JPH0250448A - Semiconductor integrated circuit measuring apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the time for changing lots and improve the process capability for one IC tester by a method wherein the program names of products stored in the order of measurement are successively selected by comparing wafer END signals from a prober with the number of wafers wherein the types of wafers are to be changed and the wafers are continuously measured. CONSTITUTION:A measuring apparatus which judges a semiconductor integrated circuit to be acceptable or not has a register 11 in which the program names of products to be measured continuously are stored, a selecting circuit 12 which selects the program names stored in the register and a timing circuit 15 which counts wafer END signals outputted from a wafer prober 2 and outputs timings wherein different types of wafers are to be measured. Therefore, in order to measure two or more types of wafers continuously, the number of the wafers and the program names of the respective types are registered in the order of measurement and the END signal of the one type of the wafers outputted from the wafer prober 2 are counted and, when the counts reach the number of the wafers to be measured, the program name of the type to be measured next is selected. With this constitution, the continuous and different programs under the same measurement conditions can be started.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention provides a semiconductor integrated circuit measuring device that enables continuous characteristic testing of different types of wafers in electrical characteristic testing of semiconductor integrated circuits in wafer state. (hereinafter referred to as an IC tester).

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of characteristic test could only be performed continuously on wafers of the same type, and when measuring wafers of different types, even if the jigs and tools were the same, preparations such as reprogramming were required. and measurements were carried out.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In recent years, the development of ICs has been remarkable, and the number of ICs input in the same lot is decreasing due to reasons such as improved yield for sea urchins and production based on special orders from users (as they are not general products, they cannot be sold to other users). As a result, the number of setups has increased and the production volume per unit of equipment has decreased.

These custom-made ICs are generally represented by one-chip microcontrollers and gate arrays, and although most of the circuit configurations are the same, they differ in the ROM part, etc., so they cannot be treated as different types. are doing. Also, most of the measurement programs are common, with only some differences.

Therefore, the production of a wide variety of products in small quantities is likely to increase more and more in the future, and the current measurement method has the drawback of requiring a large amount of floor space and capital investment.

An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit measuring device that solves the above problems.

[Differences between the invention and the prior art]

In contrast to the above-mentioned conventional IC tester that can only measure one type of IC tester, the present invention provides an IC tester that can continuously measure two or more types of IC testers.
By registering the number of wafers to be measured within a product type and its program name in the order of measurement, the END signal for each wafer from the wafer probing device (hereinafter referred to as a prober) is counted, and when the number of wafers to be measured is reached, the program name for the next product to be measured is registered. The difference is that by selecting , programs for different products can be started consecutively under the same measurement conditions.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a measuring device for determining whether a semiconductor integrated circuit is good or bad, which includes a register for storing program names of products to be continuously measured, and a method for selecting a program name stored in the register. a selection circuit to
The apparatus includes a timing circuit that counts wafer end signals from a wafer probing device and outputs timing for measuring different types of wafers to the selection circuit.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is an IC tester main body, and the IC tester main body 1 includes a DC, BS generator 3, a timing generator 4, a pattern generator 5, a CPU 6, a cpU memory 7, a pattern memory 8, a signal generation circuit 9, and a pin. It includes a card 10, a product name register 11, a product name register selection circuit 12, a product type switching wafer number register 13, a wafer measurement number counter 14, a coincidence circuit 15, and an external connection interface 16. 2 is a blower; Bing circuit 17, blower control circuit 18, blower loader/unloader times FI! 119 included.

The program for the wafer to be measured is stored in the CPU'U memory 7 from peripheral equipment via the CPU 6, and several patterns required at that time are stored in the pattern memory 8. The programs and patterns for all consecutive different crystals and species are stored in the corresponding memory.

Next, only the program name for each type of wafer to be measured is registered in the product name register 11 in the order of measurement, and furthermore, the number of the wafer whose type changes is registered in the type switching wafer number register 13.

By starting the IC tester body 1, 10-bar loader/unloader 1 loads different types of wafers one by one.
9 to the probing circuit 17, and the pellet on the wafer is measured using various circuits of the IC tester.

Every time one wafer is measured, a wafer end signal is sent from the prober control circuit 18 of the blower 2 to the external connection interface circuit 16 of the IC tester 1.
By counting the signal, the current number of measured wafers is checked and determined by the coincidence circuit 15. If the next measured wafer corresponds to a different type of wafer, the already set program name of the next type is read from the product name register 11. It becomes possible to continuously measure different selected varieties.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention sequentially selects the program names of products stored in the measurement order by comparing the wafer end signal from the prober and the number of wafers to be changed.
Continuously measuring wafers of different types without stopping the IC tester has the effect of shortening the lot changeover time and improving the throughput per IC tester.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. 1...IC tester body 2...Prober 3...
DC, BS generator 4...timing generator 5...
Pattern generator 6...CPU7...CPU memory 8...Pattern memory 9...Signal generation circuit 10...Pin card 11...Product name register 12...Product name register selection circuit 13... Type switching wafer number register 14...Wafer measurement number counter 15...-number circuit 16...External connection interface

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A measuring device for determining whether semiconductor integrated circuits are good or bad includes a register that stores program names of products to be continuously measured, a selection circuit that selects the program name stored in the register, and a wafer A semiconductor integrated circuit measuring device comprising: a timing circuit that counts wafer end signals from a probing device and outputs timing for measuring different types of wafers to the selection circuit.