JP3028598B2 - handler - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring an integrated circuit (hereinafter, referred to as an IC), and more particularly to a handler for transporting an IC and making electrical contact.

[Conventional technology]

In the conventional handler, in the case where the tray used for supply is used in the storage unit, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a lifting mechanism is provided below the tray 7 on which the IC set in the supply unit 1 is mounted. The stage 8 pushed up by 9 comes into contact, and the fixing mechanism 10 releases the fixing, so that the tray 7 is placed on the stage 8. The stage 8 is lowered by the lifting section 9, but is temporarily stopped at a position corresponding to one tray, and is fixed by a fixing mechanism 10 to stop the next tray 7 from dropping.

When the stage 8 moves down to the position of the rail 5, the stage 8 stops descending, the IC on the tray 7 is transferred to the measuring unit by the transfer / removal unit 2, and after the measurement is completed, the measurement result is transferred by the transfer / classification / removal unit 4. Are transported to the storage unit, and are mounted on the tray 7 set in advance. When all the ICs for one tray have been conveyed, the tray 7 is pushed by the pusher 6, moves on the rail 5, and stops at the tray standby position 15. Next, the stage 8 fetches the next tray 7 by repeating the above-described operation, and similarly processes the IC on the tray 7. When the tray 7 in any of the storage units is full, the tray 7 stopped at the tray standby position 15 moves on the rail 5 by a transport mechanism not shown in the drawing, and
Stop on the storage.

When the tray 7 on the stage 8 raised by the lifting mechanism 9 comes into contact with the tray 7 on the rail 5, the rail 5 is expanded by pushers 6a and 6b, the trays 7 are stacked, and the lifting mechanism 9 moves the stage 8 from the tray 1 The rail 5 is lowered to the position lower by the number of sheets, and the rail 5 returns to the original position. By repeating these operations, the ICs in all the trays in the supply unit are processed, and the process ends.

In the case of a type in which the tray used for supply is not used in the storage unit, as shown in FIG. 6, the storage unit has an empty tray stock unit 11 in which a fixed amount of empty trays can be set.
The tray 7 supplied from the supply unit 1 is stacked on the stage 8 directly below, and the tray 7 supplied from the empty tray stock unit 11 of the storage unit is also stacked on the stage 8 directly below. In this case, when the tray 7 is exhausted from the empty tray stock unit 11, an alarm is issued and the processing is continued while the tray 7 is being replenished.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In this conventional handler, in the case of the type shown in FIG. 4, the empty tray is set because the next empty tray is moved and supplied only when the tray in the storage section is full of ICs. There was a problem that the IC could not be stored until that time, and the user had to wait, that is, the operating efficiency was reduced.

Even if you move to a storage unit that is almost full before it is full, if there are multiple storage units with the same number of ICs, it is urgent to determine which storage unit should be supplied with an empty tray. There is also a situation where the degree of movement is not understood, and as a result, it is moved again. In the case of the type shown in FIG. 6, the worker replenishes empty trays after the empty trays are exhausted, so that the processing until the replenishment is stopped is stopped and the operation efficiency is reduced. Even if the alarm is triggered before the empty tray runs out, the work may be wasted because it may not be necessary to refill.

An object of the present invention is to provide a handler that solves the above-mentioned problem.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, a handler according to the present invention comprises:
A horizontal transport type handler that has a control circuit, supplies and stores the device under test on a tray, and has a plurality of storage sections. The control circuit drives and controls the handler, and stores each of the storage sections. An integration counter that counts the number of ICs stored and the number of ICs stored in all storage units, and a subtraction counter that indicates the number of ICs not mounted on trays on each storage unit, and the values of the integration counter and the subtraction counter. Is used to calculate the margin of the tray,
It has a function of supplying empty trays to the storage section having the smallest margin.

Further, the handler according to the present invention is a horizontal transfer type handler having a control circuit, supplying and storing the device to be measured in a tray, and having a plurality of storage sections, wherein the control circuit controls the driving of the handler. In, having an integration counter that counts the number of ICs stored in each storage unit and the number of ICs stored in all storage units, and a subtraction counter that indicates the number of ICs not mounted on trays on each storage unit, It has a function of calculating the required number of trays for each storage unit using the values of the accumulation counter and the subtraction counter, and automatically detecting the shortage of empty trays.

[Action]

This is to detect the degree of margin or shortage of empty trays in each storage unit and replenish the necessary number of empty trays.

〔Example〕

 Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, and is a front view showing a handler of a type having four storage sections and using a tray used for supply in the storage sections, and FIG. FIG.

In the figure, the operation of taking out the tray 7 from the supply unit 1, transporting the IC on the tray 7 and mounting it on the tray 7 set in advance in the storage unit is as described in the prior art.
The emptied tray 7 is pushed by the pusher 6, moves on the rail 5, and stops at a certain storage part. The storage part is determined by the following algorithm.

As shown in FIG. 3 on the memory map of the control circuit, the integrating counters 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d and 14 and the subtracting counters 13a and 13
b, 13c and 13d are provided. The integration counter 12a indicates the accumulated number of ICs stored in the first storage unit so far, and is a subtraction counter.
13a indicates the number of ICs not mounted on the tray on the first storage unit. No. 2,
Similarly, in the third and fourth storage units, the accumulation counters 12b, 12c, and 12d indicate the cumulative number, and the subtraction counters 13b, 13c, and 13d indicate the number of ICs not mounted. Further, the total counter 14 shows the total number of ICs stored in all the storage units up to the present.

When one tray supplied from the supply unit 1 becomes empty,
Assuming that the value of the integrating counter 12a is A ₁ and the value of the integrating counter 14 is C, the derivation rate at that time can be represented by (A ₁ ÷ C).
If the number of ICs mounted per tray is D, the next tray 1
It is predicted that the sheets will be stored in the first storage unit by processing
Assuming that the number of ICs is (A ₁ × D ÷ C) and the value of the subtraction counter 13 a is B ₁ , the margin can be represented by {B ₁ } (A ₁ × D ÷ C)}.

Similarly, if the values of the accumulation counters 12b, 12c, 12d are A ₂ , A ₃ , A ₄ , and the values of the subtraction counters 13b, 13c, 13d are B ₂ , B ₃ , B ₄ , the second,
The margins of the storage units are {B ₂ } (A ₂ × D}
C)｝, {B ₃ } (A ₃ × D ÷ C)｝, {B ₄ } (A ₄ × D ÷
C), the control circuit calculates the margin using the values of the respective counters, and supplies an empty tray to the storage unit having the smallest value.

Empty trays are temporarily stored in the empty tray stock unit 11 and then stacked on the tray 7 on the stage 8. However, if there is a storage unit whose margins coincide by chance, the supply of empty trays will not be interrupted. And empty tray stock department
Since one or two empty trays are set in advance in 11, the empty tray stock section is actually refilled.

Each time one supplied tray becomes empty, the same calculation is performed to determine the destination of the empty tray. As the number of ICs to process increases, the reliability of the derivation rate increases,
The reliability of the margin is increased, the supply of empty trays is optimized, and unnecessary operations are not performed.

When the tray used for supply is applied to a type that is not used in the storage section (FIG. 6), if the total number of ICs to be supplied E is input in advance, the required number of empty trays can be calculated by the following equation.

{(E × A ₁ ÷ C−A ₁ )} D−1}, ｛(E × A ₂ ÷ C−
A ₂ ) {D-1}, {(E × A ₃ ÷ C-A ₃ ) {D-1},
{(E × A ₄ ÷ C-A ₄ ) ÷ D-1｝ If the required number of empty trays calculated by these formulas exceeds the maximum loading capacity of the empty tray stock unit 11, an alarm is issued and the required number is displayed. Then, it can be operated with minimal work.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, when the present invention is applied to a type in which a tray used for supply is used in a storage unit, a storage unit with a low margin is automatically detected and an empty tray can be refilled.
The waiting time while moving to the storage section can be eliminated,
This has the effect of improving operating efficiency.

Also, if the tray used for supply is applied to a type that is not used in the storage unit, the shortage of empty trays will be automatically detected and the required number will be indicated, so the required number can be replenished without stopping processing. In addition, there is an effect that wasteful work is eliminated and highly efficient operation can be performed with minimum work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
1 is a plan view, FIG. 3 is a view showing a memory map of a control circuit in the handler according to the present invention, FIG. 4 is a front view showing a conventional example, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. FIG. 6 is a front view showing a conventional handler which has four storage units and does not use a tray used for supply in the storage unit. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Supply part 2 ... Transport / removal part 3 ... Measurement part 4 ... Transport / classification / removal part 5 ... Rail 6, 6a, 6b ... Pusher 7 ... Tray, 8 ... Stage 9 ... … Elevating mechanism, 10… Fixing mechanism 11… Empty tray stock part 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d …… Counter counter 13a, 13b, 13c, 13d… Subtraction counter 14 …… Counter counter, 15… Tray standby position

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A control circuit for supplying a device under test;
This is a horizontal transport type handler that stores in a tray and has a plurality of storage units, and the control circuit drives and controls the handler, and the number of ICs stored in each storage unit and the number of ICs stored in all storage units An integration counter that counts the number of ICs, and a subtraction counter that indicates the number of ICs not mounted on the tray on each storage unit, and calculates the margin of the tray using the values of the integration counter and the subtraction counter, A handler having a function of supplying an empty tray to a storage section having the smallest allowance. And a control circuit for supplying a device under test.
This is a horizontal transport type handler that stores in a tray and has a plurality of storage units, and the control circuit drives and controls the handler, and the number of ICs stored in each storage unit and the number of ICs stored in all storage units It has an integration counter for counting the number of ICs, and a subtraction counter indicating the number of ICs not mounted on the trays on each storage unit. The required number of trays for each storage unit is determined by using the values of the integration counter and the subtraction counter. And a function for automatically detecting the shortage of empty trays.