JPH03173449A - Semiconductor substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent pitch deviation in automatic positioning by forming discrimination lines with rather large pitches on scribe lines. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of integrated circuits are formed in an array on a semiconductor substrate 1. Scribe lines 2 to isolate the integrated circuits are formed in a lattice type. Each group A constituted of 20 integrated circuits wherein five integrated circuits are transversely arranged and four integrated circuits are longitudinally arranged is divided by discrimination lines 3 on a substrate 1. The discrimination lines 3 are formed on the scribe lines 2. In this case, a photo mask is moved in the manner in which the scribe lines become thick on the boundaries of blocks of a constant number, and the pattern of integrated circuits is printed on the substrate, thereby forming discrimination lines 3a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to semiconductor substrates, and more particularly to semiconductor substrates having a plurality of integrated circuits formed thereon.

[Conventional technology]

When forming semiconductor integrated circuits, multiple integrated circuits are formed on a semiconductor substrate (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) using photolithography, diffusion, and ion implantation techniques, and then the formed integrated circuits are in an electrically normal state. In order to check whether this is the case, we conduct an electrical test using a blow μ, that is, a probe test.

During this electrical test, the semiconductor substrate is aligned using the optical pattern on the wafer, and a probe (hereinafter referred to as a probe) is brought into contact with the electrode pad of the integrated circuit to send an electrical signal or I'm taking it out.

- When fishing on a boat, when setting the wafer in the blow μ, first do it manually while looking through a microscope, and then store the initial state so that the wafer can be set automatically. It has become.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Generally, semiconductor integrated circuits formed on a wafer have the same pattern, and each one is small, about a few mm square.
Arranged in a very small period. Therefore, even if it is automatically set based on the memorized initial state,
There were cases in which the rows of chips to be inspected were shifted, making it impossible to accurately inspect the positions of the chips on the wafer. To prevent this, the first chip to be inspected on the wafer is marked.
Test results had to be checked later, and very high precision optical systems had to be used to increase the accuracy of automatic wafer positioning.

An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor substrate that solves the above problems.

[Means to solve the problem]

A semiconductor substrate of the present invention is a semiconductor substrate on which a plurality of integrated circuits are formed, and has a scribe line for separating a plurality of semiconductor chips individually, and a pitch interval wider than the scribe line, and the scribe line and an identification line formed on the top.

[Effect]

Since the semiconductor substrate of the present invention is configured as shown above, when automatically positioning the substrate during probe inspection, it is possible to do so while referring to the identification lines arranged at a relatively large pitch. Ru. Therefore, pitch deviation during automatic positioning can be prevented.

〔Example〕

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Elements with the same reference numerals have the same functions, so duplicate explanations will be omitted.

FIG. 1 shows a top view of a semiconductor substrate of an embodiment according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of integrated circuits are formed in an array on a semiconductor substrate 1. As shown in FIG.

Further, scribe lines 2 for separating the respective integrated circuits are formed in a grid pattern. Furthermore, on this semiconductor substrate, there is a group consisting of a plurality of integrated circuits, in the example shown in Fig. 1, 5 integrated circuits horizontally and 4 integrated circuits vertically, a total of 20 integrated circuits. Each group A is separated by an identification line 3. This identification line 3 is formed on the scribe line 2.

One of the methods for forming the above-mentioned scribe lines and identification lines on a semiconductor substrate is the following method.

In recent years, when semiconductor elements are formed on a semiconductor substrate, a reduction projection aligner is used to form integrated circuits on the semiconductor substrate by sequentially shifting the positions of a certain number of blocks (4 x 5) of photomasks for integrated circuits. The pattern is burned in. Therefore, conventionally, the photomask was moved so that the scribe line was the same thickness at all positions, but the photomask was moved so that the scribe line at the boundary of a certain number of blocks became thicker. If the circuit pattern is printed on the semiconductor substrate, as shown in Figure 2(a),
The identification line 3a can be formed so that there are chips as large as 4 chips in the vertical direction and 5 chips in the horizontal direction. In this method, identification lines can be formed by simply changing the movement pitch of the photomask slightly compared to the conventional method during exposure using a reduction projection aligner without changing the conventional manufacturing process.

When an identification line is formed using this method, the size of the semiconductor chip adjacent to the identification line becomes larger than other semiconductor chips by the scribe line.

As a method other than the above method, as shown in FIG. 2(b), in order to make the size of the semiconductor element chip the same, the movement pitch of the photomask is made the same as the conventional one,
Chemical etching may be applied to eliminate the reflection of the scribe line corresponding to b. This is because semiconductor element chips usually have gloss and reflect light, so that non-reflective parts can be easily identified optically.

In addition, in order to make a predetermined scribe line of a semiconductor element chip non-reflective in this way, the part of the scribe line corresponding to the identification line of the pattern of the photomask used before the final etching process is changed, and the part of the scribe line corresponding to the identification line is changed. What is necessary is to etch it in the subsequent etching process. That is, by simply changing part of the pattern of the photomask, the identification line can be formed without changing the manufacturing process.

Alternatively, a change may be made by depositing metal on the scribe line that is to become the identification line. In this case, when forming a metal film for the wiring pattern of an integrated circuit and patterning the wiring, a portion of the wiring mask pattern corresponding to the scribe line corresponding to the identification line is not removed in the subsequent etching process. It is sufficient to use a similar pattern, and there is no need to change the manufacturing process.

In any of the above forming methods, since only the outer end of the semiconductor element chip is changed, the identification line can be formed without changing the electrical characteristics of the element. Also, as explained earlier, without changing the traditional manufacturing process,
Moreover, there is no need to change the circuit pattern of a semiconductor element that has already been developed, and it is sufficient to simply change the pattern shape of the peripheral portion of the photomask.

In addition, even if one conventionally used photomask is used as is, one or two masks for forming identification lines can be used.
Identification lines can be easily formed by simply adding sheets.

As mentioned above, by providing an identification line with optical characteristics at a relatively large period and using this identification line for positioning, pitch deviations that conventionally occur during probing can be prevented and the accuracy of probing can be improved. improves.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications may be made.

For example, in the above embodiment, an example is described in which a semiconductor substrate is exposed and manufactured by a plurality of exposure operations while sequentially moving a photomask, but the invention is not limited to this, and the so-called
Even with a method in which the entire semiconductor substrate is exposed at once, identification lines can be easily formed by changing part of the scribe line of the photomask.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the semiconductor substrate of the present invention, since the identification line having a relatively large period is provided,
In automatic positioning during probing, pitch deviation does not occur and the accuracy of probing can be increased.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a semiconductor substrate of an embodiment according to the present invention;
and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating identification lines of the semiconductor substrate shown in FIG. 1. 1... Semiconductor substrate, 2... Scribe line, 3.
3a, 3b...Identification line.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A semiconductor substrate on which a plurality of integrated circuits are formed, comprising: a scribe line for separating the plurality of semiconductor chips individually; and a pitch interval wider than a pitch interval of the scribes, A semiconductor substrate comprising: an identification line formed on the line.