JPS63280434A - Wafer probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the damage of a wafer at the time of conveying by providing a moving plate laterally removing to the waver containing position of a prober body, and detachably supporting a wafer receiving tray on the plate. CONSTITUTION:Side face guide rollers 8 are arranged between upper and lower guide rollers 6 and 7, and a moving plate 9 is so provided between the rollers 6 and 7 as to be laterally removed by a guide restricting operation by the rollers 8. A plurality of supporting pins 13 are stood at a predetermined interval on the upper surface of the plate 9, an engaging hole 15 having a tapered guide face is opened at a position corresponding to the pin 13 of the lower surface of a receiving tray 14 for placing a wafer 3, the tray 14 is effectively positioned on the plate 9 to be detachably supported by engaging the pin 13 with the hole 15.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an improvement of a wafer prober that performs a semiconductor wafer checking process.

(Prior Art) In semiconductor manufacturing processes, wafer probers are generally used to measure wafers and distinguish between non-defective products and defective products.

For actual measurement, a plurality of wafers stored in the storage chamber are taken out from the storage chamber provided in the prober body.

The measurement wafer is placed on the measurement section of the main body, and each chip on the wafer is measured.Currently, the wafer is removed from the storage chamber, placed on the measurement section, and measured. The collection work from above the measurement unit and the storage work into the storage room are all automated.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, although conventional wafer probers incorporate various mechanisms to automate the above-mentioned tasks, they do not require manual measurement, for example. Automation has not advanced to the extent that wafers in the storage chamber need to be transported as samples to another location for some reason, so operators still use tweezers, etc. for such special transport, as in the past. The only option was to take the sample wafers out of the storage room and transport them to another location in that state.

For this reason, in the past, a major problem of wafer damage has arisen, and there is a strong desire in this field to solve this problem.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned conventional requirements, and includes a movable plate that can be pulled out laterally at the wafer storage position of the prober body. In addition, by providing a wafer prober configured to removably support a wafer tray on the movable plate, the above-mentioned problems are effectively solved.

(Function) Accordingly, in the present invention, when it becomes necessary to transport the wafers in the storage position to another location as samples for reasons such as individual manual measurement, Using the wafer transport mechanism used for measurement, take out the wafer from the storage chamber, place the wafer on the receiving tray, and then pull out the movable plate that supports the receiving tray from the prober body to remove the wafer. Since the wafer can be transported to another location while being placed on the receiving tray, there is no need to worry about damaging the wafer during transport, unlike in the past.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an example illustrating the present invention.A wafer prober according to this example also has a housing for storing a plurality of wafers in a prober main body 1, as shown in FIG. room 2
Although not specifically shown in the drawings,
Retrieving the wafer 3 from the storage position, placing it on the measurement section 16, collecting it from the measurement section 16, and the storage chamber 2
This is based on the premise that the entire storage operation is carried out via an automatic mechanism, and its features lie in the following configuration.

That is, in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, a space 4 is defined below the storage chamber 2 of the prober body 1, and on each side wall of the space 4, Upper and lower guide rollers 6 and 7 are arranged at a constant interval through the mounting bracket 5, and a side guide roller 8 is arranged between the upper and lower guide rollers 6 and 7. A movable plate 9 is provided between the upper and lower guide rollers 6 and 7 so that it can be pulled out laterally under the guidance regulating action.

Further, a forward stopper 10 that comes into contact with the bracket 5 is fixed at least on the rear end side of the movable plate 9 to restrict the forward drawing of the movable plate 9, and also to prevent the movable plate 9 from being pulled out in the forward direction. A leaf spring-type rear stopper 11 that comes into contact with the rear end concave surface 9a of the moving plate 9 is provided at the bottom defining the space 4;
A configuration is adopted in which finely adjustable screw-type rear position stoppers 12 are fixedly installed, and the rearward movement of the movable plate 9 is restricted by the respective stoppers 11 and 12.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, on the upper surface of the movable plate 9.

While a plurality of support pins 13 are erected at predetermined intervals,
The pin 13 on the bottom surface of the receiver ff114 on which the wafer 3 is placed
An insertion hole 15 having a tapered guide surface at a location corresponding to
are formed, and by engaging the support pins 13 in each of the additional insertion holes 15, the receiving tray 14 can be reliably positioned on the movable plate 9 and supported in a removable manner.

Note that a plurality of annular stepped portions are formed on the upper surface side of the receiving tray 14 so that the wafers 3 can be reliably placed according to their diameters.

Therefore, even with a wafer prober having such a configuration, if the wafer 3 is taken out from the storage position of the prober main body 1 and placed on the measurement section 16.

Needless to say, it is possible to measure each chip on the wafer 3.

However, if it becomes necessary to transport the wafer 3 in the storage position as a sample to another location for reasons such as individual manual measurement, 1. After taking out the wafer 3 from the storage position using a device such as 1) and placing the wafer 3 on the tray 14 supported by the moving plate 9, as shown in FIG.
By pulling out the movable plate 9 from the prober body 1 through its own handle hole 9b until the forward stopper 10 abuts against the bracket 5, the wafer 3 can be removed together with the receiving tray 14 without using tweezers or the like as in the conventional case. It becomes possible to take it out easily from the moving plate 9.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the wafer 3 can be transferred to another location while being placed on the receiving @14.

There is no need to worry about damaging the wafer 3 during transportation as in the conventional case.

Note that after the wafer 3 is transferred, the support pin 13 and the insertion hole 1 are connected again.
5, the receiving tray 14 is supported on the moving plate 9, and the moving plate 9 is retreated into the space 4 until it is regulated by the rear stoppers 11 and 12 described above. There is no need to worry about any interference with measurement.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, there are engaging means 17a and 17b that engage with each other when the movable plate 9 is pulled out.

If the movable plate 9 is provided at the rear end of the movable plate 9 and at the bottom defining the empty space 4, the movable plate 9 can be reliably locked in the pulled-out position. The roll 17a pressed against the plate and the engagement groove 17b provided at the rear end of the movable plate 9 constitute an engagement means, but this engagement means can be changed as desired.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention is characterized in that a movable plate that can be pulled out laterally is provided at the wafer storage position of the prober main body, and a wafer tray is removably supported on the movable plate. Therefore, for reasons such as individual manual measurements, 1. If it becomes necessary to transport a wafer as a sample to another location, use the wafer transport mechanism used for normal measurements to take out the wafer from the storage position, place the wafer on a receiving tray, and then If the movable plate supporting the tray is pulled out from the prober main body, the wafer can be transported to another location while being placed on the tray without using tweezers or the like, so there is no fear of damaging the wafer during transportation as in the past.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a wafer prober according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the main parts showing the relationship between the moving plate and the receiving tray, etc., FIG. 3 is a front view of the main parts, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the main part showing a state in which the movable plate is pulled out, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the main part. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Prober body, 2... Storage chamber, 3... Wafer, 6... Upper guide roller, 7... Lower guide roller, 8... Side guide roller, 9... Moving plate , 13・
... Support pin, 14... Receiver, 15... Engagement hole. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 [

Claims (1)

[Claims] A wafer prober characterized in that a movable plate that can be pulled out laterally is provided at a wafer storage position of a prober main body, and a wafer tray is removably supported on the movable plate.