JPH0789141B2 - Inspection equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus for inspecting the electrical characteristics of an object to be inspected by pressing a film electrode against the electrode of the object to be inspected. .

(Prior Art) In general, as an inspection apparatus for inspecting the electrical characteristics of semiconductor elements such as IC and LSI, as shown in FIG. 6, a large number of probe needles 3 that come into contact with electrodes 2 provided on the semiconductor element 1 are provided. The one with the individual is used.

However, when the electrodes of the semiconductor element increase and are miniaturized with the high integration of ICs, LSIs, etc., the probe needles 3 contacting these electrodes also need to be miniaturized and densely packed. However, there are problems such as difficulty in manufacturing and adjusting the probe needle 3 and low reliability.

In particular, in the case of inspecting a substrate such as a liquid crystal television screen having multiple electrodes at a fine pitch, it is extremely difficult for the conventional inspection device using the probe needle to deal with it.

As a technique in consideration of the above circumstances, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-23
There are techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 38, Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-14659, and the like.

The former is one in which a plurality of conductive metal films such as aluminum and copper are patterned and wired in parallel on the surface of an elastic insulating film such as soft plastic, while the latter is one in which a microstrip line is projected at the end of the substrate. It was provided by.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, when a film electrode is used instead of the conventional probe needle, it is necessary to press the film electrode against the object to be inspected with an appropriate stress for inspection.

Here, if the contact stress of this kind of film electrode is too low, it is not possible to accurately carry out the inspection of the electrical characteristics due to poor contact, while if the contact pressure is too high, the object to be inspected will be damaged, etc. There was a fear of.

There is no problem if this contact pressure can be set to an appropriate value,
Under the present circumstances, the proper pressure is sought by trial and error, and in this case, an inspection apparatus capable of easily adjusting the contact pressure has been desired.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an inspection apparatus which satisfies the above-mentioned conventional requirements and which can easily adjust the contact pressure of a film electrode to perform an inspection under an appropriate contact pressure. Especially.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving Problems) The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus for pressing a film electrode against an electrode of an object to be inspected to inspect electrical characteristics of the object to be inspected. A pressing unit for pressing, a pressing drive unit for pressing and driving the pressing unit with a fluid pressure, and a fluid pressure control means for variably controlling the fluid pressure with an electric signal are provided.

(Operation) Since the present invention has the fluid pressure control means for varying the fluid pressure serving as the drive source of the pressing drive section by the electric signal, the fluid pressure can be continuously changed by a simple operation of varying the electric signal. Can be set to the desired value by changing to the desired value, and the appropriate pressing force of the film electrode can be obtained according to this, and contact failure due to insufficient pressing force and damage to the inspected object due to excessive pressing force can be greatly reduced. You can

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a visual inspection device for a liquid crystal screen (LCD) will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

First, the system configuration of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a film electrode 11 that is in contact with the electrode of the LCD 10 that is the object to be inspected is provided. Pressing part 2 for pressing contact
0 is provided, and a pressing drive unit that presses and drives the pressing unit 20 by fluid pressure, such as an air cylinder 30, is provided. A fluid pressure control means for electrically controlling the driving force of the air cylinder 30, for example, an electropneumatic regulator 40 is provided. The electropneumatic regulator 40 is controlled by the system controller. For example, the D / A converter 53 converts a digital signal from the CPU 50 into an analog signal to control the electropneumatic regulator 40. Also, this CPU5
A keyboard 51 for operating and inputting various data is provided at 0, and a display unit 52 for displaying fluid pressure data or contact pressure data calculated by the CPU 50 is provided. Then, the electropneumatic regulator is programmed by a program based on setting input of contact pressure or the like from the keyboard 51.
It is configured to control 40.

The electropneumatic regulator 40 is capable of continuously variably adjusting the air pressure as a fluid pressure according to an electric signal, and has a configuration as shown in FIG.

The structure and operation of the electropneumatic regulator 40 will be described. Air pressure is supplied to the SUP side and is branched and led to the main valve 42 and the orifice 43. In this state, a force motor composed of coil 41A and magnet 41B
When an electric signal is input to the 41 through the D / A converter 53, the air passing through the orifice 43 causes the flapper 44 to move to the nozzle 45 by the force generated in the force motor 41.
When approaching the tip, back pressure is generated in the pilot chamber 46. Due to this back pressure, a jet force is generated at the tip of the nozzle 45,
The flapper 44 stops at a position where this force and the force of the force motor 41 are balanced, and thus the pilot pressure is determined. Initially, the atmospheric pressure is on the OUT side, so the force exerted downward on the upper diaphragm 47A exceeds the force exerted upward on the lower diaphragm 47B, and the main valve 42
Press down, the air on the SUP side flows into the OUT side, and the pressure on the OUT side rises. When the pressure on the OUT side is guided to the feedback chamber 48 and the downward force of the upper diaphragm 47A and the upward force of the lower diaphragm 47B are balanced, the main valve 42 is closed and stabilized.

When air is continuously consumed from the OUT side device (the air cylinder 30 in this embodiment), the main valve 42 becomes stable in the open state by the amount of supplementing the OUT side air consumption amount.

Next, if the electric signal lowers the current set OUT side pressure, or if the OUT side pressure rises due to some influence, the upward force of the lower diaphragm 47B is superior to the downward force of the upper diaphragm 47A. Two diaphragms 47
A and 47B rise, the air on the OUT side passes through the relief valve 49A and is released to the atmosphere from the relief port 49B. Therefore, when the downward force of the upper diaphragm 47A and the upward force of the lower diaphragm 47B are balanced, the diaphragm 4
7A and 47B return to the lower position, and relief valve 49A closes. In this way, the OUT side pressure can be adjusted.

An air cylinder 30, which is an example of a pressing drive unit that is drive-controlled by the electropneumatic regulator 40, introduces air from the OUT side of the electropneumatic regulator 40 and continuously changes the pressing force by the air pressure. It has become.

Next, the structure of the pressing portion 20 and the relationship with the air cylinder 30 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

The pressing portion 20 has parallel rotating arms 22 and 23 that are integrally and rotatably supported on a shaft 21, and are shown in the arrow B of FIG.
As shown in the schematic explanatory view of the direction, one of the rotating arms
One end of 23 is pressed and driven by the air cylinder 30. The other rotating arm 22 is provided by screwing the first rotating arm 22A and the second rotating arm 22B as shown in FIG. 4 which is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. The rotating arm 22 is constituted, and a bearing 24 is supported at the tip thereof, and a supporting member 23 is rotatably supported by the bearing 24 in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and a pressing pad 25 is fixed to the lower surface of the supporting member. is doing.

The pressing pad 25 corresponds to the LCD 10 shown in FIG.
Is formed over the length of the first electrode array 10A in the longitudinal direction, and the film electrode 11 is configured to be pressed onto the first electrode 10A.

The LCD 10 that is the object to be inspected in this embodiment is an active LCD.
Therefore, as its electrodes, it has first to third electrodes 10A to 10C in three directions of a rectangular substrate as shown in FIG. 3, and therefore the pressing portion 20 and the air cylinder 30 are Three sets are arranged corresponding to each of the electrodes 10A to 10C.

The CPU 50 functions as a system controller of the apparatus of the present embodiment and executes not only the control of the configuration shown in FIG. 1, but also the drive control of an XY table for mounting and positioning the LCD 10, for example. It has become. Then, in relation to the pressing of the film electrode 11, the keyboard 51
The pressing force data or the air pressure data for obtaining this pressing force is input via and the digital signal corresponding to this is output to the D / A converter 53. On the other hand, the input data value from the keyboard 51 is controlled to be displayed on the display unit 52.

Next, the operation will be described.

The film electrode 1 is formed on the first to third electrodes 10A to 10C of the LCD 10.
By pressing 1 after mounting and giving a signal to each electrode to check whether it can be displayed in all pixels or whether a predetermined pattern can be displayed accurately, etc., and visually inspect the display screen. Is.

Here, in order to press the film electrode 11, first, numerical data is operated and input from the keyboard 51. This data may be pressing force data at the pressing portion 20 or air pressure data for the air cylinder 30 for obtaining the pressing force.

This data is input to the CPU 50, and the CPU 50 outputs a digital signal for obtaining the pressing force. Then, the digital signal is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 53, and the DC voltage which is the analog signal is applied to the force motor 41 of the electropneumatic regulator 40.

The operation of the electropneumatic regulator 40 after setting the electric signal to the force motor 41 is omitted because it has been described above, but the air pressure corresponding to the set electric signal is output from the OUT side. Then, this air pressure determines the pressing force of the air cylinder 30.

When the air cylinder 30 is driven, this air cylinder
The rotating arm 23 of the pressing portion 20 is rotated by the shaft 30 about the shaft 21. The rotating arm 23 is integrally configured with the rotating arm 22 arranged in parallel with the rotating arm 23, so that the rotating arm 22 is also rotated integrally. Since the pressing pad 25 is fixed to the tip of the rotating arm 22, the pressing pad 25 presses the film electrode 11 onto each of the electrodes 10A to 10C. On this occasion,
The pressing force of the pressing pad 25 is based on the data input from the keyboard 51, the air pressure is controlled by the electropneumatic regulator 40, and the pressing force is determined by this air pressure. When the keyboard input is changed, Following this, the pressing force can be continuously changed. Therefore, it is possible to easily set an appropriate pressing force that does not cause contact failure and does not cause damage to the LCD 10 due to excessive pressing force, and it is possible to quickly perform an accurate preparation for an electrical characteristic inspection.

Incidentally, the LCD 10 or the like, which is an object to be inspected of this kind, may have its electrode surface inclined although it has a slight angle. In this case, the pressing pad 25 is rotatable by the bearing 24 as in the present embodiment. Therefore, the inclination of the electrode surface can be made to follow the inclination of the electrode surface, and the adhesion with the electrode surface can be secured.

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

The present invention, the pressing drive unit 30 for driving the pressing unit 20, is operated by the fluid pressure, and is provided with a fluid pressure control means for controlling the fluid pressure by an electrical signal, in the above embodiment, Although air is used as the fluid and the air cylinder 30 and the electropneumatic regulator 40 are used for this purpose, it is not limited to this, and other fluids such as hydraulic pressure may be used. In this case, the fluid pressure depending on the fluid used. The control means and the pressing drive unit may be provided respectively.

In the above embodiment, the fluid pressure control means 40 is replaced by the CPU 50, D /
Although the fluid pressure control means 40 is controlled via the A converter 53, the fluid pressure control means 40 may be directly controlled by varying the voltage or the like by adjusting the volume or the like without using the CPU or the like.

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, the keyboard input data is displayed and controlled on the display unit 52, but for example, a pressure sensor such as a strain gauge is arranged on the pressing unit 20, and the CPU displays the sensor output to the operator. It can also be configured to recognize the pressing force.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the pressing force of the pressing portion that presses the film electrode can be easily changed,
By pressing the film electrode with an appropriate pressure, it is possible to prevent contact failure due to excessive pressing force and damage to the inspected object due to excessive pressing force.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an electropneumatic regulator for specifically explaining the fluid pressure control means of FIG. 1, and FIG. Is an enlarged schematic plan view showing the pressing portion of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view in the direction of arrow B of FIG. The figure is a schematic perspective view of an electrical characteristic test using a conventional probe needle. 10 ... Inspected object, 11 ... Film electrode, 20 ... Pressing part, 25 ... Pressing pad, 30 ... Pressing drive part, 40 ... Fluid pressure control means, 50 ... CPU, 51 ... Operating part , 52 …… Display, 53 …… D / A converter.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An inspection apparatus for inspecting an electrical characteristic of an inspected object by pressing a film electrode against the electrode of the inspected object,
An inspection apparatus comprising: a pressing unit that presses the film electrode; a pressing drive unit that presses and drives the pressing unit by a fluid pressure; and a fluid pressure control unit that variably controls the fluid pressure by an electric signal. . 2. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fluid pressure control means comprises an electropneumatic regulator which continuously varies the air pressure in response to an electric signal. 3. The pressing part has a pressing pad elongated in the electrode arrangement direction of the object to be inspected, and tilts the pressing pad following the inclination of the electrode surface of the object to be inspected. The inspection device according to claim 1 or 2, which is configured freely. 4. An inspection apparatus for inspecting the electrical characteristics of an inspected object by pressing a film electrode against the electrode of the inspected object,
A pressing part that presses the film electrode, a pressing drive part that presses and drives the pressing part by fluid pressure, a fluid pressure control means that variably controls the fluid pressure, and data for setting the pressing force are input. An inspection device having an operation unit, a CPU that outputs a digital signal according to the operation input, and a D / A converter that converts this digital signal into an analog signal, and controls the fluid pressure control means by the analog signal. . 5. The inspection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the CPU controls the display of the operation-input data for setting the pressing force on a display unit. 6. A sensor for inspecting a pressing force is provided on the pressing portion,
The inspection device according to claim 4, wherein the sensor output is displayed on a display unit via the CPU.