JP2004005414A - Test system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a test system monitoring a lamp showing the anomaly or outage of an IC tester and providing continuous monitoring for problems needing immediate countermeasures when there is an anomaly or outage without looking at the lamp directly. <P>SOLUTION: The IC tester 1 is for testing an object to be tested. The state of the IC tester 1 is sent to a server via a network L, the state is sent to a portable terminal carried by a maintenance person by radio, and the operation of a conveyance device in the IC tester 1 is controlled from the portable terminal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a test system for testing a device under test, and more particularly, to a test system capable of constantly monitoring without directly looking at the system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The IC tester supplies a test signal to a device under test, for example, an IC or an LSI, compares the output of the device under test with an expected value, and determines pass / fail (for example, see Patent Document 1). Then, a test of the test object is performed using a large number of IC testers. Such a system is shown in FIG. 5 and described below.
[0003]
In FIG. 5, an IC tester 1 is connected to a network L and tests a device under test (hereinafter abbreviated as DUT), not shown. The IC tester 1 has a test unit 11, a control unit 12, and a lamp 13. The test unit 11 tests the DUT. The control unit 12 has a lighting unit 121 and controls the test unit 11. The lighting means 121 lights the lamp 13. The control terminal 2 is connected to the network L, and performs load of a test program, various settings, run / stop control, and the like on the IC tester 1 via the network L. The engineering workstation (hereinafter, EWS) 3 is connected to the network L, and performs debugging, data collection, and the like on the IC tester 1 via the network L, and performs trouble analysis and the like.
[0004]
The operation of such a device is described below. The control terminal 2 loads a test program and performs various settings to the IC tester 1 via the network L. Then, an operation instruction is issued to the IC tester 1. Thereby, the control unit 12 of the IC tester 1 controls the test unit 11 based on the test program, and the test unit 11 determines whether the DUT is good or not.
[0005]
Further, the control terminal 2 issues a stop instruction to the IC tester 1 via the network L. Thereby, the control unit 12 of the IC tester 1 stops the test unit 11.
[0006]
Next, the lighting operation of the lamp 13 will be described with reference to FIG. The lighting unit 121 of the control unit 12 lights the lamp 13 in red when the IC tester 1 is stopped (S11, S12). When the IC tester 1 is operating, the lighting unit 121 determines whether the DUT has failed, and if not, lights the lamp 13 in blue (S11, S13, S14). Then, in the case of a failure, the lighting means 121 determines whether the number of failures is a predetermined number of times (S11, S13, S15). When a predetermined number of failures have occurred, the lighting means 121 causes the lamp 13 to light yellow to notify an abnormality (S16).
[0007]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-292500 (paragraph numbers 0002 to 0021, FIG. 3)
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In such a system, the lamp 13 must be constantly monitored to deal with the failure of the IC tester 1. On the other hand, although the failure probability of the IC tester 1 is small, if the stop state of the IC tester 1 continues for a long time, the test cost increases, and as a result, the cost of the DUT increases. Therefore, the lamp 13 must be constantly monitored. Further, since the IC tester 1 is installed in a clean room, there is a problem that even if the IC tester 1 is regularly inspected, it takes time to enter the clean room.
[0009]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to realize a test system that can constantly monitor without directly looking.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The invention according to claim 1 is
An IC tester for testing the device under test;
And a wireless unit for wirelessly transmitting the state of the IC tester to the portable terminal.
[0011]
The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1,
The wireless unit wirelessly receives a control signal from the portable terminal and controls the IC tester.
[0012]
The present invention according to claim 3 is:
An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A transfer device for transferring the test object to the IC tester;
A wireless unit for wirelessly transmitting the state of the transport device to the portable terminal.
[0013]
The present invention described in claim 4 is the invention according to claim 3, wherein
The wireless unit receives a control signal from a mobile terminal wirelessly and controls the transport device.
[0014]
The present invention according to claim 5 provides:
An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A server connected to the IC tester via a network, stores status data from the IC tester, and publishes the status data to the network;
A wireless unit that connects to the network and performs wireless communication with the portable terminal.
[0015]
The present invention according to claim 6 is:
An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A server connected to the IC tester via a network and storing status data from the IC tester;
A wireless unit is connected to the server and performs wireless communication with the portable terminal.
[0016]
The invention according to claim 7 is the invention according to claim 5 or 6,
The server is characterized in that a WWW server means for publishing state data is provided.
[0017]
The invention according to claim 8 is the invention according to any one of claims 5 to 7,
The server is provided with an e-mail server means for transmitting the status data by e-mail.
[0018]
The present invention according to claim 9 is:
An IC tester that connects to a network, tests an object under test, and publishes status data to the network;
A wireless unit connected to the network and performing wireless communication with the portable terminal is provided.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. Here, the same components as those in FIG. 5 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Since the lighting means 121 and the lamp 13 are not the main parts of the present invention, their illustration is omitted.
[0020]
In FIG. 1, the wireless unit 4 connects to the IC tester 1 and wirelessly transmits the state of the IC tester 1. The mobile terminal 5 receives the transmission of the wireless unit 4 wirelessly.
[0021]
The operation of such a device is described below. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. The operation of the IC tester 1 is the same as that of the device shown in FIG.
[0022]
The wireless unit 4 determines whether or not the DUT has failed based on the data from the control unit 12, and if not, does nothing (S21). Then, in the case of a failure, the radio unit 4 determines whether the number of failures is a predetermined number of times (S21, S22). . When a predetermined number of failures have occurred, the wireless unit 4 notifies the portable terminal 5 of the abnormality (S23).
[0023]
As described above, since the wireless unit 4 wirelessly notifies the portable terminal 5 based on the state of the IC tester 1, it is possible to notify the state of the IC tester 1 and always monitor without directly looking at the IC tester 1. can do.
[0024]
The present invention is not limited to this, and the configuration in which the wireless unit 4 notifies when the IC tester 1 is abnormal has been described. However, the configuration in which the notification is performed according to the progress of the IC tester 1 and various data are transmitted. A configuration may be used. For example, notification is made before all DUT tests are completed.
[0025]
Although the wireless unit 4 is configured to perform only transmission, the mobile terminal 5 may output a control signal wirelessly, and the wireless unit 4 may receive the control signal and pass the control signal to the IC tester 1. Thereby, the IC tester 1 may be configured to be controlled by the portable terminal 5.
[0026]
Then, as shown in FIG. 3, a configuration may be adopted in which the transfer unit 6, for example, a handler or a prober is provided with the wireless unit 7. The transport device 6 attaches and detaches a DUT (not shown) to and from the IC tester 1. The wireless unit 7 is connected to the transport device 6 and transmits the status of the transport device 6 to the portable terminal 5 by wireless. The wireless unit 7 receives a control signal from the mobile terminal 5 by wireless and controls the transport device 6.
[0027]
Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 4, a plurality of IC testers 10 are installed in a clean room CR, are connected to a network L, test a DUT, and output status data such as wafer and lot status data and abnormalities. The server 20 is connected to the network L, has a data server 21, and a WWW (World Wide Web) server 22, stores status data of the IC tester 10, and publishes the data. The data server 21 stores data from the IC tester 10 and converts the data into HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) data. The WWW server 22 receives and publishes the HTML data of the data server 21. The wireless LAN access point 30 is a wireless unit that connects to the network L and performs wireless communication. A PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) 40 is a portable terminal, has a browser 41, communicates with the wireless LAN access point 30, and accesses the server 20. The browser 41 displays the HTML data of the WWW server 22.
[0028]
The operation of such a device is described below. The IC tester 10 tests the DUT and sends status data to the server 20 via the network L. The data server 21 of the server 20 stores the status data, converts the status data into HTML data, and passes it to the WWW server 22. A refresh tag is set in this HTML data. For example, "<metahttp-equiv =" refresh "content =" 5 ">" is described, and the page is refreshed every 5 seconds. This enables constant monitoring.
[0029]
The PDA 40 accesses the WWW server 22 of the server 20 via the wireless LAN access point 30 and the network L. Then, the WWW server 22 sends the HTML data to the PDA 40, and the browser 41 of the PDA 40 displays the HTML data, and rereads the HTML data from the WWW server 22 at desired times by a refresh tag.
[0030]
As described above, since the WWW server 22 of the server 20 can wirelessly notify the PDA 40 of the state of the IC tester via the network L and the wireless LAN access point 30, it is possible to constantly monitor the IC tester 10 without directly looking at the IC tester 10. Can be.
[0031]
Further, since the wireless LAN access point 30 can be provided outside the clean room CR, it is possible to prevent the IC tester 10 from affecting a high-speed DUT at the time of testing.
[0032]
The server 20 may be provided with an electronic mail server instead of the WWW server 22, and the PDA 40 may be provided with an electronic mailer instead of the browser 41. In this case, the data server 21 stores the status data as e-mail in the e-mail server, and the e-mailer of the PDA 40 accesses the e-mail server of the server 20 via the wireless LAN access point 30 and the network L, and Get data e-mail. Moreover, the structure provided simultaneously may be sufficient.
[0033]
In addition, although the configuration in which the wireless LAN access point 30 connected to the network L is provided is shown, a configuration in which a wireless unit that directly connects to the server 20 and performs wireless communication with the PDA 40 may be provided.
[0034]
Although the configuration in which the server 20 is provided separately from the IC tester 10 is shown, a configuration in which the data server 21 and the WWW server 22 are provided in the IC tester 10 is also possible.
[0035]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first and second aspects, since the wireless unit notifies the portable terminal wirelessly based on the state of the IC tester, the state of the IC tester can be notified, and the monitoring is always performed without directly looking at the IC tester. can do.
[0036]
According to the third and fourth aspects, the wireless unit notifies the portable terminal wirelessly based on the state of the transfer device, so that the state of the transfer device can be notified, and the monitoring is always performed without directly looking at the transfer device. can do.
[0037]
According to the fifth to eighth aspects, the server can wirelessly notify the portable terminal of the state of the IC tester via the wireless unit, so that it is possible to constantly monitor the IC tester without directly looking at the IC tester.
[0038]
Further, since the wireless unit can be provided outside the clean room, it is possible to prevent the IC tester from affecting the high-speed test object at the time of the test.
[0039]
According to the ninth aspect, since the IC tester can wirelessly notify the portable terminal of the state of the IC tester via the network and the wireless section, it is possible to constantly monitor the IC tester without directly looking at the IC tester.
[0040]
Further, since the wireless unit can be provided outside the clean room, it is possible to prevent the IC tester from affecting the high-speed test object at the time of the test.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional test system.
6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the device shown in FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
1,10 IC tester 4,7 Wireless unit 5 Portable terminal 6 Transport device 20 Server 21 WWW server 30 Wireless LAN access point 40 PDA
41 Browser L Network

Claims (9)

An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A wireless unit for wirelessly transmitting the state of the IC tester to the portable terminal. The test system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless unit wirelessly receives a control signal from the portable terminal and controls the IC tester. An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A transfer device for transferring the test object to the IC tester;
A wireless unit for wirelessly transmitting the state of the transport device to the portable terminal. The test system according to claim 3, wherein the wireless unit receives a control signal from the mobile terminal wirelessly and controls the transport device. An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A server connected to the IC tester via a network, stores status data from the IC tester, and publishes the status data to the network;
A test system, comprising: a wireless unit connected to the network and performing wireless communication with a portable terminal. An IC tester for testing the device under test;
A server connected to the IC tester via a network and storing status data from the IC tester;
A test system, comprising: a wireless unit connected to the server and performing wireless communication with a portable terminal. 7. The test system according to claim 5, wherein the server includes a WWW server for publishing status data. The test system according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the server has an e-mail server means for transmitting the status data by e-mail. An IC tester that connects to a network, tests an object under test, and publishes status data to the network;
A test system, comprising: a wireless unit connected to the network for performing wireless communication with a portable terminal.

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