JP2648367B2 - Inspection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus capable of rotating a test head.

(Prior Art) For example, in a semiconductor wafer inspection device, a probe device contacts a probe needle or the like to an electrode pad of each chip on a semiconductor wafer, and a tester applies a measurement pattern to each chip via the probe needle. And an output pattern from each chip is monitored by a tester, thereby inspecting the electrical characteristics of each chip on the semiconductor wafer.

In recent years, particularly when performing high-frequency measurement, if the input / output cable from the semiconductor wafer to the tester is long, accurate inspection cannot be performed due to superimposition of noise. It is desired to adopt a configuration in which the head is connected and retracted during non-inspection to ensure use of the microscope on the probe device.

In order to most easily execute such a movement of the test head, a configuration in which the test head is rotated is advantageous.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, since the test head as described above has a considerable weight (for example, about 200 kg), it is burdensome for the operator to manually rotate the test head as in the related art, without impact. It is extremely difficult to rotate and place it at a predetermined position.

Therefore, it is preferable to completely automate the rotation of such a considerable weight test head. In this regard, the applicant of the present invention has previously proposed that the test head can be rotationally driven based on a switch operation (Japanese Patent Application No. 63-227224).

In the above proposal, the vertical drive means such as a cylinder for driving the rotating spindle of the test head swings with the rotation of the spindle, but a complicated mechanism for guiding the swing is employed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an inspection apparatus capable of greatly simplifying the swing guide mechanism while smoothly swinging and guiding a vertical drive unit that rotationally drives a test head. The purpose is to:

Another object of the present invention is a test apparatus in which a test head is driven to rotate by a vertical driving means, and which can eliminate instability of behavior when the vertical driving means reaches a top dead center or a bottom dead center. Is to provide.

[Configuration of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) According to the present invention, by rotating a test head, a probe is brought into contact with an electrode terminal system of an object to be inspected, and a connection position and a non-connection position where inspection is possible. An inspection device capable of moving a test head, wherein a vertical drive means for vertically moving a spindle eccentric position of a driven member fixed to a rotating spindle of the test head, and swinging itself with the rotation of the rotating spindle. A first linear bearing for linearly guiding the vertical driving means along a linear direction which is a horizontal component of the vertical movement of the vertical driving means; A second linear bearing is provided to guide the vertical movement driving means in a linear direction along a linear direction which is a vertical component.

Another aspect of the present invention is an inspection apparatus that can rotate a test head to move a test head to a connection position and a non-contact position where a probe contacts an electrode terminal of an object to be inspected and can be inspected. Vertical drive means for vertically moving the driven shaft eccentric position of the driven member fixed to the rotating main shaft of the test head, and itself oscillating with the rotation of the rotating main shaft; and Or when located at the bottom dead center,
Horizontal drive means for applying a horizontal external force to the vertical movement drive means.

(Operation) In the present invention, the eccentric position of the rotating spindle is moved up and down by the vertical movement driving means, whereby the rotating spindle is rotationally driven,
The test head fixed to the spindle is rotated.

Here, when the rotating main shaft rotates, the vertical movement driving means swings in synchronization with the rotation. In the present invention, the swing guide of the vertical movement driving means is realized by the first and second linear bearings. The linear bearing guides the swing of the vertical movement driving means in two orthogonal directions of a horizontal component and a vertical component, and linearly guides the swing.
Since the swinging guide can be surely guided along with the rotation of the rotation type support shaft, and only a linear bearing having a simple mechanism is required, the guide mechanism can be greatly simplified.
Therefore, the number of parts can be reduced, and the assembling work can be simplified, so that a significant cost reduction can be realized.

Further, according to the present invention, when the vertical drive unit for rotating and driving the test head by reciprocating up and down is located at the top dead center or the bottom dead center, the horizontal drive unit horizontally moves the test head. Direction external force can be applied.
Accordingly, the rotation direction of the test head can be uniquely determined in the horizontal direction by the external force at the top dead center or the bottom dead center, and, for example, the test head can be continuously rotated in the same rotation direction.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

First, the outline of the inspection apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B). The prober main body 10 causes a probe needle or the like to touch an electrode pad of each chip of a semiconductor wafer to make contact with each chip. This is a device for ensuring electrical connection, and the probe needle is connected to a second
It is connected by a cable (not shown) to a tester 12 arranged on the upper side of FIG.

The prober main body 10 and the test head 1 can be electrically connected to each other by a connector. When the test head 1 is arranged directly above the prober main body 10 as shown by a solid line in FIG. It is supposed to be.

The test head 1 is rotatably supported by a hinge box 14 arranged next to the prober body 10, and moves on a side desk 16 arranged on the left side of the hinge box 14. , Prober body
It can be evacuated by releasing the connection with 10. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the test head 1 is rotatable with respect to the center of rotation between θ ₂ ° (position on the prober body side) and θ ₁ ° (position on the side desk side). It has become. The prober body 10 and the side desk 16 are respectively provided with the clamper 10 of the test head 1.
a, 16a are provided. In addition, the hinge box 14
The swing switch 14a for moving the test head 1 to the prober main body 10 and the swing switch 14 for moving the test head 1 to the side desk 16
b is provided.

Next, a mechanism for automating the rotational movement of the test head 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 (A) and 1 (B).

The spindle 20 is rotatably supported so as to be able to rotate integrally with the test head 1 fixed thereto.
An arm 22, which is a driven member, is fixed to 20. And the eccentric point 22a distant from the center of the main shaft of the arm 22 is
It is fixed to the upper end of the vertical moving member 24.

The vertical moving member 24 is supported by a horizontal moving member 26 via a vertical linear bearing 40, which will be described later, so as to be vertically movable.

Next, a configuration for rotationally driving the spindle 20 of the test head 1 will be described.

In the present embodiment, a first air cylinder 30 is provided as an example of a vertical drive unit. The first air cylinder 30 includes a movable part 32 that moves up and down by introducing air,
A guide shaft 34 for guiding the movement of the movable portion 32 is provided. The driving principle of the first air cylinder 30 is that the movable part 32 is lowered by introducing air into the IN-side port of the movable part 32, and the movable part 32 is raised by introducing air into the OUT-side port. It is supposed to.

The movable portion 32 of the first air cylinder 30
Is fixed to the vertical moving member 24, while the lower end of the guide shaft 34 is fixedly screwed to the lower end side of the horizontal moving member 26.

When the movable part 32 of the first air cylinder 30 moves up and down, the arm 22 fixed to the main shaft 20 is swung, and the main shaft 20 and the test head 1 are moved 180 degrees by the swing.
It is rotationally driven for many degrees. At this time, when the movable part 32 moves up and down, the movable part 32 swings in synchronization with the swing of the arm 22. Therefore, a mechanism for swinging and guiding the first air cylinder 30 is required.

In the present embodiment, in order to guide the swinging of the first air cylinder 30, a linear bearing mechanism that divides the swinging motion into two orthogonal components of a vertical component and a horizontal component and linearly guides each axis direction is provided. Has adopted.

First, a mechanism for linearly guiding the first air cylinder 30 in the vertical direction will be described. In order to secure this vertical linear movement, a vertical linear bearing 40 is disposed between the vertical moving member 24 and the horizontal moving member 26. The vertical linear bearing 40 includes a nut 42 fixed to the vertical moving member 24 and the horizontal moving member 26.
And a rail 44 arranged along the vertical direction. In order to stably move the nut 42 and the rail 44 in the vertical direction, the width of the vertical moving member 24 and the horizontal moving member 26 as shown in FIG. It is arranged at each of two places on both ends in the direction.

Next, a mechanism for linearly guiding the first air cylinder 30 in the horizontal direction will be described. In the present embodiment, the first horizontal linear bearing 50 and the second horizontal linear bearing 50 are used to guide the horizontal linear movement.
60 and are arranged. The first horizontal linear bearing
50 is disposed directly below the first air cylinder 30. That is, a rail bracket 56 is provided extending from the wall surface of the hinge box 14 below the first air cylinder 30, and the rail 52 is disposed on the rail bracket 56 in a horizontally long shape. . Meanwhile, the first
Horizontal moving member to which the guide shaft 34 of the air cylinder 30 is fixed
At the lower end of the nut 26, a nut 54 that is horizontally guided along the rail 52 is arranged. As a result, the horizontal moving member
26 is a first horizontal linear bearing at a position directly below the first air cylinder 30 with respect to the rail bracket 56.
The horizontal movement is guided by 50.

The second horizontal linear bearing 60 for smoothly guiding the horizontal movement of the first air cylinder 30 includes:
It is arranged between the horizontal moving member 26 and the fixed portion of the hinge box 14. That is, the rail 62 is disposed and fixed to the fixed portion of the hinge box 14 in the horizontal longitudinal direction. On the other hand, a bracket 66 is fixedly screwed to the rear side of the horizontal moving member 26, and a nut 64 is fixed to a position of the bracket 66 facing the rail 62.

The principle of the rotational drive of the test head 1 by the above mechanism is that the first air cylinder 30 swings and drives the movable portion 32 one reciprocation from its top dead center to its bottom dead center and from its bottom dead center to its top dead center. By doing so, it is rotated by 180 degrees between the connection position a and the retreat position b shown in FIG. At this time, the first
When the movable portion 32 of the air cylinder 30 reaches the bottom dead center, the rotation direction of the test head 1 to rotate rightward or leftward as shown in FIG. 5 cannot be determined. There is. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a second air cylinder 70 that applies a horizontal external force to the first air cylinder 30 when at least the movable portion 32 is at the bottom dead center is provided. This second air cylinder 70
Is a rodless cylinder having a chamber 72 fixed inside the hinge box 14. And
The chamber 72 has ports 72a and 72b for air introduction on both left and right sides as shown in FIG. Also, a magnet 74 is built in the chamber 72,
By increasing the air pressure from one of the ports 72a, 72b, the position of the magnet 74 in the horizontal direction is made variable.
Further, a movable piece 76 is provided at a position surrounding the chamber 72. The movable piece 76 is formed as a magnetic material, and when the magnet 74 moves by the air drive described above, the movable piece 76 moves together with the magnet 74 by the magnetic force. The movable piece 76 is fixed to the horizontal moving member 26 via a bracket 78. As a result, by driving the second air cylinder 70, the driving force in the horizontal direction is increased by the movable piece 76, the bracket 78, and the horizontal moving member 26.
Is transmitted to the first air cylinder 30 via the first air cylinder 30. As a result, when the movable portion 32 is at the bottom dead center, a horizontal external force can be applied to the first air cylinder 30.

In this embodiment, the rotation of the test head 1 is controlled by two swing switches 14a and 14
This is performed based on the operation input to b. At this time, the test head 1 is driven to rotate while the switches 14a and 14b are kept pressed, and the test head 1 can be stopped at an arbitrary position when the operation is released. In order to enhance the braking effect when the test head 1 stops at an arbitrary rotation position, a buffer device is connected to the arm 22. That is, the free end of the rod 82 of the hydraulic cylinder 80 as an example of a shock absorber is
It is rotatably supported.

 Next, the operation will be described.

First, the case where the test head 1 in the retracted state is moved from the side desk 16 to the prober main body 10 will be described.

In the above state, the movable portion 32 of the first air cylinder 30
Is set to the top dead center. Therefore, air is introduced into the IN-side port of the first air cylinder 30, and the movable portion 32 is driven downward. Then, this driving force is transmitted to the main shaft 20 of the test head 1 via the vertical moving member 24 and the arm 22 to which the movable portion 32 is fixed, and as a result, the test head 1 is moved clockwise in FIG. It will be driven to rotate. In the case of this rotation drive, the arm
The first air cylinder 30 connecting the arm 22 via the vertical moving member 24
Must also follow the rotation locus of the arm 22 and swing. In this embodiment, the swing guide of the first air cylinder 30 is realized by a linear bearing mechanism.

The swing of the first air cylinder 30 can be divided into vertical movement and horizontal movement. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the movement of the first air cylinder 30 in the vertical direction is
The movement is secured by the vertical linear bearings 40 and the horizontal movement is secured by the first and second horizontal linear bearings 50 and 60.

With such a configuration, the vertical movement of the movable portion 32 in the vertical direction is ensured by the vertical movement member 24 smoothly moving up and down with respect to the horizontal movement member 26 via the vertical linear bearing 40. On the other hand, the horizontal movement of the entire first air cylinder 30 is ensured by the horizontal moving member 26 smoothly moving horizontally with respect to the fixed portion via the first and second horizontal linear bearings 50 and 60. Is done. In particular, since the first horizontal linear bearing 50 guides the horizontal movement at a position directly below the first air cylinder 30, a rotational moment that increases the resistance during movement does not act, and a smoother horizontal movement guide is provided. realizable.

Then, when the test head 1 reaches around 60 ° in FIG. 5 (the detection of such a timing is performed by detecting the rotational position of the test head 1 or determining the rotational position of the test head 1 from the elapsed time from the initial rotation). A), excess air is introduced into the chamber 72 through one port of the second air cylinder 70. As a result, the magnet 74 moves, and the movable piece 76 moves in the same direction following the magnet 74.
An external force is applied to the horizontal moving member 26 via 78 in the same direction as the moving horizontal moving direction during rotation. By driving the second air cylinder 70 in this manner, the test head 1
The rotation in the rotation area A from 60 ° to around 120 ° will be followed.

Here, when the test head 1 reaches 90 °, the movable part 32 reaches the bottom dead center, so that the first solenoid 70 is turned on at this timing and the first air cylinder 30 is turned on.
Air having a pressure that is larger than the output by the IN-side pressure is introduced to the OUT side, and the movable section 32 is moved upward from the lowest point.

When switching from lowering to raising, the horizontal external force of the second air cylinder 60 is applied to the first air cylinder 30 as described above, so that the rotation of the test head 1 in the same direction is ensured. Can be performed.

When the test head 1 reaches about 120 °, the role of the second air cylinder 70 ends.

Thereafter, the test head 1 is driven to rotate by the rise of the movable portion 32 of the first air cylinder 30, and the test head 1 reaches the position of θ ₂ 、 and is moved to the prober main body 10 side.

When the test head 1 is moved from the prober main body 10 to the side table 16 in a manner opposite to the above operation, the operation is performed so as to follow a path opposite to the above.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the linear bearing 40, which guides the swing of the first air cylinder 30 as the vertical moving means for driving the test head 1 along the horizontal moving direction of the horizontal component and the vertical component, Only 50, 60, so by reducing the number of parts and improving the assemblability,
The cost of the device can be reduced. Further, when the moving direction of the movable portion 32 of the first air cylinder 30 is switched, an external force that uniquely determines the horizontal moving direction of the first air cylinder 30 is applied by the second air cylinder 70. Therefore, even when the horizontal movement direction is not determined, such as when the first air cylinder 30 reaches the bottom dead center, the rotation in the same direction can be smoothly performed by the application of the external force.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when the rotation drive of the test head is automated, the swinging of the vertical movement means for rotating the test head is realized by the linear bearing. Since the number of parts of the dynamic guide mechanism can be greatly reduced and the assemblability is improved, the cost of the inspection apparatus can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B show a test head rotation drive mechanism of an inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 1A is a front view, and FIG. 1B is a right side in which a part of FIG. FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B) are a plan view and a front view of the inspection apparatus, FIG. 3 is a plan view of a horizontal moving member and a vertical moving member, and FIG. 4 is a second air cylinder. FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view for schematically explaining the operation of the test head. 1 ... Test head, 10 ... Prober body, 12 ... Tester, 16 ... Side desk, 30 ... First air cylinder 40 ... Vertical linear bearing, 50,60 ... Horizontal linear bearing, 70 ... Second air cylinder. 80,82 ... Buffer.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] An inspection apparatus in which a probe is moved to a connection position and a non-connection position at which a probe can be inspected by contacting an electrode terminal system of a device under test by rotating the test head. Vertical drive means for vertically moving the main shaft eccentric position of the driven member fixed to the rotary main shaft, and oscillating itself with the rotation of the rotary main shaft; and A first linear bearing for linearly guiding the vertical drive unit along a linear direction that is a horizontal component; and a vertical bearing along a linear direction that is a vertical component of the swinging motion of the vertical drive unit. A second linear bearing that guides the driving means in a linear movement; 2. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first linear bearing is disposed directly below the vertical drive unit. 3. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driven member is connected to a shock absorbing device for absorbing a mechanical shock when the test head rotates. 4. An inspection apparatus which can move a test head between a connection position and a discontinuous position at which a probe can be inspected by contacting an electrode terminal of a test object by rotating the test head. Vertical drive means for vertically moving the driven shaft eccentric position of the driven member fixed to the rotary spindle, and swinging itself with the rotation of the rotary spindle; and wherein the vertical drive means is a top dead center or a bottom dead center. A horizontal drive means for applying a horizontal external force to the vertical movement drive means when located at a point.