TW201810478A - Substrate inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a substrate inspection device capable of preventing inconveniencing a user in relation to the development of a test program. A prober 10 that executes a wafer-level system-level test comprises a development environment 34 for a test program, the development environment including: a user interface unit 27 for a user to edit the test program; and a test program engine 28 that compiles, executes, and debugs the test program.

Description

Substrate inspection device

The present invention relates to a substrate inspection device that performs detection without cutting out a semiconductor element formed on a substrate from the substrate.

In recent years, in order to find defects and the like at an early stage in the manufacturing process of semiconductor elements, a semiconductor element that does not need to be formed on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "wafer") as a substrate has been developed from the crystal A pin tester is a substrate inspection device that cuts out and detects a circle.

A pin tester is equipped with a probe card, a platform, and an IC tester. Each probe of the probe card is brought into contact with electrode pads or solder bumps of a semiconductor element, and a signal from the semiconductor element is transmitted to the IC. The tester detects the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device. The probe card has a plurality of pin-shaped probes, and the platform is mounted on a wafer to move up, down, left, and right (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

The IC tester judges the electrical characteristics or function of the semiconductor device based on the transmitted signal. However, due to the circuit configuration of the IC tester, the packaged semiconductor device (hereinafter, simply referred to as "Package".) The circuit configuration, such as the motherboard or the function expansion card, is different. Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether the IC tester is installed. As a result, the electrical characteristics or functions are poor. As a result, in an IC tester, when a package is mounted on a motherboard, an undetected failure of a semiconductor element is found. In particular, in recent years, the complexity and speed of semiconductor devices have led to the increase in test patterns in IC testers and the delicate control of test timing. Therefore, the above-mentioned problems have become increasingly prominent.

Therefore, in order to highly guarantee the quality of the semiconductor device, a technique is proposed as follows: a detection circuit (a detection circuit that reproduces a circuit configuration in which a probe card is packaged, such as a circuit configuration of a motherboard) is provided instead of an IC test The device reproduces the state in which the package is mounted on a motherboard using this probe card (hereinafter referred to as the "mounting environment"), and does not detect the electric power of the semiconductor element by cutting out the semiconductor element from the wafer. Sexual characteristics (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In addition, the inspection of a semiconductor device under such an installation environment is referred to as a wafer-level system-level test.

However, in the wafer-level system-level test, although it is assumed that the types of packaging motherboards and the like are diversified, and the types of packages are also diversified, the detection content is different for each combination of the motherboard and the package. Therefore, it is necessary to edit a plurality of test programs describing a test flow corresponding to the detection content.

[Prior technical literature] [Patent Literature]

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-297242

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-84398

However, in general, the stylus testing machine does not have a development environment with a test program. Therefore, the user or the supplier must separately build a test controller-specific development environment for the user. In addition, when a user edits a test program in the test controller, it is necessary to describe the operation of each constituent element of the needle tester from the test program. In addition, although the development of various test programs commissioned by the supplier is also considered, in this case, problems related to cost or delivery time may occur. That is, in the pin tester that performs wafer-level system-level testing, there is a problem that the user's convenience related to the development of the test program is not good.

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate inspection device which can prevent inconvenience to a user related to developing a test program.

In order to achieve the above object, the substrate inspection device of the present invention performs inspection without cutting out a semiconductor element formed on the substrate from the substrate. The substrate inspection device is characterized by having a development environment and a description that can be developed. A test program for the test flow of the aforementioned semiconductor device detection content.

According to the present invention, since the substrate inspection device is provided with a development environment capable of developing test programs, it is not necessary to create a development environment unique to the user, that is, a test controller, and the user does not need to entrust each The development of the test program can prevent inconvenience to the user related to the development of the test program.

W‧‧‧ Wafer

10‧‧‧ Needle Measuring Machine

26‧‧‧Control Department

27‧‧‧User Interface Face

28‧‧‧test program engine

34‧‧‧Development Environment

45‧‧‧API

[FIG. 1] A perspective view for schematically explaining the structure of a needle tester as a substrate detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] A front view for schematically explaining the structure of the needle measuring machine of Fig. 1. [Fig.

[FIG. 3] A front view schematically showing the configuration of a probe card provided in the needle tester of FIG. 1. [FIG.

[Fig. 4] A block diagram showing the relationship between a conventional pin tester and a test controller.

[FIG. 5] A block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a needle tester as a substrate detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[FIG. 6] A block diagram for explaining the structure of the development environment in FIG. 5 in detail.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for schematically explaining the structure of a needle tester as a substrate detection device of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a front view. FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view, and shows constituent elements built into the main body 12, the loader 13, and the test box 14 described later.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the pin tester 10 includes a main body 12, a loader 13, and a test box 14 for detecting electrical characteristics of a semiconductor element formed on a wafer W. The platform 11 on which the wafer W is placed, the loader 13 is arranged adjacent to the main body 12, and the test box 14 is arranged so as to cover the main body 12. The body 12 has a hollow shell shape inside. In addition to the above-mentioned platform 11, the body 12 is provided with a probe card 15, a probe card 15, and a crystal. Circle W is opposite. The probe card 15 includes: a plate-shaped card board 16; and a probe head 17 arranged on the card board 16 below the wafer W facing the wafer W. As shown in FIG. 3, the probe head 17 is a plurality of needle-like probes 18 having electrode pads or solder bumps corresponding to semiconductor elements of the wafer W.

The wafer W is fixed to the platform 11 in such a manner that the relative position with respect to the platform 11 does not shift. The platform 11 can be moved horizontally and vertically to adjust the probe card 15 and the wafer. The relative position of W causes the electrode pads or solder bumps of the semiconductor element to contact each of the probes 18 of the probe head 17. The loader 13 removes the wafer W formed with semiconductor elements from a FOUP (not shown), which is a transfer container, and places it on the platform 11 inside the main body 12. The loader 13 is removed from the platform 11 and subjected to wafer-level system-level testing. The wafer W is contained in the FOUP.

The card board 16 of the probe card 15 is formed with a packaged circuit structure on which a semiconductor element which is a finished product cut out from the wafer W is mounted. For example, a card-side detection circuit 19 that reproduces a part of the circuit structure of the motherboard is formed. Refer to FIG. 3), the card-side detection circuit 19 is connected to the probe head 17. When each probe 18 of the probe head 17 is in contact with an electrode pad or a solder bump of a semiconductor element of the wafer W, each probe 18 supplies power to a power source of the semiconductor element or to a card-side detection circuit 19 It conveys signals from semiconductor components.

The test box 14 includes a wiring harness 20, a detection control unit or a recording unit (none of which is shown), and a test board 22, which is a box-side detection circuit 21 that reproduces a part of the circuit configuration of the motherboard. The wire harness 20 is connected to the test board 22 of the test box 14 and the card board 16 of the probe card 15, and transmits a signal from the card-side detection circuit 19 to the box-side detection circuit 21. In the pin tester 10, a part of the circuit configuration of a plurality of mother boards can be reproduced by replacing the probe card 15 having the card-side detection circuit 19 or the test board 22 included in the test box 14.

The loader 13 is a built-in base unit 23 including a power supply, a controller, or a simple measurement module. The base unit 23 is connected to the box-side detection circuit 21 through a wiring 24, and the controller instructs to start the detection of the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor element on the box-side detection circuit 21. In the pin tester 10, as described above, the card-side detection circuit 19 formed on the card board 16 and the box-side detection circuit 21 formed on the test board 22 respectively reproduce a part of the circuit configuration of the motherboard, but the base unit 23, it reproduces the circuit configuration commonly used for various motherboards. Therefore, the card board 16, the test board 22, and the base unit 23 operate together to reproduce the entire motherboard on which the package is mounted. In other words, card board 16, test The board 22 and the base unit 23 reproduce the environment in which the package is mounted on the motherboard, that is, the installation environment, whereby the pin tester 10 can perform wafer-level system-level testing.

In the pin tester 10, when the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor element are detected, for example, the detection control unit of the box-side detection circuit 21 sends data to the card-side detection circuit 19, and further, The electric signal determines whether the transmitted data has been correctly processed by the card-side detection circuit 19 connected to the semiconductor element. In the pin tester 10, although the test board 22 of the test box 14 and the card board 16 of the probe card 15 are connected by a wire harness 20, the bottom surface of the test box 14 is provided with a size corresponding to the card board 16. And the test board 22 faces the card board 16. Thereby, the test board 22 and the card board 16 can be arranged close to each other, so that the wiring harness 20 can be shortened as much as possible. As a result, in the wafer-level system-level test, it is possible to suppress the influence of the length of the harness 20 such as the change in wiring capacitance as much as possible, so that it can be operated very close to a computer that is a real machine with a function expansion card or motherboard Environmental installation environment, wafer-level system-level testing.

The needle measuring machine 10 includes a control unit 26 that controls the operations of the constituent elements of the needle measuring machine 10, and a user interface portion 27 (editing unit). The control unit 26 is constituted by a memory, a CPU, or the like, and constitutes a test program engine 28 described later for executing various programs. The user interface portion 27 is composed of a display panel such as a touch panel or a keyboard. The user inputs various information or instructions in the interface portion 27.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the relationship between a conventional pin tester and a test controller. In addition, the conventional needle tester 29 has a built-in test site 31 in which, for example, a test board 30 and a probe card (not shown) are arranged. In the figure, the pin tester 29 and the test site 31 are separately depicted for convenience of explanation.

In FIG. 4, the pin tester 29 is connected to the test controller 32. The user edits a test program in the test controller 32 describing the test flow corresponding to the detection content of the semiconductor element. The pin tester 29 executes each semiconductor element formed on the wafer W in accordance with the edited test program. Detection. The test board 30 is directly connected to the test controller 32, and the test controller 32 directly controls the test board 30.

However, in general, it is not necessary to prepare the test controller 32 in advance, and a user or a supplier of the pin tester 29 must use software or hardware to construct the test controller 32. That is, since the test controller 32 is newly created in response to the user, it is unique to the user, and the test controller 32 does not need to provide a function required for detecting the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor element in advance. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to describe the operations of the constituent elements of the needle tester 29 for realizing the function from the beginning in the test program. That is, in the conventional needle testing machine, the construction of the test controller 32 or the editing of the test program requires labor and time of the user, thereby causing inconvenience to the user. This embodiment corresponds to this, and the stylus testing machine 29 is provided with the development environment of a test program.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a needle tester as a substrate detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In addition, although the pin tester 10 has a built-in test site 33 including, for example, a test board 22 and a probe card 15, in FIG. 5, the pin tester 10 and the test site are separately depicted for convenience of explanation. 33.

In FIG. 5, the needle tester 10 includes a user interface portion 27 and a test program engine 28. In the user interface portion 27, the user uses a touch panel or a keyboard to edit a test program. The user interface section 27 is provided with, for example, a C programming environment or an integrated development environment, an ECLIPSE compiler (manufactured by IBM), and the user uses these environments to edit a test program. The user interface section 27 displays the progress of the detection or the result of debugging on a touch panel or the like. The test program engine 28 executes a test program edited in the user interface portion 27 and controls the operations of the constituent elements of the pin tester 10 to perform the detection of each semiconductor element formed on the wafer W. The test program engine 28 compiles the test program when the test program is executed. The test program engine 28 is provided with a debugging function described later. That is, since the user can edit, compile, execute, and debug the test program (in other words, develop) by using the user interface 27 and the test program engine 28, the user interface 27 And the test program engine 28 is a development environment 34 constituting a test program.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of the development environment in FIG. 5 in detail.

In FIG. 6, the test program engine 28 is an application program that provides various functions required to realize the detection of a semiconductor device. Specifically, it provides a test execution time management application 35, an operation GUI (Graphic User Interface) application 36, a debugging GUI application 37, a diagnostic application 38, an alarm application 39, and a MES (Manufacturing Execution System) control. App 40, pin Tester control application 41, data recording application 42, test field command application 43 and module control application 44 and the like. These applications are implemented by loading a program corresponding to each application into the test program engine 28. In addition, the operation GUI application program 36 and the debug GUI application program 37 may be integrated.

In the test program engine 28, the functions realized by the application programs 35 to 44 described above correspond to, for example, a pin tester control function, a test sequence control function, or a result storage function.

The control function of the stylus testing machine is to perform the detection by executing the test program and the probe operation in the stylus testing machine 10 (contact action of the semiconductor element to the electrode pad or solder bump caused by each probe 18). )Synchronize. The test sequence control function is to select the test program, execute or stop the test program, and control the test program flow. In the selection of the test program, an appropriate test program is selected from a plurality of test programs according to the type of the semiconductor device or the purpose of debugging. In the execution or stop of the test program, the execution sequence or the stop sequence of the test program is arbitrarily determined. In the test program flow control, each test part constituting the test program is selected to be executed or not executed according to the conditions when the test program is executed. In addition, the test part is a small implementation item in the test. The result storage function is to save the test result indicated by "PASS" or "FAIL" and the type of test result indicated by "BIN / CAT".

The test program engine 28 provides the PIN mapping function, multiple DUT (Device Under Test) mapping function, execution time recording function, and data recording device through each of the application programs 35 to 44 described above. can.

The PIN mapping function is the allocation of the test resources of each probe 18 during the detection of the semiconductor element, that is, the decision of each probe 18 used in accordance with the content of the test. The multi-DUT mapping function determines the position of a semiconductor element to be detected among a plurality of semiconductor elements formed on the wafer W. The execution time recording function records and manages the execution time of the detection of the semiconductor device. The data recording function is to collect and output the data log during the inspection of the semiconductor device.

In addition, in the test program engine 28, the debugging functions, GUI functions, diagnostic functions, alarm detection functions, or module control functions of the test programs are provided by the aforementioned application programs 35 to 44. Although the debugging function is used to debug the test program, the development environment 34 can also be provided with, for example, a debug console. In this case, the user can perform debug print while debugging the test program. In addition, the debugging function can also be provided in other devices remotely connected to the stylus testing machine 10. The GUI function accepts manual operations caused by the user. The diagnostic function is to check the internal wiring of the pin tester 10 and the like. The alarm detection function monitors each component of the pin tester 10, such as the presence or absence of an abnormality in a fan or a power supply. In addition, the user can arbitrarily add monitoring targets. The module control function is used in the test program. DIO (Data Input Output) module, relay module or access module can be used.

In the development environment 34, an API (Application Program) is provided between the user interface 27 and the test program engine 28. Interface) 45, API 45, are provided to the user interface 27 in a manner that the above-mentioned various functions can be utilized in the test program.

According to this embodiment, since the stylus testing machine 10 is provided with a development environment 34 for a test program, it is not necessary to create a development environment for a test program unique to the user, that is, a test controller, and the user does not need to commission the supplier The development of each test program can prevent inconvenience to the user related to the development of the test program.

Also, in the development environment 34, the test program engine 28 is an application program that provides various functions required for the detection of semiconductor components, and is interposed between the user interface 27 and the test program engine 28. API45 is provided to the user interface 27 in such a way that the above-mentioned various functions can be used in the test program. Therefore, in the test program, various functions can be used by only describing the use of various functions. That is, in order to realize various functions, the user must describe the operation of each constituent element of the needle tester from the beginning in the test program. As a result, the description of the test program can be simplified, and the user can easily edit the test program.

Moreover, in the development environment 34, each application is implemented by loading a program corresponding to the application into the test program engine 28, and therefore, it is not necessary to prepare unique hardware for implementing each application, thereby It is possible to prevent unnecessary costs from occurring in the stylus measuring machine 10 or complicate the structure.

In addition, since the aforementioned test program is compiled in the development environment 34, the test program can be compiled without moving the test program to another device when the test program is executed. And, because in the development environment 34 Because the aforementioned test program is debugged, the test program 10 can immediately correct the test program error. This can further improve the development efficiency of the test program.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using the said embodiment, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment.

Moreover, although the card-side detection circuit 19 or the box-side detection circuit 21 reproduces a part of the circuit configuration of the motherboard, the circuit configuration reproduced by the card-side detection circuit 19 or the box-side detection circuit 21 is not limited to the mother Circuit structure of the board. That is, the circuit configuration reproduced by the card-side detection circuit or the box-side detection circuit 21 may be a circuit configuration in which a semiconductor element is mounted. Also, the semiconductor element is not particularly limited in its structure. For example, when the circuit structure reproduced by the card-side detection circuit 19 is the circuit structure of an expansion card, the semiconductor element may be an MPU (Main Processing Unit); In the case where the circuit configuration reproduced by the side detection circuit 19 or the box side detection circuit 21 is the circuit configuration of the motherboard as described above, the semiconductor element may be a DRAM, an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). ); In the case where the circuit configuration reproduced by the card-side detection circuit 19 or the box-side detection circuit 21 is the circuit configuration of a television, the semiconductor element may also be an RF tuner.

In addition, the object of the present invention is also to supply the storage medium in which the code of the software for realizing the function of the embodiment described above is supplied to the control unit 26, and the CPU of the control unit 26 reads and executes the stored in Achieved by memorizing the code of the media.

In this case, the codebook read from the storage medium Realizing the functions of the above embodiment, the code and a storage medium storing the code constitute the present invention.

In addition, as the storage medium for supplying the program code, the storage medium may be, for example, RAM, NV-RAM, floppy disk (registered trademark), hard disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD ( DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD + RW) and other optical discs, magnetic tapes, non-volatile memory cards, and other ROMs can store the above code. Alternatively, the above-mentioned code may be supplied to the control unit 26 by downloading it from another computer or a database (not shown) connected to the Internet, a commercial network, or a local area network.

In addition, by executing the code read by the controller, not only the functions of the embodiment described above are implemented, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the CPU and the like are actually processed based on the instructions of the code. Part or all of the functions of the above-mentioned embodiment are realized by this process.

In addition, it may also include the following cases: After the program code read from the storage medium is written to the memory included in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit connected to the control unit 26, It instructs the functional expansion card or the CPU included in the functional expansion unit to perform part or all of the actual processing, and realizes the functions of the above-mentioned embodiment by the processing.

The form of the above-mentioned code can also be constituted by forms of object code, code executed by an interpreter, and script data supplied to the OS.

10‧‧‧ Needle Measuring Machine

22‧‧‧test board

27‧‧‧User Interface Face

28‧‧‧test program engine

33‧‧‧test site

34‧‧‧Development Environment

W‧‧‧ Wafer

Claims (7)

A substrate testing device is used for testing without cutting out a semiconductor element formed on a substrate from the substrate. The substrate testing device is characterized by having a development environment capable of developing and describing the contents of detection corresponding to the aforementioned semiconductor element. Test procedures for the test process. For example, the substrate inspection device of the first patent application scope, wherein the aforementioned development environment has a program engine capable of executing the aforementioned test program. For example, the substrate inspection device of the second scope of the patent application, in which the aforementioned program engine provides various functions required for the inspection of the aforementioned semiconductor element. For example, the substrate inspection device of the third scope of the application for a patent, wherein the aforementioned various functions are realized by introducing a program corresponding to the aforementioned various functions into the aforementioned program engine. For example, for the substrate inspection device with the scope of patent application No. 3 or 4, the aforementioned development environment has an editing department that can edit the aforementioned test program. In the aforementioned test program, the API (Application Program Interface) is used to utilize the various function. For example, the substrate inspection device of the third or fourth application scope of the patent application, wherein, in the aforementioned development environment, the aforementioned test program is compiled. For example, in the substrate inspection device for which the scope of the patent application is 3 or 4, in the aforementioned development environment, the aforementioned test program is debugged.