JPH06120313A - Tab-system semiconductor device and inspection method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To raise the accuracy and efficiency of property inspection by seeing that one can know whether a probe needle for performing the property inspection of a TAB-system semiconductor device is good or bad in every property inspection. CONSTITUTION:A dummy pattern (5c) exclusively used for inspection is made partially in advance in the conductive pattern (5) of a TAB-system semiconductor device (1) where the semiconductor pellet (6) arranged in the through hole (4) of an insulating film (3) and the conductive pattern (5) made in the insulating film (3) are connected with each other. Two probe needles (9) of the probe cards of are brought into contact with the dummy pattern (5c), and the contact resistance between these two pieces and the dummy pattern (5c) is measured, and from the result of that measurement, the contact resistance between other probe needle (9) and the conductive pattern (5) is estimated, thus it is judged whether the top of the probe needle (9), which changes the contact resistance with the conductive pattern (5), is polluted by oil or whether its spring property is good or bad.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a TAB in which a plurality of conductive patterns formed on one surface of an insulating film and electrodes of semiconductor pellets arranged in through holes formed in the insulating film are thermocompression bonded. (Tape Automated Bonding) type semiconductor device and its inspection method, applied to multi-pin structure semiconductor device such as driver of liquid crystal display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional example of a TAB type semiconductor device used for a driver of a liquid crystal display and an example of its inspection device will be described with reference to FIGS.

The TAB type semiconductor device (1 ') shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 includes a TAB tape (2') having a conductive pattern (5) formed on one surface of an insulating film (3) and an insulating film (3). The semiconductor pellet (6) is arranged in the through hole (4) formed in the. The conductive pattern (5) of the insulating film (3) is formed by etching the copper foil adhered to the insulating film (3). The conductive pattern (5) has a plurality of stripes formed at a small pitch around the through hole (4) of the insulating film (3), and each has an inner lead portion (5a) extending inside the through hole (4). Have. In addition, each conductive pattern (5)
Wide test pad (5) at a specified location near the through hole (4)
b).

In the peripheral portion of the upper surface of the semiconductor pellet (6),
A plurality of bump electrodes (7) are formed with a small pitch. A conductive pattern (5) corresponding to the plurality of bump electrodes (7)
The tips of the inner lead portions (5a) are connected by thermocompression bonding.

FIG. 8 shows a characteristic inspection apparatus for the TAB type semiconductor device (1 '), which comprises a probe card (8) and a pressing plate (15). The probe card (8)
A plurality of probe needles (9) are provided obliquely upward on a flat upper surface. The tip of each probe needle (9)
It is located at a position corresponding to the inspection pad portion (5b) of the conductive pattern (5) of the TAB tape (2 '), and the respective tips are at the same height from the probe card (8).

A pressing plate (15) is positioned and arranged in parallel directly above the probe card (8), and an upside down TAB semiconductor device (1 ') is positioned and held under the pressing plate (15). To be done.

In the state of FIG. 8, the pressing plate (15) is lowered, and as shown in FIG. 9, first, the inspection pad (5b) of the conductive pattern (5) on the lower surface of the TAB tape (2 ') is connected to the corresponding probe. After touching the tip of the needle (9), push it down further by about 200 μm. By this pushing down, the probe needle (9) is elastically deformed, and the tip thereof surely comes into contact with the inspection pad portion (5b) with a desired elastic force. With the state of FIG. 9 maintained, the TAB semiconductor device (1 ′) is inspected for characteristics.

By the way, when a large number of semiconductor devices (1 ') are repeatedly inspected with the probe card (8), oil is applied to the tip of the probe needle (9) or gold plating formed on the surface of the conductive pattern (5). Plating metal such as
The contact resistance between the tip of the probe needle (9) and the inspection pad (5b) changes. Also, as the number of characteristic tests increases,
The spring property of the probe needle (9) deteriorates, the contact pressure with the inspection pad (5b) becomes weak, and the inspection pad (5)
The contact resistance with b) increases.

The change in the contact resistance between the tip of the probe needle (9) and the inspection pad portion (5b) at the time of the characteristic inspection causes an inaccurate characteristic inspection result of the semiconductor device (1 ') to be inspected with a minute current. Make something Therefore, conventionally, the probe needle (9) is provided by the inspection plate (16) as shown in FIG.
Periodically, the degree of deterioration of the elasticity of the tip of the
The check is performed every predetermined number of characteristic tests.

The inspection plate (16) of FIG. 10 has a gold plating pattern (17) on a flat lower surface. The gold plating patterns (17) are formed in positions corresponding to the number of probe needles (9) of the probe card (8) and in contact with the tips of the probe needles (9).

The inspection plate (16) is used by replacing it with the pressing plate (15) shown in FIG. That is, instead of the pressing plate (15), the inspection plate (16) is positioned in parallel above the probe card (8). The inspection plate (16) is lowered and, as shown in FIG. 10, the gold plating pattern (17) of the inspection plate (16) is pressed against the tip of the corresponding probe needle (9). In the state of FIG. 10, the contact resistance of the probe needle (9) corresponding to the gold plating pattern (17) is measured.

From the contact resistance value between the gold plating pattern (17) and the probe needle (9) thus measured, the degree of contamination of the tip of the probe needle (9) and the degree of deterioration of spring property can be estimated. If the contact resistance value measured by the inspection plate (16) is within the allowable level range, the probe card (8) is used again for the inspection of the semiconductor device (1 ′), and if it exceeds the allowable level, the probe card ( 8) is judged to be inappropriate for reuse and is replaced with a new one.

[0013]

By the way, every time the tip of the probe needle (9) is inspected by the inspection plate (16), the characteristic inspection of the semiconductor device (1 ') is interrupted and the probe card (8) is inspected. The pressing plate (15) must be removed from above and the inspection plate (16) must be set instead. Moreover, this set needs to be performed by positioning the inspection plate (16) in parallel with the probe card (8) with high precision. Therefore, the probe needle (9)
It took a long time to perform one inspection, and the workability was poor, which deteriorated the operation rate of the entire characteristic inspection equipment.

Further, the inspection of the probe needle (9) by the inspection plate (16) has to be performed periodically or every predetermined number of characteristic inspections due to poor workability.
Therefore, the contamination of the tip of the probe needle (9) progresses from one inspection of the probe needle (9) to the next inspection, and the characteristic inspection result of the semiconductor device (1 ′) performed during this period is inaccurate. May be.

Further, even if the probe needle (9) is inspected by the inspection plate (16), the content of defects in the inspection result of the semiconductor device (1 ') by the probe needle (9) cannot be analyzed from the result. In other words, as a result of inspecting the semiconductor device (1 ') with the probe needle (9) and determining that the semiconductor device (1') is defective, the content of the defect is the contact between the probe needle (9) and the conductive pattern (5). In some cases, it may not be clear whether the cause is a defective resistance or the defective semiconductor pellet (6) itself. In such a case, the characteristic inspection of the semiconductor device (1 ′) is performed again, but there is much waste of time, and as a result, the operating rate of the entire characteristic inspection equipment is deteriorated.

Further, the inspection plate (16) is a member exclusively for inspection different from the probe card (8) and the pressing plate (15) which are characteristic inspection devices of the semiconductor device (1 '), and the semiconductor device (1). There is also a problem that the maintenance management is troublesome because it is a separate member that is not used during the characteristic inspection of ').

The object of the present invention is to quickly use a probe card,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a TAB type semiconductor device which is accurately inspected for characteristics and an inspection method thereof.

[0018]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an electrode of a semiconductor pellet arranged in the through hole of a TAB tape having a plurality of conductive patterns formed on one surface of an insulating film partially having the through hole, In the TAB type semiconductor device in which the corresponding conductive patterns are connected, by additionally forming an inspection dummy pattern of the same quality as the conductive patterns in the periphery of the through hole of the conductive pattern forming surface of the insulating film,
The above object is achieved.

According to the present invention, each of the conductive patterns and the inspection dummy pattern of the TAB type semiconductor device is provided with
When inspecting the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device by elastically contacting the tips of a plurality of probe needles projecting at the same height on a flat probe card, the dummy pattern for exclusive use of the inspection was elastically contacted with the dummy pattern. Provided is an inspection method for inspecting the contact resistance with a dummy probe needle as necessary.

[0020]

The conductive pattern and the probe needle that comes into contact therewith are determined from the contact resistance between the dummy pattern for inspection formed on the insulating film of the TAB semiconductor device together with the conductive pattern and the probe needle of the probe card that comes into contact with the dummy pattern. The contact resistance can be accurately estimated, and the accuracy of the characteristic inspection of the TAB semiconductor device can be known from this estimation. Also,
To measure the contact resistance between the dummy pattern and the probe needle,
It can be performed as one item of the characteristic inspection of the TAB type semiconductor device every time the characteristic inspection of the TAB type semiconductor device is performed.
Type semiconductor device characteristics inspection can be performed with high accuracy.

[0021]

EXAMPLE A TAB type semiconductor device (1) of one embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is a TAB type semiconductor device (1 ′) of FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding portions as in FIG. 6 and the description thereof will be omitted.

The TAB type semiconductor device (1) shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
2 is different from the conventional one only in that a plurality of conductive patterns (5) and an inspection-use dummy pattern (5c) of the same quality as the conductive pattern (5) are formed on the insulating film (3). The dummy pattern (5c) is a conductive pattern (5)
The copper foil is etched in the same manner as in, and is formed of the same material and the same thickness as the conductive pattern (5).

As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the dummy pattern (5c) has four rectangular through holes (4) in the insulating film (3).
It is formed integrally with a total of four conductive patterns (5 ') in the corner portion. The dummy pattern (5c) corresponds to a pattern in which the inspection pad portion (5b) of the conductive pattern (5 ') at the four corners is laterally extended.

As shown by the chain line in FIG. 2, the dummy pattern (5c) is formed in such a size that at least two probe needles (9 ') (10) for characteristic inspection described later can come into contact with each other at a predetermined interval. . For example, the dummy pattern (5c) is formed with a width slightly larger than twice the arrangement pitch of two adjacent conductive patterns (5).

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the essential parts of the probe card (8) for inspecting the characteristics of the TAB type semiconductor device (1) of the above embodiment. This is the probe needle of the probe card (8) of FIG. The following dummy probe needle (hereinafter referred to as dummy needle) (10) is additionally installed in (9). The dummy needles (10) have the same quality and the same shape as the other probe needles (9), and four pieces corresponding to the four dummy patterns (5c) of the TAB tape (2) are installed.

Semiconductor device (1) with probe card (8)
Is characterized as follows. In the same manner as in the past, the TAB type semiconductor device (1) which is turned upside down is dropped from directly above the probe card (8), and the inspection pad (5b) of the conductive pattern (5) of the TAB tape (2) is attached to the probe card. (8)
Press on the upper end of the corresponding probe needle (9). At this time, the upper end of the dummy needle (10) is elastically contacted with one end of the corresponding dummy pattern (5c),
The dummy needle (10) and the probe needle (9 ′) for characteristic inspection are elastically contacted at two positions at predetermined intervals on both ends of each dummy pattern (5c).

Before inspecting the characteristics of the semiconductor device (1) with the probe needle (9) that is elastically contacted with the conductive pattern (5), each dummy pattern (5c), a pair of dummy needles (10) and the probe Measure the contact resistance between the needles (9 '). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the dummy needle (10) and the probe needle (9 ') are connected to the constant current source (12) and the voltmeter (13) of the characteristic inspection circuit (11), and they are connected to each other. By measuring the voltage value, the contact resistance between the two is measured. From this measured contact resistance value, the contact resistance value between the conductive pattern (5 ') integrated with the dummy pattern (5c) and the probe needle (9) which is elastically contacted with this,
Further, the contact resistance value between the other conductive pattern (5) and the probe needle (9) can be estimated almost accurately.

Therefore, if the measured contact resistance value of the dummy pattern (5c) is within the allowable range, the characteristic inspection of the semiconductor device (1) is continued with the probe needle (9). Further, if the measured contact resistance value of the dummy pattern (5c) exceeds the allowable range, it is determined that the probe needle (9) is defective, and the characteristic inspection of the semiconductor device (1) is not performed. The probe card (8) is replaced.

The characteristic inspection of the semiconductor device (1) using the probe needle (9) can be performed by using the measured contact resistance value of the dummy pattern (5c) as a correction value. Also,
If the characteristics of the semiconductor device (1) are determined to be defective in the characteristics inspection, the contents of the characteristics inspection result and the dummy pattern (5
By comparing the contents of the measured contact resistance in c), it is possible to know whether the cause of the characteristic failure is the defect of the probe needle (9) or the defect of the semiconductor pellet (6). If the probe needle (9) is defective, the probe card (8) is replaced and re-inspected. If the semiconductor pellet (6) is defective, the semiconductor device (1) is defective without re-inspection. Is finally determined.

The contact resistance of the dummy pattern (5c) can be measured every time as one of the characteristic inspection items of one semiconductor device (1). By doing so, the characteristic inspection of the individual semiconductor devices (1) can be performed efficiently with no time loss, and with high accuracy every time. In addition, the spring property of the probe needle (9) and the degree of dirt on the upper end are checked every time the semiconductor device (1) is inspected, so that it is possible to properly know when to replace the probe card (8). .

The dummy pattern (5c) on the TAB tape (2) can be provided only at one location of the conductive pattern (5). However, when the conductive pattern (5) is large in number, the dummy pattern (5c) is provided for each unit number. It is desirable to provide one or more in order to more accurately estimate the variation in the contact resistance between each conductive pattern (5) and the probe needle (9).

When the dummy pattern (5c) is integrally formed on a part of the conductive pattern (5 ') connected to the semiconductor pellet (6) as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the dummy pattern (5c) is formed. ) And the conductive pattern (5 ') integrated with the semiconductor pellet (6) are power lines or ground lines,
It is desirable for stabilizing the characteristics of the semiconductor pellet (6).

Although the dummy pattern (5c) is provided integrally with the conductive pattern (5 '), the dummy pattern (5c) may be a pattern separate from and independent of the conductive pattern (5'). In this case, although not shown, two or more dummy needles are brought into contact with an independent dummy pattern, and the contact resistance between the dummy needles is inspected.

[0034]

According to the present invention, the dummy pattern formed on the insulating film of the TAB type semiconductor device together with the conductive pattern and the measured contact resistance of the probe needle of the probe card are used to determine the other probe needle and the conductive pattern. It is determined whether or not the contact resistance is within a good range, and this determination can be easily performed for each characteristic inspection of the TAB type semiconductor device. Therefore, highly accurate characteristic inspection of the TAB type semiconductor device is continuously performed. Can be executed efficiently and efficiently.

In addition, a characteristic check circuit of the TAB type semiconductor device can easily and quickly perform a defect check due to stains on the probe needle of the probe card without using a special separate member such as an inspection plate. There is also an effect that simplification, cost reduction, and improvement of operating rate can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view showing an embodiment of a TAB type semiconductor device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial bottom view of the semiconductor device when the semiconductor device is characteristic-inspected by the inspection method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.

5 is a contact resistance inspection circuit diagram of the characteristic inspection portion of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a partial plan view of a conventional TAB semiconductor device.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line CC of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a semiconductor device characteristic measuring apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the characteristic measuring device during characteristic measurement.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a probe needle inspection device in the characteristic measurement device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 TAB semiconductor device 2 TAB tape 3 Insulating film 4 Through hole 5 Conductive pattern 5'Conductive pattern 5c Dummy pattern 6 Semiconductor pellet 7 Electrode 8 Probe card 9 Probe needle 9'Probe needle 10 Dummy probe needle

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electrode of a semiconductor pellet arranged in the through hole of a TAB tape in which a plurality of conductive patterns are formed on one surface of an insulating film partially having through holes, and the corresponding conductive pattern is connected. The TAB type semiconductor device is characterized in that a dummy pattern for inspection, which is of the same quality as the conductive pattern, is additionally formed around the through hole on the conductive pattern forming surface of the insulating film. 2. The tip of a plurality of probe needles projecting at the same height on a flat probe card is brought into elastic contact with each of the conductive patterns and the inspection dummy pattern of the TAB semiconductor device according to claim 1. In addition, when inspecting the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device, a TAB type semiconductor device including a step of inspecting the contact resistance between the inspection-dedicated dummy pattern and the dummy probe needle that is elastically contacted with the dummy pattern. Inspection method.