JPH08102477A - Test head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a test head which is easy of connection to a prober and of adjustment after connection. CONSTITUTION: A test head main body is rotatably retained by a retaining frame. A ring insert 72 is coupled with a probe head by aligning a roller of the test head main body with a positioning block 82 arranged in the ring insert 72 on a prober. After coupling, the ring insert and the probe head are built in a body and can be rotated together with a probe card 76.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a test head suitable for use in testing electronic components, especially integrated circuits.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, characteristic tests of electronic parts, especially integrated circuits, have become an extremely important process factor for electronic parts manufacturers. In the description of the present invention, an integrated circuit is specifically mentioned, but the present invention is effective in other electronic component tests. The latest integrated circuit has 100 terminals
And the test equipment is fundamentally tested on all its terminals, which makes it complicated and bulky. Therefore, the test equipment is divided into several parts to improve convenience over the life cycle of the test equipment.

Generally, a test apparatus is divided into a test apparatus main body and a test station, and the test station is composed of a kind of intelligent sensor and a transport device for electronic parts under test. The transmission / reception signal with the electronic device under test that is brought into contact with the test terminal (probe) by being carried by a carrier device or manually is subjected to primitive operations such as conversion, compression and extension in the test head body that is part of the intelligent sensor. It is used for communication with the test equipment.

The intelligent sensor is divided into a test head and a prober. The prober mechanically positions the electronic device under test and brings the terminals of the electronic device under test into contact with a measuring probe (probe) connected to a probe card provided. By connecting the output terminal of the probe card to the test head, it becomes possible to exchange electric signals between the electronic component under test and the test head. The test head performs the remaining mainly electrical functions. From a different point of view, the test device interfaces with the integrated circuit through the output terminal of the prober, converts the test data signal into an electric signal suitable for the electronic device under test (hereinafter referred to as DUT), and applies the electric signal to the DUT. And a test head body for converting an electric signal from the DUT into a data signal, and a test apparatus body for performing data generation / transmission, reception analysis, communication, and a human-machine interface.

Although there are various configurations of the test head body, D
The main components are a switch and a drive circuit for supplying and stopping a signal to each pin of the UT. In order to generalize the test apparatus, a test head having an interface circuit equal to the number of DUT terminals for each pin has a weight of several tens kg, and often exceeds 100 kg. In this embodiment, it reaches 135 kg. FIG. 5 shows a front view of such a test station. Test station floor 5
5 has a prober body 54 supported by an adjuster 56 and a test head support portion 57. The test head body 2 is attached to the support frame 1 and has a wiring bundle (cable) 51 to a test apparatus body (not shown). The test head main body 2 and the support frame 1 are integrated and attached to a rotary shaft 58 fixed to the support portion 57, and the test head main body 2 and the support frame 1 are rotated about the center axis. The test head at the position depicted by the solid line in FIG. 5 is the posture mainly used for testing wafers and the like, and the position shown by the dotted line is the posture mainly used for testing the components mounted in the package. is there. Also, in FIG. 5, the terminal surface 5 of the prober is shown.
3 and the test head connection 52 are shown in dotted lines.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the test station of FIG. 5, in which the coupling mechanism between the test head body 2 and the support frame 1 is omitted. The central cylindrical hole 3 is for visually observing the connection state of the DUT with a microscope. In the test station as described above, since the electrical interconnection between the probe card and the test head is made with minute contacts, their positioning must be sufficiently accurate. In particular, the probe card terminal surface has an assembly error and is densely arranged in a circular shape concentric with the periphery of the cylindrical hole 3, so accurate connection with the test head is ± 2 ° in the circumferential direction. Need to be adjusted.

In the prior art, this adjustment was performed as follows. (A) A relay terminal plate for receiving the connection contact of the test head is provided as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 60-109056, and the relay terminal plate and the probe card are connected by a flexible connection cable called measurement. The method is one of them. (B) In Utility Model Application Publication No. 62-123568, the shape of the connecting contact receiving pad of the relay terminal plate is fan-shaped to create a margin equal to the adjustment amount. (C) There is also a method of incorporating the interrupt terminal board described in (a) above into the test head body. (D) Further, a method of rotating the entire test head using a so-called test head manipulator or a test head positioner is disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,527,942 and US Pat. No. 4,588,346.

In the above method (a), the electrical length is increased due to the measuring portion, the reliability is lowered due to the increase in connection points, and D
There is a drawback that the cost increases with the increase of the contact pins and the measurement which are proportional to the increase of the number of pins of the UT. In the above method (b), the pad becomes large and the multi-terminal DUT
Interfere with the measurement of. In addition, the crosstalk between the pads becomes large and the electrical characteristics deteriorate.

In the above method (c), the internal structure of the test head becomes more restricted and the test head becomes larger, and it has an unnecessary function in the manual measurement and the handler measurement performed at the position indicated by the dotted line in FIG. The above method (d) has an advantage that the manipulator can be connected to each of the prober and the handler, but has a large degree of freedom in the movable mechanism of the manipulator, resulting in high cost and complicated operation.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to support a test head body in a movable state by a bearing mechanism so that when it is mounted on a prober, it is automatically and properly positioned on the prober by a bearing and a guide block. It is to solve the problems of the prior art.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a test head according to an embodiment of the present invention, a test head body is connected to a support frame of the test head by using a guide block and a bearing. Therefore, the test head body can be rotated with respect to the support frame, immediately with respect to the prober. The mutual fixing of the position of the test head and the prober is achieved by providing a positioning block provided on the prober with means for aligning and mounting such as engaging a roller provided on the test head.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A front view and a plan view of a test head according to an embodiment of the present invention coincide with each other within the ranges depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. The novel portion of the present invention in the plan view of FIG. 6 is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the test head is attached to a support portion 57 so as to be rotatable about the shaft cylinder 4 through a rotary shaft 58. The test head body 2 has a rectangular shape and is connected to the support frame 1 by four bearing mechanisms 5 attached to the four corners ((A), (B), (C), and (D) of FIG. 6) of the test head body 2. Approximately 4 with respect to the support frame 1 in the horizontal plane during operation
It can rotate in the range of about °. Such a surface of revolution is not required, but is often mechanically and electrically preferred in configurations where a heavy test head body is coupled to the prober. The bearing mechanism 5 regulates the rotational direction of the test head main body with respect to the support frame 1 and ensures smooth movement in the permitted direction.

A more detailed structure of the bearing mechanism 5 is shown in FIG.
Expanded and shown. The guide blocks 27 and 28 are paired semi-circular metal blocks, and are firmly fixed to the test head body 2. The opposing surfaces of both guide blocks 27, 28 are parallel to the plane of rotation of the test head and also parallel to each other, and are separated by a distance slightly larger than the diameter of the vertical bearing 22 that engages them. The vertical side surfaces of both guide blocks 27 and 28 are curved surfaces that guide the horizontal bearing 21, and are cylindrical surfaces that are perpendicular to an arc centered on the rotation center of the test head body 2. In Figure 2, the curved surface is drawn in a striking manner.

Vertical bearing 22 and horizontal bearing 2
1 is rotatably attached to a bearing mounting block 25, and the bearing mounting block 25 is fixed to the support frame 1. Therefore, the horizontal position of the test head body 2 is regulated by the horizontal bearing 21 and the vertical side surface of the guide block, and the vertical position is regulated by the opposing planes of the vertical bearing 22 and the guide blocks 27 and 28. Is essentially allowed. Since there are tolerances in the actual design of the bearing mechanism, other movements are slightly permitted. FIG.
A more detailed plan view of the bearing mechanism, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the bearing mechanism as seen from a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the vertical bearing 22. Detailed positioning of the test head and the process prober in one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 5, the support frame 1 is rotated to mount the test head main body 2 on the prober 54.
In order to facilitate the work, the support frame 1 is the test head body 2
It is common to have a balancer that offsets the weight of. Probe terminal surface 53 of prober 54 and test head body 2
Details of the probe connecting portion 52 of FIG. In FIG. 7, the wafer 78 to be tested, which is a DUT, is vacuum suction-fixed by the wafer chuck 73 of the prober 54, and is positioned with respect to the probe card 76 by the movement of the wafer chuck 73. When the probe 77 provided on the probe card 76 comes into contact with the wafer under test 78, it becomes possible to exchange electric signals between the wafer under test 78 and the probe card 76.

As is well known, the wafer chuck 73 is accurately horizontally positioned with respect to the base plate which provides the position reference of the prober 54. The wafer chuck 73 is controlled so as to move up and down, and is raised only when performing a test to bring the probe 77 into contact with the wafer under test 78. The probe card 76 is attached to the contact board 75 directly or by a connector mechanism, and the contact board 75 is fixedly attached to the ring insert 72 of the prober 54. The ring insert 72 is also placed on a rigid horizontal base (not shown) fixed to a base that provides a position reference for the prober 54, on which only horizontal rotation is possible about the center of the probe card 76. Is regulated. By rotating the ring insert 72, the probe card 76 can be subordinately rotated, and the positions of the probe 77 and the wafer under test 78 can be finely adjusted.

The electrical connection of the probe 77 to the electronic circuit inside the test head body 2 is obtained by the electrical path to the pin board 71 via the probe card 76, the contact board 75, and the contact probe 74. As the contact probe 74, a spring-biased probe is usually used, and an alignment error in the vertical direction 0 is absorbed to complete the electrical connection. The mechanical connection of the test head body 2 is made by the leg portion 10 provided on the test head body 2 and the positioning block 82 on the ring insert 72 of the prober.

The positioning block 82 has a V-shaped groove when viewed from the side surface which is rotated 90 degrees with respect to the front surface shown in FIG. A roller 83 is rotatably attached to the bearing 81 attached to the leg portion 10. When the test head main body 2 is placed on the prober 54, the test head main body 2
The roller 83 is automatically aligned with the center of the V-shaped groove of the positioning block 82 by the weight of the roller 83 as shown in FIG. As a result, the desired alignment of the test head main body 2 to which the roller 83 is fixed and the ring insert 72 to which the positioning block 82 is fixed is completed only by placing the test head on the prober. After that, the test head body 2 and the ring insert 72 are integrally rotated.

Further, when it is desired to rotate the probe card 76, the ring insert 72 may be rotated. The test head body 2 includes a support frame 1 and the bearing mechanism 5 described above.
Since it is supported by, it is possible to easily perform such rotation. Two sets of positioning blocks 82 are used in this embodiment.

[0021]

As described in detail above, the implementation of the present invention provides at least the following advantages. 1) Since the connection between the test head and the blower is simple and there is no deterioration in electrical characteristics, even in automatic measurement using a prober, highly accurate measurement similar to manual measurement or handler measurement can be performed with high reliability. 2) Even if the number of contact pins of the test head body 2 increases, the cost of the measuring portion does not increase and the space is not insufficient, so that the DUT can have a large number of pins. 3) Rotation of the test head body can be performed even in the test state without increasing cost and deteriorating electrical characteristics.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a test head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a development view of a bearing mechanism of the test head of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a bearing mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view showing a coupled state of the bearing mechanism of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a test station in which the test head of the present invention is mounted.

6 is a plan view of the test station of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a partial side sectional view of the test station of FIG. 5 in a state in which the test head of the present invention and the prober are combined to measure a wafer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Support frame; 2: Test head body; 3: Cylindrical hole; 4:
Shaft cylinder; 5: Bearing mechanism; 10: Leg (of test head body); Horizontal bearing; 22: Vertical bearing; 2
5: Bearing mounting block; 27, 28: Guide block; 51: Wiring bundle; 52: Connection part; 53: Blow bar terminal surface; 54: Blow bar; 55: Floor; 56: Adjuster; 57: Test head support part; 58: Rotation axis; 71:
Pinboard; 72: Ringsert; 73: Wafer chuck; 74: Contact probe; 75: Contact board; 76: Probe card; 77: Probe; 78:
Wafer; 81: Bearing; 82: Positioning block: 8
3: Laura

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A support frame that rotates about a horizontal axis, a test head body that is rotatably supported in the support frame, and a test head body that is aligned and mounted on a ring insert of a prober. And a means for rotating the ring insert and the test head main body integrally. 2. The test head according to claim 1, wherein the support frame has a rectangular shape, and the test head main body is supported by bearings provided at four corners of the support frame.