Aries Electronics, an international manufacturer of standard, programmed and custom interconnection products, today announced its new high-frequency center probe test socket for devices up to 13 mm sq. Available in four versions with ratings of 1-3 GHz, 3-5 GHz, 5-9 GHz and 10-18 GHz, the new socket is ideal for manual, high-speed testing of devices such as CSP, microns BGA, DSP, LGA, SRAM, DRAM and Flash, with pitches as low as 0.40 mm.

The socket's solderless, pressure-mount, compression spring probes allow the socket to be easily mounted to and removed from the test board. The four- point crown ensures "scrub" on solder balls for reliable contact mating and its raised tip probe works with LGAs, MLFs and other socket types. The socket's gold-over-nickel compression spring probe screws leave very small witness marks on the bottom of the device solder balls and are accurately located by two molded plastic alignment pins and secured with four stainless steel screws.

Aries' new socket provides minimal signal loss for higher bandwidth capability via a signal path of only 0.077" (1.95 mm). With an overall size of 1.200" (30.48 mm) x .840" (21.34 mm) x .440" (11.18 mm), the socket provides the maximum allowable space for board components and connectors.

The compression spring probes in Aries' new RF sockets are constructed of durable heat-treated Beryllium-Copper alloy, plated with 30 micron min. (0.75 microns) gold per Mil-G-45204 over 30 micron min. (0.75 microns) nickel per QQ-N-290. The socket's molded components are UL 94 V-0 PEEK or Ultem. All hardware is stainless steel.

The socket's contact forces are 16 g per contact on a 0.50 mm pitch, 25 g per contact on a 0.50-0.75 mm pitch and 25 g per contact on 0.80 mm or larger pitch. Operating temperature is -55 degree C to 150 degree C (-67 degree F to 302 degree F) and estimated contact life is more than 500,000 cycles.