JP2013175572A - Probe device and parallelism adjustment mechanism of probe card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a probe device, capable of precisely maintaining parallelism between a probe card and a semiconductor wafer, and a parallelism adjustment mechanism of a probe card.SOLUTION: A probe device 10 causes a plurality of probes 12A disposed on a probe card 12 to contact to a substrate W to be subjected for electrical inspection. It includes a placement stage 11 on which the substrate W is placed, a head plate 15 which holds the probe card 12 above the placement stage 11, four support posts 16 for supporting the head plate 15 by four corners, a lift mechanism 17 which is disposed at least at three points among the support posts 16, and raises/lowers the head plate 15 for adjusting parallelism between the probe card 12 and the substrate W on the placement stage 11, and a releasable brake mechanism 20 which is disposed at least at one point among arrangement parts of the lift mechanism 17, to apply brake when raising/lowering of the head plate.

Description

  The present invention relates to a probe device and a parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a probe apparatus that performs electrical characteristic inspection by bringing a large number of probes disposed on a probe card into contact with a semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor wafer has been used. Some of such probe apparatuses are configured to inspect a plurality of probes by simultaneously bringing them into contact with all the semiconductor devices formed on the semiconductor wafer.

  In the above probe apparatus, it is necessary to bring a large number of probes into contact with a semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor wafer with uniform needle pressure. For this reason, it is necessary to keep the parallelism between the probe card and the semiconductor wafer with high accuracy, and the head plate to which the probe card is fixed is moved up and down by a driving mechanism disposed at a plurality of locations, so that the parallelism between the probe card and the semiconductor wafer is increased. One having a parallel adjustment mechanism for adjustment is known (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-317302 A

  In the probe apparatus, when the semiconductor wafer placed on the placing table is raised and brought into contact with the probe of the probe card, for example, a contact load of 100 kgf or more is applied from the lower side to the upper side to probe the semiconductor wafer. May come into contact. On the other hand, when the head plate is moved up and down by the drive mechanism as described above, the rigidity is reduced by the amount of the drive mechanism, compared to the case where the head plate is mechanically fixed directly without using the drive mechanism. To do. For this reason, the amount of displacement increases when the mounting table is lifted and a contact load is applied from the lower side to the upper side, and the parallelism between the probe card and the semiconductor wafer decreases due to the uneven amount of displacement. There was a problem that.

  The present invention has been made in response to the above-described conventional circumstances, and can suppress a decrease in rigidity of a portion of a drive mechanism for adjusting the parallelism of the probe card, and the parallelism between the probe card and the semiconductor wafer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a probe device and a probe card parallel adjustment mechanism capable of maintaining the accuracy with high accuracy.

  One aspect of the probe apparatus of the present invention is a probe apparatus that performs electrical inspection by bringing a plurality of probes arranged on a probe card into contact with a substrate to be inspected, on which the substrate to be inspected is placed. A mounting table; a head plate for holding the probe card above the mounting table; four support columns for supporting the head plate at four corners; and at least three of the support columns; An elevator mechanism that raises and lowers a plate to adjust parallelism between the probe card and the substrate to be inspected on the mounting table; and And a releasable brake mechanism that applies a brake to ascend and descend.

  One aspect of the parallel adjustment mechanism of the probe card according to the present invention is an elevating mechanism interposed between at least three of the four support columns that support the head plate on which the probe card is mounted at four corners and the head plate. A probe card parallel adjustment mechanism that adjusts the parallelism between the probe card and a substrate to be inspected disposed below the probe card, and at least one of the arrangement parts of the elevating mechanism And a releasable brake mechanism that brakes the lifting and lowering of the head plate.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the probe apparatus which can suppress the fall of the rigidity of the part of the drive mechanism for adjusting the parallelism of a probe card, can maintain the parallelism of a probe card and a semiconductor wafer accurately, and A parallel adjustment mechanism of the probe card can be provided.

The figure which shows the principal part structure of the probe apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the upper surface structure of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the structure of the raising / lowering mechanism of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the structure of the arrangement | positioning part of the brake mechanism of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the structure of the arrangement | positioning part of the brake mechanism of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the structure of the brake mechanism of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the structure of the brake mechanism of the probe apparatus of FIG. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the probe apparatus of FIG. The figure for demonstrating the measurement point of distance.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a probe apparatus 10 according to this embodiment includes a movable mounting table (wafer chuck) 11 on which a semiconductor wafer W as a substrate to be inspected is mounted. Above the chuck 11, a probe card 12 on which a large number of probes 12A are arranged is arranged. The probe card 12 is fixed via a card holder 13 by a card clamp mechanism 14 fixed to the lower surface of the head plate 15. The head plate 15 is integrally formed in a plate shape and has high rigidity.

  The head plate 15 is supported by support pillars 16 at its four corners, and lift mechanisms 17 are disposed at at least three of the connection parts of the support pillars 16 to the head plate 15. In the present embodiment, the elevating mechanism 17 is disposed at a total of three locations, two front positions (left side in FIG. 2) and one rear position (upper right side in FIG. 2). In the remaining one rear portion, the head plate 15 is supported by the support column 16 so as to be inclined at a certain height. Note that the lifting mechanism 17 may be disposed at the connection portions of all the support columns 16 with the head plate 15, that is, at four locations.

  Also, as shown in FIGS. 2, 4, 5, etc., at least one of the portions where the three lifting mechanisms 17 are disposed is released to brake the lifting of the head plate 15. A possible brake mechanism 20 is arranged. In the present embodiment, the brake mechanism 20 is disposed at the part of the lifting mechanism 17 disposed on the rear side.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the probe card 12 is connected to a test head of a tester (not shown) via a connection ring R, and a semiconductor device formed on the semiconductor wafer W is used for inspection from the tester via the probe card 12. A signal is supplied, and an output signal from the semiconductor device is measured by a tester to inspect the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device.

  In the present embodiment, the parallel adjustment mechanism is constituted by three lifting mechanisms 17 and one brake mechanism 20 respectively interposed between the three support pillars 16 in the four corners of the head plate 15. The parallelism between the probe card 12 and the wafer W on the wafer chuck 11 is adjusted using the mechanism 17 and the brake mechanism 20. At this time, the parallelism between the probe card 12 and the wafer W is measured using a measuring device such as a capacitance sensor or a laser length measuring device.

  As shown in FIG. 3, all of the elevating mechanisms 17 are formed in a substantially rectangular block shape as a whole, and each elevating mechanism 17 is fixed to the upper surface of the support column 16 on each lower surface, Are connected to the head plate 15 respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the elevating mechanism 17 has a base body 17B fixed to the upper surface of the support column 16 (see FIG. 1), and an inclined surface arranged to be movable along the upper surface of the base body 17B. The moving body 17C includes a moving body 17C, an elevating body 17E that is connected to the head plate 15 by a fastening member 17D (see FIG. 2) and has an inclined surface that can be moved up and down along the inclined surface of the moving body 17C. And a drive mechanism 17F that moves along the upper surface of the support column 16. Then, the drive mechanism 17F is driven under the control of the control device, and the moving body 17C is moved by a predetermined dimension in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in FIG. 3A), whereby the elevating body 17E is moved to the moving body 17C. It is configured to move up and down by a predetermined dimension via the inclined surface. The control device controls the drive mechanism 17F based on the measurement result of the measuring device.

  Each of the moving body 17C and the lifting body 17E has a substantially trapezoidal side shape, and is configured as a rectangular block body in which the inclined surfaces engage with each other and fit on the support column 16. The front, back, left, and right parallel surfaces that face each other substantially coincide with the side surfaces of the support column 16, and the upper and lower surfaces are fixed to the upper surface of the support column 16 and the lower surface of the head plate 15. The elevating body 17E located behind the inspection apparatus 10 (on the right side in FIG. 1) has an upper end portion extending to the front side (the left side in FIG. 1) of the inspection apparatus 10 to form a bowl-shaped portion 17N having a bowl shape. Have.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, a drive mechanism 17F that moves the moving body 17C includes a ball screw 17G that engages with a female screw formed in the front-rear direction of the moving body 17C, a motor 17H that drives the ball screw 17G, The moving body 17C is moved in the front-rear direction along the upper surface of the base body 17B. A first movement guide mechanism 17I is provided between the base body 17B and the moving body 17C, and the moving body 17C moves smoothly in the front-rear direction on the base body 17B via the first movement guide mechanism 17I. Yes.

  A second movement guide mechanism 17J is provided between the inclined surface of the moving body 17C and the inclined surface of the elevating body 17E, and the elevating body 17E is inclined to the inclined surface of the moving body 17C via the second movement guide mechanism 17J. It moves up and down along the direction and moves up and down smoothly. As shown in FIG. 3B, each of the first and second movement guide mechanisms 17I and 17J has at least two rows of cross rollers and moves along the respective linear guides. Yes. Thereby, it is excellent in load resistance and can be smoothly guided to move even under high loads.

  On the base body 17B, an elevating guide mechanism 17K for elevating and lowering the elevating body 17E is disposed between the motor 17H and the elevating body 17E. The lifting guide mechanism 17K is engaged with the linear guide 17L standing on the base body 17B, and the linear guide 17L via at least two rows of cross rollers (see FIG. 3B), and is lifted and lowered according to the linear guide 17L. And an engaging body 17M that guides the body 17E up and down. Therefore, the elevating body 17E moves up and down via the elevating guide mechanism 17K having at least two rows of cross rollers as the moving body 17C moves back and forth via the drive mechanism 17F.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the brake mechanism 20 supports a shaft 22 that is vertically fixed to the elevating body 17 </ b> E by a fixing jig 21, a gripping mechanism 23 that grips the shaft 22, and a gripping mechanism 23. A base 24 for fixing to the column 16 and an electromagnetic valve 25 for controlling the supply of compressed air to the gripping mechanism 23 are provided. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the gripping mechanism 23 includes a housing 30, and a brake metal 31 and a piston 32 are accommodated in the housing 30.

  When viewed from above, the brake metal 31 has a substantially U-shape having a circular gap 31A in the center and one open part 31B. The brake metal 31 has a circular gap 31A in the center. The shaft 22 is accommodated and gripped. The piston 32 has a wedge-shaped insertion portion 33. By inserting and removing the insertion portion 33 into and from the opening portion 31B of the brake metal 31, the shaft 22 is gripped and released by the brake metal 31. It has a configuration.

  In a state where the shaft 22 is gripped by the brake metal 31, the head plate 15 is lifted and lowered. On the other hand, when the grip of the shaft 22 by the brake metal 31 is released, the brake is released. As shown by the arrow in FIG. 6, the piston 32 is introduced by introducing compressed air or the like from a brake release port 34 disposed on the back side of the piston 32 of the housing 30 (upper side in FIGS. 6 and 7). 6 is configured to drive downward in the middle.

  FIG. 6 shows a state in which compressed air or the like is introduced from the brake release port 34, the insertion portion 33 of the piston 32 is inserted into the release portion 31B of the brake metal 31, and the shaft 22 is opened. 7 shows a state in which the compressed air is discharged, the insertion portion 33 of the piston 32 is pulled out from the open portion 31B of the brake metal 31, and the shaft 22 is gripped by the brake metal 31.

  Next, the operation will be described. First, in order to inspect the wafer W, the probe card 12 is mounted on the card clamp mechanism 14. With the probe card 12 mounted, the probe card 12 and the wafer W on the wafer chuck 11 are not always parallel. Therefore, the probe card 12 is aligned.

  As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8, in the alignment of the probe card 12, the parallelism between the probe card (PC) 12 and the wafer W is measured using a measuring device (step 701). That is, the distance between the probe card 12 and the wafer W is measured at a plurality of locations using this measuring device, and the inclination of the probe card 12 with respect to the wafer W on the wafer chuck 11 is measured. The measurement result of the measuring device is transmitted to the control device.

  The control device determines whether or not the difference between the distances measured at a plurality of locations is within a predetermined value based on the measurement result (step 702).

  If the distance difference is not within the predetermined value, the compressed air is turned on, the compressed air is introduced from the brake release port 34 of the brake mechanism 20, and the insertion portion 33 of the piston 32 is inserted into the release portion 31 </ b> B of the brake metal 31. Insert and release the brake by the brake mechanism 20 (step 703).

  Next, a control signal is transmitted to the drive mechanism 17F of any one of the elevating mechanisms 17, and the drive mechanism 17F is individually controlled (step 704). Accordingly, each drive mechanism 17F is driven, and each moving body 17C moves by a predetermined dimension via the first movement guide mechanism 17I. Along with this, each elevating body 17E moves up and down by a predetermined dimension via the second movement guide mechanism 17J, and the elevating body 17E raises and lowers the head pre-rate 15 by a predetermined dimension to adjust the inclination of the head plate 15. The probe card 12 and the wafer W on the wafer chuck 11 are made parallel.

  Next, the compressed air is turned off, the compressed air is discharged from the brake mechanism 20, the insertion portion 33 of the piston 32 is pulled out from the open portion 31 </ b> B of the brake metal 31, the brake mechanism 20 is activated, and the brake is applied (Step 705).

  Next, returning to step 701, the parallelism between the probe card (PC) 12 and the wafer W is measured again using a measuring instrument.

  The above steps are repeated until the difference in distance measured at a plurality of locations is within a predetermined value and reaches a predetermined parallelism. If the difference between the distances measured at a plurality of locations is within a predetermined value, the process is terminated (step 706).

  In the above process, the distance between the probe card 12 and the wafer W for viewing the parallelism is measured at three points such as measurement points 1, 2, 3 shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, the lower side indicates the front side of the probe device 10, and the upper side indicates the rear side of the probe device 10, and the brake mechanism 20 is disposed in the vicinity of the measurement point 1 on the rear side.

At the measurement points 1, 2, and 3, the amount of displacement of the head plate 15 at each point 1, 2, and 3 when a load of 160 kgf is applied as a contact load from the lower side to the upper side by the wafer chuck 11 is measured. did. As a result, in the probe device 10 of the present embodiment having the brake mechanism 20 in the vicinity of the measurement point 1,
Measurement point 1: 13 μm
Measurement point 2: 9 μm
Measurement point 3: 14 μm
It became.

As a comparative example, the same measurement was performed using a probe device without the brake mechanism 20. As a result,
Measurement point 1: 17 μm
Measurement point 2: 9 μm
Measurement point 3: 14 μm
It became.

  From the above results, the action of the brake mechanism 20 can suppress the amount of displacement of the head plate 15 when a contact load is applied, thereby making the amount of displacement uniform, and the parallelism between the probe card and the semiconductor wafer can be accurately achieved. It turns out that it can be maintained. In addition, by providing the brake mechanism 20, the rigidity of the portion can be improved by about 20 to 30%.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, Of course, various deformation | transformation are possible.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Probe apparatus, 11 ... Wafer chuck (mounting base), 12 ... Probe card, 12A ... Probe, 14 ... Card clamp mechanism, 15 ... Head plate, 16 ... Support pillar, 17 ... Elevating Mechanism, 17B: Base, 17C: Moving body, 17D: Fastening member, 17E: Lifting body, 17F: Drive mechanism, 17G: Ball screw, 17H: Motor, 17I: First movement guide mechanism, 17J: Second moving guide mechanism, 17K: Elevating guide mechanism, 17L: Linear guide, 17M: Engagement body, 17N: Hook-shaped part, 20: Brake mechanism, 21: Fixing jig, 22 ··· Shaft, 23 ··· Grip mechanism, 24 ··· Base, 25 ··· Solenoid valve, 30 ··················································· 3 3 ... Insertion part, 34 ... Brake release port, W ... Semiconductor wafer.

Claims (8)

A probe device that performs electrical inspection by bringing a plurality of probes arranged on a probe card into contact with a substrate to be inspected,
A mounting table on which the substrate to be inspected is mounted;
A head plate for holding the probe card above the mounting table;
Four support columns for supporting the head plate at four corners;
An elevating mechanism disposed at at least three of the support pillars, elevating the head plate, and adjusting parallelism between the probe card and the substrate to be inspected on the mounting table;
A probe device, comprising: a releasable brake mechanism that is disposed in at least one of the positions where the elevating mechanism is disposed and that applies a brake to elevate the head plate. The probe device according to claim 1,
The brake mechanism is
A shaft fixed vertically to the lifting mechanism;
A probe device comprising: a gripping mechanism that is fixed to the support column and grips the shaft. The probe device according to claim 1 or 2,
The elevating mechanism is disposed at a total of three locations including two locations on the front side and one location on the rear side among the four corners of the head plate.
The said brake mechanism is arrange | positioned in the arrangement | positioning site | part of the said elevator provided in one place of the back side. Probe apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. The probe device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The elevating mechanism includes a moving body having an inclined surface arranged to be movable along the upper surface of the support column, and an elevating mechanism connected to the head plate and arranged to be raised and lowered along the inclined surface of the moving body. A probe apparatus comprising: a body; and a drive mechanism that moves the movable body along an upper surface of the support column. There is an elevating mechanism interposed between at least three of the four support pillars that support the head plate on which the probe card is mounted at the four corners and the head plate, and the probe card is disposed below the probe card. A probe card parallel adjustment mechanism for adjusting the parallelism with the substrate to be inspected on the mounting table,
A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card, comprising: a releasable brake mechanism that is disposed at least at one of the positions where the elevating mechanism is disposed and that brakes the elevating of the head plate. A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card according to claim 5,
The brake mechanism is
A shaft fixed vertically to the lifting mechanism;
A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card, comprising: a holding mechanism that is fixed to the support column and holds the shaft. A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card according to claim 5 or 6,
The elevating mechanism is disposed at a total of three locations including two locations on the front side and one location on the rear side among the four corners of the head plate.
The parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card, wherein the brake mechanism is disposed at a position where the elevator is disposed at one location on the rear side. A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card according to any one of claims 5 to 7,
The elevating mechanism includes a moving body having an inclined surface arranged to be movable along the upper surface of the support column, and an elevating mechanism connected to the head plate and arranged to be raised and lowered along the inclined surface of the moving body. A parallel adjustment mechanism for a probe card, comprising: a body; and a drive mechanism that moves the movable body along an upper surface of the support column.

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