KR102490878B1 - Semiconductor test apparatus provided with means for uniform cooling - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a semiconductor test apparatus provided with means for cooling so that heat distribution is uniform over the entire length of a board on which devices are mounted, a case, and a test board installed inside the case and having a plurality of semiconductor elements therein It includes a rack frame stacked at regular intervals and a cooling passage module in which a passage for cooling the inside of the rack frame is formed, wherein the cooling passage module is formed long along the length direction of the test board for each of the plurality of test boards and tested A spray hole is formed toward the board, and means for cooling so that the temperature is uniform for all devices is provided, and heat exchange with surrounding devices is minimized until cooling air is blown into the device during the cooling process of the device. It is intended to provide a semiconductor test device that can maximize efficiency.

Description

Semiconductor test apparatus provided with means for uniform cooling}

The present invention relates to a semiconductor test apparatus, and more particularly, to a semiconductor test apparatus provided with cooling means to uniformly distribute heat over the entire length of a board on which devices are mounted.

Recently, as the performance requirements of SSDs increase, the power consumption of SSDs increases while the size of SSDs tends to be the same or smaller. If the size of the SSD device does not increase very much but the power consumption increases, SSD failure may occur due to an overheating phenomenon in which more heat is generated in the SSD.

Therefore, in order to prevent overheating of the device, SSD vendors embed a thermal sensor inside the SSD device product to monitor the device temperature through S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) commands and to manage the device temperature. It is designed in such a way that the drive is configured with the firmware arrangement of thermal throttling.

Through this, when the device temperature reaches a certain level that can cause the device to malfunction, the device temperature is self-controlled by reducing the device's data transmission rate through a thermal pressure regulation process so that the device's maximum allowable critical temperature is not exceeded. made to be

From the standpoint of the test chamber, it is very important to keep the temperature deviation between devices to a minimum so that all devices mounted on the test board do not get caught in the thermal pressure control process during the test. This is because if a part of the SSD device mounted on the test board has a thermal deviation and a thermal pressure adjustment process is required, the device test time is delayed, which leads to a decrease in productivity of the SSD device.

For reference, according to the JEDEC (JESD218A) regulations, when the temperature deviation between devices exceeds ±5℃ in the device performance evaluation temperature range, each device reduces speed by the S.M.A.R.T program and performs thermal throttling, which is SSD This lowers the test speed in the device test device, which eventually results in lowering the productivity of the SSD test device. Therefore, the temperature deviation between devices in the performance evaluation temperature range (0~70℃) of all devices installed in the chamber must be maintained within ±5℃. In addition, it is designed not to cause vibration or deformation to the SSD mounted on the test board, so accurate performance evaluation results must be derived.

In general, device evaluation is performed after mounting several devices on a test board and putting the test board into a performance evaluation chamber.

Conventionally, when the power of each device mounted on the test board is 15 W or more, the device temperature uniformity is controlled by the air flow flowing across the test board from chamber side to chamber side in matching the temperature uniformity between devices.

At this time, a temperature difference between a device in an area where air is introduced and a device in an area where air is discharged is inevitably large. Referring to FIG. 1B , the air flow proceeds from left to right. At this time, among the devices mounted on the burn-in board, the device mounted on the left side is cooled by the air introduced into the chamber immediately after passing through the cooling evaporator, so the cooling effect is great, while the air blowing into the device toward the right side is placed on the left side. Since it is air that has obtained heat from the device, the temperature of the air rises, and the cooling effect of the device inevitably decreases as you move to the right. Therefore, in the case of air cooling by forcibly blowing air from one side, there is inevitably a limit to adjusting the temperature uniformity of all devices mounted on the test board.

Recently, in the case of SSD devices having various form factors (specifications), the amount of heat generated is high for each device, so that the desired temperature uniformity between devices cannot be obtained with only the airflow flowing from the chamber side to the chamber side as in the conventional method. Improvement is urgently needed.

Registered Patent Publication No. 10-1796013 (Public date: 2017. 11. 09)

Therefore, according to the present invention, in a test apparatus for testing a semiconductor device, a means for cooling so that the temperature of all devices mounted on a test board is uniform is provided, and cooling air is blown into the device during the cooling process of the device. It is intended to provide a semiconductor test device capable of maximizing cooling efficiency by minimizing heat exchange with surrounding devices.

A semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention for achieving this object is a case, a rack frame installed inside the case and having test boards of a plurality of semiconductor devices stacked at regular intervals therein, and cooling the inside of the rack frame. and a cooling passage module in which a cooling passage module is formed, wherein each test board is provided with a cooling chamber formed long along the length direction of the test board and having a spray hole formed toward the test board.

Here, the injection hole is preferably formed to correspond to a position where a semiconductor element is mounted.

In addition, the cooling passage module is preferably a blower that introduces air from the outside of the case into the case, and an air passage to which ends of the plurality of cooling chambers are all connected so that the air introduced into the blower is distributed to the plurality of cooling chambers. A refrigeration cycle module composed of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator provided for cooling the test board is installed inside the case, and the evaporator is built into the connection chamber. It can be.

An air flow controller may be installed between the spray hole and the test board to control the flow of air sprayed from the spray hole.

In this case, the air flow regulator is preferably formed in a plate shape so as to be inserted between the injection hole and the test board, and the air flow regulator has fine channels penetrating in a thickness direction in the same shape and shape along the area of the air flow regulator. It can be formed in the form of a lattice size.

At this time, the cross-sectional shape of the microchannel may preferably be a honeycomb shape.

In addition, preferably, a tray in the form of a panel that selectively opens and closes only a portion of each of the spray holes may be installed between the air flow controller and the spray holes.

At this time, the tray preferably consists of a rectangular tray panel, two parallel lines of rigid members in which a guide groove is formed long inside so that the cross section of the tray panel is inserted, and a support connecting the two lines of rigid members at regular intervals. It is made of a guide frame, but one of the two rows of rigid members is preferably formed in such a way that the guide grooves pass through the rigid members, and the tray panel is formed through the guide grooves formed in such a way that the guide grooves pass through the rigid members. Some of the spray holes may be selectively opened or closed by being drawn out or inserted.

The semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a means for cooling so that the temperature of all devices mounted on the test board is uniform, and the cooling air cools the device during the cooling process of the device, so that the peripheral devices and There is an effect of maximizing cooling efficiency by minimizing heat exchange.

1A is a photograph in which a test board on which a semiconductor device is mounted is mounted on a test apparatus;
1B is a conceptual diagram showing the flow of cooling air applied to a conventional semiconductor test device;
2 is a front cross-sectional view of a semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention;
3 is a perspective view of a semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention;
4 is a perspective view of an air flow control device in a semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention;
5A is an internal perspective view of a conventional semiconductor test device;
Figure 5b is a conceptual diagram showing a portion of Figure 4;
Figure 5c is a partial perspective view showing various embodiments of Figure 5b;
Figure 5d is a conceptual diagram comparing the principle of air flow control according to the prior art of Figure 5a and the present invention of Figure 5b;
5E is a graph showing the intensity of turbulence according to the passage distance of air passing through the air flow regulator of FIG. 4;
6a to 6d are conceptual diagrams showing the action of the tray for changing process conditions;
Figure 7 is a perspective view embodying the tray shown in Figures 6a to 6d;
8 is a partial front view in which the tray of FIG. 7 is applied to FIGS. 6A to 6D;
Figure 9 is a plan view showing the application principle of the tray of Figure 7;

Specific structural or functional descriptions presented in the embodiments of the present invention are merely exemplified for the purpose of explaining embodiments according to the concept of the present invention, and embodiments according to the concept of the present invention may be implemented in various forms. In addition, it should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described in this specification, and should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, or substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 2 , a semiconductor inspection apparatus according to the present invention includes a case 11 , a rack frame 40 , and a cooling passage module 30 .

The case 11 is not particularly limited in its specific form as long as it is applied to a typical semiconductor inspection device, and may be manufactured in a size and shape corresponding to the built-in device and use according to the purpose and characteristics of the device.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the rack frame 40 is formed so that a plurality of test boards on which semiconductor devices are mounted can be mounted in a layered manner. 2 and 3 exemplarily show that the semiconductor device is an SSD and the test board is a test board (SSDB) on which the SSD is mounted. To this end, slots (not shown) in which a plurality of test boards are installed are provided in the vertical direction in the rack frame 40 .

The cooling passage module 30 includes an air passage and a mechanism for forced convection by introducing air into the rack frame 40 so that the heat distribution of the test board is uniformly cooled while preventing overheating during the test of the semiconductor device. .

In particular, the cooling passage module 30 is provided with a cooling chamber 32 formed long along the length direction of the test board for each of a plurality of test boards and having a spray hole 321 formed toward the test board.

Since the cooling chamber 32 is installed to face the entire area of the test board and a gas passage is formed therein, a constant air pressure is formed inside the cooling chamber 32 to spray air simultaneously over the entire area of the test board. Therefore, non-uniform cooling can be prevented from occurring and uniform cooling can be achieved over the entire area of the test board because the heated air cools the rest of the area while cooling one area of the test board.

Semiconductor devices mounted on the test board are installed at regular intervals as shown in FIG. 6A, and the injection hole 321 is also formed in a region corresponding to the location where the semiconductor devices are installed, so that effective local cooling is achieved, so that the cooling chamber ( 32) is prevented from being consumed unnecessarily.

The cooling passage module 30 is more specifically a blower 31 that introduces air outside the case 11 into the case 11, and the air introduced into the blower 31 is distributed to a plurality of cooling chambers 32. It includes a connection chamber 23 in which an air flow path to which ends of the plurality of cooling chambers 32 are all connected is formed therein. That is, the blower 31, which introduces air from the outside of the case 11 into the inside, first introduces air into the connection chamber 23, and since the connection chamber 23 is connected to all cooling chambers 32, the connection chamber 23 serves as a passage for distributing air to the plurality of cooling chambers 32.

In addition, in the semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention, a cooling cycle composed of a compressor 22, a condenser 21, an expansion valve (not shown), and an evaporator (not shown) provided for cooling the test board inside the case 11. module is installed. For reference, the evaporator is not directly visible in FIG. 2 because it is built into the connection chamber 23 .

Since the temperature of the indoor fabrication facility air where semiconductor test equipment is installed is high due to the heat emitted from the devices, a significant number of fans must be installed to cool the device only with indoor air, so the space due to the installation of the fan Occupancy problems and huge fan noise problems can occur. Therefore, in the semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention, the cooling cycle module 20 is installed so as not to require the installation of a large amount of fans by significantly lowering the temperature of the air for cooling the device in the chamber.

In particular, since the evaporator constituting the cooling cycle module 20 is built into the connection chamber 23, all air distributed to each cooling chamber 32 can pass through the evaporator, thereby cooling all devices inside the rack frame 40. Even with this evenly, cooling can be effected effectively.

However, in the process of spraying air from the spray hole 321 formed in the cooling chamber 32 to the semiconductor device, a turbulent flow is formed immediately from the moment the air is sprayed, and active heat exchange occurs between the sprayed air and the surrounding air, resulting in cooling efficiency. This degradation may cause problems.

In the semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2 between the injection hole 321 and the test board to prevent this problem, an air flow controller 34 for controlling the flow of air injected from the injection hole 321 ) is installed.

The air flow regulator 34 is formed in a plate shape so as to be inserted between the injection hole 321 and the test board, and the air flow regulator 34 has a fine channel 341 penetrating in the thickness direction of the air flow regulator 34. It is formed in the form of a grid of the same shape and size along the area of .

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4 , the air flow regulator 34 may be manufactured in a panel form in which honeycomb-shaped fine channels 341 are formed vertically and horizontally in a lattice shape.

When the fine channels 341 are formed in a lattice shape in the air flow controller 34, the cooling air injected from the spray holes 321 travels straight to the semiconductor device while minimizing the formation of turbulence, thereby minimizing heat exchange with the surrounding air. .

Referring to FIG. 5D, in the conventional cooling structure, air spreads as soon as it is injected and forms a turbulent flow, whereas in the test device according to the present invention, the air passing through the air flow controller 34 has a straight line and before a turbulent flow is formed. It can be seen that the semiconductor device can be cooled.

In FIG. 5E, the intensity of turbulence in the direction of the longitudinal axis and the direction of the transverse axis of the injected air flow is displayed on the left and right sides, respectively. Here, the light green line is the turbulence intensity without the air flow controller 34 and the red line is the turbulence intensity with the air flow controller 34 installed. It can be seen that the turbulence intensity is significantly lowered in the airflow, and the air flow in the form of lateral turbulence is excluded.

Cooling air passing through the air flow controller 34 minimizes heat exchange with the surroundings, so cooling efficiency can be significantly improved, compared to the case of conventional storage devices, which was optimized in the range of 8 to 25 W. When the present invention is applied, products of 25W or more can be evaluated according to JEDEC (JESD218A) regulations.

In addition, in the semiconductor test apparatus according to the present invention, only a part of each spray hole 321 between the air flow controller 34 and the spray hole 321 is selectively opened and closed as shown in FIGS. 6A to 6D to maximize cooling efficiency. A tray 33 in the form of a panel may be installed.

The tray 33 selectively opens and closes the ejection holes 321 so that, when devices are mounted on only some of the sockets formed on the board, cooling efficiency can be further improved because only the device-mounted portion can be intensively cooled.

For example, in FIG. 6A where devices are mounted on all sockets of the board, the tray 33 is all open so that cooling air is sprayed from all the spray holes 321, but in FIGS. 6B to 6D, the spray holes 321 are selectively provided. When it is opened, the air in the cooling duct 32 is intensively sprayed into the open spray hole 321, so that the cooling air is not wasted and the higher pressure is converted into kinetic energy, thereby further increasing the cooling efficiency.

The tray 33 may be embodied in various embodiments. The tray 33 shown in FIG. 7 includes a rectangular tray panel 332 and two parallel lines of rigid members in which guide grooves 3311 are formed long on the inside so that the short sides of the tray panel 332 are inserted, and two lines. It consists of a guide frame 331 consisting of a support 3312 connecting the rigid members at regular intervals.

At this time, one of the two lines of the rigid member is formed in a form in which a guide groove 3311 passes through the rigid member, and the tray panel 332 is drawn out or inserted through the penetrating guide groove 3311 to each spray hole. Some of (321) can be selectively opened and closed.

Referring to the plan view shown in FIG. 9, when the tray 33 selectively opens the spray hole 321, only the spray hole 321 of the part where the device is not mounted needs to be sealed, and the spray hole 321 where the spray is necessarily performed The tray panel 332 is mounted only in the airtight section (D) since not all of the other parts must be sealed, and the airtight section (D) is a spray hole 321 formed in a portion where the semiconductor device is not mounted, as shown in FIG. only applicable

The present invention described above is not limited by the foregoing embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible within a range that does not deviate from the technical spirit of the present invention. will be clear to those who have knowledge of

SSDB: Test board with SSD mounted B: Open section
D: sealed section 11: case
12: power rack 13: automatic door
14: power terminal 15: PGB room
16: power switch 17: freezer
18: dehumidifier 19: heater
20: cooling cycle module 21: condenser
22: compressor 23: connection chamber
24: liquid separator 30: cooling path module
31: blower 32: cooling chamber
33: tray 34, 34a, 34b, 34c: air flow controller
35: exhaust fan 36: PGB heat dissipation fan
40: rack frame 321: injection hole
331: guide frame 332: tray panel
341: fine channel 3311: guide groove
3312: support

Claims (8)

case;
a rack frame installed inside the case and into which test boards of a plurality of semiconductor devices are stacked at regular intervals;
a cooling passage module in which a passage cooling the inside of the rack frame is formed;
Including,
The cooling passage module is provided with a cooling chamber formed long along the longitudinal direction of the test board for each of the plurality of test boards and having a spray hole formed toward the test board,
The injection hole is formed to correspond to a position where a semiconductor device is mounted,
An air flow controller is installed between the spray hole and the test board to control the flow of air sprayed from the spray hole.
The air flow regulator is formed in a plate shape to be inserted between the injection hole and the test board,
In the air flow regulator, fine channels penetrating in the thickness direction are formed in the form of a grid having the same shape and size along the area of the air flow regulator,
A semiconductor test apparatus, characterized in that a tray in the form of a panel that selectively opens and closes only a part of each injection hole is installed between the air flow regulator and the injection hole. delete According to claim 1,
The cooling passage module has a blower that introduces air from the outside of the case into the case, and an air passage to which ends of the plurality of cooling chambers are all connected so that the air introduced into the blower is distributed to the plurality of cooling chambers. Including a connection chamber that is,
A cooling cycle module composed of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator provided for cooling the test board is installed inside the case,
The semiconductor test apparatus, characterized in that the evaporator is built in the connection chamber. delete delete According to claim 1,
The semiconductor test apparatus, characterized in that the cross-sectional shape of the fine channel is a honeycomb shape. delete According to claim 1,
The tray is a guide frame composed of a rectangular tray panel, two parallel rows of rigid members in which guide grooves are formed long inside so that the short sides of the tray panels are inserted, and supports connecting the two rows of rigid members at regular intervals. be done,
One of the two rows of rigid members is formed in such a way that the guide groove passes through the rigid member, and the tray panel is drawn out or inserted through the guide groove formed in such a way that a portion of each of the spray holes passes through the rigid member. A semiconductor test apparatus characterized in that for selectively opening and closing.

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