JPH04107943A - Semiconductor wafer-probing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a fraction non-defective by adding an operational control function capable of detecting the generation of a defective caused by an exposure in a PR process or a control software for determining abnormality to a semiconductor wafer prober. CONSTITUTION:In wafer probing for measuring characteristics of a semiconductor wafer 7 formed by the use of a probe card 8 or probe needle and by repeated baking of a pattern corresponding simultaneously to a plurality of chips and for determining whether the semiconductor wafer is good or not, the fraction defective of chips existing in a common place out of many chips baked on the semiconductor wafer 7 and the fraction defective of the other chips baked simultaneously are compared with each other for the purpose of determining or recognizing whether the chips existing in the common place are good or not. Or the defective distribution coordinates of many chips baked on the semiconductor wafer 7 are stored and it is determined or recognized based on the stored contents whether chips existing in a specific common place are good or not. Thus, it is possible to eliminate the succeeding generation of defectives and to improve a fraction non-defective.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer probing method, and particularly to a method for probing a semiconductor wafer, particularly for probing a large number of chips on a semiconductor wafer by repeatedly printing patterns corresponding to a plurality of chips at the same time using a reticle or the like. The present invention relates to a method for determining the quality of chips that correspond to common locations such as reticles among chips.

Conventionally, in the operation control of this type of semiconductor wafer blobbing, as shown in FIG. 4, a large number of chips 7 a t 7 b . Or, from right to left, it is a device-specific unidirectional continuous measurement, and the control software has a stop function when continuous failures occur and a failure distribution map output function, but each function is It had become independent.

By the way, the conventional semiconductor wafer prober mentioned above is
Operation control is limited to continuous measurement in a single direction, and the control software has independent functions to output a defect distribution map and a function to stop when continuous defects occur, so it is possible to expose two or more chips at the same time in the PR process. Printing using a reticle has the disadvantage that it is impossible to recognize when a common chip defect occurs frequently on the reticle during each exposure.

FIG. 5 shows the defect occurrence mechanism due to exposure in the PR process, which the present invention aims to solve. That is, four chip patterns 10a to 10d formed on the reticle 9
When exposing the semiconductor wafer 7 to light by step-and-repeat, if some of the chip patterns 10d are defective, defects will occur in the chips corresponding to all the chip patterns 10d printed on the semiconductor wafer 7.

The semiconductor wafer probing method of the present invention has a parameter for storing the reticle configuration used in the PR process, an abnormality determination stop criterion, and a defect distribution coordinate storage memory, and a control system or defect distribution for controlling the operation. It consists of control software that calculates the number of pass/fail for each chip within the reticle from the determination results within the coordinates.

That is, (1) Wafer probing involves repeatedly printing patterns corresponding to multiple chips at the same time using a probe card or probe needle to measure the characteristics of a semiconductor wafer and judge whether it is good or bad. A semiconductor wafer probing method characterized by comparing the defective rate of chips in a common area among a large number of chips with the defective rate of other chips printed at the same time to determine or recognize the acceptability of the chips in the common area. , (2) In wafer probing, which uses a probe card or probe needle to repeatedly print patterns corresponding to multiple chips at the same time to measure the characteristics of a semiconductor wafer and determine its acceptability, a large number of patterns printed on a semiconductor wafer are used. A semiconductor wafer probing method characterized by storing defective distribution coordinates of chips and determining or recognizing the quality of chips at a specific common location based on the stored contents.

According to the above configuration, the order in which one wafer is measured with the semiconductor wafer prober is determined by the parameters in which the reticle configuration is stored, and the chips on the exposed wafer are successively measured for chips in the same reticle. Burn-in is common among chips on a reticle, and an abnormality can be recognized when exposed chips continue to have defects.

In addition, if you use control software that calculates the number of pass/fail for each chip in the reticle, each time the measurement of one wafer is completed, this control software will start up and calculate the number of passes/fails for each chip in the reticle from the defect distribution coordinate memory memory. Calculate the cumulative result.

It is determined whether the ratio of the maximum value and the minimum value of this cumulative result is within the abnormality judgment stop criteria set in advance, and if it is within the stop criteria, the semiconductor wafer blower is stopped and an abnormality is recognized. I can do it.

disaster Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an operational diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. 1-6 is 6
The surface-mounted chips are exposed on the wafer 7 in correspondence with each chip pattern on the reticle.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the wafer 7 measured using the probe card 8. In the semiconductor wafer probing method of the present invention, the wafer is measured in the measurement order shown in FIG. The measurement order is controlled by the reticle configuration parameters held in the wafer prober, and only chip 1 shown in FIG. 1 is measured in order, and chips 2 to 6 are similarly measured in sequence. .

According to this embodiment, only chip 1 on the wafer exposed with the chip pattern on the same reticle can be continuously measured, so defects caused by exposure in the PR process can be recognized by the continuous defect stop function of the wafer prober. It has the advantage of being possible.

Disaster Box 2 FIG. 3 is a defect distribution diagram of one wafer 7 held in the defect distribution coordinate storage memory built into the semiconductor wafer prober for explaining the semiconductor wafer probing method of the second embodiment of the present invention. be.

In Figure 3, the cumulative number of good products at the chip coordinates corresponding to chip 1 exposed with the same chip pattern on the reticle is 1...ΣΣ(x+Ia, y+jb)
(1) 1=Q J=0 Similarly, 2...ΣΣ(x+l+ia, y+jb
) ■1=OJ=0.

Here, (a, b) are reticle configuration harameters (n, m
) is the value obtained by dividing the storage memory maximum coordinates by (a, b).

Here, if the maximum value of the cumulative value is (1) and the minimum value is (6), the apparatus will stop if (6)/(1) is smaller than the abnormality determination stop criterion S.

Sku■/(1)... Stop This embodiment has the advantage that the above-mentioned determination function can determine which wafers are defective due to exposure in the PR process.

Main Features As explained above, the present invention provides a semiconductor wafer blower with an operation control function that can detect defects caused by exposure during the PR process or control software that determines abnormalities, thereby measuring wafers. However, the occurrence of defects due to exposure can be immediately determined and the device can be stopped.

As a result, defects caused by exposure that are often overlooked can be detected reliably and early, and fed back to the PR process. This has the effect of preventing the subsequent occurrence of defects and improving the rate of non-defective products.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of measurement operations on a semiconductor wafer to explain the semiconductor wafer probing method of Example 1 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of measurement of a wafer using a probe card, and FIG. A side view of the defect distribution on the semiconductor wafer in the defect distribution coordinate storage memory for explaining the semiconductor wafer probing method of Example 2, FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the mechanism of defect occurrence caused by exposure in the PR process, FIG. 5 is a measurement sequence diagram of a conventional semiconductor wafer probing method. 1-6... Chip number corresponding to the chip pattern in the reticle, 7... Semiconductor wafer, 8... Probe card, 9... Reticle, 10a ~10d... Chip pattern. Figure 1 Y Figure 3

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. using a probe card or probe needle,
In wafer probing, which measures the characteristics of a semiconductor wafer by repeatedly baking patterns corresponding to multiple chips at the same time and determines whether it is good or bad, out of the large number of chips printed on the semiconductor wafer,
1. A semiconductor wafer probing method, characterized in that the defective rate of the chips at the common location is compared with the defective rates of other chips baked at the same time to determine or recognize the quality of the chips at the common location. 2. using a probe card or probe needle,
In wafer probing, which measures the characteristics of a semiconductor wafer and determines whether it is good or bad by repeatedly printing patterns corresponding to multiple chips at the same time, the defect distribution coordinates of a large number of chips printed on the semiconductor wafer are memorized. A semiconductor wafer probing method characterized by determining or recognizing the quality of chips at specific common locations based on the content.