JPH08114646A - Collection of operation data of ic tester - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To simply collect the operation data of an individual IC tester by giving a separate identification code to the individual IC tester. CONSTITUTION: At a point of time when an IC tester 2 used in measurement is connected to an identification code setting device 4, a separate identification code is set to the tester 2. Accordingly, the identification code of the actually measured tester 2 is confirmed by reading the set identification code of the setting device 4 connected across handlers 1a, 1b and the tester 2. Next, an IC to be measured is automatically supplied to a test system, for example, by one handler 1a to become the state electrically connected to the characteristic measuring circuit of the tester 2. Continuously, the tester 2 is operated simultaneously with the measurement of the characteristics of the IC and a specific measuring time is measured by an operation rate meter terminal 3a. This measured data is transmitted to a computer 6 from a terminal 3a corresponding to the previously confirmed identification code and the operation data of the tester 2 is collected on the basis of the totalized result of the computer 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC characteristic measuring unit equipped with an IC tester for measuring electrical characteristics of an IC (semiconductor device), and is particularly used for collecting operational information of the IC tester. It is suitable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art ICs that have been assembled through a series of manufacturing processes
For the above, the electrical characteristics are measured at the stage before the final shipment, and the quality is determined based on the measurement result. In such an IC characteristic measuring step, a handler for supplying the assembled IC to the test system and an IC tester for measuring the electric characteristic of the IC supplied by the handler to the test system are installed. The handler and the IC tester are electrically connected via cable wiring, etc., and their combined condition is the measurement target.
It is set appropriately according to C.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, if the IC currently being measured is IC (A),
When measuring this, the handler H1 is connected to one connection terminal t1 of the IC tester T, and the handler H2 is connected to the other connection terminal t2. On the other hand, the IC to be measured has a different model I from the IC (A) described above.
When it is changed to C (B), the setup can be changed by, for example, the handler H2 at one connection terminal t1 of the IC tester T.
Is connected, and the handler H3 is connected to the other connection terminal t2. That is, the combination condition of the handler and the IC tester changes depending on the type of IC to be measured.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional I
In the C characteristic measuring unit, in order to grasp the operating status of the handlers, instruments (hereinafter referred to as operating rate meters) K1 to K3 for collecting various operating information (described later) for the individual handlers H1 to H3. Was attached. As the operation information of the handlers H1 to H3, for example, various information such as the operation time and the setup time as well as the characteristic measurement time and the standby time are obtained from the individual operation rate meters K1 to K3, and the information is comprehensively analyzed. Then, the operation rate of the handler is increased and the error is reduced in the IC characteristic measuring process. However, it is extremely difficult to attach the above-mentioned operation rate meter to the IC tester due to its structure, and even if it is attached, a large equipment cost is required.

Therefore, when trying to grasp the operation information of the IC tester by using the operation rate meter attached to the handler,
In that case, as described above, since the handler connected to the IC tester changes depending on the IC to be measured, how many processing times (characteristic measurement time) of the IC tester can be obtained by the operation rate meter. Since it is a cumulative total of minutes of tester operating time, it was not possible to individually collect the operating information of each IC tester.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method for collecting operation information of IC testers, by which operation information of individual IC testers can be easily collected. Especially.

[0007]

The present invention has been made in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, and is provided with a measuring means capable of supplying an assembled IC to a test system and measuring a characteristic measuring time of the IC. A handler and an IC tester for measuring the electrical characteristics of the IC supplied to the test system by the handler are electrically connected, and the handler and the IC tester are combined according to the IC to be measured. A method for collecting operation information of an IC tester in an IC characteristic measuring unit in which conditions are set, in which a separate identification code is given to each IC tester in advance and IC characteristic measurement is performed. In addition to recognizing the identification code of the IC tester used for measurement, the characteristic measurement time measured by the measuring means is transferred in correspondence with the identification code, Collect the operation information of the tester for IC based on the transmission characteristics of the measuring time counting result.

[0008]

In the operation information collecting method for the IC tester of the present invention, an individual identification code is given to each IC tester in advance, and when the IC characteristic is measured, the previously given identification code is used. IC used for measurement by recognizing
The tester for use is specified. Then, the characteristic measurement time (actual operating time of the IC tester) measured by the measuring means is transferred in association with the identification code, and the transferred characteristic measurement time is totaled, and based on the totalized result, The operation information of the IC tester specified in 1 is collected individually.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining a method of collecting operation information of an IC tester according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a system configuration of an IC characteristic measuring system in this embodiment. First, in the system configuration shown in FIG. 2, 1a and 1b are handlers for supplying an IC to be measured to the test system, and 2 is a handler 1.
An IC tester for measuring the electrical characteristics of the IC supplied to the test system by a and 1b, 3a and 3b are operation rate terminals (measurement means) for collecting operation information of the individual handlers 1a and 1b, 4 Is a simple device (hereinafter referred to as an ID setting device) for setting an identification code for the IC tester 2 used for measuring the characteristics of the IC, and 5 is an LNC (which manages and controls communication with several terminals). A local network controller) 6 is a local host computer (personal computer or the like) that collects information from each terminal via the LNC 5.

In this system configuration, two handlers 1a and 1b are connected to one IC tester 2, and the IC tester 2 measures the IC on one handler 1a side and then The IC on one handler 1b side is to be measured. That is, the characteristics of the IC are alternately measured for the two handlers 1a and 1b. Up to 32 terminal devices can be connected to the LNC 5, and up to 8 local host computers 6 can be connected to a main host computer (not shown). It is possible.

Next, the procedure for collecting the operation information of the IC tester will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S1, I used for measurement is used.
The identification code of the C tester 2 is recognized on the handler 1a, 1b side. As a result, when recognizing this identification code that specifies the IC tester 2 actually used for measurement,
When the IC tester 2 used for measurement is connected to the ID setting device 4, a separate identification code is set for the IC tester 2. That is, the identification code is hard-coded to the IC tester 2. Therefore, the identification code of the IC tester actually used for measurement is the I code connected between the handlers 1a and 1b and the IC tester 2.
It is recognized by reading the setting identification code of the D setting device 4.

Next, in step S2, the IC to be measured is automatically supplied to the test system by, for example, one handler 1a. As a result, the IC to be measured is in a state (measurable state) electrically connected to the characteristic measuring circuit incorporated in the IC tester 2.
Then, a measurement start command is issued to the IC tester 2, which causes the IC tester 2 to operate, and the handler 1
The characteristic measurement of the IC set on the a side is started (step S3). When the IC characteristic measurement is started in this way,
Various test conditions (current, voltage, etc.) are applied to the IC supplied to the test system from the IC tester 2 whose identification code is previously recognized, and at the same time, the characteristic signal of the IC is transferred to the IC tester 2 side. Is taken into. By the way, I
In the C tester 2, a threshold value (limit value), which is a criterion for judging whether the IC characteristic is good or not, is set in advance. Therefore, the threshold value and the measured value obtained by the actual characteristic measurement are set. By comparing with, the quality is judged.

Then, in step S4, at the same time when the IC characteristic measurement is started, the actual processing time on the handler 1a side is measured, in other words, the IC characteristic measurement time is measured by operating the IC tester 2. It is performed by the occupancy meter terminal 3a. At this time, the measurement data by the occupancy meter terminal 3a is recorded in the buffer (built in the occupancy meter terminal 3a in this example) corresponding to the identification code described above. Also, L
The measurement data is transferred to the NC 5 and the local host computer 6 in real time from the operation rate meter terminal 3a in association with the previously recognized identification code.
At the time of this characteristic measurement, as the operation information of the handler 1a obtained by the operation rate meter terminal 3a, the operation time of the handler, IC supply status (full time / empty time), setup time, standby time, error time and its error content There are various kinds of information such as the characteristic measurement time and the number of IC processes. this house,
Since the "characteristic measurement time" is a time required when the IC tester 2 is actually operated and the characteristic is measured, the characteristic measurement time is taken as the actual operating time of the IC tester in this embodiment. I chose

Next, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the characteristic measurement for one IC is completed, and the above step S5 is performed until it is determined that the characteristic measurement is completed.
The measurement of the characteristic measurement time in 4 is continuously performed. After that, when the characteristic measurement of the IC is completed, the process proceeds to step S6,
At that time, the characteristic measurement time measured through the operation rate meter terminal 3a is totaled by the local host computer 6. Then, in step S7, I to be measured next
Whether or not C is present is determined with respect to the other handler 1b, and if the next IC is present, the process returns to step S2 and the same processing as above is repeated. At that time, since the IC tester 2 used for the measurement is the same, the operation rate meter terminals 3a and 3b, the local host computer 6, and the like identify the same characteristic measurement time as the above. It will be accumulated as the measurement data of the code. On the other hand, when neither the handler 1b nor the handler 1a has an IC to be measured next, that is, when the measurement for a predetermined lot has been completed, the series of processing is directly terminated.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the IC characteristic measurement time is the actual operation of the IC tester 2 among various operation information obtained by the operation rate meter terminals 3a and 3b attached to the handlers 1a and 1b. The actual operating time of each IC tester 2 is collected by collecting the time and assigning an identification code to the IC tester 2 used for the measurement in advance and recognizing the identification code during the characteristic measurement. Since the identification codes are aggregated, it becomes possible to individually collect the operation information of the IC tester 2 based on the aggregation result.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since an individual identification code is given to each IC tester in advance, and when the IC characteristic is measured, the IC tester used for the measurement can be specified by recognizing the previously given identification code. By transferring the characteristic measurement time measured by the measuring means in correspondence with the identification code and summing up the transferred characteristic measurement time, the operation information of the IC tester can be extremely easily processed without spending a large facility cost. Can be collected individually. As a result, the individual I
Based on the operating status of the C tester, it is possible to improve the handler as well as increase the operating rate of the IC tester and reduce errors, which greatly contributes to improving the equipment productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a tester operation information collection method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of an IC characteristic measurement system in an example.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a combined state of an IC tester and a handler.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b Handler 2 IC tester 3a, 3b Operating rate meter terminal (measuring means) 4 ID setting device 5 LNC (local network controller) 6 Local host computer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A handler having a measuring means capable of supplying an assembled IC to a test system and measuring a characteristic measuring time of the IC, and an electric characteristic of the IC supplied to the test system by the handler. In an IC characteristic measuring unit, which is configured by electrically connecting an IC tester to be measured, and a combination condition of the handler and the IC tester is set according to an IC to be measured, When the IC characteristic is measured, the identification code of the IC tester used for the measurement is recognized and the characteristic measuring time measured by the measuring means is identified. The IC tester is characterized in that it is transferred in correspondence with a code, and the operation information of the IC tester is collected based on the totalized result of the transferred characteristic measurement times. How to collect operating information of the studio.