JPH05160210A - Prober - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately connect a needle tip of a probe needle to an electrode pad of a semiconductor device irrespective of a size of a measuring region. CONSTITUTION:A probe card 3 provided with a probe needle 2 is fixed to a card holder 7 composed of a metal such as ring-like aluminum, stainless or the like which is a size larger than the probe card 3 with a screw. The upper surface of this card holder 7 is formed as the flat reference plane S1 processed with high precision and a height of a needle tip of the probe needle 2 is aligned to this reference plane S1, and in such a condition that the reference plane S2 on the side of an inserting ring 6 parallel to the holding plane of a wafer holding pedestal 1 is connected to the reference plane S1, the card holder 7 is mounted to the inserting ring.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a probe device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices,
After an IC chip is completed in a wafer, it is divided into individual chips and packaged. A probe device is called a probe test for each chip in the wafer to eliminate defective chips before packaging. Electrical measurements are made.

In the conventional probe device, as shown in FIG. 6, above the wafer holder 1 which is movable in the X, Y, Z, and θ directions, the electrode pad array of IC chips in the wafer W is arranged. A probe card 3 having arrayed probe needles 2 is arranged, and the probe card 3 is fixed to the lower surface of the contact ring 4 by, for example, a screw 31 so that the contact ring 4 and the probe card 3 are on the contact ring 4 side. Electrically connected via the pogo pin 41 of
Further, the contact ring 4 is fixed to the insert ring 6 of the probe apparatus main body by a fixing means (not shown). Then, in the probe test using the above-mentioned device, the tester head 5 is pressed against the upper surface of the contact ring 4 and the pogo pin 42 is used to press the tester head 5.
And the contact ring 4 are electrically connected to each other, the wafer holder 1 is raised to bring the probe needle 2 into contact with the electrode pad of the IC chip in the wafer W, and in this state, electrical measurement is performed by a tester (not shown). Therefore, the quality of the IC chip is determined.

If the heights of the tips of the probe needles 2 are not uniform, the probe needles 2 do not come into contact with all the electrode pads with a uniform pressing force, resulting in poor contact or the probe needles Since the chip may be broken through by breaking through the electrode pad, it is necessary to set the needle tips in parallel to the electrode pad row in advance to make the needle tips uniform in height. Therefore, conventionally, in a state where the probe card 3 is held by a separate holding member in advance, the tip of the probe needle 2 is brought into contact with a plate whose surface is gold-plated, and an electrical test is performed. I was trying to make the needle tips even.

[0005]

The adjustment of the needle tip height of the probe needle 2 as described above is ultimately performed with reference to the probe card 3, but the probe card 3 is printed with a multilayer structure. Since it is a substrate, it is easy to have a warp or bending of the substrate, the reliability of the mechanical accuracy of maintaining the reference plane of the printed circuit board is low, and the flatness is poor microscopically. When it is attached to No. 4, the parallelism with the holding surface of the wafer holding table 1, that is, the arrangement of the electrode pads of the IC chip becomes low due to the inclination of the arrangement of the needle tips.

Here, in the prior art, one chip or two
The probe test is performed for each 3 chips, and the number of probe needles is at most about 30 pins, and the measurement area (area surrounded by the needle group) for one probe needle is narrow. Even if the parallelism with the array was not so high, the probe needles 2 could be brought into contact with all the electrode pads. However, the size of one chip tends to increase in the future, and the demand for testing multiple chips at the same time in order to further improve throughput increases the measurement area, resulting in the above parallel If the degree of contact is low, the height of the needle tip will vary greatly, so it is difficult to make sure that the needle tip touches each electrode pad at the same time. As a result, a wide area can be tested collectively. Has become difficult.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a probe device which can surely bring the probe tip of the probe needle into contact with the electrode pad regardless of the size of the measurement region. To provide.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a probe device capable of performing an efficient inspection by means of a probe card capable of contacting all the electrode pads of the object to be inspected at one time and simplifying the structure. To provide.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of probe needles of a probe card mounted on a holder are provided.
In a probe device for making an electrical measurement by respectively contacting the electrode pads of the inspection object held on the inspection object holding base,
A reference surface forming member having a reference surface of the needle tip height of the probe needle is fixed to the probe card, and the reference of the needle tip height is set on the reference surface of the holding body parallel to the holding surface of the object holding base. It is characterized in that the probe card is attached to the holding body in a state where the surfaces are joined.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a probe device for electrically measuring an inspected object by electrically contacting an electrode pad of the inspected object held on the inspected object holding base with a tester. A probe card having a signal line electrically contacting with the probe card, and a probe corresponding to the arrangement of the electrode pads so that the signal line is electrically contacted with all the electrode pads of the device under test. It is characterized in that a large number of contacts provided on the card and an alignment mechanism for aligning the contacts with the object to be inspected are provided.

[0011]

The height of the tip of the probe needle is adjusted in advance so that it is parallel to the reference plane of the reference plane forming member. This adjustment work is performed, for example, by fixing the reference surface forming member to a separately prepared holding member and polishing the needle tip. When the reference surface of the reference surface forming member is joined to the reference surface of the holding body, the reference surface of the holding body and the holding surface of the object holding base are set parallel to each other. The arrangement of the electrode pads of the inspection body becomes parallel. Since the reference surface forming member can be made of a material different from that of the probe card, it is possible to manufacture the reference surface with high accuracy, and thus the height accuracy of the needle tips is improved, and the alignment of the needle tips is improved. The parallelism with the arrangement of the electrode pads can be made very high.

Further, a large number of contacts, for example, vertical needles or contacts on the film wiring are provided on the probe card in correspondence with the arrangement of all the electrode pads of the object to be inspected, so that the contacts for all the electrode pads are provided. Can be brought into contact with each other at a time, and therefore, the object to be inspected can be measured with one contact. In addition, across multiple chips of the inspection object,
The inspection can be performed without moving the X and Y tables, which has been moving the probe card.

[0013]

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a probe device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external view of the probe device, and the same parts as those in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in this probe device, a wafer holder 1 which is movable in X, Y, Z, and θ directions by a drive mechanism (not shown) is arranged inside, and a contact ring 4 described later is mounted. A housing 61 provided with a ring-shaped insert ring 6 for forming a hole 60 for use, and a tester head 5 attached to the housing 6 so as to be openable and closable so as to come into contact with and separate from the insert ring 6. The touch panel unit 62 is provided on the front side of the housing 61 to control the probe device.

A probe card 3 is arranged on the upper side of the wafer holding table 1 so as to face it, and the probe card 3 has a peep window 32 in the center as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The printed board 33 is provided, and the probe needle 2 is provided on the lower surface of the printed board 33 so as to extend obliquely downward from the left and right sides of the viewing window 32 beyond the needle fixing base 34 toward the center. The probe needles 2 are arranged as an example of one arrangement method.
Corresponding to the electrode pad row of the IC chip, 10 needles are placed on the left and right sides of each chip at a distance of about 200 microns for a total of 250 so that 0 chips can be measured simultaneously.
The book is arranged.

A ring-shaped card holder 7 is provided on the peripheral edge of the probe card 3 (peripheral edge of the printed circuit board 33), and the card holder 7 is attached to the insert ring 6 side, respectively. A ring-shaped mounting portion 71, which is larger than the probe card 3 and is provided with a plurality of engaging protrusions 70 that are arranged at intervals in the circumferential direction, and that holds the lower surface of the peripheral edge of the probe card 3. Thus, the holder portion 72 is provided along the inner circumference of the mounting portion 71 at a position lower than the mounting portion 71 by a step. The probe card 3 is integrally fixed to the card holder 7 with screws 73 (not shown in FIG. 1) while being held by the holder portion 72. In this example, the ring-shaped mounting portion 71 of the card holder 7 also serves as a reference surface forming member, and is made of a metal such as aluminum or stainless steel. The upper surface of the attachment portion 71 is formed on a reference surface S1 of a needle tip that is processed with high precision and has an extremely high flatness, and the height of the needle tip of the probe needle 2 is aligned with the reference surface S1 as a reference. Has been.

On the other hand, below the peripheral edge of the hole 60 of the insert ring 6, the engaging protrusion 70 of the card holder 7 is introduced from the lateral direction so that the probe card 3 can be attached and detached by rotating the probe card 3, and it is closely attached to this. A link-shaped engaging member 64 having an engaging concave portion 63 that is engaged with, and abutting that is joined to the upper surface of the mounting portion 71 of the card holder 7 when the probe card 3 is mounted on the engaging member 64. A portion 65 is provided, and a surface of the engagement recess 63 and the contact portion 65 that is joined to the reference surface S1 of the card holder 7 is set in parallel with the holding surface of the wafer holding table 1 with high accuracy. The reference surface S2 is formed. In addition, in this example, the insert ring 6 and the engaging portion 64 form a holding body for holding the probe card 3.

On the upper surface side of the probe card 3, there is provided a contact ring 4 fixed to the insert ring 6 by a fixing means (not shown) so as to be electrically connected to the terminals of the probe card 3 via hogo pins 41. The probe card 3 is electrically connected to the contact ring 4 but not fixed in this example.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.
First, as shown in FIG. 4, the reference surface S1 of the card holder 7 is previously stored.
On the other hand, the heights of the probe tips of the probe needles 2 are aligned with reference to the reference plane S1 so that the alignment of the probe tips of the probe needles 2 (the plane P including the needle tips) becomes parallel. This adjustment can be performed, for example, by fixing the card holder 7 to a holding member of a polishing device (not shown) prepared separately, and polishing the needle tip so as to be parallel to the reference surface S1. Good. After that, the card holder 7 is attached to the engaging portion 64, but the engaging concave portion 63 causes the engaging protrusion 70 to be inserted into the hole 6 of the insert ring 6 by a push-up mechanism (not shown).
0 is pushed up toward the abutting portion 65 provided on the peripheral portion of the 0, and the engaging projection portion 70 and the engaging recess portion 63 are tightly engaged, so that the reference surface S1 on the card holder 7 side and the holding body side. The reference surface S2 is joined, and as a result, the electrode pad row of the IC chip in the wafer W, which is the object to be inspected on the wafer holding table 1, and the row of the probe tips of the probe needles 2 become parallel.

Then, the wafer holding table 1 is raised to bring the wafer W and the probe needle 2 closer to each other, and while observing through the observation window 32 of the probe card 3 with a microscope or TV camera, for example, with respect to the electrode pads of 10 chips. The probe needle 2 is aligned in the X, Y, Z, and θ directions, and then the probe needle 2 and the electrode pad are brought into contact with each other. Next, the tester head 5 is attached to the contact ring 4 via the hogo pin 42.
Are contacted with each other, and electrical measurement of 10 chips is simultaneously performed by a tester (not shown) connected to the tester head 5 to determine whether the chips are good or bad.

According to such an embodiment, one
Since the probe needles 2 are lined up corresponding to the arrangement of all electrode pads of 0 chips, the measurement area (needle stand area) in one measurement is quite wide, but the reference surface S1 of the card holder 7 is Since the extremely high flat surface is formed by highly accurate metal processing, the parallelism between the electrode pad row and the probe needle 2 becomes extremely high by adjusting the height of the needle tip with reference to this reference surface S1. The needle contacts each electrode pad with a uniform pressing force, and as a result, highly accurate measurement can be performed. By performing the multi-chip simultaneous measurement in this way, the number of movements of the probe needle with respect to the wafer W can be reduced, so that the throughput is improved.

As described above, in this embodiment, the contact ring 4 is fixed to the card holder 7 without being fixed to the insert ring 6. Further, a reference surface forming member (in the embodiment, the card holder mounting portion 7
1) may be fixed to the holding body by, for example, a screw, without depending on the engagement between the engagement protrusion 70 and the engagement recess 63.

Further, the material of the reference plane forming member is not limited to metal, but hard plastic or ceramic may be used, and the reference plane S1 is formed only on a part of the probe card 3 instead of on the entire circumference thereof. You may do so. The number of probe needles may be the number corresponding to one chip, or may be the number corresponding to all the chips of the wafer,
Alternatively, only two may be used.

Here, in order to efficiently perform the electrical measurement of the chips, instead of using the reference surface forming member, a vertical needle that is a probe needle is used as a contact and arranged so as to contact all the chips in the wafer. Alternatively, a conductive rubber other than the probe needle may be similarly arranged as a contactor.

As an example of such a device, a probe device having a vertical needle 8 as a probe needle as shown in FIG. 5 may be used. In this probe device, a probe cover provided with a printed circuit 83 as a signal line on the lower surface of an insert ring 82 mounted on a plate 81 of the device body.
Along with mounting the cord 84, a guide plate 86 having guide holes 85 formed corresponding to the arrangement of the vertical needles 8 on the lower side of the probe card 84 is mounted via a support member 87, and the vertical needle 8 One end penetrates to the upper side of the probe card 84 and is fixed by the through hole terminal portion 88, and the other end passes through the inside of the guide hole 85 and protrudes downward.
The vertical needles 8 are arranged corresponding to the arrangement of the electrode pads of all the IC chips in the wafer W. Therefore, in such a device, since the vertical needles 8 simultaneously contact the electrode pads of all the chips in the wafer W at the same time, electrical measurement of all the chips can be performed at the same time, and the wafer and the vertical needles 8 can be simultaneously measured. The alignment can be performed only once by, for example, the alignment mechanism 10 provided on the wafer holder 1 side, and the work can be performed efficiently and easily. Further, the fine adjustment can be performed on the wafer holder side or the insert ring side. Only a positioning mechanism needs to be provided, and a large-scale wafer holding table drive mechanism is unnecessary.

As described above, in the apparatus in which the vertical needle 8 is brought into contact with all the chips of the wafer at once, the probe card 84 is attached to the insert ring 82 via the reference surface forming member as described above. It is desirable to fix it. Further, the accuracy can be improved by adjusting the height of the tip of the vertical needle 8 with respect to the reference surface forming member.

As the probe apparatus of the present invention, the case where the object to be inspected is a semiconductor wafer has been described above, but a probe apparatus for inspecting an LCD substrate or the like may be used as another object to be inspected.

[0027]

According to the invention of claim 1, the height of the probe tip of the probe needle is adjusted with respect to the reference plane of the reference plane forming member separate from the probe card, and the height of the material of the reference plane forming member is increased. Since an accurate one can be selected, the reference surface can be manufactured with high accuracy, so that the electrode pad can be surely brought into contact with the reference surface, and highly accurate electrical measurement can be performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the object to be inspected can be inspected by making only one contact between the contact of the probe card and the electrode pad of the object to be inspected. It can be done easily and easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view showing the external appearance of the probe device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a probe card and a card holder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an enlarged main part of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional probe device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Wafer Holder 2 Probe Needle 3 Probe Card 4 Contact Ring 5 Tester Head 6 Insert Ring 7 Card Holder S1, S2 Reference Surface 8 Vertical Needle

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A probe device for performing electrical measurement by bringing a plurality of probe needles of a probe card mounted on a holder into contact with electrode pads of the object to be inspected held on an object to be inspected holder, respectively. The probe card is provided with a reference surface forming member having a reference surface of the needle tip height, and the reference surface of the needle tip height is set on the reference surface of the holding body parallel to the holding surface of the object holding base. A probe device in which a probe card is attached to the holding body in a joined state. 2. A probe device for electrically measuring an object to be inspected by electrically contacting an electrode pad of the object to be inspected, which is held on the object to be inspected holding table, with a tester, and electrically contacting the tester. And a probe card provided with a signal line that is electrically connected to the signal line, and is provided on the probe card corresponding to the arrangement of the electrode pads so as to simultaneously contact all the electrode pads of the device under test. A probe device, comprising: a contactor; and an alignment mechanism for aligning the contactor with an object to be inspected.