JPH0322453A - Wafer inspecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to deal rapidly with correction of a positional slippage of a probe group by detecting the positional slippage of the probe group disposed on a probe card in the intervals of measurement of electrical characteristic values of an integrated circuit on a semiconductor substrate. CONSTITUTION:A probe detector 13 is installed at one corner of a wafer mount ing stage 2. This probe detector 13 brings a probe group 5 disposed on a probe card 4, for instance, into contact, detects a current flowing from the probe group 5 to wirings 32 and 33 in directions X-Y of the probe detector 13, conducts collation with the position of the probe group 5 inputted beforehand to a controller 11, and checks up whether the position of the probe group 5 shows a slippage or not. This probe detector is so constructed that a large number of wirings 32 and 33 in directions X-Y are arranged in the shape of grating, with intervals of several microns maintained, in a prescribed area on one main surface of an insulator 23, that a signal is given to the probe group 5 in a state wherein the probe group 5 is brought into contact with the wirings, and that the position of the probe group 5 is checked up by measuring the coordinates in the grating of the wirings 32 and 33 in directions X-Y with which probes in the group are in contact.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to wafer inspection used to measure the electrical characteristics of a plurality of integrated circuits formed on a semiconductor substrate during the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices. Device (hereinafter referred to as Bulova)
Regarding.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional prober. Conventionally, this type of prober includes, as shown in the figure, a wafer mounting table 2 on which a semiconductor substrate 1, which is a wafer, is mounted, an XY drive section 12 and a controller 11 for moving the wafer mounting table 2 in the X and Y directions. A probe card 4 and a tester 9 that touch a semiconductor device 8, which is a plurality of integrated circuits formed on a semiconductor substrate 3, with a group of probes to measure electrical characteristic values, and a contact state between the probe card 4 and the semiconductor device 8. It consisted of a microscope 10 for observing.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional prober mentioned above, even if the probe of the probe card shifts while measuring each semiconductor device on a semiconductor substrate, the probe itself cannot detect the shift of the probe. There may be cases where the electrode group and the probe group of the probe card cannot be connected, making it impossible to correctly measure the semiconductor device. In such a case,
It is necessary for the operator to stop the prober and align the electrode group of the semiconductor device and the probe of the probe card. However, in recent years, the number of electrodes in semiconductor devices has been increasing year by year, and it has become necessary to spend a lot of time to align the probes of the probe card. Such misalignment of the probes of the probe card not only makes it impossible to accurately measure the semiconductor device, but also causes the disadvantage that it is time-consuming for the operator to confirm the misalignment of the probes of the probe card. An object of the present invention is to provide a blower that solves this problem.

[Means to solve the problem]

In a wafer inspection apparatus that measures electrical characteristic values of a plurality of integrated circuits formed on a wafer, the prober of the present invention is installed on a probe card while measuring the electrical characteristic values of the integrated circuits on the semiconductor substrate. It has a probe detector for detecting positional deviation of the arranged probe group.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a prober showing an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this prober has a probe group 5.
This is because a probe detector is provided instead of the transparent substrate 7 and camera 6 for detecting. Other constituent means are the same as in the conventional example. For example, on the probe card 4, there is a probe group 5 arranged so as to correspond to the electrode group of the semiconductor device 8. As described in the conventional example, in order to measure the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device 8, the probe group 5 of the probe card 4 must be brought into contact with the electrode group of the semiconductor device 8. However, while measuring the electrical characteristics of each semiconductor device 8 on the semiconductor substrate 3, the probe card 4
The position of the probe group 5 disposed above may shift, and the electrode group and the probe group 5 may not be able to make complete contact with each other, and the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor fold placement 8 may not be measured correctly. Next, the operation of this prober will be explained. For example, the prober automatically stops its operation based on the signal received from the tester 9 when the measurement result is determined to be defective a predetermined number of times. Next, under the control of the controller 11, the camera 6 is moved below the probe group 5 of the probe card 4, and the position information of each probe group 5 is acquired while the transparent substrate 7 and the probe group 5 are in contact with each other. Send to controller 11. . Next, the controller 11 compares the correct position information of the probe group 5 that has been input in advance. Next, when these comparison results agree with each other, the prober automatically continues measurement from the next semiconductor device that stopped. If the information does not match, it will be considered an error and a lamp will light or a buzzer will sound to notify the operator. Next, the operator corrects the positional deviation of the probe group 5.
In the above explanation, the fact that the transparent substrate is placed on top of the camera section 6 is important. This means that probe group 5 is half the size. Approximately 70 to 100 μm when contacting the electrode group 5 of the conductor device 8
Measurements were made with the addition of a drive. When this drive amount is added and when it is not added, the probe group 5
Therefore, in the present invention, after the transparent substrate 7 and the probe group 5 are brought into contact, the position information of the probe group 5 is transferred to the camera section 6. It is loading with . In other words, this is to reproduce the same position of the probe group 5 as when a drive of 70 to 100 μm is applied to the electrode group of the semiconductor device 8. FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a prober showing another embodiment of the present invention. In the above example. The difference is that, while the position of the probe 4f group 5 is detected optically, this embodiment is provided with a probe detector 13 that detects electrically. Figure 3 (
a) and (b) are a sectional view and a plan view of the probe detector of FIG. 2; The prober of this example has a second wafer-mounted prober.
It has a probe detector 13 described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61050382 installed in one corner. In addition, this probe detector 13 brings the probe group 5 arranged on the probe card 4 into contact with each other, and detects the current flowing from the probe group 5 to the XY direction wires 32 and 33 of the probe detector 13. The position of the probe group 5 is compared with the position of the probe group 5 that has been inputted in advance to the controller 11, and it is confirmed whether the position of the probe group 5 has shifted.

=5-6- In the probe detector described in JP-A-61-050382, a large number of XY direction wires 32, 33 are arranged in a grid pattern in a predetermined area on the whole surface of an insulator 22 with intervals of several microns. , by applying a signal to the probe group 5 with the probe group 5 in contact, the XY direction wiring 32, 33 that the probe is in contact with
The position of the probe group 5 is confirmed by measuring the coordinates in the grid pattern.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the prober of the present invention is capable of detecting the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor device, which is caused by the positional deviation of the probe group, by providing a positional deviation detection unit of the probe group of the probe card on the wafer mounting base of the prober. This has the advantage that it is possible to quickly discover any defects in the test, and also to obtain information on how far the probes are deviated from each other. Also, especially
In Example 2, information can be obtained at the same time when the heights of the probe groups differ by several tens of micrometers, or the contact resistance values at the tips of the probe groups differ by several hundred mΩ. This also has the effect of quickly responding to corrections of group positional deviations.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a prober showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a prober showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view and a plan view of a probe detector, and FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional prober. 2... Wafer mounting stand, 3... Semiconductor substrate, 4...
・Probe card, 5... Probe group, 6... Camera,
7... Transparent substrate, 8... Semiconductor device, 9... Tester 10... Controller, 12... XY drive section, 13... Probe detector, 22... Probe group, 23...
- Insulator, 32...X direction wiring, 33...Y direction wiring, 34...X connector, 35...Y connector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a wafer inspection apparatus that measures electrical characteristic values of a plurality of integrated circuits formed on a wafer, a group of probes arranged on a probe card is used during measurement of electrical characteristic values of the integrated circuits on the semiconductor substrate. A wafer detection device characterized by having a probe detector for detecting a positional deviation of the wafer.