JPH08110367A - Heavy object swinging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a heavy object swinging device capable of smoothly swinging a test head of a probe device, stopping it on an arbitrary position and achieving the reduction of the setting space and cost. CONSTITUTION: The device comprises an arm 21 that supports a test head 16 on the tip portion thereof, a main axle 22 that swingably supports the arm 21 and a swing driving mechanism 23 that swings a heavy object around the main axle 22. The mechanism 23 is equipped with a driving cylinder 24 to which a tip of a drilling screw 25 is downwardly fixed in a lower part of the axle 22 and slider 26 attached to the lower end of the screw 25 of the cylinder 24. The title device further comprises a guide rail 27 provided under the cylinder 24 in the vertical direction so as to guide the slider 26 in the lowering or lifting along the back and forth movement of the screw 25 and a joint rod 28 that connects the slider 26 lowered or lifted along the rail 27 to a base end section of the arm 21 with a pin.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heavy-weight turning device, and more particularly to a heavy-weight turning device which is preferably used when turning a test head of a probe device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, heavy-weight turning devices have been used in various fields. The heavy object turning device reciprocates a heavy object between two locations. For example, a heavy object turning device is also incorporated in a probe device for electrically inspecting a semiconductor wafer. The weight swing device in this case is configured to move the test head between the device body and the maintenance area.

A conventional probe device includes, for example, a probing card mounted on a head plate of a probe device main body, and a test head having connection terminals corresponding to the connection terminals formed on the back surface of the probing card. The connection terminals of the test head are electrically connected to the connection terminals of the probing card to electrically inspect an object to be inspected, such as a semiconductor wafer. Then, at the time of inspection and maintenance, the test head is swung from the main body of the device to the maintenance area,
In case of inspection, it is swung from the maintenance area to the main body of the device. However, the test head usually weighs 20
Since it is a heavy object with a weight of up to 300 kg, if the movement is relied on manually, it will impose a great burden on the operator.
In addition, since the test head is heavy, it is difficult to manually perform a soft landing on the head plate, which may damage the main body of the device, and also pose a danger to the operator. Therefore, the conventional probe apparatus has a built-in heavy object swivel device, and the heavy object swivel device swivels the test head.

As a conventional heavy-weight turning device, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 60-463743 and 2-17734.
Some of them are proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3 and the like. This heavy object turning device includes, for example, a main shaft that is disposed along the side surface obliquely above the probe device main body, an arm that is turnably supported by the main shaft, and an air cylinder that is connected to the arm. The test head supported at the tip of the arm by an air cylinder is swung. But,
Since these heavy object turning devices cannot stop the test head during turning, the test head must be reliably moved to the maintenance area when various inspections are performed, which is not convenient. on the other hand,
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-74050 proposes a heavy-weight turning device that solves such a problem. This device is provided with a lock member that can be inserted and removed in the swiveling portion of the test head, and the test head is stopped in the middle of swiveling by inserting and removing the lock member into and from the lock hole.

[0005]

However, in the case of the heavy object turning device applied to the conventional probe device,
There is a problem that the lock member cannot be inserted into the lock hole unless the lock member faces the lock hole and the test head cannot be stopped at an arbitrary position. In addition, in this case, a lock mechanism such as a lock member is required in addition to the swivel drive mechanism, which is mechanically complicated, and the drive area becomes large because the air cylinder swings when the test head swivels. was there.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to smoothly rotate a heavy object and stop the heavy object at an arbitrary position, and further, to achieve space saving and cost reduction. An object is to provide an object turning device. In addition, the applicant of the present application filed a Japanese Patent Application No. 6-
This is a further improvement of the heavy-weight turning device already proposed in No. 14263.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for rotating a heavy object, comprising: an arm for supporting a heavy object at one end; a shaft member for rotatably supporting the arm; In a heavy-weight swivel device including a swivel drive mechanism that swivels the heavy object around the center of the swivel drive mechanism, the swivel drive mechanism includes a drive cylinder in which a tip of a piston rod is fixed downward below the shaft member, and the drive cylinder. A slider attached to the lower end of the piston rod of the cylinder, a guide member arranged vertically below the drive cylinder so as to guide the slider up and down as the piston rod moves forward and backward, and ascends and descends according to the guide member. It is provided with a slider and a connecting member for pin-connecting the other end of the arm.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heavy-weight swivel device in which an arm for supporting a test head of a probe device at one end thereof, a shaft member for rotatably supporting the arm, and the shaft member. In a heavy-weight swivel device including a swivel drive mechanism that swivels the heavy object in the center, the swivel drive mechanism includes a drive cylinder in which a tip of a piston rod is fixed downward below the shaft member, and the drive cylinder. A slider attached to the lower end of the piston rod, a guide member arranged vertically below the drive cylinder so as to guide the slider up and down as the piston rod moves forward and backward, and the slider ascends and descends according to the guide member. And a connecting member for pin-connecting the other end of the arm.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the heavy-weight turning device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the drive cylinder is fixed to the shaft member.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heavy object swivel device according to any one of the first to third aspects, in which the piston rod is constituted by a ball screw and A nut that rotates according to forward and backward movement is provided in the drive cylinder, and an electromagnetic brake that brakes the rotation of the nut is provided in the drive cylinder.

[0011]

According to the first or second aspect of the present invention, the drive rod of the turning drive mechanism fixed to the shaft member always keeps the vertical posture, and the piston rod moves back and forth. When the slider at the lower end moves up and down according to the guide member, the arm rotates forward and backward about the shaft member through the connecting member as the guide member moves up and down, and the heavy object at the tip of the arm or the test head of the probe device turns.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3 of the present invention, in the invention of claim 1 or 2,
Since the drive cylinder is fixed to the shaft member, the arm, the piston rod, and the connecting member are linked to each other, so that the link mechanism can pivot the heavy object or the test head of the probe device.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, when the ball screw is moved back and forth by the drive cylinder, the rotary nut is positively moved. Reverse rotation causes the heavy object or test head to pivot about the shaft member. Further, when the electromagnetic brake operates during turning, the ball screw can be braked via the nut to stop the heavy load or the test head at an arbitrary position.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a probe device in which the heavy object turning device of the present embodiment is incorporated. The probe device 10 includes a device body 11 and
A mounting table 12 disposed inside the apparatus main body 11 for mounting the semiconductor wafer W, a probing card 13 disposed above the mounting table 12, and a probe needle 14 formed on the back surface of the probing card. A connection ring 15 having a corresponding pogo pin (not shown), and this connection ring 15
And a test head 16 having a terminal that makes electrical contact with each of the pogo pins.

As shown in FIG. 1, the heavy-weight turning device 20 of the present embodiment includes an arm 21 for supporting the test head 16 at its tip, and a main shaft 22 as a shaft member for rotatably supporting the arm 21. , A swivel drive mechanism 23 that swivels the test head 16 around the main shaft 22. The swing drive mechanism 23 includes a drive cylinder 24, a slider 26 attached to the tip of a ball screw 25 as a piston rod of the drive cylinder 24, and the slider 26.
And a guide rail 27 as a guide member for vertically moving the guide rail, and a slider 26 guided by the guide rail 27. The guide rail 27 has one end pin-coupled and the other end coupled to the base end of the arm 21 as a coupling member. And a rod 28. The cylinder body 29 of the drive cylinder 24 is the main shaft 22.
Is fixed to the main shaft 22 with the tip of the ball screw 25 facing downward. Therefore, the arm 11, the ball screw 25, and the connecting rod 28 are configured as a link mechanism. Then, the connecting rod 28 is moved by moving the ball screw 25 back and forth.
When the moment applied to the arm 21 from the armature is larger than the moment caused by the test head 16, the test head 16 pivots.

The cylinder body 29 is connected to a compression pump 31 via a pipe 30.
Compressed air is supplied into the cylinder body 29 from the inside through the pipe 30. Then, a moment slightly larger than the moment generated by the test head 16 is applied to the arm 2
When compressed air having a pressure applied to 1 is supplied into the cylinder main body 29 by the compression pump 31, the ball screw 25 advances from the inside of the cylinder main body 29 against the spring force of the spring 32, and through the connecting rod 28 and the arm 21. The test head 16 is swung counterclockwise. On the contrary, when compressed air having a pressure such that a moment slightly smaller than the moment generated by the test head 16 is applied to the arm 21 is supplied into the cylinder body 29 by the compression pump 31, the ball screw 25 retracts into the cylinder body 29 and is tested. The head 16 is made to pivot clockwise. Further, a plunger type speed controller 33 is arranged in the pipe 30, and the speed controller 33 controls the supply speed or the discharge speed of the compressed air. A cam 35 is attached to the arm 11 as shown in FIG. 2, and the speed controller 33 comes into contact with the cam 35 so that the test head 16 can obtain an appropriate turning speed at an arbitrary rotational position of the spindle 12. It is controlled by the speed controller 33.

As shown in FIG. 3, a rotation support plate 35 is attached to the lower end of the cylinder body 29 so that the nut 36 can freely rotate via a bearing 36. A ball screw 25 is screwed into the nut 37 so that the ball screw 25 can freely rotate as the ball screw 25 moves back and forth. The rotation of the nut 37 is controlled by an electromagnetic brake 38 incorporated in the cylinder body 29. That is, when the electromagnetic brake 38 is energized, the nut 37 is released to rotate according to the ball screw 25 and the test head 16 turns. It is stopped at the position.

Next, the operation will be described. When inspecting the semiconductor wafer W, as shown in FIG.
Comes into contact with the connection ring 15 of the apparatus main body 21 to electrically connect them. This makes the test head 1
Signals are exchanged between the semiconductor wafer W and the semiconductor wafer W through the probing card 13 to inspect the semiconductor wafer W. After the inspection, when replacing the probing card 13 or performing maintenance on the inside of the apparatus body 11 or the test head 16, the heavy object swivel device 10 is driven and the test head 16 is lifted from the apparatus body 11 to lift the apparatus body. Evacuate from 11.

In the case of retracting, first, the turning drive mechanism 2
The compression pump 31 of No. 3 is driven to supply compressed air into the cylinder body 29 through the pipe 30. Cylinder body 29
When the compressed air pressure inside overcomes the force applied to the ball screw 25 as the piston rod of the cylinder body 25 by the moment generated by the test head 16, the air pressure causes the ball screw 25 to move downward from the cylinder body 29. As a result, the ball screw 25 is guided by the guide rail 27 via the slider 36 and extends vertically downward. At this time, the ball screw 25 pulls the connecting rod 28 downward via the slider 26. The connecting rod 28 pivots the arm 21 pin-connected to the connecting rod 28 counterclockwise to lift the test head 16. As a result, the test head 16 retracts from the apparatus main body 11 to, for example, the position indicated by the phantom line in FIG. On the contrary, when the predetermined work is completed and the inspection is performed again, the heavy object turning device 20 is driven in the opposite direction, and the test head 16 is turned clockwise to electrically contact the connection ring 15 of the device body 11. To do. The turning speed at which the test head 16 turns is controlled by the speed controller 33 via the cam 35 of the main shaft 22. When adjusting the turning speed to the slow speed, if the shape of the cam 35 is appropriately set, the turning speed can be appropriately set and controlled via the speed controller 33.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the test head 16 turns, the cylinder body 29 hangs vertically from the main shaft 22 and the ball screw 25 extends vertically downward to turn the test head 16. The height of the heavy object turning device 20 can be the height of the main shaft 22. Further, since the cylinder body 29 pivots the test head 16 while maintaining the vertical posture, the ball screw 25
The range in which the upper end of the pin swings is sufficient if there is a moving width of the pin connecting portion of the arm 21 and the connecting rod 28. However, in the case of the heavy-weight turning device proposed by the applicant in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-14263, the upper end of the ball screw is pin-connected to the arm between the test head and the main shaft, so that the upper end of the ball screw is The height of the heavy-weight turning device is higher than that of the main shaft, and the height is higher than that of the present embodiment. Further, although the proposed drive cylinder swings together with the ball screw, since the swing range of the drive cylinder is wider than the swing width of the ball screw, the width dimension is also larger than that of this embodiment. Therefore, the heavy-weight turning device of the present embodiment has a smaller height and a smaller swing width than those of the previously proposed device, and accordingly, space saving and cost reduction can be achieved.

Further, according to the present embodiment, since the link mechanism is constituted by the arm 21, the ball screw 25 and the connecting rod 28, the axial direction of each member 21, 25, 28 when the test head 16 is rotated. The resultant force is zero, and the force applied from the test head 16 to the main shaft 22 via the arm 21 is offset by the force exerted from the pin connecting portion of the connecting rod 28. Therefore, the force acting on the main shaft 22 can be satisfied by the load of the test head 16 and the drive cylinder 24 when the test head 16 reaches the top dead center. However, in the case of the already proposed method, the force when the test head is lifted acts on the main shaft as it is, so that a larger drag force is required as compared with the case of the present embodiment, and the main shaft becomes thicker accordingly.

In addition to the above embodiment, when the main shaft 22 is moved in the front-rear, left-right and up-down directions to adjust the position of the main shaft 22, the cylinder body 29 is also moved together with the main shaft 22. Since the mechanism of the joint part such as the floating mechanism is unnecessary, it is possible to achieve space saving and cost reduction as compared with the already proposed one. In the case where the ball screw 25 and the electromagnetic brake 37 for braking the ball screw 25 are separated from the cylinder body 29, the cylinder body 29 is fixed. Easy to compare.

Although the drive cylinder 24 is fixed to the main shaft 22 in the present embodiment, the drive cylinder 24 may be fixed to a portion other than the main shaft 24. It is possible to achieve space saving and cost reduction. Further, in the present embodiment, the test head of the probe device is described as an example of the heavy object, but the present invention can be widely applied to other heavy objects. Further, in the present embodiment, the drive cylinder having the ball screw as the turning drive mechanism has been described as an example, but a normal air cylinder may be used as the drive cylinder.

[0024]

According to the invention described in claim 1 or 2, the test head of the heavy object or the probe device can be swung smoothly and can be stopped at an arbitrary position. It is possible to provide a heavy-weight turning device that can achieve space saving and cost reduction.

According to the invention of claim 3 of the present invention, in the invention of claim 2, since the drive cylinder is fixed to the shaft member, the link mechanism is formed by the arm, the piston rod and the connecting member. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the load on the shaft member at the time of turning.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 4 of the present invention, in the invention described in any one of claims 1 to 3, the piston rod is constituted by a ball screw and the ball screw is advanced and retracted. Since the nut that rotates according to the movement is provided in the drive cylinder and the electromagnetic brake that brakes the rotation of the nut is provided in the drive cylinder, the heavy object or the test head can be stopped at an arbitrary position.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of a probe device to which an embodiment of a heavy object turning device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged configuration diagram of the heavy object turning device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of a drive cylinder of the heavy-weight turning device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 probe device 16 test head (heavy load) 20 heavy load turning device 21 arm 22 main shaft (shaft member) 23 turning drive mechanism 24 driving cylinder 25 ball screw (piston rod) 26 slider 27 guide rail (guide member) 28 connecting rod (connection) Material) 38 Electromagnetic brake

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A heavy-weight swivel including an arm that supports a heavy object at one end, a shaft member that rotatably supports the arm, and a swivel drive mechanism that swivels the heavy object around the shaft member. In the apparatus, the swivel drive mechanism includes a drive cylinder in which a tip of a piston rod is fixed downward below the shaft member, a slider attached to a lower end of a piston rod of the drive cylinder, and the slider in the piston rod. A guide member arranged vertically below the drive cylinder so as to be guided up and down in accordance with the forward and backward movements of the drive cylinder, and a connecting member for pin-connecting the slider and the other end of the arm which are moved up and down according to the guide member. A heavy-weight turning device characterized by the above. 2. An arm for supporting a test head of a probe device at one end, a shaft member for rotatably supporting the arm, and a swivel drive mechanism for swiveling the heavy object around the shaft member. In the heavy-weight swivel device, the swivel drive mechanism includes a drive cylinder in which a tip of a piston rod is fixed downward below the shaft member, a slider attached to a lower end of the piston rod of the drive cylinder, and the slider. A guide member is provided vertically below the drive cylinder so as to be guided up and down as the piston rod moves forward and backward, and a connecting member that connects the slider that moves up and down according to the guide member and the other end of the arm. A heavy-weight turning device characterized in that 3. The heavy-weight swivel device according to claim 1, wherein the drive cylinder is fixed to the shaft member. 4. The piston rod is formed of a ball screw, a nut that rotates according to the forward and backward movement of the ball screw is provided in the drive cylinder, and an electromagnetic brake that brakes the rotation of the nut is provided in the drive cylinder. The heavy object turning device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.