KR100567947B1 - Cooler for probe station - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cooler for a probe station, which is used to cool the hot chuck in physical contact with a hot chuck of a probe station, the lower plate, an upper plate provided on an upper surface of the lower plate, and the lower and upper parts. It comprises a cooling coil interposed between the plate, the cooling coil is interposed between the plate in a zigzag shape, it is installed to be in physical contact with the hot chuck by the refrigerant circulated through the heated hot chuck during the EDS process It can be cooled to the desired temperature so that there is an effect that can improve the manufacturing yield of the semiconductor chip.

Probe Station, Wafer, EDS, Cooler

Description

Cooler for probe station {Cooler for probe station}

1 is a perspective view showing a probe station cooler according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating main parts of FIG. 1. FIG.

3 and 4 are plan views showing a state in which a part of the upper plate of the probe station cooler according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention is partially cut away.

5 is a perspective view showing a probe station cooler according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating main parts of FIG. 5. FIG.

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The present invention relates to a cooler for a probe station.

In particular, the present invention relates to a probe station cooler capable of maintaining a precise cooling temperature uniformity during an EDS (Electrical Die Sorting) process of a semiconductor chip, as well as improving a yield by shortening preparation time between processes.

In general, a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed on a wafer through a deposition process, a photo process, an etching process, and an ion implantation process.

When a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed on the wafer as described above, an EDS process is performed to select the semiconductor chips that are normally operating and the semiconductor chips in which defects are performed by performing electrical property inspection of each semiconductor chip. The EDS process repairs a defective semiconductor chip, and the non-repairable semiconductor chips are disposed of early to reduce the time and cost for the package process and package inspection.

In addition, another object of the EDS process is to analyze the initial failure of the semiconductor chip to stabilize the overall manufacturing process of the semiconductor device.

The EDS is a burn-in process of early removal of unstressed semiconductor chips after excessive stress is applied to a plurality of semiconductor chips formed on a wafer, and tests whether the semiconductor chips are normal or defective by applying a specific current to the semiconductor chips. Later, a laser is used to repair a semiconductor chip by scanning a laser beam on a semiconductor chip in which a defect is generated based on data generated in a pre laser process or a pre-laser process. A laser repair process and a post laser process for testing whether a repaired semiconductor chip operates normally are included.

In the above EDS process, the post-laser process is performed on a hot chuck at a high temperature of about 80 to 90 ° C, and then the post-laser process is performed on a hot chuck that is naturally lowered to a room temperature of about 25 to 35 ° C over time. .

Therefore, the time that the hot chuck in the high temperature state is cooled to the room temperature state has a problem in that the yield decreases as it takes about 45 minutes to 3 hours depending on the installation.

The equipment to solve this problem is the cooler of the probe station.

One embodiment of such a cooler, as disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,663,653, utilizes a thermoelectric element to implement heating and cooling. However, a cooler using such a thermoelectric element has a disadvantage in that the performance of the thermoelectric element is deteriorated by repeated heating and cooling to satisfy desirable cooling characteristics, and the manufacturing cost is expensive.

Another embodiment of the cooler, as disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0274595, is to discharge the refrigerant in the gas phase from the adjacent portion of the hot chuck to quickly cool the temperature of the heated hot chuck to room temperature Consists of.

However, in this embodiment, as described above, the hot chuck is heated to about 80 to 90 ° C. and its ambient temperature is also lower than that of the hot chuck but is maintained at a much higher temperature than normal temperature. There is a drawback that the heat loss is seriously generated by convection without necessity, so that a rapid cooling of the hot chuck cannot be realized. In addition, the present embodiment has a disadvantage in that by discharging the high-pressure refrigerant gas to cause an unnecessary increase in the atmospheric pressure inside the probe station to exhaust the refrigerant utilized for cooling at a predetermined use.

Therefore, the present embodiment can preferably cool the hot chuck during the first several EDS processes, but there is a problem that the desired yield improvement cannot be realized by exhausting the refrigerant gas phase as described above according to the repetitive process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention created to solve the above problems is to provide a hot chuck cooler for a probe station capable of minimizing cooling loss to implement desirable cooling temperature uniformity in an EDS process.

This object of the present invention is used to cool the hot chuck in physical contact with the hot chuck of the probe station, and interposed between the lower plate, an upper plate provided on the upper surface of the lower plate, and the lower and upper plates. It is configured to include a cooling coil, the cooling coil can be achieved by a cooler for the probe station, characterized in that interposed between the plate in a zigzag shape.

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More preferably, the cooling coil of the present invention is filled with a gaseous or liquid refrigerant.

Preferably, at least one thermoelectric element is provided on the upper and lower plates of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention with reference to the drawings in detail.

1 is a perspective view showing a probe station cooler according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main part.

1 and 2, the probe station cooler 100 according to the present invention includes a lower plate 20, an upper plate 40 provided on an upper surface of the lower plate 20, and a plate 20 ( It is comprised including the cooling coils 62 and 64 interposed between 40). Here, it is preferable that the opposite surfaces of the lower plate 20 and the upper plate 40 are strongly bonded or fastened and assembled by an adhesive.

 Although the cross-sectional shape of the cooling coils 62 and 64 is illustrated as being limited to a circular shape, the cooling coils 62 and 64 may be modified in various cross-sectional shapes, and may be variously modified in diameter.

As a result, the most important component of the probe station cooler 100 of the present invention is the cooling coils 62 and 64 interposed between the plates 20 and 40.

Here, the cooling coils 62 and 64 may circulate refrigerant in a gas phase or a liquid phase.

3 and 4 are plan views showing a state in which a part of the upper plate of the probe station cooler according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention is partially cut away.

3 and 4, the probe station cooler according to the present invention is a plate 20 (20) so that the refrigerant coils 62, 64 converge in a zigzag shape or the outer edge of the plate 20, 40 in the center direction ( It is interposed between 40).

Here, the spacing of the refrigerant coil 62 or the arrangement of the coils can be changed in various ways, and the two embodiments described above are preferable in terms of cooling efficiency characteristics.

5 is a perspective view illustrating a probe station cooler according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating main parts of FIG. 5.

5 and 6, a cooler 200 for a probe station according to a third embodiment of the present invention is described above except that a plurality of thermoelectric elements 170 are provided on the lower and upper plates 120 and 140. Other additional descriptions will be omitted as they are the same as or similar to the embodiments described.

Here, the thermoelectric element 170 applied to the present invention is provided for cooling, and thus it is possible to maintain good cooling performance by not repeatedly performing heating and cooling like thermoelectric elements according to the prior art. In addition, such a thermoelectric element 170 performs a sub-cooling function which is incidental to the main cooling by the cooling coil 160, and may be preferably used when controlling a more precise cooling temperature.

Although the present invention described above is limited to one embodiment, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the present invention may be easily modified by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is obvious that it belongs to the technical idea.

Here, looking at an embodiment that can be easily modified by the technical idea of the present invention.

(1) When the cooling coil is formed in a shape other than the shape converging in the center direction or zigzag shape, or when the coils are arranged differently

(2) When the cooling coil is selectively formed inside the upper or lower plate

(3) When the cooler is formed in a multilayer structure of more than two-layer structure

(4) When using (2) and (3) above

The present invention having the above configuration has the following advantages and effects.

First, the present invention is installed to be in physical contact with the hot chuck has the advantage that it is possible to quickly cool the heated hot chuck to the desired temperature by the circulating refrigerant during the EDS process.

Second, the present invention has the effect of reducing the EDS process preparation time by minimizing convection (heat loss).

Fifth, the present invention has an advantage of improving the manufacturing yield of semiconductor chips.

Claims (5)

Used to cool the hot chuck in physical contact with the hot chuck of the probe station, A bottom plate; An upper plate provided on an upper surface of the lower plate; And a cooling coil interposed between the lower and upper plates, wherein the cooling coil is interposed between the plates in a zigzag shape. delete delete The method of claim 1, Probe station cooler characterized in that the cooling coil is filled with a refrigerant in the gas phase or liquid phase. The method of claim 1, At least one thermoelectric element is provided on the upper and lower plates.

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