JPS6251235A - Wafer prober - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the main body of an apparatus very compact, to set a large wafer carrier at the front of the apparatus readily and to enhance operability, by arranging a conveying system comprising the wafer carrier, a wafer hand and the like at the front part of the main body of a wafer prober. CONSTITUTION:In order to set a wafer carrier 3, a carrier setting switch on an operating panel 6 is depressed. Then, wafer carrier table 2 is moved to the outside through a wafer-carrier output/input port 1 at the front of an apparatus. The movement of the wafer carrier table 2 is performed with a linear pulse motor. When a start switch on the operating panel 6 is depressed, a pantograph had 15 is turned to the direction of the specified wafer carrier in the contracted state. The pantograph is moved from the upper part to the downward direction by a pantograph lifting mechanism part16. The pantograph hand 15 has a wafer sensing semiconductor laser 70 and a photodetector 71 in the inside. Thus the presence or absence of the wafer and its accurate position in the wafer carrier can be detected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a wafer blower for performing probe inspection of semiconductor chips, and particularly relates to a wafer blower for performing probe inspection of semiconductor chips.
- Wafer insertion/ejection Ii for taking out and inserting the wafer into at least the wafer carrier of the wafer transport section! The present invention relates to a wafer prober whose operability is improved by arranging the structural parts at the front of the apparatus.

Further, in the present invention, the wafer carrier, wafer insertion/removal mechanism, pre-alignment section, unload stop section, etc. are arranged below the operation section on the front of the apparatus. It can be made extremely small by using the
The present invention relates to a wafer prober which enables pre-alignment operation regardless of noise and which can be easily automated by using a wafer carrier A7 automatic transport vehicle operated by optical communication.

[Prior Art] A wafer prober is a device used to measure the characteristics of a large number of IC chips formed on a semiconductor substrate in the wafer state before cutting and packaging. . The actual test is performed by an IC tester, but
The wafer prober connects this IC tester and each IC on the wafer.
This is a device for electrically and accurately connecting the C chip to the connector 1.

By the way, in the conventional two-hub []-bar, the wafer transport system has the configuration shown in FIG. 11.

In the figure, 40 is a transport unit L-141 is a wafer prober main body, 42 is a supply wafer carrier V143 is a storage wafer carrier A7, 44 is an uninspected wafer that is supplied to the hub prober main body 41, and 45 is a wafer prober that has already finished measurement. This is a wafer that has been inspected and is stored in the carrier 42. In such a transport system, the supply carrier 42 and the storage carrier 43 were separate, but in recent years, with the increasing size of wafers and further automation, a large number of wafer carriers are used. As a result, the problem of increasing the size of the transport system caused by using separate carriers for supply and storage has become a problem that cannot be ignored.

Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, a conveyance system having the configuration shown in FIG. 12 was proposed. In the figure, 46, 47 and 4
Reference numeral 8 denotes a supply/storage wafer carrier, 49 a wafer, and 50 a T hand for pulling out or pushing in a wafer into the wafer carrier A7, and the numbers of the numbers are the same as in FIG. 11. With this configuration, wafers can be supplied and stored using one wafer carrier, but each of the plurality of wafer carriers 46, 47, 48 requires an empty area for pulling out the wafers. Therefore, it is still a waste>r
There was a lot of space.

Therefore, in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the conveyance system shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the applicant has already proposed the conveyance system shown in FIG. 13. In the figure, reference numerals 51 and 52 are supply/storage wafer carriers, 53 is a wafer, and 54 is a wafer hand for pulling out or pushing the wafer from the wafer carrier. The wafer hand 54 is rotatable as shown in the figure. According to this configuration, the empty space necessary for pulling out the wafer from each of the two wafer carriers 51 and 52 shown in the figure is shared, thereby reducing wasted space and downsizing the apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the surrounding situation of the wafer prober when the transfer system of FIG. 13 is applied to the J haprober. In the figure, 54 is an operator, 55 is an operation area,
Reference numeral 56 indicates a passage, and the numbers of the numbers are the same as in FIG. 13.

However, although the wafer prober configured as shown in FIG. 14 is certainly smaller in size than the wafer prober shown in FIGS. It has the disadvantage that it is located far away and has poor operability. This drawback was not a big problem when the wafer size was up to about 6 inches, but when the wafer size increased to 8 inches or more, it became a serious problem due to the size and weight of the wafer carrier. Operations such as removal and setting of the wafer carrier 51 become difficult, and such operations must be performed from the side of the wafer prober. Therefore, in a wafer prober having such a transfer system, as shown in FIG.
[A passage 56 for setting the carrier is required. For this reason, it becomes impossible to arrange the two-hub rover in the factory as shown in FIG. 15, and the arrangement is limited to that shown in FIG. 16. Comparing FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, it is clear that FIG. 15 is superior in terms of effective use of space.

Further, in FIG. 12, the supply/storage wafer carrier 46
．． 47 and 48 are mounted on one board, and when replacing the wafer carrier, the board is pulled out and all wafer carriers 46 are mounted.
．． A device in which the wafer carriers 47 and 48 can be pulled out to the front is also known, but in this case, there is a drawback that when replacing the rear wafer carrier 46, the device operation regarding the front wafer carriers 47 and 48 is also stopped. Ta.

In addition, supply and storage wafer carriers 46, 47 and 48
In a wafer carrier, it is necessary to measure the exact position of the chip within the wafer carrier in order to ensure that the wafer can be pulled out or pushed in. However, with the all-wafer carrier pull-out method, replacing one wafer carrier will reduce the
This method also has the disadvantage that the wafer within the carrier also moves, rendering any accurate position measurements made previously meaningless.

Furthermore, in the conventional wafer prober 7-, the pre-alignment section and the unroast stop section occupy a relatively large area within the apparatus, which is one of the reasons for the increase in the size of the wafer prober. Here, the pre-alignment section pulls out the wafer from the carrier in an XY direction.
The unload stop section performs pre-alignment before placing the wafer on the wafer chuck on the stage, and the unload stop section is used to remove the wafer from the wafer chuck after blobbing, and then manually removes the wafer to visually check its surface condition. This is a temporary location.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art, and provides excellent operability such as extremely downsizing the main body of the apparatus and allowing easy setting of a large wafer carrier from the front of the apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer prober having the following features.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a wafer opening that does not require replacement or adjustment of the transport system unit even when the wafer size is changed.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a cutting hub O-bar that can be easily applied to automation of a wafer prober line.

The above purpose is to replace the wafer carrier, wafer hand, and other transport systems that were conventionally mounted on the side of the J haprober body.
This is achieved by placing it on the front part of the wafer prober main body.

[Explanation of Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on examples.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a Unihub O-bar according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the wafer carrier entrance/exit, 2
3 is a wafer carrier; 4 is an unload stop position where the wafer is placed when visually observing a wafer that has been probed; 5 is the unload stop position; 6 is an operation panel; 7 is a wafer carrier stand with a sliding mechanism; A pre-alignment station that roughly aligns the
8 is a wafer undergoing pre-alignment, 10 is a wafer chuck that holds the wafer by vacuum, 11 is a wafer in a measurement state, 12 is a head plate that holds a probe card (not shown) inside, and 13 is a probe card. 14 is a reference image (hereinafter referred to as a template) used for parameter display and auto-alignment set on the wafer blobber;
This is a monitor used for settings etc.

FIG. 2 is an internal schematic diagram of the wafer processor 7- shown in FIG. 1. In the figure, 15 is a pantograph hand that can pull out or insert a wafer from any position of the wafer carrier 3, 16 is a pantograph hand upper and lower Ia structure that drives the pantograph hand up and down, and 11 is a wafer chuck from the rear alignment station 7. 10 is a carry-in hand that carries the wafer; 18 is a θZ stage that rotates or drives the wafer chuck 10 in the height direction; 19 and 20 are an X stage and a Y stage, respectively; 21 is an outer circumference t! 22 is a capacitive sensor that measures the height of the surface of the wafer;
This is an auto-alignment microscope that captures patterns on the wafer surface for auto-alignment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic external view of the wafer prober shown in FIG. 1, where 30 is a flat keyboard (operation unit) used for setting parameters, etc., and 31 and 32 are transparent covers.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the pantograph hand 15 shown in FIG. 2. In the figure, 3 is a wafer carrier, 60 is a wafer, 70 is a semiconductor laser with a remeter (used as a light source for detecting the presence or absence of a chip and measuring the position of the chip), and 71 is a laser reflected by a plane mirror 73. A photodetector 72 detects light, a half mirror 174 is an extension/contraction drive section of the pantograph hand 15, and 75 is a rotation drive section that rotates the entire pantograph hand 15.

5 and 6 are top views of the pantograph hand 15, showing the pantograph hand 15 in an extended state and a contracted state, respectively, by the operation of the telescopic drive section 74. FIG. The symbols are the same as in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the pre-alignment station and its surroundings. In the figure, 80 is a linear pulse motor that moves the carry-in hand 17 in the Y-axis direction, 81 is a scale that becomes the stator of the linear pulse motor, 82 is a carry-in hand vertical drive unit that moves the carry-in hand up and down, and 83 is used for pre-alignment. ■A wafer sensor for detecting the outer shape of the wafer from the back side; 84 is a pantograph hand finger; 85 is a pre-alignment unit for rotating the wafer during pre-alignment; ■A rotation mechanism unit; 86 is for lifting the wafer from the wafer chuck. It is a wafer chuck bin.

8 and 9 are diagrams for explaining the pre-alignment operation. FIG. 8 shows the state in which the outline of the pin on the pantograph hand 15 is detected by the wafer sensor 83, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a pre-alignment execution state.

Hereinafter, the operation of the J haplober according to the above configuration will be explained.

First, the settings of the wafer carrier A73 will be explained.

Referring to FIG. 1, to set the wafer carrier 3, a carrier set switch (not shown) on the operation panel 6 is pressed. At this point, the carrier stand 2 comes out from the wafer carrier entrance/exit 1 at the front of the apparatus.

In this embodiment, the wafer carrier table 2 is moved by a linear pulse motor. Note that although Figure 1 shows the wafer carrier stand 2 on the left side being exposed,
The wafer carrier table 2 on the right side can also move in a similar manner. After setting the wafer carrier 3 on the wafer carrier stand 2, the wafer carrier stand 2 is moved into the apparatus by pressing the carrier set switch again, and in this state, the wooden mounting is placed in a start waiting state.

Next, the probe test operation will be explained.

In the start waiting state, when the start switch on the operation panel 6 is pressed, the pantograph hand 15 remains in the retracted state (see FIG. 6) and faces the specified wafer carrier, and the pantograph hand vertical mechanism section 16
to move from top to bottom. As shown in FIG. 4, the pantograph hand 15 has a semiconductor laser 70 and a photodetector 71 for wafer sensing inside, and these can detect the presence or absence of a wafer in the wafer carrier and its exact position. It is possible. With such a function, the pantograph hand 15 can pull out the wafer 60 from any position in the wafer carrier 3. Wafer carrier 3 to wafer 6
Figures 5 and 6 show how 0 is drawn.

After pulling out the wafer 60 from the pantograph hand 15 carrier 3, the pantograph hand vertical mechanism section 1
6 and further rotated by the pantograph hand rotation drive unit 15, the wafer is positioned above the pre-alignment station 7 as shown in FIG.

Here, the operation of the Briar Alignment 1 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 to 9.

When the wafer of pantograph hand finger 84 is positioned on the pre-alignment station 7, the carry-in hand 17 having the wafer sensor 83 starts scanning below the wafer (below the pantograph hand finger 84). During this scan, the wafer sensor 83 senses the periphery of the wafer on the pantograph hand finger 84 and obtains data on the periphery of the wafer in the Y-axis direction. After this, the pantograph hand 15 is expanded and contracted in the X-axis direction shown in FIG. 7, and the peripheral area is sensed in the same manner as above.
The outer circumferential position of C in the X-axis direction is detected. This situation is shown in FIG. After this, from the wafer outer circumferential position data obtained as above, the center position of the wafer is determined and this center is the seventh
The expansion and contraction state of the pantograph hand 15 is set so as to coincide with the center of the wafer rotation mechanism section 85 for pre-alignment in the X-axis direction shown in the figure, and then the wafer is placed in the wafer rotation mechanism section 85 by lowering the pantograph hand 15. Move. Incidentally, before this operation, the carry-in hand 17 is moved to the position shown in FIG. 9. After the pantograph hand 15 transfers the wafer to the wafer rotation mechanism section 85, the pantograph hand 15 enters a contracted state as shown in FIG. 9 and finishes the operation of carrying the wafer into the pre-alignment station 7.

In the above, we have explained autoloading in fully automatic operation, which is the main operation of the wafer prober of this embodiment, but this wafer prober also allows loading and unloading of wafers by manual operation extremely easily and at high speed. It has become. In the case of manual operation in this embodiment, wafer loading is performed by raising the flat keyboard 30 on the right front of the apparatus shown in FIG.
It is sufficient to simply place the wafer on the pre-alignment wafer rotation mechanism section 85 of -t-. Incidentally, at this time, the carry-in hand 17 is located at the pre-alignment station as shown in FIG.

When a wafer is placed automatically or manually, the wafer rotation mechanism section 85 vacuums the wafer and starts rotating. If the placed wafer is not a cracked wafer or a deformed wafer, the wafer is rotated by the wafer rotation mechanism section 85, and at this time, the carry-in hand 17 traces the outer circumference of the wafer by the operation of the linear pulse motor 80 to perform orientation. Detect flat parts.

Then, the wafer rotation mechanism section 85 directs the orientation flat portion of the wafer in a predetermined direction.

In addition, if the rotation mechanism part 85 from the pantograph hand 15
If the center position of the wafer transferred to the wafer rotation mechanism section 85 has a large error in the Y-axis direction shown in FIG. This error can be removed by lifting it up again, moving it in the Y-axis direction to correct this error, and then lowering it back into the wafer rotation mechanism section 85. Through this operation, the center of the wafer is rotated by the wafer rotating am section 8.
Not only is it possible to avoid alignment with the rotation center of 5, making it possible to execute more stable rotation, but also it is possible to easily detect the aforementioned orientation flat portion by the wafer sensor 83 at higher speed and with higher precision. becomes.

In this embodiment, a reflection type optical sensor is used as the wafer sensor 83, but a transmission type optical sensor, a capacitance type sensor, or the like may also be used.

When the detection of the orientation flat part is completed on the wafer rotation mechanism section 85, the wafer is further rotated so that the orientation flat part faces in the specified direction, and then lifted from the pre-alignment station 7 by the carry-in hand 11. The wafer is carried onto the t-yack 10 which is waiting at the position shown in FIG.

The wafer chuck 10 has three wafer chuck bins 86 that can protrude from its surface.
When receiving and removing wafers from the wafer chuck, a T-shaped bin 86 is made to protrude from the wafer chuck.

In this state, the carry-in hand 17 is moved to the carry-in hand vertical drive unit 82.
As a result, the wafer on the carry-in hand 17 is transferred onto the wafer chuck bin 86 protruding from the wafer chuck 10. After that, the carry-in hand 17 returns to the pre-alignment station 7 side, and then the wafer chuck bin 86 protruding from the wafer chuck 10
By lowering the wafer, the wafer is transferred onto the wafer chuck 10 and fixed by vacuum suction.

In this embodiment, the wafer chuck bin 86 is made to protrude from the wafer chuck 10 when the wafer chuck 10 is carried in; Movements similar to the example are possible.

Here, the operation after the wafer is transferred to the wafer chuck 10-L of the XY stage 19.20 will be described with reference to FIG.

When the wafer is transferred onto the wafer chuck 10, the wafer chuck 10 performs an initial scan under the capacitive sensor 21 to detect the outer peripheral position of the wafer and perform more accurate orientation of the flat portion. Then measure the center of the wafer.

The orientation of a portion of the orientation flat 1 at this position is adjusted by rotating the θ7 stage 18 by θ.

Further, after the more accurate pre-alignment described in L, the wafer chuck 10 performs a re-scanning operation under the capacitive sensor 21 to detect the height of the wafer surface. This detection in the height direction is to obtain correction data for keeping the contact pressure between the probe needle of the probe card and the T-shape constant at all positions on the wafer.

Thereafter, the wafer chuck 10 is moved so that a predetermined position on the wafer is located below the auto-alignment microscope 22. At this position, the pattern of the wafer on the chuck is determined in advance by comparing the pre-stored sea urchin heart template with the pattern observed by the auto-alignment microscope 22 when the wafer is actually placed at this position. It detects how far the position has an error in the XYh directions from the determined position.

Note that error detection in the XYh directions is automatically performed by an error position detection device (not shown) using pattern matching provided at the bottom of the device. This operation is similarly performed at another predetermined position of the IL bar L for error detection in the θ direction.

As described above, by detecting errors in the XYh directions at two points, errors in the X, Y, and θ directions of the pattern on JC are detected, and the θ component error is corrected by rotating the wafer chuck 10, and the XYh direction component is corrected by rotating the wafer chuck 10. If there is a component error, the XY stage is corrected and driven to remove this error component during blobbing.

When the correction operation of the θ component error and the detection of the XY component error are completed under the auto-alignment microscope 22, the first IC chip (hereinafter referred to as the first chip) on the wafer is moved to the probe card (hereinafter referred to as the first chip) fixed to the head plate 12. (not shown). This operation is performed by the XY stages 19 and 20, and at this time, as described above, the XY component errors detected during autoalignment are also corrected at the same time. After the first chip has moved below the probe card, the wafer chuck 10 is moved up by a predetermined stroke by the 7 drive mechanism of the θ7 stage 18, and the bonding pad of the IC chip of the wafer is brought into contact with the probe needle of the probe card. In this state, when the wafer prober sends a test start signal to an external tester (not shown), the tester starts testing this IC chip. If the IC chip is determined to be non-defective as a result of this test, the tester sends a test completion signal to the wafer prober. Further, if this IC chip is determined to be a defective product, the tester sends a test end signal and a signal indicating the defect. When the wafer prober receives this test end signal, it determines whether the 1C chip is good or bad depending on whether a signal indicating a defect is received or not, and if it is defective, it marks the IC chip with an inker (not shown).

When the series of operations for testing the first chip is completed as described above, the XY stages 19 and 20 are moved to sequentially position the untested IC depths under the probe card and process them in the same manner as the first chip.

When all IC chips on the wafer have been tested, the T-hatch 10 returns to its initial position as shown in FIG.
Vacuum suction 1] Second, the wafer is lifted from the wafer chuck 10 by protruding the three wafer chucks 86 from the wafer chuck 10. In this state, the pantograph hand 15 is retracted and the second
Face the direction of the wafer chuck 10 shown in the figure, and insert the pantograph hand finger 84 between the chuck 10 and the pantograph hand 15 by extending the pantograph hand 15 roughly, and then the pantograph hand 15 rises slightly and then retracts. This wafer is recovered from the wafer chuck 10 by the following steps.

If the unload stop operation is set, the pantograph hand 15 passes the wafer to the unload stop position 4, and then moves the wafer to the unload stop position 4 after a preset time or after a manual instruction to store the wafer. On the other hand, if an un-to-stop operation is not set, this wafer is returned directly to the position in the wafer carrier 3 where it was before inspection.

Note that while the wafer on the Hachisec 10 is being blown, the next wafer is pulled out from within the wafer carrier 3 by the pantograph hand 15 and delivered to the prealignment station 7. Thereafter, the same prealignment operation as described above is performed at the prealignment station 7. In other words, when a wafer is unloaded from the wafer chuck 10, the next wafer is waiting in the pre-alignment I-station 7 with pre-alignment completed, and the next wafer is loaded into the wafer chuck 10 for pre-alignment etc. It is executed without wasting time.

As a result of the above operations, the test for all wafers in the 1 wafer carrier is completed. When the test is completed, the carrier set switch (not shown) on the operation panel 6 is switched to the plink state, indicating that the wafer test for the 1 wafer carrier has been completed. Inform the operator. If the operator presses the carrier set switch in this state, the wafer carrier table 2 will come forward, making it easy to remove and replace the wafer carrier. Note that when the operator replaces the carrier, if a wafer carrier containing a wafer to be tested is set on the other two-wheel carrier stand 2, the two-wheel hub [1-bar] will replace the wafer in this wafer carrier. automatically perform the probe test operations described above for

Next, an example of automation of a wafer prober line to which the wafer prober of the present invention is applied will be explained based on FIG. In the figure, 90 is a wafer cassette automatic transport vehicle, 91 is a wafer carrier, 92 is a wafer carrier transport hand, and 93
1 is the optical communication window of the transport vehicle, and the optical communication window of the 99-1 hub robot.

In the figure, the transport vehicle 90 is constantly reciprocating in the transport vehicle passage 94, and during this movement, it communicates with the wafer prober while facing the optical communication window 99 of the T-hap prober with the optical communication window 93. I am doing it. As a result of this communication, any one of the wafer probers can
If it is detected that the test in step C has been completed, the transport vehicle 9
0 stops before the first haplobar. Furthermore, the wafer prober is positioned by moving at a low speed to the position where the human power light from the optical communication window is maximum.

Thereafter, the transport vehicle 90 transmits to the wafer prober that the wafer carrier will be replaced. When the wafer prober receives this signal, it pushes out the wafer carrier stand 2 of the inspected wafer carrier 91 toward the transport vehicle 90, and notifies the transport vehicle 90 through the optical communication window 99 that the wafer carrier stage 2 has been taken out. and send.

After the transport vehicle 90 receives this signal, the wafer 4 carrier transport hand 92 lifts up the wafer carrier 91 on the wafer carrier table 2 and stores it in a predetermined position within the transport vehicle 90 . Furthermore, the transport vehicle 90 contains an uninspected item.
The carrier 91 is placed on the carrier table 2 using the wafer carrier transfer hand 92, and a message is sent to the wafer prober that the carrier exchange has been completed. When the wafer carrier receives this signal, it returns the wafer carrier stand 2 into the main body and completes the exchange of the wafer carrier 91.

Although the wafer prober is shown only on one side of the transport vehicle passage 94 in FIG. 10, it is naturally possible to arrange the wafer prober on both sides of this passage.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the wafer prober according to the present invention has the following effects.

(2) Since the wafer carrier A7 and the wafer hand capable of taking out or inserting the wafer in the wafer carrier A7 are disposed on the front of the wafer prober main body, the wafer carrier can be replaced from the front of the apparatus, improving operability.

Further, since no extra space is required on the side of the device for replacing the carrier, space can be used effectively in the factory.

■ Since the wafer carrier can be replaced from the front of the equipment, large wafer carriers can be easily replaced, and
As shown in Figure 0, it can easily be used to automate multiple hub lines in factories. (2) The apparatus can be further miniaturized by providing a pre-alignment station and an unload stop position below the operating section, and providing a wafer carrier and transport section below these. Furthermore, in this case, the pre-alignment stage and unloading stop position are located at the top of the front of the equipment, so manual wafer loading and unloading can be easily performed at all times. It is also extremely easy to visually inspect the entire piece after the inspection is completed.

■ If non-contact detection of the wafer's outer circumference is performed by the interlocking operation of two hands for transferring the wafer that can move in directions perpendicular to each other, it is possible to measure the center of the wafer and its orientation regardless of the size of the wafer. The direction of the flat part can be adjusted.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a wafer prober according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an internal schematic diagram of the wafer prober in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic external appearance of the wafer prober in FIG. 1. Figures 4 to 6 are explanatory diagrams of the structure and operation of the pantograph hand in Figure 2. Figure 7 is a schematic perspective view of the pre-alignment station in Figure 2. Figures 8 and 9 are illustrations of the pantograph hand in Figure 2. FIG. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram of a wafer prober line to which the wafer prober of FIG. 1 is applied. FIGS. Figure 14 is a diagram explaining the three surrounding situations of the wafer prober using the transfer system in Figure 13, and Figures 15 and 16.
The figure shows an example of the arrangement of wafer probers in a factory. 1: Carrier entrance/exit, 2: Wafer carrier stand, 3: Wafer carrier, 4: Unload stop position, 6: Operation panel, 7: Pre-alignment station, 10: Chuck, 12: Head play-1~, 13
: Stereo microscope, 14: Monitor, 15: Pantograph hand, 17: Carrying hand, 18:
θZ stage, 19: Y stage, 20: X stage,
21: Capacitance type sensor, 22: Auto alignment microscope, 90: Wafer carrier automatic transport vehicle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer stage that is movable with wafers mounted thereon, and an uninspected wafer taken out from a desired wafer storage position of one or more wafer carriers, transported, and delivered to the wafer stage, and which has been inspected. a wafer transport means for collecting the wafers from the wafer stage and transporting and storing the wafers to a predetermined storage position of the wafer carrier; A wafer prober comprising means for electrically connecting the semiconductor chip and a test circuit by bringing a probe needle into contact with the semiconductor chip, the wafer being inserted into and removed from the wafer carrier and at least the wafer carrier of the wafer transport means. A wafer prober characterized in that a wafer insertion/removal mechanism portion is disposed at the front of a main body of the wafer prober. 2. The wafer prober according to claim 1, wherein two of the wafer carriers are arranged opposite to each other with the wafer insertion/removal mechanism portion interposed therebetween. 3. A wafer pre-alignment section for roughly aligning the uninspected wafer before loading it onto the wafer stage and/or an unload stop section for placing the inspected wafer for visual inspection are provided above the wafer carrier. A wafer prober according to any of the preceding claims. 4. The wafer prober according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an operation section for inputting operation information is provided above the wafer carrier. 5. The wafer prober according to claim 3, wherein an operation section for inputting operation information is provided above the pre-alignment section and/or the unload stop section. 6. The wafer prober according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the wafer carrier can be taken out from the front of the apparatus.