Appeal 2006-3236
Inter Partes Reexamination Control No. 95/000,006
BACKGROUND
The invention relates to a tray for storing a semiconductor integrated
circuit device, such as an integrated circuit device in a ball grid array (BGA)
package. Figure 1 of the '595 patent shows a side view of a BGA device.
A BGA device 5 is characterized by a thin planar housing and a plurality of
external terminals 1 on the lower surface of the housing usually arranged in
a two-dimensional array. Each external terminal is a small solder ball.
A BGA semiconductor device is stored in a storage portion of a tray
to be transported or subjected to tests (Specification, col. 1, ll. 26-29). A
storage portion of a conventional tray is a recess having almost the same
shape as that of the package of the semiconductor device (id. at ll. 29-31). It
is important that there not be any contact between the solder ball and the
tray. The conventional tray supports the peripheral portion outside the
outermost ball terminals of the lower surface of the package of the
semiconductor device with a peripheral ledge of the storage portion of the
tray, and restrains horizontal movement of the package with a wall surface
of the storage portion (id. at ll. 31-43). As packages have become more and
more compact, the width of the peripheral portion of the lower surface of the
- 3 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013