JPS6117141B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an apparatus in which wafers to be tested are continuously supplied under a probe card, and the electrical characteristics of the wafers are automatically tested one after another.
The present invention relates to a probe card probe polishing device that periodically polishes the probes of the probe card.

In the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices such as transistors and integrated circuits, a large number of elements are formed on a single single crystal wafer using photo-etching techniques. When these elements are completed on a wafer, electrical characteristics of each element are inspected, which is called wafer inspection.

This wafer inspection is performed using an electrical property testing machine (hereinafter referred to as a tester) and a probe card. That is, the probes of a probe card are brought into contact with predetermined electrodes of the element, and the electrical characteristics of the element are tested using a tester to which conductive wires drawn out from the other ends of the probes are connected. In this case, the wafer is fixed, and an intermittent feeding mechanism is used to move the probe card slightly in position in a predetermined order in order to bring the probes of the probe card into contact with all the elements on the wafer. A prober is used.

By the way, while testing a large number of wafers as described above, the contact resistance between the probe of the probe card and the electrode of the element gradually increases.

The reason for this increase in contact resistance is
Examples of such problems include oxidation of the probe surface due to excessive current flowing through the probe when defective elements are inspected during wafer inspection, and oxides on the electrode surface of the element adhering to the probe surface. If the contact resistance of the probe increases due to such causes, a corresponding error will be introduced into the inspection results, and if this error exceeds the patented range, a defective inspection result will be given even for a good wafer, and the inspection will be delayed. All credibility is lost. Therefore, care has been taken to keep the probe card probes clean at all times by polishing the probe card probes using a polishing jig at the start of wafer inspection and at any time during wafer inspection. .

In this polishing operation, a polishing jig having a similar shape to the wafer is placed on the vacuum suction table of the wafer prober using tweezers or the like and fixed by suction. Next, move this vacuum suction table under the probe card, then move the vacuum suction table up and down, and repeat the polishing process several times where the probe card probe and polishing jig lightly touch and then separate. Polish the surface of the needle. After polishing is completed, the process involves removing the polishing jig from the vacuum suction table using tweezers or the like, and all prober operations such as moving the vacuum suction table were performed manually.

Therefore, the above-mentioned polishing work is very time-consuming, and if it is interrupted at any time during the inspection, the work efficiency will be significantly lowered, and the polishing frequency will be inconsistent, sometimes resulting in an increase in contact resistance. The drawback was that many inspection errors were made due to lack of awareness. Particularly recently, fully automatic probers have appeared that automatically align the contact positions between the electrodes of the element and the probes of the probe card. According to this fully automatic prober, it is possible to inspect a large number of wafers of the same type without any manual effort.
If the increase in contact resistance exceeds the allowable value of the tip of the probe card and is inspected as it is, many inspection errors will occur at once, and the flow of inspection will be stopped and the probe card Interrupting the polishing work of the probe at any time caused a serious disruption to the work flow and significantly hindered the efficiency of full automation.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks and to perform regular polishing without disturbing the flow of inspection and so that the contact resistance of the probe of the probe card does not exceed the permissible value range at all times. An object of the present invention is to provide a probe card probe polishing device.

The probe card probe polishing apparatus of the present invention includes a vacuum suction table, a wafer supply device that supplies a wafer to be inspected to the vacuum suction table, and a wafer supply device that transfers the vacuum suction table below the probe card and performs inspection by operating a wafer prober. a vacuum suction table moving device that brings the probe of the probe card into contact with the electrodes of each element included in the wafer on the vacuum suction table and evacuates the vacuum suction table from under the probe card after testing the electrical characteristics of the wafer; a probe card probe polishing device added to a wafer electrical property testing device including a counting device coupled to the wafer feeding device and outputting an output signal every time a predetermined number of fed wafers is calculated;
a polishing jig having a similar shape to the wafer; and a polishing jig supply device that receives the output of the counting device and sandwiches the polishing jig between the continuously supplied wafers;
When the vacuum suction table on which the polishing jig is placed is carried under the probe card, instead of operating the wafer prober, the polishing jig on the vacuum suction table is brought into light contact with the probe of the probe card. a vacuum suction table vertical movement device that gives the vacuum suction table vertical motion to move the vacuum suction table up and down, and stores the polishing jig that has been detached from under the probe card and carried to a polishing jig storage position in the polishing jig storage table. and a polishing jig storage device.

Next, the present invention will be explained by examples.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one implementation of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a wafer supply device 1 supplies a wafer to be inspected (not shown) to a vacuum suction table 2. As shown in FIG. The vacuum suction table on which the wafer to be inspected is placed is
The wafer is moved under the probe card 4 by the vacuum suction table moving device 3, the probes 5 of the probe card 4 are brought into contact with the element electrodes of the wafer to be inspected by a wafer prober (not shown), and the wafer is pulled out from the probe card. The electrical properties of the wafer to be inspected are tested in an electrical property testing machine (not shown) to which connecting conductors are connected, and after the test, the wafer is evacuated along the path indicated by arrow 6 and placed on wafer storage table 8 at position 7. It will be stored.

In such a wafer inspection process, a counting device 9 coupled to the wafer supply device 1 counts the number of wafers supplied by the wafer supply device 1, and outputs a signal when the number reaches a predetermined number, Add to the polishing control device 10. Upon receiving this signal, the polishing control device 10 temporarily stops the wafer supply device 1 from supplying the wafer to be inspected, and instead uses a polishing jig 1 having a similar shape to the wafer to be inspected.
1 is placed from the polishing jig supply device 12 onto the movable table 1b of the wafer supply device, and this polishing jig is transferred to the vacuum suction table 2 in the same way as the wafer to be inspected and carried under the probe card 4. At this time, in the case of wafer inspection, the element electrode of the wafer and the probe 5 of the probe card are brought into contact by the operation of a wafer prober (not shown), but in the case of the polishing jig 11, the polishing jig The vacuum suction table vertical movement device 13 operates according to a command from the tool control device 10, and the polishing operation in which the polishing jig lightly contacts the probe card probe 5 and then separates again is repeated several times, and the polishing jig 1
The probe 5 of the probe card is polished by the polishing method 1. Thereafter, in the same manner as the wafer to be inspected, the polishing jig 11 is transported to position 7 on the wafer retraction table 14, and from there is transferred onto the polishing jig storage table 16 by the polishing jig storage device 15.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the portion including the probe card shown in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 2, the polishing jig 11 attracted to the vacuum suction table 2 is at a position slightly apart from the probe 5 of the probe card 4, and the vacuum suction table 2 is moved up and down at this position, and the probe card 4 A polishing operation is performed in which the probe 5 makes light contact with the probe 5 and then separates again.

As described above, according to the probe card probe polishing device of the present invention, polishing is performed periodically by automatic operation while the probe card probe is not so contaminated. No inspection errors are made, and no unexpected interruption of the inspection flow reduces inspection efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a side view of a portion including the probe card shown in FIG. 1. 1...Wafer supply device, 2...Vacuum suction table,
3... Vacuum suction table moving device, 4... Probe card, 5... Probe card probe, 8... Wafer storage stand, 9... Counting device, 10... Polishing control device, 11... Polishing jig , 12... Polishing jig supply device, 13... Vacuum suction table vertical movement device, 14... Wafer evacuation table, 15... Polishing jig storage device, 16
...A polishing jig storage stand.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum suction table, a wafer supply device that supplies the wafer to be inspected to the vacuum suction table, the vacuum suction table is transferred under the probe card, and the probe of the probe card and the vacuum suction are moved by the operation of the wafer prober. Added to a wafer electrical characteristics testing device including a vacuum suction table moving device that makes contact with the electrodes of each element included in a wafer on the table and retracts the vacuum suction table from under the probe card after testing the electrical characteristics of the wafer. A probe card probe polishing apparatus comprising: a counting device coupled to the wafer supply device and outputting an output signal every time a predetermined number of supplied wafers is counted; a polishing jig having a similar shape to the wafer; When a polishing jig supply device that receives the output and sandwiches the polishing jig between the continuously supplied wafers, and a vacuum suction table on which the polishing jig is mounted are carried under the probe card, A vacuum suction table vertical movement device that causes the vacuum suction table to move up and down so that the polishing jig on the vacuum suction table makes light contact with the probe of the probe card and then moves away from the probe in place of the operation of the wafer prober; and the probe. a polishing jig storage device that stores the polishing jig removed from under the card and carried to the polishing jig storage position in a polishing jig storage stand; .