Electrical shorts between power and ground pins/rails of a processor can cause irreparable damage to the processor and the motherboard. If an end user inadvertently bends one of the power pins while inserting the processor into a pin socket or misaligns a solder bump while mounting the processor to a ball grid array (“BGA”) socket, then the user could destroy the processor and/or the motherboard due to a power-ground short.
This bent pin or misaligned solder bump scenario is particularly apt to occur in a processor platform validation (“PPV”) test environment. During PPV, the processor is mounted into a test unit using an auto handler. If the auto handler does not accurately take hold of the processor or if the test unit is not squarely positioned, a bent pin or misaligned solder bump may occur. As soon as power is applied to the test unit, the processor may be destroyed due to the high current discharge from power to ground. Typical voltage regulation modules have current protection circuitry that activates at current levels of 150 to 200 Amps to protect the voltage regulator itself. However, a processor may be irreparably damaged at current levels of 4 Amps, if the discharge is through a single lead.