JP6250449B2 - Semiconductor inspection equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a semiconductor inspection apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a semiconductor inspection apparatus that holds a semiconductor wafer at a predetermined temperature with high accuracy when inspecting electrical characteristics of an IC chip formed on the semiconductor wafer.

  In a method for holding a semiconductor wafer at a predetermined temperature, a heating mechanism is provided on a wafer chuck on which the wafer is placed, and at the same time the wafer is held at a predetermined temperature from the back side of the wafer, and at the same time, a heating mechanism is applied to the probe card on the wafer head There is a method of maintaining the probe card at a predetermined temperature by providing and controlling the ambient temperature from the wafer surface by heating the ambient atmosphere. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

JP 2012-178599 A

  However, in order to control the temperature from the front and back sides of the semiconductor wafer using the above-described method, at least two heating mechanisms are required, and both temperature control devices are required. Therefore, the structure of the device is complicated and large. turn into. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor inspection apparatus in which the temperature of the wafer on the wafer chuck is controlled with high accuracy and high-precision electrical characteristic inspection can be performed without complicating or increasing the size of the apparatus structure. And

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses the following method.

First, a wafer chuck with a built-in heater,
A probe card having a needle that contacts a semiconductor chip formed on the wafer placed on the wafer chuck;
A card holder to which the probe card is attached;
A head stage for fixing the card holder;
A semiconductor inspection apparatus comprising:
A side wall surrounding the periphery of the wafer provided along the outer periphery of the wafer chuck;
A head plate that is movably provided on the side wall and covers an upper portion of the wafer;
An opening provided in the head plate, through which the needle penetrates,
The heat of the heater maintains the temperature of the head plate through the side wall, and also controls the temperature of the needle through the head stage, the card holder, and the probe card. Device.

The surface of the probe card opposite to the surface on which the needle is mounted is covered with an upper lid made of a material with good thermal conductivity, and the upper lid has a card holder and head stage made of a material with good thermal conductivity. The semiconductor inspection apparatus is configured on the head plate.
In addition, a semiconductor inspection apparatus is characterized in that the outside of the wafer chuck, the side wall, the head plate, the head stage, and the upper lid is covered with a heat insulating material.

  By using the above means, the temperature of the wafer on the wafer chuck can be controlled with high accuracy, and highly accurate electrical characteristic inspection can be performed.

1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a semiconductor inspection apparatus of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows 2nd Embodiment of the semiconductor inspection apparatus of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a semiconductor inspection apparatus of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, a wafer chuck 7 is supported by a Z-axis moving / rotating mechanism 9 and an XY moving mechanism 10 that moves in a two-dimensional plane. The Z-axis moving / rotating mechanism 9 controls the movement of the wafer chuck in the height direction and adjusts the distance between the probe card 1 and the wafer 11. The wafer chuck 7 fixes the wafer 11 on the wafer chuck 7 by vacuum suction. Inside the wafer chuck 7 is provided a heater 8 that heats the wafer chuck 7 to raise the temperature.

  A head plate 5 is disposed above the wafer chuck 7, a card holder 3 is fixed on the head stage 4 thereon, and a probe card 1 is attached to and supported by the card holder. The probe card 1 is provided with a needle 2 corresponding to the arrangement of the electrode pads of the IC chip, and is electrically connected by contacting the electrode pads formed on the semiconductor chip on the wafer. It is ready for inspection.

  The wafer chuck 7 includes a side wall 6 having a certain width and height so as to surround the periphery of the wafer 11 along the outer periphery thereof. A head plate 5 is provided on the side wall 6 so as to be movable. Even if the head plate 5 moves, the radius of the head plate is set to be twice or more the radius of the wafer so that the side wall 6 is always in contact with the head plate 5. To do. The wafer chuck 7 is in contact with the head plate 5 through the side wall 6, so that the heater 8 heats the wafer chuck 7 and can also heat the head plate 5 through the side wall 6.

  A head plate 5 made of a material having high thermal conductivity such as metal is provided so as to cover the wafer surface except for a region where the needle 2 penetrates vertically. Accordingly, the temperature of the wafer 11 is controlled from both the front and back surfaces. Therefore, heat dissipation from the wafer surface can be suppressed. In addition, the head plate 5 has an opening, and the needle 2 penetrates the top and bottom of the head plate 5 and the tip of the head plate 5 contacts the wafer 11. Since the head plate opening is extremely small, the needle 2 and the head plate 5 are provided close to each other, and the temperature of the needle 2 itself is also controlled by the heat from the head plate 5.

  A head stage 4 is placed on the head plate 5 and supports the card holder 3 thereon. The card holder 3 has a stepped step, and holds the periphery of the probe card 1 by the step. Since the wafer chuck 7, the side wall 6, the head plate 5, the head stage 4, and the card holder 3 are all made of a material having high thermal conductivity, the heat from the heater 8 is transmitted to the probe card 1.

As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, the temperature of the wafer 11 fixed on the wafer chuck 7 is not only controlled from the back surface by the heater 8 provided in the wafer chuck 7 but also the side wall 6. The head plate 5 that is always in contact with the wafer 11 and covers the upper surface of the wafer 11 suppresses heat dissipation from the wafer surface, via the side wall 6, the head plate 5, the head stage 4, the card holder 3, and the probe card 1. The temperature of the needle 2 is also controlled, so that the temperature can be controlled with high accuracy.
As described above, by using the semiconductor inspection apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to inspect the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor wafer in a highly temperature controlled environment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the semiconductor inspection apparatus of the present invention.
The difference from FIG. 1 is that an upper lid 12 having good thermal conductivity is provided on the probe card 1. The upper lid 12 is preferably electrically insulated from the probe card 1 while having good thermal conductivity. Due to the presence of the upper lid 12, heat from the card holder 3 is easily transmitted to the probe card 1. A probe card 1 with high temperature uniformity can be obtained.

  Although not shown, a better temperature environment can be obtained by covering the outside of the wafer chuck 7, the side wall 6, the head plate 5, the head stage 4, and the upper lid 12 with a heat insulating material.

  The present invention is a semiconductor inspection apparatus used when inspecting a wafer, and can be applied to a semiconductor inspection apparatus that inspects a wafer at a high temperature.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Probe card 2 Needle 3 Card holder 4 Head stage 5 Head plate 6 Side wall 7 Wafer chuck 8 Heater 9 Z axis movement rotation mechanism 10 XY movement mechanism 11 Wafer 12 Upper lid

Claims (4)

A wafer chuck with a built-in heater;
A probe card having a needle that contacts a semiconductor chip formed on the wafer placed on the wafer chuck;
A card holder to which the probe card is attached;
A head stage for fixing the card holder;
A semiconductor inspection apparatus comprising:
A side wall surrounding the periphery of the wafer provided along the outer periphery of the wafer chuck;
A head plate that is movably provided on the side wall and covers an upper portion of the wafer;
An opening provided in the head plate and through which the needle penetrates;
With
The heat of the heater maintains the temperature of the head plate through the side wall, and also controls the temperature of the needle through the head stage, the card holder, and the probe card. apparatus.   2. The semiconductor inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a radius of the head plate is set to be twice or more a radius of the wafer.   The surface of the probe card opposite to the surface on which the needle is mounted is covered with an upper lid made of a material having good thermal conductivity, and the upper lid is placed through the card holder and head stage made of a material having good thermal conductivity. 3. The semiconductor inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor inspection apparatus is configured on a head plate.   4. The semiconductor inspection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the outside of the wafer chuck, the side wall, the head plate, the head stage, and the upper lid is covered with a heat insulating material.

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