JP2988808B2 - Frame test handler - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a frame test handler capable of inspecting a component having leads such as an electronic component in a frame state, and cutting and separating the lead of the corresponding component according to the inspection result. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a frame test handler,
In general, a plurality of inspected objects such as electronic components are connected to a common cradle, and a group of inspected objects is guided to a test station in a so-called frame state, and after conducting an individual component test, guided to a lead cut station. Based on the test result, a lead of a specific inspection object such as one determined to be defective is cut with respect to the cradle.

In this type of conventional handler, one of the following two schemes is generally employed in order to confirm whether or not the cutting operation in the read station has been performed reliably.

[0004] One of them is a method of indirectly confirming the operation of a punch unit for cutting a lead at a lead cutting station. FIG. 3 shows a plan view (A) and a front view (B) of the lead cut station.

In this example, the lead cut station comprises a punch unit 1 comprising a punch 11, a drive cylinder 12 thereof, and a die 13, a ball screw unit 21 for horizontal movement, a drive motor 22 thereof, a vertical movement cylinder 23, and the like. The test object W tested in the test station is sent to the station by the transport rail 3.

A plurality of inspection objects W are conveyed in a state in which a plurality of leads L are connected one by one to a common cradle C, and are positioned and fixed in a lead cutting station. In this state, the drive motor 22 of the moving mechanism 2 operates based on the test result at the test station, and moves the punch unit 1 to the position of the inspection object determined to be defective. Thereafter, the punch 11 and the die 13 are raised to the lead cutting position by the vertical movement cylinder 23, and the punch drive cylinder 12 is driven to drive the punch 1
1 and the die 13 are cut so as to sandwich the lead L of the inspection object.

[0007] The lead cut is confirmed from the output of the output sensor 300 which detects the forward movement of the punch drive cylinder 12 of the punch unit 1. That is, by confirming that the punch driving cylinder 12 has actually operated, it is confirmed that the lead L has been cut indirectly.

On the other hand, the other is provided with a lead cut confirmation station next to the lead cut station, and a connection between each of the leads L, L of the inspection object W, W having passed through the lead cut station and the cradle C. FIG. 4 shows a plan view (A) and a front view (B) of a configuration example of the lead cut confirmation station in a method of individually confirming the situation.

In this example, a logarithm of light emitting elements 400a... Equal to the number of inspected objects W.
A lead cut confirmation sensor 400... 400 comprising a light receiving element 400 a and a light receiving element 400 b... 400 b is provided in a lead cut confirmation station, and the lead L of each inspection object W. The frame is positioned so that the cut positions of L coincide with each other, and in that state, the output of each sensor 400... 400 is monitored to confirm whether or not the cut is correct.

[0010]

Among the above-described conventional lead-cut confirmation methods, the former method uses a punch drive in order to indirectly confirm the lead-cut state from the operation of the punch driving cylinder 12. If the cutting operation is performed at a position where there is no lead and the position of the lead 11 is shifted, or if the punch 11 is damaged, etc., it is erroneously recognized that the lead is cut even though the lead is not cut correctly. Would be.

In the latter method, it is necessary to make the positional accuracy of all the lead cut confirmation sensors 400 with respect to the frame strict. That is, since the lead L is generally very thin, if the positional relationship between the lead L and the lead cut confirmation sensor 400 is slightly different, the sensor malfunctions. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust all sensor positions with high accuracy. Further, there is a disadvantage that it is necessary to arrange as many sensors as the number of the inspection objects W... W connected to the cradle C, which requires a great deal of cost.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and in particular, a lead cut confirmation station is provided to perform high-precision position adjustment, or malfunction of lead cut confirmation can be performed without requiring a large cost. The purpose is to provide a frame test handler that can be performed reliably and without errors.

[0013]

A structure for achieving the above object will be described with reference to FIG. 1 which is an embodiment drawing. The frame test handler according to the present invention comprises a punch unit 1 in a lead cut station. The moving mechanism 2 is equipped with a lead confirmation sensor 4 for detecting the connection between the lead L and the cradle C, and the control unit 5 that controls each unit at this lead cut station includes:
After the lead cutting step is completed, the moving mechanism 2 scans the entire inspection object group W,... W, and counts the output of the lead confirmation sensor 4. The counter 6 counts the count result and the test result at the test station. It is characterized by the provision of a discriminating means (discriminating circuit) 8 for discriminating whether or not a lead cut that matches the result of the judgment at the test station is performed by comparing with the contents of the storing means (memory) 7 for storing.

[0014]

After the lead cut according to the contents of the storage means 7 is performed at the lead cut station, all the inspection objects W... W are scanned by the lead confirmation sensor 4 by the operation of the moving mechanism 2 and the output thereof, that is, Cradle C and lead L ... L
Count the number of connections with The determination means 8 determines whether or not the count number matches the number of non-defective products stored in the storage means 7, thereby determining whether or not the lead cut has been reliably performed according to the test result at the test station. it can.

One lead confirmation sensor 4 is sufficient, and
Since the sensor 4 is scanned in the direction in which the inspection object groups W,.

[0016]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a lead cut station which is a characteristic part of a frame test handler according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (A) is a plan view of the mechanical part, and FIG. FIG. 2B shows a front view of the same part and a block diagram showing a circuit configuration.

The test object W is judged in a frame state, that is, in a test station (not shown) in a test station (not shown) in a state where a plurality of test objects W,... W each have one lead L connected to a common cradle C. After the test is performed, the wafer is sent to the lead cut station along the transport rail 3. The test results at the test station are
For example, corresponding to the position of the inspection object W counted from one side A of the cradle C, the result is stored in the memory 7 as the quality determination result for each inspection object W.

The lead station has the same basic structure as that shown in FIG. 2, and includes a punch unit 1 comprising a punch 11, a driving cylinder 12 and a die 13, a ball screw unit 21 for horizontal movement, and a driving unit for driving the same. The moving mechanism 2 includes a motor 22 and a vertical movement cylinder 23.
Are sequentially controlled in accordance with a control signal from the controller as described later. An output sensor 300 is mounted on the punch driving cylinder 12.
The operation check of No. 2 is performed.

The moving mechanism 2 will be described in detail.
3 is fixed at its rear end, and its vertical movement cylinder 23
The table 24 is fixed to the tip of the piston 23a, and the punch unit 1 is mounted on the table 24.

The lead confirmation sensor 4 is mounted on the table 24 of the moving mechanism 2. That is, the lead confirmation sensor 4 includes the light emitting element 4a and the light receiving element 4a.
For example, the light emitting element 4a is mounted above the punch driving cylinder 12, and the light receiving element 4b is mounted above the mounting part of the die 13 so as to face each other on the same plane. The output of the lead confirmation sensor 4 (the output of the light receiving element 4b) is taken into the counter 6 and counted at a timing described later.

The count result of the counter 6 is supplied to a discriminating circuit 8, which discriminates the counted result and
The memory 7 is configured to compare the number of inspected objects determined to be non-defective at the test station among the contents of the memory 7 to determine whether or not both match.

In the above embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 5, the memory 7, and the determination circuit 8 can be practically constituted by a microcomputer and peripheral devices such as an input / output interface thereof.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the embodiment of the present invention described above. Hereinafter, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. First, after the test result in the test station is stored in the memory 7, the group of inspected objects W in the frame state is sent to the lead cut station along the transport rail 3 and is positioned at a specified position (ST1). , ST2).

Next, according to the contents of the memory 7, the driving motor 2 of the ball screw unit 21 for horizontal movement of the moving mechanism 2 is used.
2, the table 24 is moved in the horizontal direction to position the punch unit 1 at the position of the inspection object determined to be defective, and then the vertical movement cylinder 23 is driven to read the punch unit 1. It is raised to the cut position of L (ST3, ST4). In this state, the punch driving cylinder 12 is driven forward to cut the lead L of the inspection object W by the punch 11 and the die 13 (ST).
5). The lead cutting operation is confirmed by the output of the output sensor 300, and when the output arrives, the punch driving cylinder 12 is retracted, and the vertical moving cylinder 23 is moved.
Is driven to lower the punch unit 1 (ST6, S
T7, ST8).

When there are a plurality of defective products, the corresponding lead L is cut by the same operation, and when the cutting of all the defective products is completed, a control signal is supplied to the drive motor 22 and the horizontal movement is performed. The table 24 is moved to the left end of the frame via the ball screw unit 11 (ST9, ST10). In this state, the lead confirmation sensor 4 on the table 24 is located at the point A in FIG. 1B, and is further left than the leftmost one of the group of inspected objects W... W connected to the cradle C. The height is the same as the position where the lead L is cut.

Next, a control signal is supplied to the drive motor 22 again to move the table 24 to the right end of the cradle C at a predetermined speed (ST11). The counting operation by the counter 6 is started simultaneously with the start of the movement (ST1).
2). Then, when the table 24 reaches the right end of the frame, this is stopped (ST13). At this time, the lead confirmation sensor 4 is located at the point B in FIG. 1 (B), and moves further to the right than the rightmost one of the inspection object group W. During the movement of the lead confirmation sensor 4 from the point A to the point B, an output is generated every time the lead L passes through the position of the lead L connected to the cradle C. Therefore, when the table 24 is moved to the right end. Then, the count value of the counter 6 becomes a value corresponding to the number of leads connected to the cradle C.

When the movement of the table 24 is completed, the contents of the counter 6 are compared with the number of non-defective products based on the test results stored in the memory 7. If the numbers do not match, an alarm output is issued. Emit (ST14, ST15). It is to be noted that the alarm output can take specific actions such as temporarily stopping the apparatus and notifying the worker, for example.

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, if the lead of the inspection object determined to be defective in the test station is not properly cut at the test station due to some cause such as breakage of the punch or misalignment, the counter is set. 6 and the contents of the memory 7 do not match, it is possible to immediately know that, and the lead cut situation can be reliably grasped.

Here, it should be particularly noted that one lead confirmation sensor 4 is connected to the cradle C by scanning in a direction orthogonal to each of the leads L,. The point is that the number of leads is counted and compared with the contents of the memory 7, so that even if the width of the leads is extremely small, there is almost no need to consider the positioning in the horizontal direction, and even the position in the height direction is adjusted. By doing so, the situation of the lead cut can be grasped directly and reliably without malfunction.

Incidentally, since the lead confirmation sensor 4 is moved via the horizontal movement ball screw 21 by the rotation of the drive motor 22, its speed becomes substantially constant. By utilizing this point, it is possible to more strictly confirm the match / mismatch between the pass / fail judgment result at the test station and the actual lead cut situation.

That is, when the output of the lead confirmation sensor 4 moving at a constant speed is taken in synchronization with the clock,
.. W can be detected from one end of the cradle C. By comparing the connection / disconnection detection result with the pass / fail judgment result of each test object in the memory 7, the lead of each test object is cut in accordance with the pass / fail judgment result at the test station. It is possible to take a check as to whether or not it is.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A lead confirmation sensor is mounted on the moving mechanism of the punch unit in the lead cutting station, and after the lead cutting process is completed, the lead scanning process is performed over the entire inspection object group, and the output from the lead confirmation sensor is counted to count the cradle. The number of leads connected to the test station is obtained, and the count result is compared with the pass / fail judgment result at the test station to determine whether or not proper lead cutting has been performed. The position of one sensor is positioned only in the height direction without strictly positioning and arranging all of the sensors, so that the lead cut situation can be grasped directly and without malfunction. Inexpensive and reliable lead cut status checker It can be obtained frame test handler equipped with.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing features extracted from an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (A) is a plan view of a mechanical portion thereof, and FIG. 1 (B) is a front view of the same portion and a block diagram showing a circuit configuration. Figure

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a lead cut confirmation method in a conventional frame test handler.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of another example of a lead cut confirmation method in a conventional frame test handler.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Punch unit 11 Punch 12 Punch drive cylinder 13 Die 2 Moving mechanism 21 Ball screw unit for horizontal movement 22 Drive motor 23 Vertical movement cylinder 24 Table 3 Transport rail 4 Lead confirmation sensor 4a Light emitting element 4b Light receiving element 5 Control unit 6 Counter 7 Memory 8 Discrimination circuit

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G01R 31/26 H01L 21/66

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of inspection objects having leads such as electronic components are transported to a test station and a lead cutting station in a state where each of the leads is connected to a common cradle. The lead cut station includes a punch unit that cuts the lead of the inspection object with respect to the cradle, and a punch unit that cuts the punch unit. A moving mechanism for moving the frame-shaped group of inspected objects conveyed to the station along the cradle; and a control unit for controlling the moving mechanism and the punch unit based on the contents of the storage means, and a test station is provided with a fault. Cut the lead to the cradle only for the determined test object In the frame test handler configured as described above, the moving mechanism is provided with a lead confirmation sensor for detecting connection between the lead and the cradle, and the control unit controls the moving mechanism after completing the lead cutting process at the lead cutting station. A counter that counts the output of the read confirmation sensor while scanning the entire inspection object group; and a read that matches the determination result at the test station by comparing the count result with the content of the storage unit. A frame test handler comprising: a determination unit configured to determine whether or not a cut is made.