JP2017059800A - Semiconductor inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a semiconductor inspection device which can bring a probe pin into contact with a probe card uniformly even when plastic deformation occurs unavoidably in the device itself or on a floor where the device is installed due to long term usage; and which can move a test head in a horizontal direction by a small force in maintenance or in replacement of a performance board; and which can achieve safe driving to a save position.SOLUTION: A semiconductor inspection device which has a prober for placing a semiconductor wafer where a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed and a test head which is driven to an inspection position or a save position with respect to the prober, for performing electrical characteristic testing comprises: a position adjustment mechanism for translational driving of the test head in an up-and-down direction, a lateral direction and a lengthwise direction; and a tumble rotation mechanism for rotating the test head around a vertical axis.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for performing an electrical characteristic test on a semiconductor chip formed on a semiconductor wafer and determining the quality.

  In manufacturing a semiconductor device, the electrical characteristics of each chip are tested to determine whether or not the semiconductor chip is formed on a semiconductor wafer. By inputting test signals to a plurality of semiconductor chips at the same time and measuring the outputs at the same time, an efficient characteristic test can be performed.

A semiconductor test apparatus is roughly divided into a prober for placing a semiconductor wafer and a test head provided facing the prober.
The prober includes a movable stage capable of minute alignment and a probe card provided so as to cover the semiconductor wafer above the stage. A probe needle protrudes from the lower surface of the probe card, and the semiconductor chip and the probe card are electrically connected by bringing the probe needle into contact with a pad (electrode) of the semiconductor chip. Many contact terminals are arranged on the upper surface of the probe card, and the probe needle and the contact terminal are connected by wiring.

  One test head is connected to a tester body or a power supply unit that controls the test head, and a test signal generated by the tester body is applied to a number of probe pins (pogo pins) protruding from the test head. Therefore, the test signal from the tester body can be transmitted to the semiconductor chip by making the test head and the prober face each other at a short distance and abutting the lower end of the probe pin on the contact terminal. The test signal input to the pad on the input side of the semiconductor chip is processed by the chip to be output as a predetermined output signal from the pad on the output side. Such an output signal is also sent from the probe pin to the test head via the probe needle and the probe card.

  In order to make the arrangement pattern of the probe pins coincide with the arrangement pattern of the contact terminals, the test head is generally provided with a performance board that detachably holds the probe pins. Thus, when the electrical characteristic test is performed by changing the type of the semiconductor chip, this can be achieved by changing the position of the probe pin that protrudes the tip (lower end) from the performance board.

The test head is placed in an inspection position close to and opposite to the prober when performing an electrical characteristic test, and is lifted upward and released from the prober during performance board replacement or maintenance.
Conventionally, the test head is most commonly attached in a tiltable manner by a hinge provided on the side surface of the prober. In addition, a semiconductor measuring apparatus is proposed in which a test head is mounted that can be moved up and down and back and forth with respect to a support bar extending vertically upward from both the left and right sides of the prober.

  Conventionally, the size of the semiconductor wafer was small and the semiconductor chips formed on it were large, so the number of chips per wafer was small, and therefore the number of probe pins was small, so the test head was small and lightweight. Met. However, along with recent improvements in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the degree of integration of chips has increased and the number of probe pins required has increased, and therefore the test head has become larger and heavier. A recent test head has a large weight of about 400 to 600 kg because various measurement jigs and signal processing devices are attached in addition to the performance board and the probe pin.

For this reason, when the prober is tilted by rotating the entire test head around the hinge, the test head is held by the hinge in a cantilevered state, so that the moment load applied to the hinge becomes excessive and over time. Plastic deformation is inevitable.
That is, in the semiconductor test equipment at the beginning of use, the probe head on the base end side (hinge side) and the probe pin on the tip end side (the side far from the hinge) are both probed in anticipation of self-weight deflection of the test head and elastic deformation of the hinge. When the test head and the prober are aligned so as to contact the contact terminal of the card properly, the tip side of the test head is lowered downward by using the semiconductor test equipment for a long time. In the probe pin, the pressing force to the contact terminal becomes excessive, and the probe pin on the proximal end side is lifted to cause a contact failure.

  If a contact failure between the probe pin and the contact terminal occurs in this way, the test signal and output signal are not correctly taught between the semiconductor chip and the test head, so even if the semiconductor chip is a non-defective product The result is determined to be defective, which causes a decrease in yield.

  Also, in the case of a hinge method in which the test head is tilted up and down to reciprocate between the inspection position and the retracted position, the test head is moved longer, so the workability is poor, and it is long to attenuate the vibration that occurs when the test head is stopped at the inspection position. It took time, and there were many problems that the wiring between the test head, the tester main body and the power supply unit was disconnected, and the reproducibility of the inspection position was inferior.

On the other hand, in the case of a manipulator that raises and lowers the test head relative to the support bar (Patent Document: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-158266), the test head is held by both the left and right support bars. The problem that the side is greatly lowered is eliminated.
However, in the manufacturing process where this type of semiconductor test equipment is installed, a conductive vinyl floor is generally used for antistatic and corrosion resistance, but in a manipulator type measuring equipment consisting of a heavy test head and prober, When the vinyl floor sinks and deforms, contact failure of the probe pin may occur as described above.
That is, the test head in the above conventional measuring apparatus has a twist around the axis extending in the up-and-down direction (Z direction) along the support bar (Z direction) and the left and right direction (X direction) connecting the support bars. The angle (RX) and the tumble angle (RY) around the front-rear direction (Y direction) can be adjusted, but other X and Y position (TX, TY) stores, theta angles around the lift axis (RZ) cannot be adjusted. For this reason, the sinking deformation occurs in the vinyl floor, and the direction of gravity load and the direction in which the indicator bar extends are inconsistent.For example, the relative position between the test head and the prober changes with time due to the play that the drive mechanism part necessarily has When there is a shift in the horizontal plane direction (X, Y direction), there arises a problem that this cannot be finely adjusted.

  The movable stage provided in the prober moves the mounted semiconductor wafer relative to the probe card. Therefore, even if this is driven, the position and orientation of the probe pin with respect to the contact terminal of the probe card Cannot be adjusted.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, that is, even when plastic deformation inevitably occurs in the apparatus itself or the floor on which the apparatus is installed due to long-term use, the probe pin and the probe card Can be made to contact uniformly. It is another object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor test apparatus capable of performing a safe operation because the test head does not turn in a circular arc shape when the performance board is replaced, and the test head does not go to a high position near the top.

The semiconductor test apparatus of the present invention is
(1) a prober comprising a movable stage for placing a semiconductor wafer on which a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed, and a probe card electrically connected to the semiconductor chips;
A semiconductor test comprising a plurality of probe pins for transmitting a test signal to the probe card, and a test head driven to an inspection position or a retracted position with respect to the prober to perform an electrical characteristic test of the semiconductor chip A device,
A position adjustment mechanism that translates and drives the test head in the ascending / descending direction (TZ), lateral direction (TX), and longitudinal direction (TY), and a tumble rotation mechanism that rotates the test head about the vertical axis (RY); Semiconductor testing equipment.
(2) When moving the test head to the retracted position,
Raise and lower the test head to an appropriate height, rotate the test head slide handle to move the test head to a pair of left and right columns, slide the holding frame to the end, and rotate the test head to a maximum of 180 ° C. A semiconductor test apparatus having a function of lowering a holding frame on which a test head is mounted.

The semiconductor test apparatus according to claim 1 of the present description can individually adjust the translation position of the test head in the three-axis directions orthogonal to the prober and the rotation angle about the axis. As a result, even if the relative position between the test head and the prober changes with time due to plastic deformation in the device itself represented by the drive mechanism or the floor surface on which the drive mechanism is installed, such change over time is possible. The positional relationship between the two can be finely adjusted regardless of the downward direction or tendency.
For this reason, even when the semiconductor test apparatus is used for a long period of time, contact failure between the probe pin and the probe card does not occur. Therefore, the occurrence of the semiconductor chip failure determination caused by the test or more is prevented and the yield is improved. be able to,
Regarding the change in plasticity of the test head over time, it can be ignored because the test head is generally made rigid and a large load is not applied unlike the drive mechanism portion.

  The semiconductor test apparatus according to claim 2, which is a more specific aspect of the present invention, performs a test on a linear motion guide of a holding frame mounted via a linear motion guide held by a support head support column. The head is mounted. As a result, when performing maintenance such as test head maintenance or performance board replacement, the test head can be easily pulled away from the prober by sliding the holding frame holding the test head horizontally with a small force. It is safe and has excellent workability.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a semiconductor test apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a diagram in which the holding frame holding the test head is slid to move to the maintenance or retracted position, and the test head is rotated 45 degrees.
FIG. 3 shows the test head lowered to the retracted position.

In order to drive the test head from the inspection position to the retracted position safely and easily by the semiconductor test apparatus of the present invention, the test head on the linear motion guide mounted on the holding frame is moved to the innermost end of the holding frame. Then, by further sliding the holding frame in the same direction via the linear motion guides of the elevating part of the test stand column, the test head can be lowered to the retracted position without the holding frame interfering with the prober.
Then, the holding frame mounted on the worm jack is raised and lowered.

1 is a front view of a semiconductor test apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. (Prober and test head are connected and in operation) It is a front view which shows the state in which the test head is moving to the retracted position. (Figure showing the test head during tumble rotation) It is a front view which shows the state which the test head reached | attained the retracted position. (Figure showing test head rotated 180 degrees tumble)

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Semiconductor test apparatus 20 Warm jack 21 Test head stand support | pillar 22 Linear motion guide for holding frame slide 23 Holding frame 24 Test head slide handle 25 Test head slide linear motion guide 26 Test head tumble rotation handle 27 Test head rotation mechanism 28 Test head 29 Lateral adjustment mechanism (Push screw type)
30 prober 31 dispersion plate

Claims (2)

A movable stage for mounting a semiconductor wafer on which a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed, a prober having a probe card electrically connected to the semiconductor chip, and a plurality of probe pins for transmitting test signals to the probe card. And a test head that is driven to an inspection position or a retracted position with respect to the prober, and a semiconductor test apparatus that performs an electrical property test of the semiconductor chip,
A semiconductor comprising: a position adjusting mechanism that translates and drives the test head in the up-and-down direction (TZ) and the longitudinal direction (TY); and a tumble rotation mechanism that rotates the test head about the vertical axis (RY). Test equipment.   When the test head is driven to the inspection position or the retracted position with respect to the prober, the test head does not need to be swung in an arc shape and is not lifted up at all by moving the test head in a safe manner. Semiconductor test equipment characterized by the ability to work on.

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