JP3138366B2 - Probe device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a probe device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device such as an LSI, after a wafer process is completed and an IC chip is formed on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”), an electrode pattern is short-circuited. Open and IC
In order to examine the output characteristics of a chip, a test of electrical characteristics called a probe test is performed. In performing such a probe test, for example, a probe device as shown in FIG. 7 is used.

In this probe device, a connection ring 5 is provided on an inner peripheral step of a substantially cylindrical insert ring 51.
The connection ring 52 is dropped into the insert ring 51 so as to lock the second flange 53. On the other hand, the probe card 54 is set in the card holder 55, and the outer edge of the card holder 55 is locked in the inner peripheral groove 57 of the card clamp 56, and is set in the card clamp 56.

The connection ring 52 has the form and configuration shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, and has a cylindrical shape having a through hole at the center as a whole, and has a conductive portion in a main body in a vertical direction. A large number of penetrating holes are provided, and pogo pins 58 communicating with these conducting portions are provided on upper and lower end surfaces thereof. Each of these pogo pins 5
Reference numeral 8 is configured to be slidable in the vertical direction, and is biased outward. A stopper 59 is provided on the lower end surface of the connection ring 52 so as to extend over the outer edge of the lower end surface and the peripheral edge of the central through hole.
Are provided in the radial direction at four locations at a central angle of 90 °.

The electrical connection between the test head 60 and the pogo pin contact which is electrically connected to the contactor 61 of the probe card 54 is performed as follows. That is, the test head 60 is lowered to make contact with the pogo pins 58 on the upper end surface of the connection ring 52, while the card clamp 56 is raised to make contact with the pogo pins 58 on the lower end surface of the connection ring 52 and the pogo pin contactors of the probe card 54. It is. At this time, in order to ensure conduction between each of the pogo pins 58 and each of the pogo pin contactors of the probe card 54, the card clamp 56 is raised with an overdrive, but when the probe card 54 is raised, it hits the above-mentioned stopper 59. Thus, this determines the so-called dead end of the overdrive.

After that, the mounting table 62 provided below the card holder 55 is raised, and the electrode pads of the chips on the wafer W on the mounting table 62 are brought into contact with the contactors 61 of the probe card 54. A predetermined probe test.

[0007]

However, the stopper 59 provided on the lower surface of the conventional connection ring 52 is
As described above, since it is provided at four locations every 90 °, the following problem has occurred.

That is, when the probe card 54 is raised by raising the card clamp 56, a lifting force is applied to the periphery thereof, but the stoppers 59 are provided at four positions at 90 ° intervals. Therefore, where the stoppers 59 are not provided, a large straight line connecting the outer edge corners of the stoppers 59 is used as a fulcrum, and the stoppers 59 are largely bent downward by the rising force.

This will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12. As shown in FIG. 10, when the card clamp 56 is raised to raise the probe card 54 toward the connection ring 52, the card holder 55 is used. A force F is applied to the periphery of the probe card 54 via the interface, but where the stoppers 59 are not provided, a straight line M connecting the outer edge corners of the stoppers 59 as shown in FIGS. Outside the fulcrum, the force F
As a result, it is bent upward, and conversely, it is greatly bent downward inside the straight line M. Such a deflection increases as the distance from each stopper 59 increases. The situation at that time is shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the outer side of the straight line M when the stoppers 59, the probe card 54, and the card holder 55 in FIGS. 10 and 11 are circulated in the P → Q direction. The inside of the straight line M bends in the opposite direction, and exhibits an uneven inclination and bending as a whole.

In addition, since the probe card 54 is actually further pushed down by the urging force of the pogo pins 58 located inside the straight line M (pogo pin pressure: about 80 to 100 gf per one), the degree of the inclination and the bending is limited. It was getting bigger and more complicated.

When the probe card 54 is so non-uniformly deformed and large, the contactor 61 provided on the probe card 54 is also affected by the bending, and the protruding direction varies, and the protruding degree varies. As a result, the contact of the chip of the wafer W with the electrode pad becomes insufficient, and there is a possibility that accurate measurement cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a probe device capable of making the above-described bending of the probe card simple and uniform and reducing the amount of bending itself. To solve the problem.

[0014]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a plurality of conducting portions are provided in a vertical direction and terminals of the conducting portions are provided on upper and lower end surfaces of the conducting portions. A connection ring having a substantially cylindrical shape, and a terminal on an upper end side of the connection ring and a terminal of a test head are brought into contact with each other;
Further, a probe card arranged on a lower surface side of the connection ring is moved to a lower end surface side of the connection ring, and a terminal on a lower end surface side of the connection ring is brought into contact with a terminal of the probe card. The end point of the movement is determined on the periphery of the lower end surface of the connection ring or the periphery of the upper surface of the probe card .
A probe device is provided, wherein a single-piece annular stopper is provided.

[0015]

A single member annular stopper for determining the end point of the movement is provided on the peripheral edge of the lower end face of the connection ring or the peripheral edge on the upper surface side of the probe card. Even when the probe card is lifted up from its peripheral portion via the card holder as applied in the probe device according to the prior art, the point where the lifting force is applied corresponds to the annular stopper. The fulcrum and the point at which the force for raising is applied coincide over the entire circumference of the probe card, and no bending is theoretically generated.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a side cross section of a probe device to which the present embodiment is applied, and a substantially cylindrical insert ring 1 is shown.
The flange 3 of the connection ring 2 is locked to the inner peripheral step of the insert ring 1 so that the insert ring 1
Is inserted inside.

The connection ring 2 has the form and configuration shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, has a cylindrical shape having a through hole at the center as a whole, and has a body 4 made of an insulating material. A large number of conducting portions are vertically provided, and a pogo pin 5 communicating with these conducting portions is provided on the upper end surface, and a predetermined number, for example, 1260, of pogo pins 6 communicating with the conducting portion are provided on the lower end surface. .

Each of these pogo pins 5, 6 is provided so as to be slidable in the vertical direction (stroke: about 2 mm), and is moved outward by a suitable urging member at a predetermined pressure, for example, 80 gf per pin. Being energized.

On the lower end surface of the connection ring 2,
An annular stopper 7 is provided at the outer edge. This stopper 7 has a width of 2 mm and a height of 1 mm,
Furthermore, the size of the diameter is 200 mm which is the same as that of the main body 4 of the connection ring 2. The width and height of the stopper 7 are
It can be arbitrarily determined depending on the material, configuration, form, and the like of the probe card used. And this stopper 7
In this embodiment, the connection ring 2 is fixed to the lower end surface of the main body 4 by an appropriate adhesive.

On the other hand, the probe card 11 has an outer diameter of 2
The probe card is a probe card provided with a glass needle disk of 00 mm as a substrate, and a tip of a so-called horizontal needle contactor 12 protruding from the lower surface side.
Pogo pin contacts that are in contact with the above-described pogo pins 6 disposed on the lower end face between the connection rings 2 are provided correspondingly, and each of the contactors 12 is electrically connected to the corresponding pogo pin contacts.

The probe card 11 is fixed in a holding portion 14 provided with a step in a card holder 13 made of an aluminum material having a structure as shown in FIG. The card holder 1 is inserted into the groove 16 of the card clamp 15 on the outer periphery of the card holder
Locking portion 17 for locking 3 to card clamp 15
Are provided at 12 locations under a certain interval. Then, each of the locking portions 17 is inserted into the groove 16, and the card holder 13 is fixed to the card clamp 15.

The card clamp 15 is configured to be vertically movable by an appropriate driving mechanism, and is configured to be able to be raised by a predetermined force, for example, a force of 188 kgf.

A test head 31 is arranged above and below the connection ring 2 so as to be movable up and down.
Below the card holder 13, a mounting table 32 that is movable in the X, Y, Z, and θ directions is disposed.

This embodiment is configured as described above.
Next, the operation will be described. The test head 31 descends with a predetermined force, for example, 100 kgf, and its terminal comes into contact with the corresponding pogo pin 5 on the upper end surface of the connection ring.

On the other hand, the card clamp 15 is also lifted with a predetermined force, for example, 100 kgf, and the locking portion 17 of the card holder 13 is also lifted with a force of 100 kgf. First, the pogo pin contact portion of the probe card 11 is It contacts the corresponding pogo pin 6 provided on the lower end surface of the connection ring 2.

Then, the overdrive is further applied, and the peripheral portion of the probe card 11 contacts the stopper 7 provided on the outer edge of the lower end surface of the connection ring 2. At this time, the peripheral portion of the card holder 13 is subjected to the upward force of the card clamp, and the peripheral portion of the probe card 11 fixed to the card holder 13 also tends to be lifted by the upward force. Since the stopper 7 is provided in a ring shape over the entire outer periphery of the lower end surface of the connection ring 2, it coincides with the point where the above-described force is applied to the probe card 11. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the portion in contact with the probe card 11 is the annular stopper 7 (hatched portion in FIG. 5) provided on the outer edge of the lower end surface of the connection ring 2, as shown in FIG. 6. In addition, the point at which the rising force F of the card clamp is applied coincides with the fulcrum N. Therefore, the central portion of the probe card 11 hardly bends as in the related art.

Strictly speaking, since the card holder 13 is subjected to the above-described rising force via the locking portion 17 protruding from the peripheral edge thereof, the fulcrum is located at the outer end of the stopper 7. As a result, the probe card 11 also flexes with the outer edge of the stopper 7 as a fulcrum, although very slightly, in combination with the material of the probe card 11 itself. Locking parts 1
Because it is lifted through 7, the load is not necessarily applied evenly on the entire periphery, but even in this case,
Since the fulcrum extends over the entire outer edge of the probe card 11, the fulcrum deflects substantially evenly, and the degree of the fulcrum is much lower than that of the above-described prior art.

Actually, the inventors of the present invention have examined the same device, the same probe card, and the same load condition as those of the above-described embodiment except that only the connection ring is replaced. When the ring 52 is used, the maximum value of the displacement (bending amount) in the vertical direction when the inner diameter of the probe card is 100 mmφ is 169.
μm, and the difference between the displacements (the difference between the maximum displacement and the minimum displacement) is as large as about 27 μm, and the displacement in the vertical direction at an inner diameter of 110 mmφ. The maximum value of the amount (bending amount) was about 157 μm, and the difference between the displacement amounts was as large as about 33 μm.

On the other hand, in the case of the above embodiment, the maximum value of the amount of displacement (bending amount) in the vertical direction when the inner peripheral diameter of the probe card is 100 mmφ is 160 μm, and the difference between the amounts of displacement (maximum displacement) The difference between the amount of displacement and the position of minimum displacement) was only about 8 μm at maximum. In addition, the maximum value of the amount of displacement (bending amount) in the vertical direction when the inner diameter was 110 mmφ was about 146 μm, and the difference in the amount of displacement was only about 10 μm at maximum.

Therefore, the amount of deflection itself is lower than in the case where the connection ring 52 according to the above-described prior art is used, and
In addition, it can be seen that the amount of deflection, that is, the non-uniformity of the deflection, has been improved to about one-third of the conventional level, and the deflection is simple and uniform. As a result, the influence of the bending of the probe card 11 on the arrangement of the contactors 12 is greatly reduced. Therefore, when the wafer W to be inspected is mounted on the mounting table 32 and the mounting table 32 is raised to bring the contactor 12 of the probe card 11 into contact with the electrode pad of the chip on the wafer W, a good contact state is obtained. And an accurate probe test can be performed. As described above, since the width of the stopper 7 is extremely narrow, 2 mm, the installation space of the pogo pins 6 at the lower end surface of the connection ring 2 is larger than before, and the number of installation of the pogo pins 6 is correspondingly larger. Can be increased, and since the stopper 7 itself is not located in the radial direction as in the related art, the degree of freedom in installing the pogo pins 6 is also improved.

The probe card 11 used in the above embodiment has a so-called horizontal needle contactor 12, but of course a probe card having a so-called vertical needle contactor in which the contactors are arranged vertically. Also, a good contact state can be obtained when is used.

In the above embodiment, the connection ring 2
Although the annular stopper 7 is provided at the outer edge of the lower end surface of the probe card, the same effect as that of the above embodiment can be obtained by providing a similar annular stopper at the outer edge on the probe card side instead. It is something that can be done.

[0033]

[0034]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned movement is provided on the peripheral edge of the lower end face of the connection ring or on the upper peripheral side of the probe card.
Since the single member annular stopper for determining the end point of the probe card is provided, the amount of deflection of the probe card itself is lower than in the past, and the deflection itself is simplified, and the uniformity is greatly improved. You. Therefore, the contact state between the contactor of the probe card and the electrode pad of the object to be inspected such as a wafer is improved, and an accurate probe test can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a side cross section of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the connection ring in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a connection ring in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a card holder used in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory bottom view of the connection ring for explaining the operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a side cross section of a conventional technique.

FIG. 8 is a bottom view of a connection ring according to the related art.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a connection ring according to the related art.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the related art.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory bottom view of a connection ring according to the related art for explaining the operation of the related art.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Insert ring 2 Connection ring 4 Main body 5, 6 Pogo pin 7 Stopper 11 Probe card 12 Contactor 13 Card holder 15 Card clamp 31 Test head 32 Mounting table W Wafer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-2-164047 (JP, A) JP-A-3-28478 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/66 G01R 31/26

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A substantially cylindrical connection ring having a plurality of conductive portions penetrating therethrough in a vertical direction and terminals of the conductive portion provided on upper and lower end surfaces of the connection ring. And the terminals of the test head are brought into contact with each other, and the probe card arranged on the lower surface side of the connection ring is moved to the lower end surface side of the connection ring, so that the terminal on the lower end surface side of the connection ring and the probe card A probe test apparatus configured to contact a terminal, wherein a single member annular member for determining an end point of the movement is provided on a peripheral portion of a lower end surface of the connection ring or a peripheral portion of an upper surface of the probe card. A probe device comprising a stopper.