KR20140034414A - Device inspection apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for testing elements and, more specifically, to a device for testing elements capable of testing elements and classifying the elements according to the test result. The device for testing elements, disclosed in the present invention, includes: a test unit which tests elements; an element exchange unit which includes one more trays on which elements to be tested are loaded and one or more trays on which test-completed elements are loaded; a shuttle unit which includes a shuttle plate installed to be movable between around the element exchange unit and a loading unit of the test unit; one or more element pickup units which exchange elements between the element exchange unit and the shuttle plate; and an element pressurization unit which is installed on top of the test unit and, when the shuttle plate is placed on top of the test unit, picks up elements loaded on the shuttle plate or loads the picked-up elements to the shuttle plate.

Description

Device inspection apparatus

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an element inspection apparatus, and more particularly to an element inspection apparatus for inspecting an element and classifying the element according to the inspection result.

2. Description of the Related Art Semiconductor devices (hereinafter referred to as "devices") are subjected to various tests such as electrical characteristics, reliability tests for heat and pressure, and the like by a device testing apparatus, which is one of the device handlers, through various processes such as a semiconductor process and a packaging process.

On the other hand, as competition intensifies in the market, cost reduction is urgently required. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the productivity by increasing the processing speed per unit time.

In particular, unlike a memory device manufactured in large quantities, a device inspection apparatus suitable for inspection of an LSI device such as a system LSI having a relatively small production quantity and a wide variety of types is needed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for inspecting an LSI device, such as a system LSI having a relatively small production quantity and a wide variety of types, by recognizing the necessity as described above.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an element inspecting apparatus and an element inspecting method capable of remarkably increasing an inspecting speed for a device having a relatively long inspecting time.

The present invention has been made in order to achieve the above-mentioned object of the present invention. An element exchange portion in which one or more trays on which the devices to be tested are loaded and one or more trays on which tested devices are mounted are arranged; A shuttle plate including a shuttle plate installed to reciprocate between the vicinity of the element exchange portion and a portion directly above the test portion; At least one element pickup portion for performing element exchange between the element exchange portion and the shuttle plate; And a device pressing unit installed on the test unit to pick up the devices mounted on the shuttle plate when the shuttle plate is positioned above the test unit or to load the picked up devices on the shuttle plate. Device.

An apparatus for inspecting an element according to the present invention includes a device exchange unit for performing loading and unloading of a device, a test unit for inspecting the device, and a shuttle plate for reciprocating between the device exchange unit and the test unit to transfer the device There is an advantage that the LSI device such as a system LSI having a relatively small production quantity and a wide variety of types can be efficiently tested.

Further, in consideration of the fact that device replacement between the device exchange unit and the shuttle plate is performed faster than the device inspection speed in the test unit, the device testing apparatus according to the present invention is configured such that the configuration of the test unit, It is possible to inspect a larger number of elements of the test section, thereby remarkably increasing the device inspection speed.

Further, the device testing apparatus according to the present invention is capable of inspecting more devices for the same planar space occupied by the device by vertically arranging the configuration of a test section for performing a test on the device, thereby remarkably increasing the space utilization efficiency of the device There is an advantage to be able to.

The device testing apparatus includes a test unit, a shuttle unit installed at an upper side of the test unit to transmit a pressed unit and a device to be tested to a test unit, and a device for transferring tested devices to a tray, The loading and unloading of the device, the inspection of the device can be performed more smoothly and the size of the device can be optimized by combining the test zone including the pressing portion and the shuttle portion in an appropriate number.

1 is a plan view showing an apparatus for inspecting an element according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a front view showing the device testing apparatus of Fig. 1;
3 is a plan view showing the shuttle plate of the shuttle unit in the device testing apparatus of FIG.
4A to 4D are side cross-sectional views illustrating the operation of the test unit, the pressing unit, and the shuttle unit in the device testing apparatus of FIG.
5 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the shuttle portion in the device testing apparatus of FIG.
6 is a plan view showing another example of the device testing apparatus according to the present invention.
7 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of an element inspection unit in the element inspection apparatus of FIG.
8 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a device exchange unit of the device testing apparatus of FIG.

Hereinafter, a device testing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a plan view showing a device testing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the device testing apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a shuttle plate of a shuttle in the device testing apparatus of FIG. 1, And FIG. 4D is a side sectional view showing an operation process of the test unit, the pressing unit and the shuttle unit in the device testing apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing another example of the shuttle unit in the device testing apparatus of FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a device testing apparatus according to the present invention includes a testing unit 300 for testing devices 20; (100) in which one or more trays (30) loaded with devices (20) to be tested and one or more trays (30) loaded with tested devices (20) are disposed; A shuttle part (200) including a shuttle plate (210) installed to be reciprocable between the vicinity of the element exchange part (100) and the upper part of the test part (300); At least one element pickup part (410) for performing element exchange between the element exchange part (100) and the shuttle part (200); When the shuttle plate 210 is positioned on the upper side of the test unit 300, the devices 20 mounted on the shuttle plate 210 are picked up or the picked-up devices 20 are mounted on the shuttle plate 210, And the element to be loaded on the substrate 210 includes the pressing portion 500.

The element exchange unit 100 is configured such that one or more trays 30 on which elements 20 to be tested are loaded and one or more trays 30 on which tested elements 20 are loaded are arranged, As shown in FIG. 1, a loading unit 110 (L1, L2, L3 in FIGS. 6 to 8) in which trays 30 on which devices 20 to be tested are loaded are arranged; U1, U1, U2, U3, R in the case of FIGS. 6 to 8) where the trays 30 to which the tested devices 20 are to be placed are arranged.

The loading unit 110 may have various configurations, and preferably two or more trays 30 may be disposed as the configuration in which the trays 30 on which the devices 20 to be tested are mounted are arranged.

In addition, the loading unit 110 may be provided with trays 30 on which two or more trays 30 are placed, on which the devices 20 of different sizes and product types are placed, But the objects to be inspected may be different depending on the respective trays 30.

The unloading unit 120 can be configured in various ways as the configuration in which the trays 30 to which the tested devices 20 are to be placed are arranged and each tray 30 is given a classification standard of Bad 1 and Bad 2 .

The devices 20 are loaded on the tray 30 of the device unloading unit 120 according to the inspection result of the test unit 300.

The device testing apparatus includes a tray loading unit 130 (131, 132, 133) on which the tray 30 to be transferred to the loading unit 110, that is, the tray 30 on which the devices 20 to be tested are loaded, Wow; A tray loading section 140 (141, 142, 143, 144) on which the tray 30 to be delivered to the unloading section 120, that is, the trays 30 to which the tested devices 20 are to be loaded, is loaded; (Not shown in FIG. 1, see FIG. 8) for transferring the tray 30 between the tray loading section 130, the trail loading section 140 and the element exchange section 100 have.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 8, the tray transfer unit may be configured to transfer only one tray 30, or to transfer two or more trays 30 at a time.

The tray 30 in which the elements 20 are emptied from the loading unit 110 can be transported to the unloading unit 120 by the tray transport unit and can be transported to the tray 30 before being transported to the unloading unit 120. [ (Not shown) so as to remove the device 20 that has not been drawn out.

The tray loading unit 130 may have a variety of configurations including a plurality of trays 30 loaded with devices 20 to be tested.

The tray loading unit 140 may have various configurations as a configuration in which a plurality of trays 30 on which the devices 20 tested by the unloading unit 120 are mounted are stacked.

Here, the tray loading unit 130 and the tray loading unit 140 may be configured in the form of a cassette on which the trays 30 are loaded, and the cassette may be configured to perform various functions such as device loading, device inspection and device unloading speed, , The type of test and the number of tests.

The tray transfer unit is configured to transfer the tray 30 between the tray loading unit 130, the trailer loading unit 140, and the device exchange unit 100. The tray transfer unit may have a variety of configurations, .

Further, a tray buffer unit (not shown) may be additionally installed between the loading unit 110 and the unloading unit 120 to temporarily hold the empty tray 30.

Also, the device testing apparatus may further include a blank tray loading unit (not shown) on which blank trays 30 on which the devices 20 are not loaded are stacked.

Meanwhile, the tray 30 may have a variety of configurations such as receiving grooves formed according to a certain standard such as 8 × 16 so that a plurality of devices 20 can be stacked.

The device 20 to be inspected may be a non-memory semiconductor such as a memory semiconductor or a system LSI. Particularly, it is preferable that the object to be inspected be a system LSI, particularly a device in which ball-shaped contact terminals are formed on the bottom surface.

The shuttle unit 200 includes a shuttle plate 210 installed to be reciprocatable between the element exchange unit 100 and the upper portion of the test unit 300, and may have various configurations.

The shuttle unit 200 includes a guide rail (not shown) for guiding the movement of the shuttle plate 210 so that the shuttle plate 210 can reciprocate between the element exchange unit 100 and the upper portion of the test unit 300, And a driving unit for driving the shuttle plate 210 to move along the guide rails.

The shuttle plate 210 is configured to reciprocate between the element exchange portion 100 and the test portion 300 to exchange elements between the element exchange portion 100 and the test portion 300 and may have various configurations .

The shuttle plate 210 may be arranged in the X and Y axis directions in which the element mounting positions 211 on which the elements are mounted may be arranged in the X and Y axis directions. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2A, The positions 211 are arranged in m x 2n and the hot spacing (Y axis spacing) formed by the element stacking positions 211 can be made to be 1/2 of the hot spacing formed by the test socket 310 described later Where m and n are natural numbers greater than or equal to 2).

At this time, the elements 20 mounted on the shuttle plate 210 can be seated in the m × n array while skipping the element row in the element stacking position 211.

As another example of the shuttle unit 200, as shown in FIG. 5, shuttle plates 210 are installed in pairs so as to prevent the movement of the shuttle units 200 from being shifted from each other; One or more guide members 221 for guiding the linear movement of each of the shuttle plates 210 and a linear drive device 222 for driving the linear movement of the shuttle plates 210.

At this time, the element mounting position 211 in which the element 20 is mounted on the shuttle plate 214 in correspondence with the test socket 310 of the test part 300 may be arranged in m × n.

3, the shuttle unit 200 preferably includes at least one of an X-axis direction and a Y-axis direction, preferably a link member 230 or the like, As shown in FIG.

In addition, the shuttle 200 may be installed so that the plate member 214 can be replaced so as to correspond to the type of the device 20 to which the plate member 214 is to be mounted.

The test unit 300 has a plurality of test sockets 310 for inspecting the electrical characteristics of the devices 20 at room temperature, in which the devices 20 are mounted, And mounted on the body in an assembled manner. Here, the test time of the test unit 300 may vary depending on the contents of the test, and it is generally about 25 seconds or longer, which is relatively longer than that of the memory device.

Meanwhile, the test unit 300 may be configured such that only the test socket 310 is replaced or the whole test socket 310 is replaced according to the type of the device 20 and the contents of the test.

The test unit 300 includes a plurality of test sockets 310 to which the devices 20 can be mounted. The test unit 300 may be configured to test the electrical characteristics of the device 20, .

Meanwhile, the testing unit 300, the device pressing unit 500 and the shuttle unit 600 form one test zone 611, 612, 613 and 614, and the test zones 611, 612, 613 and 614 As shown in Fig. 1, may be provided in plurality, for example, four.

In addition, some of the plurality of test units 300 may be configured to be able to test the other types of devices 20.

That is, some of the plurality of test units 300 may be configured to perform an inspection for a first type of device 20 and others for an inspection of a second type of device 20. It is needless to say that inspection of three or more kinds of devices 20 is possible.

Some of the plurality of test units 300 may be configured to perform a first test for the device 20 and a second test for devices other than the first test. Of course, three or more types of tests are possible here.

The element pressing portion 500 is installed on the test portion 300 to pick up the elements 20 loaded on the shuttle plate 210 when the shuttle plate 210 is positioned on the upper side of the test portion 300, Various configurations are possible as a configuration for mounting the elements 20 on the shuttle plate 210. [

4A, the element pressing portion 500 includes a plurality of pick-up tools 510 installed at positions corresponding to the test socket 310 of the test portion 300, and the pick-up tool 510 Any configuration is possible as long as it can pick up the elements 20 by using the vacuum pressure as a configuration for picking up the elements 20 by forming a vacuum pressure on the adsorption head.

The element pressing portion 500 is installed so as to be movable up and down so as to be able to load or unload the element in the test socket 310 of the test portion 300 and the element mounting position of the shuttle plate 210, (Not shown) for driving the upper and lower electrodes 510 and 510 in the up and down direction.

The element pressing portion 500 is configured such that the element 20 is pressed by an appropriate force so that inspection can be smoothly performed in the test socket 310 of the testing portion 300.

The element pressing portion 500 includes a moving member on which a pickup portion provided with a plurality of pick-up tools 510 for picking up elements on its bottom is detachably mounted, a support portion for movably supporting the moving element, And a vertically moving upper and lower movable portion.

The pick-up unit is connected directly to a pneumatic conveying line for transmitting air pressure to each of the pick-up tools 510 or to a pneumatic conveying line for transmitting pneumatic pressure to the pick-up tools 510 to the moving member, The pneumatic pressures may be transmitted to the pick-up tools 510.

Particularly, when the element 500 can replace the pick-up portion provided with the pick-up tools 510, it is possible to easily change the size of the element 20 to be inspected, that is, the size, There is an advantage in that it is possible to change the pickup portion in which the pickup tool 510 is installed in the element pressing portion 500. [

When a plurality of the test zones 611, 612, 613, and 614 are installed as described above, when inspecting the relatively long devices 20 having an inspection time of about 25 seconds or more like the system LSI, The number of test zones 611, 612, 613, and 614 may be appropriately selected in consideration of the inspection time and the loading and unloading of the devices 20.

Therefore, the device testing apparatus according to the present invention can more smoothly perform loading and unloading of the device 20 and inspection of the device 20 by combining the test zones 611, 612, 613, and 614 in an appropriate number, Can be optimized.

On the other hand, the element pickup unit 410 is configured to perform element exchange between the element exchange unit 100 and the shuttle unit 200, and various configurations are possible.

The element pickup section 410 includes pickup tools (not shown) for picking up a plurality of elements 20, and the pick-up tool is configured for picking up the elements 20 by forming vacuum pressure on the pick- Any configuration is possible as long as it can pick up the elements 20 by using air pressure.

The pick-up tools may be arranged in various forms, and may be arranged in 2x8, 4x8, etc. corresponding to the positions of the elements 20 mounted on the tray 30. [

Since the element position of the element exchange part 100 and the element loading position 211 of the shuttle plate 210 may be different from each other, The interval between the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction can be varied.

Meanwhile, the element pickup unit 410 must move the pick-up tools over the plurality of loading units 110, the plurality of unloading units 120 and the plurality of test zones 611, 612, 613 and 614, And Y-axis direction, and may include an XY linear driving device 420 that linearly drives the pickup tools in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 .

The X-Y linear driving apparatus 420 may have any configuration as long as it can linearly drive a plurality of pickup tools in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction.

Operation of the device testing apparatus having the above configuration will be described in detail as follows.

The trays 30 on which the devices 20 to be tested are mounted are placed in the loading unit 110 of the element exchange unit 100. [

Here, the tray 30 is supplied from the tray loading portion by the tray transfer portion.

At this time, a plurality of trays 30 may be placed in the loading unit 110, and the same kind of devices 30 may be loaded in each tray 30. [ In addition, each of the trays 30 may be loaded with elements 30 having different kinds.

The element pickup part 410 picks up the elements 20 from the tray 30 located in the element exchange part 100 and transfers the element 20 from the shuttle plate 210 of the shuttle part 200 to the empty position . At this time, the tested devices 10 are loaded on the shuttle plate 210 of the shuttle unit 200. The device pickup unit 410 picks up the tested devices 10, (100).

The element exchange unit 110 picking up the tested elements 20 loads the elements 20 in the tray 30 of the unloading unit 120 according to the inspection result.

1 and 4A, the shuttle plate 210 exemplifies a case where the device mounting positions 211 on which the devices 20 are mounted are arranged in m × 2n, The devices 20 are seated in an mxn array while skipping a row in the element mounting position 211. [

When the loading of the devices 20 into the shuttle plate 210 is completed, the upper portion of the test unit 300 is moved as shown in FIG. 4A. At this time, the element pressing portion 500 holds the tested elements 20 picked up from the test sockets 310 of the testing portion 300.

The empty element mounting position 211 in which the element 20 is not loaded among the element mounting positions 211 of the shuttle plate 210 moves to the upper portion of the test portion 300, When the pressing portion 500 is positioned at a position corresponding to the pick-up tool 510, the pressing portion 500 descends to seat the tested elements 20 in the empty element mounting positions 211, Move.

That is, when the shuttle plate 210 is positioned on the upper side of the test unit 300, the tested device 20 is placed in the empty space of the device loading position 211 of the shuttle plate 210, The shuttle plate 210 picks up the device 20 to be tested which is seated in the device loading position 211 of the test unit 300 and moves downward after the shuttle plate 210 is removed from the test unit 300, To allow the test section 300 to test the elements 20.

4B, after the element 500 is moved upward, the shuttle plate 210 is moved in a direction in which the element 500 is to be pulled up to be able to pick up the elements 20 to be tested, The pressing section 500 moves the elements 20 to be tested so that the element can be positioned at a position corresponding to the pick-up tool 510 of the pressing section 500. [

When the movement of the shuttle plate 210 is completed, the pressing portion 500 picks up the devices 20 to be tested and moves upward. As shown in FIG. 4C, the shuttle plate 210 And moves to the position where the element exchange portion 100 and the element 20 can be exchanged again.

Meanwhile, the element mounting position 211 in the shuttle plate 210 is moved between the element exchanging part 100 and the test part 300, and the interval is adjusted in the X axis direction, so that the element pickup part 410 and the element are pressed 500 are easily picked up and placed.

Meanwhile, the element pressing portion 500 descends again after completion of the movement of the shuttle plate 210, and inserts the picked-up elements 20 into the test socket 310 of the test portion 300.

As shown in FIG. 4D, the test unit 300 performs a predetermined test on each of the devices 20 in a state of being inserted into the test socket 310. FIG. At this time, the element pressing portion 500 can be kept pressed under a predetermined pressure so that the element 20 can be kept inserted into the test socket 310.

5, when the shuttle plates 210 are installed in pairs so that the shuttle plates 210 do not interfere with each other, any one of the pair of shuttle plates 210 may be pressed The device 20 can be transferred from the device 500 to the device exchanging unit 100 and the other device 20 can be transferred from the device exchanging unit to the pressing unit 500.

At this time, any one of the pair of shuttle plates 210 moves to the upper side of the test unit 300 in an empty state, and the device receives the devices 20 from the pressing unit 500 and moves toward the device exchanging unit 100 And the other one is transferred from the device exchange unit 100 to the device to be tested and then moved to the upper side of the test unit 300 to transfer the devices to the pressure unit 500, After the shuttle plate 210 is removed from the test unit 300 after the device to be tested is picked up, the pushing unit 500 descends and connects to the test socket 310 of the test unit 300, ) To test the devices 20.

As described above, the test unit 300 is configured to inspect the electrical characteristics of the devices 20 at room temperature. The test time of the test unit 300 may vary depending on the content of the test, The time is longer than the time required for element exchange between the element exchange portion 100 and the shuttle plate 210.

Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the device inspection time by the test unit 300, which is determined by the device inspection speed by the test unit 300, at the processing speed of the device testing apparatus.

Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the test apparatus 300 and the element pressing unit 500 may be constructed as follows.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the test unit 300 and the device pressing unit 500 are stacked in pairs and vertically stacked in multiple layers, for example, two or more layers (an upper test module and a lower test module) Can be installed.

At this time, the paired testing unit 300 and the pressing unit 500 are preferably installed so as to be vertically movable so as to receive the device 20 from the shuttle plate 210.

That is, the test unit 300 is installed in the upper and lower layers, and the device 500 is installed on each of the test units 300 in the multi-layered structure. Thus, the shuttle plate 210 and the devices 20 and the inspected device 20 are exchanged and the device is inspected by pressing of the device 20 by the pressing portion 500 after the device is exchanged.

More specifically, it is necessary to perform device exchange in the other one of the upper test module and the lower test module installed in a multi-layer structure while the device is being inspected. The upper test module and the lower test module exchange devices with the shuttle plate 210 And is moved up and down to a position corresponding to the shuttle plate 210. [

On the other hand, when the test unit 300 and the element pressing unit 500 are formed as a pair and stacked vertically, there is a limit in that the installation of the test module including the test socket is installed from the lower side to the upper side , As shown in Fig. 7, can be installed in a slide manner from the side.

As described above, when the test module is installed side by side in a slide manner, it is more convenient that the test unit 300 and the element pressing unit 500 are stacked in a double layer structure.

On the other hand, in the case where the test unit 300 and the element pressing unit 500 are stacked in a double layer structure, a larger number of elements can be inspected on the same plane. Therefore, The device inspection speed can be remarkably increased and the space efficiency of the device can be optimized.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the technical idea and the technical spirit of the invention are included in the scope of the present invention.

100: element exchange portion 200: shuttle portion
300:
410: Element pickup section
500:

Claims (1)

A test section for testing the elements; An element exchange portion in which one or more trays on which the devices to be tested are loaded and one or more trays on which tested devices are mounted are arranged; A shuttle plate including a shuttle plate installed to reciprocate between the vicinity of the element exchange portion and a portion directly above the test portion; At least one element pickup portion for performing element exchange between the element exchange portion and the shuttle plate; And a device pressing unit installed on the test unit to pick up the devices mounted on the shuttle plate when the shuttle plate is positioned above the test unit or to load the picked up devices on the shuttle plate. Device.

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