooling effect of the cooling medium depends on the flow rate of the cooling medium per unit time, a relatively large amount of the cooling medium flows to the printed circuit board 3 having a large heat value, and conversely, the printing having a small heat value is performed. It is desirable to flow a relatively small amount of cooling medium to the substrate 3 from the viewpoint of cooling efficiency.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the printed circuit boards 3 on both sides of the figure are power supply boards,
When the three central printed boards 3, 3, 3 are pin electronics boards, orifices 223 are provided at the outlets 222a, 222a of the branch header 22 for the printed boards 3, 3 which require a relatively small amount of cooling medium. Forming
The passage amount of the cooling medium is narrowed as compared with the other outlets 222b.

Although the shape of the orifice 223 is not particularly limited, it is desirable to adopt the following evaluation method in determining the opening area of the orifice 223.

That is, when the cooling device 2 is mounted on the actual test head 12, the printed circuit board 3 and the cooling jacket other than the components of the cooling device 2 can be the flow path resistance of the circulation circuit of the cooling medium. 21. Originally, the regular printed circuit board 3 and the cooling medium 21 are assembled in a regular state, and the outlet 222 of the branch header 22 is provided.
It is desirable to adjust the ratio of the opening areas of a and 222b.
However, since the printed circuit board 3 and the cooling jacket 21 are not manufactured in time because they are in the development stage, it is difficult to manufacture them specially for adjusting the branch header 22 in terms of cost or time. It may be. Therefore, a dummy joint having the same flow resistance as that of the actual printed circuit board 3 and the cooling jacket 21 is prepared, and the flow rate balance is adjusted by using the dummy joint.

FIG. 5 shows an evaluation circuit for determining the opening area of the orifice 223 of the branch header 22 when constructing the cooling device 2 shown in FIG. 3. The printed circuit board 3 and the cooling jacket 21 shown in FIG. Dummy joint 2 instead of
91 and a flow meter 292 are provided. The dummy joint 291 is a joint device having a small hole, and the flow resistance of the small hole and the flow meter 292 corresponds to the flow resistance of the printed circuit board 3 and the cooling jacket 21. The dummy joint 291 having a variable opening area is more preferable in terms of versatility, but a dummy joint 291 having a constant opening area can be sufficiently used. The flow meter 292 is
A meter for evaluating whether or not the opening area of the orifice 223 is preferable for the flow rate balance.
The opening area of the orifice 223 is adjusted depending on whether or not the flow rate of No. 2 is a desired flow rate.

An example of the evaluation by the above evaluation method is shown below.
It is assumed that 34 printed boards 3 are mounted in the cooling device 2 of FIG.
A cooling medium of 75 liters / min was flowed, and 1.5 liters / min.
Of the cooling medium, and a total of 45 liters / minute from the constant-temperature refrigerant circulator 24. Table 1 shows the results of adjusting the opening area of the orifice 223 using the above-described evaluation method under these conditions. In the table, branch No. Is the outlet 222 counted from one end of the branch header 22, and according to the results in the table, the cooling medium is actually 44.79 liters / minute for the total target flow rate of 45 liters / minute. Flow rate error is 0.5
%, And the maximum flow rate error from the outlet 222 of the branch header 22 was 5.3% (No. 33). As described above, even if a constant flow valve is used, considering that the flow rate accuracy is limited to ± 8%, the use of the orifice 223 of the present embodiment can increase the accuracy by several%. Was. In addition, if the opening area of the orifice 223 of this embodiment is set once before being attached to the test head 12, the opening area does not change during use, and the cooling medium flows at a stable flow rate. become. In addition, since the flow rate balance is adjusted only by the orifice 223, the installation space becomes much smaller than when a valve body is used, and it is possible to cope with the case where the printed circuit boards 3 are arranged at small intervals.

[0038]

[Table 1]

Second Embodiment The cooling device 2 of the present invention can be variously modified without being limited to the above embodiment. For example, a plurality of branch headers 22 according to the present invention may be included. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the cooling device of the present invention. In this example, two pairs of branch headers 22A and 22B and integrated headers 23A and 23B are provided, and the printed circuit board 3 corresponding to the branch header 22A is pinned. In the electronics board, the printed board 3 corresponding to the branch header 22B is a power supply board. Then, a cooling medium, for example, 45 liters / minute is supplied from the constant temperature refrigerant circulator 24, and the cooling medium is branched into the inlet 221A of the branch header 22A at 40 liters / minute and to the inlet 221B of the branch header 22B at 5 liters / minute. Let it. 38 printed boards 3 are mounted on the branch header 22A side.
Are provided with 38 outlets 222A (each outlet 222A).
In contrast, 20 printed circuit boards 3 are mounted on the branch header 22B side, and therefore, 20 outlets 222B of the branch header 22B are provided (each outlet 222B). From 0.25 l / min).

In the present embodiment, an orifice 223 is provided at the inflow port 221B of the branch header 22B to adjust the flow balance of the branch headers 22A and 22B.

Also in the case of the present embodiment, similarly to the above-described embodiment, in adjusting the opening area of the orifice 223, the same flow resistance as the actual flow resistance is obtained by using the dummy joint 291 and the flow meter 292 shown in FIG. Build a circuit with Table 2 shows the results adjusted in this manner.

In this case, the actual target flow rate of 40 liters / minute on the branch header 22A side is actually 40.76.
Since the cooling medium flows at a rate of liter / min, the flow rate error is 1.9%, and the cooling medium of 4.97 liter / min is actually equal to the total target flow rate of 5 liter / min on the branch header 22B side. Since it is flowing, the flow rate error is 0.6%, the flow rate error from each outlet 222A of the branch header 22A is 3.6% at maximum (No. 1), and the branch header 22B
The maximum flow rate error from each outlet 222B was 4.0% (Nos. 1, 6, 12, 16, and 18). As described above, considering that the flow rate accuracy is generally about ± 8% even when a constant flow rate valve is used, the orifice 223 of this embodiment is connected to the inflow port 2 of the branch header 22B.
By adopting it for 21B, it was possible to achieve a several percent increase in accuracy.

[0043]

[Table 2]

The embodiments described above are described for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not described for limiting the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

[0045]

As described above, according to the invention according to the first aspect, the flow rate accuracy is high and the space can be saved. Further, by employing the in-furnace brazing method, it is possible to provide a branch header corresponding to the case where the distance between the substrates is extremely narrow.

According to the invention of the second aspect, the opening area of the branch header, particularly the orifice, can be determined at low cost, in a short period of time, and in a small space.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an electronic component test apparatus to which a cooling device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the test head of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of a cooling device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a branch header of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing a method for evaluating the cooling device of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the cooling device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Electronic component testing apparatus 11 ... Handler 12 ... Test head 13 ... Tester 2 ... Cooling apparatus 21 ... Cooling jacket 22 ... Branch header 221 ... Inflow port 222 ... Outflow port 223 ... Orifice 23 ... Consolidation header 24 ... Constant temperature refrigerant circulator (Supply source of cooling medium) 25, 28 ... Main pipe 26, 27 ... Sub pipe 291 ... Dummy joint 292 ... Flow meter 3 ... Printed circuit board (board)

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Koji Nakagawa 7-30-8 Oi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Nishiyama Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigekatsu Yajima 7-30-8 Oi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Nishiyama Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 3L044 AA04 BA06 CA13 DB02 FA02 HA03 KA05 5E322 AA05 AB11 DA01 DA02 FA01

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A cooling device for supplying a cooling medium via a branch header to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus, wherein the branch header has an inlet and a flow of a cooling medium. A cooling device for an electronic component testing device, wherein at least one of the outlets is provided with an orifice. 2. A cooling device for supplying a cooling medium to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test device, comprising: a supply source of a cooling refrigerant; a main pipe connected to the supply source; A sub pipe for guiding the cooling medium to the respective substrates; and a branch header provided between the main pipe and the sub pipe, for branching the cooling medium guided by the main pipe to the respective sub pipes. A cooling device for an electronic component testing device, wherein an orifice is provided in at least one connection portion between the branch header and the sub pipe. 3. A cooling device for supplying a cooling medium to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus, comprising: a supply source of a cooling refrigerant; a main pipe connected to the supply source; A sub-pipe for guiding the cooling medium to the respective substrates, and a plurality of branch headers provided between the main pipe and the sub-pipe to branch the cooling medium guided by the main pipe to the respective sub-pipe; A cooling device for an electronic component testing device, comprising: an orifice provided at a connection portion between at least one branch header and the main pipe. 4. The branch header includes a joint for connecting each of the main pipe and the sub pipe, and a hollow branch header main body having an opening to which the joint is mounted,
4. The cooling device for an electronic component test apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the joint and the branch header body are joined by brazing in a furnace. 5. A plurality of second sub-tubes for guiding a cooling medium that has passed through each of said substrates, and one or a plurality of second sub-tubes connected to said second sub-tubes for consolidating the cooling medium that has passed through said respective substrates. A cooling device for an electronic component test apparatus, further comprising: an aggregation header; and a second main pipe returning the cooling medium aggregated by the aggregation header to the supply source. 6. A cooling apparatus for supplying a cooling medium to each of a plurality of substrates mounted on an electronic component test apparatus via a branch header having at least one orifice,
A method for evaluating the flow rate balance of each cooling medium flowing out of the branch header, wherein a dummy load corresponding to a flow load when the cooling medium is mounted on the electronic component test apparatus is supplied to each outlet of the branch header. A method for evaluating a cooling device, which is provided in a connected pipe and evaluates a flow rate balance of each cooling medium flowing out of the branch header.