JPH02264868A - Probe device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable execution of precise position alignment even when the pitch of a probe is very short, by conducting adjustment of the position of the probe by making use of the thermal expansion and thermal shrinkage of a thermal distortion substance. CONSTITUTION:A probe 10 prepared by forming a conductor pattern on a quartz film substrate is fixed on a pedestal 11. The pedestal 11 is fixed to a member 14 for adjustment in the direction Z which is vertical to a printed circuit board 18, while the lateral side part of the member 14 is fitted firmly to a member 17 for adjustment in the direction X which is parallel to the board 18 and vertical to the point of the probe 10. This member 17 is fixed to the board 18 and the member 14 is fixed to the board 18 through the intermediary of the member 17. Both of these members 14 and 17 are constituted of a thermal distortion substance, and temperature control elements 20 and 21 made up of a heating body or an endothermic body are buried inside of them respectively. The point of the probe 10 can be adjusted in position in the directions Z and X by varying a current supplied to these elements 20 and 21. Accordingly, a control can be executed by an amount corresponding to a thermal expansion coefficient by a temperature control and thus a precise position control can be executed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a probe device.

[Conventional technology]

The integration of ICs is progressing, and the degree of integration is 4M and 16M, and industrialization is progressing. As the degree of integration increases in this manner, the pitch between the electrodes of the IC chip becomes extremely small, which limits the use of probe cards such as conventional wafer probers. Therefore, if the pitch between the terminal bins is, for example, 100
In testing narrow ICs, etc., below um, it is necessary to prepare probe needles with a pitch corresponding to this. In the case of such a narrow pitch, it is difficult to use a stylus needle such as a conventional tungsten needle. Therefore, as a probe needle, a needle made of a conductive material is mounted on a film-like quartz substrate that takes advantage of the anisotropy of quartz crystal etching. A crystal probe needle formed using selective etching technology has been proposed. Conventionally, alignment with respect to an object to be inspected during wafer probing using such a crystal probe needle has been performed mechanically.

Issue 1111 to be solved by the invention However, mechanically aligning probe needles with a short pitch of 1004 as described above has the drawback that the adjustment pitch becomes coarse and the adjustment accuracy is poor. . Further, a complicated adjustment mechanism must be used, and furthermore, adjustment becomes difficult. An object of the present invention is to provide a probe device that can perform positioning with high precision even when the pitch of the stylus is very short. [Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a probe device that performs measurement by adjusting the position of a stylus array relative to an object to be measured, in which the position adjustment is performed using thermal deformation. Features. Moreover, the above-mentioned position adjustment is performed by a piezoelectric effect.

[Effect]

By controlling the temperature applied to the thermally deformable material by the temperature control element, the thermally deformable material shrinks in accordance with the heat lf6 tension, thereby making it possible to adjust the position of the stylus. Temperature control allows precise position adjustment because the position can be controlled by an amount that corresponds to the coefficient of thermal expansion. Furthermore, when a piezoelectric element is used as the position adjustment member, by controlling the bias voltage applied to the piezoelectric element, fine position adjustment of the probe needle can be performed in the same manner as in the case of the thermally deformable material described above.

【Example】

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention apparatus is applied to a wafer prober will be described with reference to the drawings. A stylus, for example, a probe needle 10, is fixed, for example, glued, to the slope of a pedestal 11 made of, for example, polyimide resin and having a trapezoidal longitudinal section. In the case of this example, the probe needle 10 has a conductor pattern 13 formed on a crystal film substrate 12 as shown in FIG. For example, length 1.8m + width 7
Probe needles having 0p movable gold-plated electrodes are formed on a quartz substrate at a pitch of, for example, 100 gr. The pedestal 11 is mounted in the Z direction (direction perpendicular to the printed circuit board 18)
It is fixed to the adjustment member 14, for example by screws 15,16. Further, the X-direction adjustment member 14 is fixed, for example, screwed, to the adjustment member 17 in the X direction (a direction parallel to the printed circuit board 18 and perpendicular to the probe needle tip) at its side surface. The X-direction adjustment member 17 is fixed to the printed circuit board 18 by, for example, screws. Therefore, the X-direction adjustment member 14
8, but is fixed to the printed circuit board 18 via the X-direction adjustment member 17. The X-direction adjustment member 14 is made of a thermally deformable material, such as zinc, and has a temperature control element 20 embedded therein. As this temperature control element 20, a heat generating body such as a heater or a heat absorbing body such as a Vertier element can be used. By changing the current supplied to the temperature control element 20, the X-direction adjustment member 14 thermally expands or contracts, and as a result, the position of the tip of the probe needle 10 can be adjusted in the Z-direction. At this time, if you have a built-in liquid cooling vibrator, you can quickly and easily adjust the temperature. The X-direction adjustment member 17 is also made of a thermally deformable material such as zinc, and a temperature control element 21 made of a heat generating element or a heat absorbing element is embedded therein. By changing the current supplied to the temperature control element 21, the X-direction adjustment member 17 thermally expands or contracts, and as a result, the position of the tip of the probe needle 10 can be adjusted in the X-direction. FIG. 4 shows an example of a temperature control circuit for the temperature control element 20 embedded in the X-direction adjustment member 14.
The temperature control circuit for the temperature control element 21 embedded in the direction adjustment member 17 is configured in exactly the same manner. This position adjustment is used to perform position adjustment based on changes in outside air temperature, etc. after pre-alignment by so-called orientation flat alignment of the wafer, and after fine alignment by IC chip patterns provided on the wafer. In this example, the temperature control circuit FIII 30 controls the thermal expansion or contraction of the member 14 based on the difference in temperature from the outside air temperature. That is, one input terminal of the operational amplifier 31 is grounded via a sensor 32 for detecting outside air temperature, and is also connected to a bias voltage terminal 34 via a temperature setting variable resistor 33. Also, operational amplifier 31
The other input terminal of is connected to the bias voltage terminal 34 via a resistor 35 and grounded via a variable resistor 36 for position adjustment in the X direction. And op amp 31
A temperature control element 20 is connected between the output terminal of and ground. In addition, in FIG. 4, 37 is a power supply terminal. To adjust the position of the probe needle 10 in the X direction using temperature control circuit #130, first adjust the temperature setting variable resistor 33 to set the voltage at one input terminal of the operational amplifier 31 to a value corresponding to the outside temperature. Adjust to. Thereafter, the position adjustment variable resistor 36 is adjusted to set the voltage at the other input terminal of the operational amplifier 31. An output voltage corresponding to the difference in voltage between both input terminals is obtained from the operational amplifier 31, and a current corresponding to this output voltage flows to the temperature control element 20. In this example, when the outside temperature changes, the resistance value of the temperature sensor 32 changes accordingly, and the voltage at one input terminal of the operational amplifier 31 changes. On the other hand, the voltage at the other input terminal of the operational amplifier 31 does not change even if the outside temperature changes.
The current supplied to 0 will change if the outside temperature changes, but the temperature given to the member 14 does not change because it is determined by (the outside air temperature control element 20) and is not affected by changes in outside air temperature. temperature stability for position adjustment is good. Adjustment by the position adjustment variable resistor 36 ensures that the tip of the probe needle 10 comes into contact with the electrode pad 41 of the IC 40 that is the object to be inspected. For example, if the electrode pad 41 and the tip of the probe needle 10 are not in contact with each other, or if they are in slight contact but not in a reliable contact state, the Z direction position W and the temperature applied to the adjustment member 14 may be controlled by a variable resistor. The device 36 is adjusted to cause the member 14 to expand. Then, the position of the tip of the probe needle 10 moves in the X direction so that it is strongly pressed against the pad 41. Temperature control is performed on the temperature control element 21 of the X-direction position adjustment member 17 in exactly the same way based on the difference in temperature from the outside air, and the X-direction position adjustment member 17 thermally expands or contracts, and as a result, the temperature control element 21 in the Z-direction The value 'Il adjustment member 14 is
As a result, the tip of the probe needle 10 changes its position in the X direction, and the probe needle 10 is aligned with the pad 41 of the IC 40. At this time, the formation pitch of the tip of the probe needle 10 is 100.
Fourth, by temperature control, it is possible to precisely adjust the position of the electrode pad rows of each IC chip on the semiconductor wafer. By the way, the X of the probe needle 10 glued on the pedestal 11
The height position of each needle tip lined up in the direction from the printed circuit board 19 depends on the thickness of the adhesive and the thickness unevenness of the member 14 and the pedestal 11. For example, the height on the near side in FIG. 1 is low, and the height on the opposite side is low. There may be irregularities such as high height. However, this can be corrected by doing the following. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of, for example, three, temperature control elements 51 are placed in the X direction of the Z direction adjustment member 14.
, 52.53 are embedded, and each temperature control element 51.52.
53 can be controlled by independent temperature control circuits 54, 55, and 56, respectively. In such a configuration, at a lower height position of the needle tip, the temperature control element 51 makes the temperature of that part of the member 14 relatively high, making the thermal expansion larger than other parts, and At a high position, the temperature control element 53 lowers the temperature of that part of the member 14 to reduce thermal expansion, and at an intermediate position, the temperature control element 52 lowers the temperature of that part to a temperature intermediate between the two. Control. In this way, the unevenness in the height of the tips of the probe needles in the X direction is corrected, and each tip of the probe is brought into a state in which it presses with almost uniform pressure against the pad of the IC to be inspected. Next, FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of this invention.
In this example, the X-direction adjustment member 60 has two different coefficients of thermal expansion.
It is constructed by pasting together two thermally deformable materials 61 and 62. The pedestal 11 is mounted on the thermally deformable material 61 having a smaller coefficient of thermal expansion than the board member 60 in this Z direction.
Place it on the A side and fl of this member 60! The area on the one end side indicated by diagonal lines in the figure is fixed to the X-direction position adjustment member 17. In this way, the thermally deformable materials 61 and 62 thermally expand or contract by different amounts due to the heat applied from the temperature control element embedded in the Z-direction position adjustment member 60. Therefore, the Z direction position adjustment member 60
The probe needle 10, which is curved in the Z direction and attached to the free end side of the member 60, changes its position in the Z direction. This change is, for example, a minute change of about 304 at most, and is a nearly linear change. Similarly, the X-direction position adjustment member has two different coefficients of thermal expansion.
It may also be constructed by laminating sheets of thermally deformable material in the X direction. As described above, when the position adjustment member is constructed by laminating two heat deformable materials with different thermal IIj elongations,
A relatively larger amount of deflection can be obtained in the stacking direction than when the position adjustment member is composed of one thermally deformable material. The Z direction value 1F adjustment member and the X direction position adjustment member are:
Instead of a thermally deformable material, a piezoelectric element such as barium titanate may be used. In this case, by adjusting the voltage applied to the piezoelectric element according to the outside temperature,
The position #EJ of the probe needle 10 in the Z direction and the X direction can be adjusted. When using a piezoelectric element as a position adjustment member, a larger amount of deflection can be obtained by using a so-called bimorph structure in which two piezoelectric elements with different polarization directions are stacked in the deflection direction. In addition, when the two-direction position adjustment member is composed of a piezoelectric element, the piezoelectric element is divided into a plurality of parts in the X direction, and the voltage supplied to each divided piezoelectric element is independently controlled. The same effect as when a plurality of are provided in the X direction can be obtained. In the example shown in the figure above, the probe needle is mounted on a pedestal made of polyimide resin that does not undergo thermal deformation. Of course, it would be better if you attached it. In addition, in the above example, the case where the position adjustment is performed in the Z direction and the Further mechanisms can also be provided in a similar configuration. Furthermore, the present invention may be applied to one or two of the Z direction, the X direction, and the Y direction, and another position adjustment mechanism may be used for the other directions. In addition, in the above embodiment, position adjustment due to changes in outside temperature has been explained, but further R after fine alignment.
It can be applied to any type of case as long as it is applicable to fine alignment.

【Effect of the invention】

According to this invention, the position of the probe needle is adjusted using thermal expansion or contraction of a thermally deformable material or electrostriction of a piezoelectric element, so it is possible to perform more precise position adjustment than conventional mechanical position adjustment. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the 1llF adjustment device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view, FIG. 2 is a side view thereof, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the tip of a probe needle, FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a temperature control circuit, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are diagrams of the invention. It is a figure showing an example of a pond. 10; probe needle 11; pedestal 14; X-direction position adjustment member 17; FJL diagram Figure 1: rn Seat control circuit row A row Figure 4 Figure B D - Money + compensation seven points) C' side key I Figure 5 ETR award Prix annual Figure 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A probe device that performs measurements by adjusting the position of a stylus array relative to an object to be measured, characterized in that the position adjustment is performed using thermal deformation. (2) A probe device that performs measurements by adjusting the position of a stylus array relative to an object to be measured, characterized in that the position adjustment is performed by a piezoelectric effect.