JP2000323536A - Inspecting apparatus for semiconductor wafers - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accelerate quick TAT operation for supplying semiconductor produces to customers and allow manufacturing cost to be reduced further. SOLUTION: A prober apparatus for electrically measuring electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip formed on a semiconductor wafer 3, by contacting probe needle 4 to the chip comprises a conductive board 1 for mounting the wafer 3 and a support 2, which is mounted on the conductive board 1 and composed of a heat insulating material. Such a structure serves to reduce the heat capacity of the semiconductor wafer 3, and a heat source is mounted so that the semiconductor wafer can be quickly set to a prescribed temp.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a prober device, and more particularly to a semiconductor wafer inspection device capable of quickly inspecting semiconductor wafer chips under a predetermined temperature condition.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an IC is manufactured, a large number of semiconductor integrated circuit chips are formed on the surface of a semiconductor wafer, and the semiconductor integrated circuit chips are cut and mounted on a mold resin or the like. Thus, an IC product is obtained.
The IC thus formed is inspected and sorted by an IC tester, and a good IC satisfying various characteristics is delivered to the customer as a product. Here, it is desired to find and eliminate defective semiconductor integrated circuits at an early stage of the manufacturing process in order to reduce manufacturing costs.

In recent years, demand for semiconductor integrated circuits for specific applications has increased, and it has become important to manufacture ICs of various types and in small quantities. In dealing with customers of high-mix low-volume products, short TAT (Turn Around)
d Time) is particularly important.

Therefore, it is required to inspect the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit at the stage of the semiconductor wafer during the IC manufacturing process. In this case, it is necessary to change the ambient temperature of the integrated circuit. As such a conventional inspection apparatus, there is, for example, a temperature-variable probe apparatus described in JP-A-62-63439.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of the prober device described in the above-mentioned publication. Here, for easy understanding, a table area of the prober device on which a semiconductor wafer is placed is shown.

An upper portion of a stage 102 of a table 101 is hollowed out, and a vacuum suction head 103 is mounted on an upper surface thereof. Then, the semiconductor wafer 104 is placed and fixed on the vacuum suction head 103 through the vacuum hose 105.

The hood 106, the probe needle 107
Wafer 10 with a probe card 108 having
4 is hermetically closed to form a sealed space 109.
Here, although not shown, a viewing window is formed in the probe card 108 in a region where the probe needle 107 is attached, so that the tip position of the probe needle 107 can be determined.

An air supply hose 110 and an exhaust hose 111 connected to the closed space 109 are attached. The air supply hose 110 and the exhaust hose 111
Through a temperature-controlled air (for example, -55 ° C to +1
Air cooled or heated to an arbitrary temperature within a range of 30 ° C.) is sent to the closed space 109 and circulated. The temperature of the surface of the semiconductor wafer 104 in the closed space 109 is controlled by the temperature-controlled air.

In this manner, the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit when the ambient temperature of the semiconductor wafer is changed are measured. Then, the products are sorted.

[0010]

In the prior art described above, the semiconductor wafer 104 is placed on the table 101. However, the heat capacity of such a table unit 101 is very large. For this reason, when trying to measure the electrical characteristics of a given semiconductor wafer at different temperatures, the evaluation time becomes longer.

This is because, for example, after measuring electrical characteristics at room temperature, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer is reduced to 75 ° C. by blowing hot air.
This is because a large amount of heat capacity as described above requires a lot of time to stabilize at 75 ° C. Also, when temperature control is performed from a high temperature to a low temperature, similarly, much time is required until stabilization.

[0012] Such an increase in the evaluation time makes it impossible to shorten the supply TAT of the above-mentioned multi-product small-volume products, and is fatal in dealing with customers of such products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus which solves the above-mentioned problems, facilitates a short TAT of a semiconductor device product, and further reduces the manufacturing cost. It is in.

[0014]

To this end, a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus according to the present invention provides a prober for measuring the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip by bringing the semiconductor chip formed on the semiconductor wafer into contact with a probe needle. A device,
The semiconductor device has a conductor plate on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted and a support member attached to the conductor plate and made of a heat insulating material. A first heat source is fixedly attached to the body of the prober device in a region located above the probe needle, and a second heat source is provided in a region below the probe needle and below the conductor plate. Are fixedly attached to the body of the prober device.

Here, gas irradiation controlled to a predetermined temperature from the first heat source or the second heat source is applied to the semiconductor wafer or the conductor plate, and the semiconductor wafer is set to a predetermined temperature. Further, the temperature of the gas irradiated from the second heat source is set to be higher than the temperature of the gas irradiated from the first heat source. This irradiation gas is air or nitrogen gas.

Further, the semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus of the present invention is a prober apparatus for measuring the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chip by bringing a semiconductor chip formed on the semiconductor wafer into contact with a probe needle. Has a conductor plate mounted thereon and a support member attached to the conductor plate and made of a heat insulating material, and further, a plurality of stages each fixed at a predetermined temperature are attached as a heat source. The stage has a movable structure.

Here, a predetermined stage among the plurality of stages is selected and connected to the conductor plate, so that the semiconductor wafer is set to a predetermined temperature.

In the present invention, the conductor plate on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted is mounted on a support made of a heat insulating material. Therefore, when the semiconductor wafer is set at a predetermined temperature by a predetermined heat source, its heat capacity is very low, and the temperature control can be performed very quickly. In addition, the evaluation time of the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chip at different temperatures can be greatly reduced as compared with the related art.

[0019]

Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus according to the present invention. Also in this case, the region where the semiconductor wafer is placed in the inspection apparatus is schematically shown for easy understanding.

As shown in FIG. 1, a support 2 is attached to one circular conductor plate 1. Here, the conductor plate 1 is made of stainless steel having a thickness of about 5 mm, and the support 2 is made of a heat insulating material. Here, bakelite, Teflon, or the like is used as a heat insulating material. And
The conductor plate 1 has a large number of grooves as shown in the figure. The support 2 is movable left and right on the drawing.

The semiconductor wafer 3 can be fixed to the surface of the conductor plate 1 by electrostatic attraction. And
Although not shown, a probe card is mounted on the semiconductor wafer 3 so as to be fixed to the main body of the inspection apparatus, and the probe needles 4 come into contact with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 3.

Then, as shown in FIG. 1, a cold air generating section 5 as a first heat source is attached to a position located above the conductive plate 1, and the cold air 6 is supplied from the cold air generating section 5 to the semiconductor wafer 3 and It can be sprayed on the conductor plate 1. A hot air generator 7 serving as a second heat source is attached to a position located below the conductive plate 1, and hot air 8 is blown from the hot air generator 7 onto the conductive plate 1. These cold air generator 5 and hot air generator 7 are
Like the probe card, it is fixedly attached to the main body of the inspection apparatus.

In this way, the temperature (for example, 25 ° C.)
The temperature of the surface of the semiconductor wafer 3 is controlled by the controlled air or nitrogen gas. Then, the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit when the ambient temperature of the semiconductor wafer is changed are measured. Alternatively, products are sorted.

In the case of the present invention, as described above, the conductive plate 1
Are supported by a heat insulating support 2. For this reason, the heat capacity of the region where the semiconductor wafer 3 is mounted and fixed is significantly reduced. Then, the temperature reaches the predetermined inspection temperature in a short time, and the evaluation time of the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit on the semiconductor wafer is shortened.

In the present invention, the structure is such that the cool air 6 is irradiated from above the semiconductor wafer 3 and the hot air 8 is irradiated from below the semiconductor wafer 3. And in the air, as a natural phenomenon, cold air flows from top to bottom,
Hot air flows from the bottom to the top. Due to such a structure, the semiconductor wafer is efficiently stabilized at a predetermined temperature in a short time.

Next, an example of an inspection method for measuring the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor wafer with this inspection apparatus will be described. First, the movable support 2 moves to the right in the drawing, for example,
One semiconductor wafer 3 is placed on the conductor plate 1 in a cassette section where one lot of semiconductor wafers are present. And it is fixed by electrostatic attraction.

Next, the support 2 moves to a region where the probe card, the cool air generator 5 and the hot air generator 7 are located, and the probe needle 4 is connected to a predetermined semiconductor chip. Then, the cold air generator 5 is operated and the semiconductor wafer 3 is controlled to be, for example, 25 ° C. by the irradiation of the cold air 6. Then, the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chip are measured. These data are stored in a computer.

After the measurement at the low temperature, the operation of the cold air generating unit 5 is stopped, and the hot air generating unit 7 is operated and the semiconductor wafer 3 is controlled to, for example, 75.degree. . Then, the electrical characteristics of the same semiconductor chip are measured, and the data is stored in a computer.

By repeating this, the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chips are measured and selected for the semiconductor wafers of one lot. In this way, for example, the customer service of a high-mix small-volume product is shortened in TAT, and the manufacturing cost of the product is reduced.

Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention,
A description will be given based on FIG. 2 and FIG. This embodiment relates to a case where two or more inspection temperatures are used.
2 and 3 are schematic sectional views of a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus according to the present invention. Also in this case, the region where the semiconductor wafer is placed in the inspection apparatus is schematically shown for easy understanding.

As shown in FIG. 2, a support 12 is attached to one circular conductive plate 11 as described in the first embodiment. Here, the conductor plate 11
The support 12 is made of a heat insulating material and is formed of a copper plate having a thickness of about 5 mm. The semiconductor wafer 13 is fixed to the surface of the conductor plate 11 by electrostatic attraction. Then, although not shown, the probe card is fixed to the main body of the inspection apparatus so that the semiconductor wafer 3
The probe needle 4 is mounted on the semiconductor wafer 3 and comes into contact with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 3.

The stage 15 set at a predetermined temperature has a movable structure left and right and up and down in the drawing. Here, the stage 15 is moved up and down by the shaft 16. In the inspection apparatus in this case, a plurality of such stages 15 are attached. That is, the plurality of stages have a multi-head structure. And
All of these stages are movable. The set temperatures of the plurality of stages are different from each other.

Next, the stage 1 set at a predetermined temperature
5 is selected and transferred to the lower part of the conductor plate 11. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the stage 15 and the conductor plate 11 are connected, and the semiconductor wafer 13 is stabilized so as to reach the predetermined temperature. After the stabilization, the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chips on the semiconductor wafer are measured as described in the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the stage fixed at a predetermined temperature has a movable structure. For this,
Unlike the first embodiment, it is possible to evaluate the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit at various set temperatures such as three or four. Note that the effects described in the first embodiment are similarly produced in the second embodiment.

[0035]

As described above, the semiconductor wafer inspection device of the present invention is a prober device for measuring the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip by bringing a semiconductor chip formed on the semiconductor wafer into contact with a probe needle. The semiconductor device has a conductor plate on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted and a support member attached to the conductor plate and made of a heat insulating material. A first heat source is attached to a region located above the probe needle so as to be fixed to the main body of the prober device, and a second heat source is located below the probe needle and located below the conductor plate. Is fixed to the body of the prober device. Then, gas irradiation controlled to a predetermined temperature from the first heat source or the second heat source is performed on the semiconductor wafer or the conductive plate, and the semiconductor wafer is set to the predetermined temperature.

Alternatively, in the semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of stages each fixed at a predetermined temperature are attached as heat sources, and the stages are movable. Then, one of the plurality of stages is selected and connected to the conductor plate, the semiconductor wafer is set at a predetermined temperature, and the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor chip can be measured.

For this reason, the heat capacity of the region where the semiconductor wafer is mounted and fixed is greatly reduced. And
The predetermined inspection temperature can be reached in a short time, and the evaluation time of the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit on the semiconductor wafer can be shortened.

For example, the supply of high-mix, small-quantity products to customers is shortened, and the manufacturing cost of the products is reduced.

Further, the present invention is very effective for speeding up the electrical analysis and evaluation of a miniaturized or densified semiconductor device, and promotes the realization of a high-performance semiconductor device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a wafer inspection apparatus for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a wafer inspection apparatus for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a wafer inspection device for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a wafer inspection apparatus for explaining a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,11 Conductor plate 2,12 Support 3,13,104 Semiconductor wafer 4,14,107 Probe needle 5 Cold air generator 6 Cold air 7 Hot air generator 8 Hot air 15,102 Stage 16 Shaft 101 Table section 103 Vacuum suction head 105 vacuum hose 106 hood 108 probe card 109 sealed space 110 air supply hose 111 exhaust hose

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A prober device for measuring the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip by bringing a semiconductor chip formed on the semiconductor wafer into contact with a probe needle, wherein the conductor plate has the conductor plate on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted and the probe plate. A support formed of a heat insulating material attached to a conductor plate, and a first heat source is fixedly attached to a main body of the prober device in an area located above the probe needle, An inspection apparatus for a semiconductor wafer, wherein a second heat source is fixedly attached to a main body of the prober device in a lower portion and a region located below the conductor plate. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor wafer or the conductor plate is subjected to gas irradiation controlled at a predetermined temperature from the first heat source or the second heat source to set the semiconductor wafer at a predetermined temperature. The inspection device for a semiconductor wafer according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the temperature of the gas irradiated from the second heat source is higher than the temperature of the gas irradiated from the first heat source. 4. The semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the irradiation gas is air or nitrogen gas. 5. A prober device for measuring the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor chip by bringing a semiconductor chip formed on a semiconductor wafer into contact with a probe needle, wherein the conductive plate and the conductor plate on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted are provided. A semiconductor, comprising: a support body attached to a conductive plate and made of a heat insulating material; a plurality of stages each set at a predetermined temperature are attached as a heat source; and the stage has a movable structure. Wafer inspection equipment. 6. The semiconductor device according to claim 5, wherein a predetermined stage among the plurality of stages is selected and connected to the conductor plate, and the semiconductor wafer has a structure capable of setting a predetermined temperature. Inspection equipment for semiconductor wafers.