KR20100012187A

KR20100012187A - Probe card for testing semiconductor devices

Info

Publication number: KR20100012187A
Application number: KR1020080073444A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 주복기
Original assignee: 주식회사 동부하이텍
Priority date: 2008-07-28
Filing date: 2008-07-28
Publication date: 2010-02-08

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a probe card for testing a semiconductor device, the tip being in contact with a pad of a semiconductor device, and extending vertically upward from the tip to be fixed to a solder plate of the probe card and having a probe force upon contact of the tip and the pad. It includes a support beam to adjust the value and mitigate the impact. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to cope with the fine pitch of the highly integrated semiconductor chip with high density arrangement, and to adjust the probe force value between the tip and the pad by shock absorbing movement of the tip, and to prevent damage to the tip. Stable contact can be realized. In addition, by using MEMS technology, impedance matching can be easily implemented, and the test line can be improved by connecting the force line and the sense line to the tip part.

Description

PROBE CARD FOR TESTING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a probe card for testing a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to improve the fine needle structure of a cantilever type in a MEMS or a vertical probe card to cope with a fine pitch. This is possible and relates to a probe card for testing semiconductor devices, in which electrical test characteristics can be improved.

In general, a process of manufacturing a pure silicon wafer to manufacture a semiconductor device, a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device by forming a pattern on the silicon wafer, and electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device to determine whether the semiconductor device is good or bad A series of manufacturing processes are required, such as a test process, a process of packaging a semiconductor element, and a process of finally testing the packaged semiconductor element.

The process of testing the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device, for example, an electric die sorting (EDS) process determines the defects by testing the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device to feed back the problems early in the manufacturing process of the semiconductor device. Increase yield and reduce the cost of assembly and package test due to early removal of defective semiconductor devices.

Such a device for inspecting a semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor wafer includes a tester and a probe system, and the probe system includes a probe card in mechanical contact with an electrode pad of the semiconductor device. Is installed.

Meanwhile, as semiconductor devices are highly integrated, the spacing and size of electrode pads are also decreasing. Since the probes are in physical contact with the electrode pads, this change in pad structure causes technical difficulties associated with the structure and placement of the probes. These technical difficulties require probes to be arranged with a minimum separation distance so as to prevent electrical interference and short between adjacent probes.

In addition, in order to reduce the contact resistance between the pad and the probe, the probes require an overdriven contact that contacts while applying a predetermined pressure to the pad. However, since the contact pressure in this overdrive scheme is obtained from the deformation of the probe and hence the restoring force, repeated overdrive contact can result in morphological deformation of the probes. Deformation of such probes can result in a decrease in the restoring force of the probes and a change in the arrangement position of the probes. To alleviate this problem, the probe needs to have a sufficiently large resilience.

In order to improve the restoring force of the probe, a cantilever type probe card has been proposed as in FIG. 1. The cantilever probe card 10 attaches one side of the support beam 13 to the bumps 12 arranged on the substrate 11. In addition, a tip 14 contacting the pad is attached to the other end of the support beam 13. On the other hand, the tip 14 is pressure-connected to the pad, the support beam must have a restoring force by elasticity in the pressurized connection, and a sufficient length must be secured in order for the support beam to have a restoring force. If the length of the support beam is too short, it may not have sufficient elasticity, and thus may not have sufficient restoring force.

Therefore, the cantilever type probe card must secure a sufficient length of the support beam, and for this purpose, a sufficient separation distance is necessary between bumps to which the support beam is attached.

The spacing between probes of probe cards for testing recently integrated semiconductor devices should be minimized. However, the cantilever type probe which has to secure the length of the support beam in order to maintain the restoring force of the support beam has difficulty in minimizing the distance between the probes.

In addition, as the degree of integration of semiconductor devices increases, the arrangement of pads is changing from a conventional one-dimensional arrangement (eg, a line) to a two-dimensional arrangement (eg, a matrix). However, the cantilever-type probe card has a problem that it is difficult to use in the two-dimensional pad arrangement method due to technical difficulties such as a large occupation area and a large separation distance of each support beam.

Therefore, the present invention enables a high-density arrangement to cope with the fine pitch of highly integrated semiconductor chips, and adjusts the probe force value between the tip and the pad by the shock absorption motion of the support beam connected to the tip. It is an object of the present invention to provide a probe card for testing a semiconductor element that can prevent damage to the semiconductor device.

In addition, according to another object of the present invention, by using MEMS technology, it is possible to easily implement impedance matching, it is possible to connect the force line and the sense line to the tip portion, the probe card for semiconductor device test can be improved test characteristics To provide that purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, in the probe card for semiconductor device test, the tip in contact with the pad of the semiconductor device, and vertically upward from the tip is fixed to the solder plate of the probe card and the tip and pad contact The present invention provides a probe card for testing a semiconductor device including a support beam that can adjust a probe force value and mitigate an impact.

Here, preferably, the support beams are in a form in which the pair face in the longitudinal direction and are bent inward or outward at the stop portion.

More preferably, the support beam has a rhombus or circular shape when viewed in the longitudinal direction.

In addition, the solder plate is separately formed through the insulator, and the support beams are connected to each other, and the force line and the sense line are connected to the tip to the separated connected support beams.

In addition, the probe card is characterized by being manufactured using MEMS (MEMS).

As described above, according to the probe card for testing a semiconductor device of the present invention, a high-density arrangement is possible to cope with a fine pitch of a highly integrated semiconductor chip, and a tip and a shock absorbing motion of a support beam connected to the tip. It adjusts the probe force value between pads and prevents tip damage, resulting in stable contact. In addition, by using MEMS technology, impedance matching can be easily implemented, and the test line can be improved by connecting the force line and the sense line to the tip part.

Hereinafter, the operating principle of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intentions or customs of users or operators. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

2 is a front view of a semiconductor device test probe card according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a side view of a semiconductor device test probe card according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a front view of a semiconductor device test probe card according to a second embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a front view of a semiconductor device test probe card according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

According to the probe card 100 for testing a semiconductor device of the present invention, a tip fabricated using MEMS and contacting the pad 120 of the semiconductor device is perpendicular to the tip 114. Subsequently, the support beam 112 is fixed to the solder plate 110.

The support beam 112 may be formed in a lozenge and a circle as illustrated in FIGS. 2 to 5.

Here, a plurality of probe cards are formed at one time on a space transformer, which is a type of circuit board that is in contact with a printed circuit board using a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) process. Probe card formation by the MEMS process is performed by repeatedly forming a plurality of probes by repeating a photoresist process, an etching process, a metal deposition process, and a fine grinding process, whereby the horizontal and vertical positions and heights of the plurality of probes become uniform. There are advantages to it.

Therefore, after forming a support beam 112 of a predetermined length on the solder plate 110 for transmitting an electrical signal in a space transformer (not shown) by a method of providing a probe card by the MEMS process, the lower end of the support beam 112 The tip 114 is produced by growing to a predetermined shape and height.

In the probe card 100 manufactured as described above, the upper end of the support beam 112 is fixed to the solder plate 110 of the probe card 100, as in the first embodiment of FIGS. A tip 114 in contact with the chip pad 120 is integrally formed.

The support beam 112 is made of a pair facing each other to adjust the probe force (probe force) value and to mitigate the impact when the tip 114 and the pad 120 in contact, the pair is shown in FIG. Likewise, it is possible to correspond to the fine pitch facing in the vertical direction.

Furthermore, the pair of support beams 112 are bent in at least one portion inwardly or outwardly at their stops to form a lozenge as in the first and second embodiments of FIG. 2 and FIG. 5. As in the third embodiment of the present invention, a circular shape capable of absorbing an impact may be formed even if no one is bent as a whole.

Here, the support beams 112 should be appropriately selected in consideration of the contact pressure with the pads 120, deformation conditions, and the like in the number of bendings, lozenges or circles.

On the other hand, the solder plate 110 may be integrally formed, but is preferably formed separately, and a pair of support beams 112 are connected to each other, and the insulator 110a is interposed between the separated solder plates 110. It is separated by mediation.

Furthermore, a force line is connected to one of the separated solder plates 110 and the support beams 112 connected to the solder plates 110, respectively, and a sense line is connected to the other. Up to 114.

In addition, the lower end of the tip 114 is formed with a "V" groove, and the pad 120 is manufactured for ball pad probing. If a push occurs, a test fail occurs because an accurate contact does not occur, so it is preferable to use a vertical probe card.

The operation of the probe card for a semiconductor device test according to the present invention configured as described above is as follows.

According to the present invention, when the tip 114 receives a force with respect to the vertical movement of the pad 120, the force is transmitted to the support beam 112 and vibrated up and down through a bent or gentle circular part to apply the force. Distribution and resilience.

This force distribution and restoring force can be obtained from various structural features of the support beam 112. For example, when tip 114 contacts a contact object, tip 114 may be deformed in a direction perpendicular to the direction toward the contact object. One example of such a modification can be made in such a way that the interruption of the support beam 112 unfolds from the central axis during the overdrive contact process. More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 to 5, when the tip 114 contacts the pad 120, the force applied by the tip 114 to the pad 120 is the pad 120. As a result of the reaction applied by the tip 114 to the tip 114, the support beam 112 acts as a deformation force from the central axis. Then, when the tip 114 is separated from the pad 120, a restoring force is applied to the spread support beam 112 to return the tip 114 to the shape before contact. That is, according to the present invention, since the probe card 100 contacts the pad 120 by the pair of support beams 112, more stable contact is possible. In particular, since the deformation force acts in the opposite direction in the two support beams 112 constituting one probe card 100, the stress in the transverse direction (ie, the direction of the deformation force) applied to the probe card 100 is reduced. Can be.

In addition, a force line is connected to any one of the separated solder plate 110 and the support beam 112 connected to each of the solder plates 110, and a sense line is connected to the other. Extending to tip 114 may result in improved electrical test characteristics.

Therefore, the probe card of the present invention enables high-density arrangement to cope with the fine pitch of highly integrated semiconductor chips, adjusts the probe force value between the tip and the pad by shock absorption movement of the tip, and prevents damage to the tip. It can prevent and realize stable contact. In addition, by using MEMS technology, impedance matching can be easily implemented.

As described above, the probe card for testing a semiconductor device according to the present invention is just one preferred embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned claims. Without departing from the scope of the present invention to those of ordinary skill in the art to which a variety of modifications can be made to the spirit of the present invention.

1 shows a conventional cantilever probe card,

2 is a front view of a probe card for testing a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a side view of a probe card for testing a semiconductor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a front view of a probe card for testing a semiconductor device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a front view of a probe card for testing a semiconductor device according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

100: probe card 110: solder plate

112: support beam 114: tip

120: pad

Claims

A probe card for testing semiconductor devices,

A tip in contact with a pad of the semiconductor device;

Support beam vertically upwards from the tip and fixed to the solder plate of the probe card, and adjusts the probe force value when the tip and the pad contact, and can support the shock beam

Probe card for semiconductor device testing comprising a.

The method of claim 1,

The support beam,

A pair of probe cards for testing semiconductor elements facing each other.

The method according to claim 1 or 2,

The support beam,

Probe card for testing semiconductor devices with a pair facing each other in the longitudinal direction.

The method of claim 1,

The support beam,

A probe card for testing a semiconductor device, the shape of which is bent inward or outward at the stop.

The method of claim 1,

The support beam,

Probe card for testing semiconductor devices in the shape of a rhombus or circle when viewed in the longitudinal direction.

The method of claim 1,

The solder plate is separated by an insulator, and the support beams are connected to each other, and a force line and a sense line are connected to the tip to the tip of the support beam. Card.