JPH01291440A - Wafer prober - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To alleviate the working load of an operator and to shorten a working time by two-dimensionally moving an operation input unit itself when a measuring parameter is set and input, and moving a cursor for designating the parameter in cooperation with the movement of the unit on a TV screen. CONSTITUTION:A cursor 22a is moved by a joystick 36a, the cursor 22a is set to a parameter position to be selected for each item, and a button 39 is then depressed to select a predetermined parameter value of the item. When the cursor is moved vertically (in a direction of arrow C or D) on a screen to select the parameter item, the cursor can be moved by following to the tilting amount by tilting the joystick in the direction C or D. Since such a joystick operation may be conducted merely by operating it in the moving direction of the cursor 22a, the operator can select the parameter while confirming the position of the cursor 22a on the screen. Thus, the operation is facilitated, and its working load can be largely moderated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a wafer blower that supplies a semiconductor wafer from a loading section to a measuring section for inspection.

(Prior Art) This type of wafer prober, for example, a wafer prober for semiconductor wafers, includes a measurement unit that measures the electrical characteristics of a large number of elements on a wafer, and a measurement unit that measures the electrical characteristics of a wafer by taking it out from a cassette in which the wafer is stored. and a loader section that transports the wafers that have been measured and marked into the cassette and returned to the cassette.

For example, when the object to be measured is a semiconductor wafer, there are various types of wafers, and each type has different wafer size, orientation flat direction during measurement, chip size on the wafer, etc. ing. Therefore, it is necessary to set this type of information as measurement parameters. Once the parameters have been set for the same type of wafer, they can be stored on a floppy disk, etc., and when measuring the same type of wafer again. The parameters in this floppy are called up and set.

Conventional wafer blobbers set these types of parameters by inputting commands using alphanumeric keys on the operation panel, or by pointing the cursor at various parameters displayed on the TV screen using four types of arrow keys: up, down, left, and right. I was choosing to move.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in this type of wafer prober, the top surface of the measurement section needs to be constructed so that the wafer can be observed through a microscope, and the TV screen is located at the back of the wafer prober body. I have no choice but to place it. Since the operation panel is usually placed on the front side of the main body of the apparatus, it is impossible to place the operation panel and the TV screen close to each other.

In a wafer prober with such a layout, setting of the measurement parameters described above was performed manually using the keys, so the cursor position was adjusted to the T position at the back of the main body.
Confirm on the V screen, and if you need to make changes, move your line of sight to the operation panel on the front side of the main unit, select and operate the appropriate key, and then move your line of sight to confirm the cursor position on the screen. After setting parameters, it was necessary to select parameters, which placed a heavy burden on the operator and required a great deal of time to enter the settings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to make it possible to perform cursor movement input without taking your eyes off the TV screen when inputting measurement parameter settings. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wafer prober that can reduce the burden on an operator and shorten the operation input time.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a wafer prober that supplies a wafer from a loader section to a measurement section and electrically inspects chips on the wafer. The specific measurement parameters are
In order to input settings by moving the cursor from screen to screen, the cursor is moved two-dimensionally on the screen in conjunction with the two-dimensional movement of the operation input section itself.

Examples of this type of two-dimensionally movable operation input unit include a joystick, a mouse, and the like.

(Function) According to the present invention, when inputting measurement parameter settings, the operation input section itself is moved two-dimensionally, and the cursor for specifying the parameter is moved on the TV screen in conjunction with this two-dimensional movement. .

Therefore, when moving the cursor two-dimensionally on the TV screen, the operator only needs to check the cursor on the TV screen and move the operation input unit in the direction in which he wants the cursor to move, so the operator's line of sight remains constant. This allows the operator to continue inputting data without changing his/her line of sight, which greatly reduces the burden on the operator and shortens the time required to perform the task, compared to the conventional method of changing the user's line of sight.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

This wafer prober, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4,
For example, for the loader section 1 which is formed of one system of independent casing, there are multiple systems, for example, the first prober section 30a and the second prober section 30a.
The prober unit 30b is configured as follows. And the above-mentioned 1. The second prober sections 30a and 30b are disposed on the left and right side surfaces of the loader section 1, respectively.
Each housing is detachable from the housing, and casters 2 are provided at the bottom of each housing so that it can be moved freely on the floor.

As an internal configuration of the loader section 1, which is an independent housing, a cassette storage section 3 is provided on the front side thereof. For example, four guide shafts 5, which can be rotated by a motor 4, are vertically installed in this storage section 3, and two cassette Re stands 6 are fixed to two kites 1llll 5, respectively. The mounting table 6 is moved up and down by the rotation of the guide lt[l5. Further, a cassette 7 is placed on the cassette mounting table 6, and 25 wafers 10, which are objects to be measured, are housed in the cassette 7 at appropriate intervals.

The vacuum suction tweezers 11 for loading and unloading wafers 10 from the cassette 7 have a support R 111 vertically provided on a horizontally arranged rotating shaft 13 connected to a motor 12, and the rotation of the rotating shaft 13 causes the wafers 10 to be moved in and out of the cassette 7. Support rod 1 that moves with
It is attached to 4. And this tweezers 11
The tip part is formed into a substantially U-shape, and this part is the suction part 1.
It is 1a.

A pre-alignment stage 15 on which the wafer 10 can be placed is provided in the middle of the slide movement path of the vacuum suction bin set 11.
Directional movement is possible.

Further, the wafer 10 is transferred from the pre-alignment stage 15 to the measurement stages of the first and second prober sections 30a and 30b.
Two vacuum suction arms 17 are provided for rotationally conveying the
This arm 17 is moved horizontally by the drive of the motor 18.
It can be rotated by 0°. Furthermore, this vacuum suction arm 1
It is also possible to provide a pair of upper and lower wafers 7 to carry out the wafer 10 after measurement from the measurement stage to the pre-alignment stage 15 and to carry in a new wafer 10 from the pre-alignment stage 15 to the measurement stage at the same time. By doing so, it is possible to significantly improve throughput.

A column 19 is vertically erected on the upper part of the housing of the loader section 1, and a horizontally rotatable arm 20 is suspended from the column 19. A microscope 21 for magnifying the chip is installed at the tip of the arm 20, and is capable of vertically moving up and down, for example, by 200 mm. Further, a CRT 22 is fixedly arranged behind the microscope 21. Furthermore, a power supply unit 23 is arranged on the bottom of the housing, and a first. Power can be supplied to the second prober sections 30a and 30b.

Next, the first. The second prober sections 30a and 30b will be explained. In addition, 1st. Second prober section 30a, 30b
Since both have the same configuration, the first prober section 30a will be explained here.

As for the internal configuration of the first prober section 30a, the measurement stage 32a is arranged in the X direction by well-known means.

Drive in the Y direction, Z direction, and θ direction is possible, especially in the
The driving range in the direction and the Y direction allows symmetrical movement in the front, back, left and right at the center point of the first prober section 30a.

Further, in the measurement position, a probe card (not shown) is set at a position facing the measurement stage 32a, and the electrical characteristics of the wafer 10 are measured by known means.

Further, an operation panel 34a is provided on the front side of the first prober 30a, and allows operation input to the first prober 30a.

This operation panel 34a has seven alphanumeric characters as shown in FIG.
A human key 35a, a two-dimensionally movable joystick 36a of the operating section itself, and a liquid crystal display 37a are provided. And this joystick 36a, 36b
have the same configuration, and have a 360° angle as shown in Figure 1.
A pushable button 39 is provided at the upper end of the grip portion 38 which can be tilted in any direction.

Note that the second prober section 30b has a similar internal configuration, and includes members with the same functions, with the suffix a of each component of the first prober section 30a described above being changed to b.

Next, the above 1. The drive control system for the second probers 30a, 30b and the loader section 1 will be explained with reference to FIG.

In the present embodiment, three types of CPUs share control of the drive system, etc., with the first CPU 40. The third CPU 42 is common to both the blowbar parts 30a and 30b, and is connected to the first CPU 42.
40 controls the display of the operation panels 34a and 34b and controls corresponding to manual key operations, and the third CPU 42 controls the drive of the loader drive section 50 that drives the loader section 1.

On the other hand, the first. Second CPLJs 44a and 44b are arranged in the second prober sections 30a and 30b, respectively, and the second CPTJs 44a and 4'4b are connected to the corresponding measurement sections 30a and 30b.
a stage drive unit 46a that drives stage a or 30b;
46b.

Further, a floppy driver 60 is disposed in one of the two prober units 30a and 30b, for example, the first prober unit 30a, and a floppy disk 62 that can be detachably attached to the floppy driver 60 can be accessed. It has become.

The floppy disk 62 stores measurement parameters for each type of semiconductor wafer that can be searched by the wafer type code.

When the wafer type code is input from the operation panel 34a or 34b, the measurement parameters in the floppy disk 62 read by the driver 60 are transmitted to the operated prober section 30a or 34b via the first CPU 40. 30b second CPU 44a or 44b
After that, it is input to internal storage device B such as C-MOS memory.
It is designed to be loaded into the IZ48a or 48b.

The fiE 2 CPU 44a or 44b executes and controls the measurement based on the measurement parameters in the internal storage device ff48a or 48b.

Next, the operation of the wafer prober will be explained.

Loader section 1. 1st. Second blowbar part 30a.

Each mechanism of 30b has a second . Third CPU42.
It operates according to a predetermined program registered in 44a and 44b.

At this time, the above program is an operating program that does not change regardless of the type of wafer, and conditions that differ depending on the type of wafer need to be set and input into the apparatus in correspondence with each type of wafer.

Examples of such measurement parameters include the following.

■Wafer name ■Wafer size: 5 inches, 6 inches.

8 inches etc. ■OrientationFlat direction ■Chip size; x=5060μm.

y=3010μm etc. ■Alignment parameters ■Inking mode ■Multi probe ■Continuous fail mode ■Needle tip polishing mode [Co., Ltd.] Hot Chuck Temperature etc.

The measurement parameters mentioned above are set by the operator by operating the operation panel 34a or 34b before measuring the product type for the first time, and the set measurement parameters are saved in the floppy disk 62. will be done.

Here, to explain the setting of the above operating parameters, in this embodiment, parameters other than the wafer name can be set by operating the joystick 36a or 36b without using the alphanumeric keys 35a and 35b. There is.

That is, if the parameters of the product to be measured are not registered by searching the floppy disk 62, the parameter registration mode is set by pressing a switch or the like (not shown).

Then, according to the operation of the first CPU 40, as shown in FIG.
22 vertical columns, and different examples of parameters such as numerical values are displayed along the horizontal columns for each item. Further, in the initial state, the cursor 22a is displayed, for example, at the upper left of the screen.

In this embodiment, the cursor 22a is moved by the joystick 36a or 36b, and the button 39 at one end of the joystick grip 38 is used as an enter key to position the parameter to be selected for each item. By pressing this button 39 after setting the cursor 22a on the item, a predetermined parameter value for that item is selected. When selecting a parameter item by moving the cursor vertically on the screen (direction of arrow C or D in Figure 1), move the joystick to the first position.
By tilting in the C or D direction in the figure, the cursor can be moved in accordance with the tilted amount. In addition, when placing the cursor on one of the parameter contents arranged horizontally after aligning with the item (movement of the cursor 22a in the direction of arrow A or B in Fig. 1), similarly move the joystick A or B. You can move the cursor by tilting it in the direction.

The above joystick operation is performed using the cursor 22a.
Since the operator only needs to operate in the direction of movement, the operator does not have to take his/her line of sight away from the screen and can easily perform the operation. Therefore,
Since the operator can select parameters while checking the position of the cursor 22a on the screen, the operation becomes easy and the workload can be significantly reduced. Moreover, this also makes it possible to considerably double-track the work time for parameter setting.

Assuming that the parameters have been registered as described above, the blobbing operation will be explained below.
First, when inspecting a certain type of wafer using the first prober section 30a, the first prober section 30a
The floppy disk 62 is inserted through a floppy insertion slot (not shown), and then a code corresponding to the type is input by operating the alphanumeric keys 35a of the operation panel 34a.

Then, the input information on the operation panel 34a is
A search is performed by accessing the driver 60 to determine whether or not the measurement parameter identified by U40 and corresponding to this product code is registered in the floppy disk 62. Since this explanation model assumes registration, the corresponding measurement parameter is searched, and this parameter information is loaded from the first CPLI 40 to the second CPU 44a of the first prober unit 30a, and then It will be loaded and stored in the internal storage device W,50.

After the loading of the measurement parameters of the product to be measured is completed in this way and the cassette 7 containing the wafer 10 to be measured is set, a probing test on the wafer is started based on the operation on the operation panel 34a. will be done.

That is, the vacuum suction tweezers 11 are inserted into the cassette 7, one wafer 1° is suctioned by the vacuum suction part 11a, and
This wafer 10 is slid out by a vacuum suction bin set 11 and set above the pre-alignment stage 15 (which has been lowered in advance as shown in FIG. 4).

Next, the wafer 10 is placed on the pre-alignment stage 15 by driving the pre-alignment stage 15 and moving it further upward through the central notch of the vacuum suction section 11a.

Then, at this position, the orientation flat (hereinafter also referred to as orientation flat) of the wafer 10 is detected by a well-known means such as an LED sensor, and set by rotational drive to a position that matches the orientation information of the orientation flat in the measurement parameters described above.

The wafer 10 that has undergone this preliminary positioning is rotationally conveyed by the vacuum suction arm 17 to the measurement stage 32a of the first prober section 30a, and is accurately main-positioned by a laser recognition mechanism or a pattern recognition mechanism, and is then accurately positioned by a well-known means. Electrical characteristics are measured by bringing a probe card into contact with the electrode pads of each chip. Then, after marking the defective chips using a known method, the wafer 10 that has been inspected is returned to the cassette 7 and transported by performing the process reverse to the carrying route. By repeating the above steps, the cassette 7
Inspection can be performed on all wafers 10 within.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the second prober section 30b can also perform inspection processing in parallel with the inspection processing at the first prober section 30a.

As a feature of this embodiment, this second prober section 3
Even when setting the above measurement parameters for 0b, the first
．． A common floppy disk 62 is used for the second prober parts 30a and 30b, and the first prober part 30a
The floppy disk 62 is set in a floppy insertion slot provided in the floppy disk.

After setting the floppy disk 2, the type code of the wafer to be measured is input via the operation panel 34b disposed on the second prober section 30b.

Then, the measurement parameters of the wafer corresponding to this type code are loaded into the second CPU 44b of the second prober section 30b via the first CPU 40, and are then loaded into the second prober section 30's internal storage device ff48b. It will be loaded and stored in .

In this way, the first . second prober section 30a,
Since the measurement parameter settings for the measuring section 30b are configured to be accessible based on input from either measuring section 34a or 34b using the floppy disk 62, which is a common storage section, the management of the floppy disk 62 becomes easy. By searching only this floppy disk 62, it is possible to easily know whether parameters of that type are registered or not, so that unnecessary duplicate registration can be reliably prevented. Further, by using the common floppy disk 62 in this way, the driver can be provided in one of the measuring sections, thereby reducing the cost of the apparatus. At this time, in order to make the basic configuration of both the blower sections 30a and 30b the same, a blind plate or the like is placed in the floppy insertion slot of the second blower section 30, and a space is provided in the area where the driver is accommodated. Bye.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

For example, the configuration of a prober is (prober section) - (loader section) - (prober section) - (loader section) -
The same method can be applied to a combination such as (prober section).

Further, as in the above embodiment, the loader section 1. Prober section 30
For example, the loader section 1. The prober section 30a may be an integrated independent casing, and the prober section 30b configured as an independent casing may be connected to the prober section 30a, or a rotor section may be used instead of having a common loader section.

A wafer prober having a one-to-one measuring unit may also be used.

In addition, in conjunction with the two-dimensional movement of the operation input unit itself,
As the configuration of the operation input section for moving the cursor two-dimensionally on the screen, a mouse or the like in addition to a joystick can be adopted. Although it is not a method of moving the cursor, it is also effective to specify parameters directly on the TV screen using a light bar, but this is difficult to use in a wafer prober where the TV screen is located at the back of the main body as described above.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when inputting measurement parameter settings, the cursor is moved two-dimensionally on the screen in conjunction with the two-dimensional movement of the operation input section itself. By doing so, the cursor movement input can be executed without looking away from the TV screen, the burden on the operator can be reduced, and the operation input time can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view for explaining parameter settings in an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a drive control system of a wafer prober according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the wafer prober in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an internal configuration diagram of a loader section, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of an operation panel. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Loader part, 10... Measured object, 22... CRT, 22a... Cursor, 30a, 30b... Measuring part, 34a, 34b-Operation part, 36a, 36b... Joystick , Agent Patent Attorney Inoue - (1 other person) Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a wafer prober that supplies a wafer from a loader section to a measurement section and electrically inspects chips on the wafer, measurement parameters specific to each type of wafer can be measured by moving a cursor on a TV screen. A wafer prober characterized in that, in order to input settings, a cursor is moved two-dimensionally on the screen in conjunction with two-dimensional movement of the operation input section itself.