JP2001338954A - Semiconductor wafer processing system and semiconductor wafer processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the efficiency of probing and trimming processing for an IC chip formed on a semiconductor wafer. SOLUTION: The semiconductor wafer is charged in a probing/trimming device 3, a measured value obtained by probing the IC chip formed on the semiconductor wafer is supplied to a test device 5, converted into trimming data by the test device 5, the trimming data is supplied from the test data 5 to the probing/trimming device 3, and trimming processing is performed by the probing/trimming device 3 on the basis of the trimming data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer processing system and a semiconductor wafer processing method.
The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer processing system and a semiconductor wafer processing method for inspecting an IC chip formed on a semiconductor wafer by probing and performing trimming on the semiconductor wafer based on an inspection result.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a conventional system for inspecting an IC chip formed on a semiconductor wafer by probing and trimming the semiconductor wafer based on the inspection result. This system includes a measuring unit 20 into which a semiconductor wafer is loaded and a CPU 21 connected to the measuring unit 20.
A probing device 22 comprising
IC tester 24 connected to CPU 2 and having CPU 23
, A data conversion device 25, and a trimming device 28 including a CPU 26 and a trimming unit 27.

FIG. 4 shows the procedure of probing and trimming processing using this system. First, in step S21 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of semiconductor wafers are loaded into the measuring unit 20 of the probing device 22. Subsequently, in step S22, the measurement unit 20
Probing is performed on the semiconductor wafer put in the probing apparatus, and the CPU 21 of the probing device 22
An address indicating a position of a chip on a semiconductor wafer is obtained.

Subsequently, in step S23, the probing measurement value obtained by the probing and the address data obtained by the address acquisition are supplied to the CPU 23 of the IC tester 24. In step S24, the CPU 23 generates trimming data based on the data, and accumulates the generated trimming data for each semiconductor wafer. The trimming data is transferred to the data converter 25 using a medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk.

[0005] The data converter 25 is composed of, for example, a personal computer and necessary applications. In step S25, the transferred data is converted into a data format for the trimming device 28.
The data converted here is similarly transferred to the trimming device 28 using a medium such as a floppy disk.

In step S26, the trimming device 28 inputs the trimming data transferred as described above to the CPU 26. During the series of processes described above,
In step S21, the semiconductor wafer put into the measuring unit 20 of the probing device 21 is
8 has been moved to the trimming section 27. CPU26
Controls the trimming of the semiconductor wafer put into the trimming unit 27 in step S27 based on the input trimming data.

[0007]

As described above, in order to inspect an IC chip formed on a semiconductor wafer by probing and to trim its electrical characteristics, it is necessary to prepare a probing device 22 and a trimming device 28. was there. Further, it is necessary to transfer the semiconductor wafer from the probing device 22 to the trimming device 28, and this moving operation and checking operation take time. Further, a probing device 22, an IC tester 24, a trimming device 2
8 are usually supplied from different manufacturers, so that each device often does not have data compatibility, and a data conversion process using the data conversion device 25 is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has been made in consideration of the problems described above.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor wafer processing system and a semiconductor wafer processing method that improve the efficiency of probing and trimming processing for chips, reduce work time, and reduce costs.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a semiconductor wafer processing system according to the present invention is provided with a semiconductor wafer loaded therein, a probing and an IC chip formed on the loaded semiconductor wafer. Probing / trimming device for trimming, and an inspection device connected to the probing / trimming device, wherein the inspection device obtains a measurement value obtained by probing with the probing / trimming device,
The measured value is converted into trimming data and supplied to the probing / trimming device, and the probing / trimming device forms the trimming data on the input semiconductor wafer based on the trimming data supplied from the inspection device. It is characterized in that trimming is performed on the selected IC chip.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing a semiconductor wafer, comprising the steps of: loading a semiconductor wafer into a probing / trimming apparatus; and providing an IC chip formed on the loaded semiconductor wafer. Obtaining a measured value by probing with the probing / trimming device, supplying the measured value obtained by the probing to an inspection device, and converting the measured value into trimming data by the inspection device. Supplying the trimming data from the inspection device to the probing / trimming device, and using the probing / trimming device for the IC chip formed on the inserted semiconductor wafer based on the trimming data. Trimming.

According to the semiconductor wafer processing system and the semiconductor wafer processing method of the present invention, after the semiconductor wafer is put into the probing / trimming apparatus, the probing and the trimming processing are executed without moving the semiconductor wafer.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a semiconductor wafer processing system and a semiconductor wafer processing method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a semiconductor wafer processing system shown as an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a semiconductor wafer processing system to which the present invention is applied includes a probing / trimming device 3 including a measurement / trimming unit 1 and a CPU 2, and an I / O including a CPU 4 connected to the probing / trimming device 3.
And a C tester 5.

The procedure of semiconductor wafer processing by the semiconductor wafer processing system will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S1,
Probing / trimming device 3 for multiple semiconductor wafers
Into the measurement / trimming unit 1 of FIG. Subsequently, in step S2, probing is performed on one of the IC chips formed on the loaded semiconductor wafer, and a probing measurement value is obtained.

The probing measurement value obtained in step S2 is supplied to the CPU 4 of the IC tester 5 in step S3. The IC tester 5 converts the probing measurement value into trimming data based on the supplied probing measurement value. Subsequently, in step S5, the CPU 4 of the IC tester 5 transmits the trimming data to the CPU of the probing / trimming device 3.
Feed to 2.

In step S6, the CPU 2 of the probing / trimming device 3 controls / executes trimming for the electrical characteristics of the probed IC chip based on the trimming data supplied as described above.

Subsequently, in step S7, the CPU 2 determines whether or not there is an IC chip for which processing has not yet been completed for the semiconductor wafer loaded into the measurement / trimming unit 1. Here, the result of the determination is YES
That is, when there is an unprocessed IC chip, the procedure returns to step S2, and the above processing is repeated.
If the decision result in the step S7 is NO, that is, if the processing of all the IC chips is completed, the procedure is a step S7.
8 and a series of operations ends.

As described above, in the semiconductor wafer processing system according to the present invention, the probing / trimming device 3 having the function of performing both the probing and the trimming is used, and the measuring / trimming unit 1 of the probing / trimming device 3 is used. After loading the semiconductor wafer, it is not necessary to move the loaded semiconductor wafer from the location at the time of loading to a different location. That is, in the conventional system, it was necessary to move the semiconductor wafer put into the probing device to the trimming device after the probing process. However, according to the present invention, such a transfer operation became unnecessary, and the entire operation time was reduced. It can be greatly reduced.

Conventionally, the probing measurement process is performed on a plurality of wafers at a time, and the data obtained thereby is transferred at a time and converted into a predetermined format. Therefore, when an error occurs during data transfer or conversion and an error occurs in the trimming process, incorrect trimming may be performed on all of the plurality of wafers. On the other hand, according to the present invention, since trimming data can be obtained for each IC chip formed on a semiconductor wafer, there is an advantage that an abnormality can be detected when an abnormality occurs in the trimming process.

Further, in the conventional system, it is necessary to obtain address data indicating the position of the IC chip on the semiconductor wafer and transfer this address data together with the trimming data in order to properly perform the trimming process.
On the other hand, according to the present invention, since probing and trimming can be performed for each IC chip, there is no need to specially prepare data indicating an address, and therefore, simplification of data can be realized.

Further, in the conventional system, since the data was not always compatible between the devices, complicated data conversion processing was required. However, in the semiconductor wafer processing system according to the present invention, the probing / trimming device 3 was used. Performs both probing and trimming processing on IC chips on a semiconductor wafer, so that it is not necessary to convert a data file format as in the related art, and the work time for a series of processing can be reduced. For the same reason, there is no need to provide a hardware wafer such as a data conversion device.
The cost of the entire system can be kept low.

[0022]

As described above, in the semiconductor wafer processing system and the semiconductor wafer processing method according to the present invention, a semiconductor wafer is put into a probing / trimming apparatus, and an IC chip formed on the semiconductor wafer is probed.
The obtained measured value is supplied to an inspection device, the measured value is converted into trimming data by the inspection device and supplied to the probing / trimming device, and the trimming on the IC chip is performed based on the trimming data. Since it is not necessary to provide a probing device and a trimming device separately, the system can be simplified, and the operation of moving the semiconductor wafer is not required, so that the operation time can be greatly reduced. According to the present invention,
Since there is no need to consider differences in data format between devices,
The data conversion process can be omitted, the operation time can be further reduced, and the hardware such as the data conversion device can be omitted, so that the entire system can be constructed at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a semiconductor wafer processing system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of semiconductor wafer processing performed using the semiconductor wafer processing system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional semiconductor wafer processing system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a conventional semiconductor wafer processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Measurement / trimming part 2 CPU 3 Probing / trimming device 4 CPU 5 IC tester

Claims (2)

[Claims] A probing / trimming apparatus for probing and trimming an IC chip formed on the loaded semiconductor wafer; and an inspection apparatus connected to the probing / trimming apparatus. The inspection device acquires a measurement value obtained by probing by the probing / trimming device, converts the measurement value into trimming data, and supplies the trimming data to the probing / trimming device. A semiconductor wafer processing system, wherein trimming is performed on an IC chip formed on the inserted semiconductor wafer based on trimming data supplied from the inspection device. 2. A step of loading a semiconductor wafer into a probing / trimming device; a step of probing an IC chip formed on the loaded semiconductor wafer by the probing / trimming device to obtain a measured value; Supplying the measurement value obtained by the above to an inspection device; converting the measurement value into trimming data by the inspection device; and supplying the trimming data from the inspection device to the probing / trimming device. And a step of trimming the IC chips formed on the semiconductor wafer by the probing / trimming device based on the trimming data.