JPH0371069A - Inspecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the contact pressure between an electrode group and the electrode pad of a body to be inspected and to bring them into secure contact by providing a vibration generating means to a substrate which supports the electrode groups as to the electric inspecting device for a semiconductor element, etc. CONSTITUTION:The device consists of a mount base 10 where a semiconductor wafer 20 to be inspected, an insulating support base board 30 which is arranged above it, an electrode (crystal probe 40) for contacting which is fixed and supported on the reverse surface of the base board, and an ultrasonic wave vibrator 50 provided on the top surface side of the support substrate. For inspection, an IC chip 22 to be inspected is accurately positioned corresponding to the crystal probe 40 and then the mount base 10 is elevated to bring the electrode pad into contact with the electrode stylus part 42 of the probe 40 at a time. Then the ultrasonic wave vibrator 50 is driven before the start of conduction inspection and the crystal probe 40 is vibrated to make the contact between the electrode stylus part 42 ad the electrode pad of the IC chip 22 secure, thereby minimizing the adverse influence upon the inspection.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal drive device (LCD).
Related to electrical inspection equipment such as.

(Prior Art) For example, an inspection device for inspecting the electrical characteristics of a semiconductor element such as an IC is constructed by arranging and fixing a large number of probe needles as contact electrodes at a minute pitch on an insulating support substrate. A needle is brought into contact with electrode pads formed on a semiconductor chip to inspect electrical characteristics such as shorts and opens in the electrode pattern, and the functionality of the IC.

However, since the electrode pads are extremely fine, it is difficult to bring the probe needle into contact with the electrode pads under extremely strict conditions, resulting in a problem of poor contact between the two.

In addition, in recent years, in order to mount semiconductor chips on a substrate at a higher density, a method has been adopted in which unpackaged semiconductor chips are directly mounted on a substrate, etc. . In order to package a semiconductor chip, it is necessary to match the electrode pad pitch to a standard, but if packaging is not performed, the pad pitch can be narrowed by that amount, making high-density packaging possible. This type of connection method is TAB
(tape automated bonding), flip chip or wire bonding methods are used. Particularly in the TAB type connection, since the electrode pad is formed in the shape of a hemispherical bump, the electrode pad is likely to be damaged by contact with the probe needle. Therefore, in this type of element, in particular,
It is necessary to reduce the contact pressure between the contact electrode group such as a probe needle and the electrode pad to achieve soft contact.

By the way, as a technique for more securely contacting the probe needle with the object to be inspected, there is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 73948/1983. In this technique, a vibration generation source is attached to an inspection table for searching an object (sample) to be inspected, and the specimen is configured to vibrate when a probe needle comes into contact with the specimen.

(Problem that the invention attempts to solve) The device having the above configuration has the following problems.

(1) The inspection table is composed of a movable part that is movable in the vertical direction (Z direction) and the left and right horizontal directions (X, Y directions). Therefore, if such an examination table is provided with a vibration generating source and the examination table itself is vibrated, the connecting members in the movable parts will wear out and their durability will be significantly reduced.

(2) As described above, an examination table having a movable part itself has a complicated configuration, and adding a vibration generation source to this table will complicate the apparatus.

(3) Furthermore, since the examination table is relatively heavy, a large amount of power is required to vibrate it, which is disadvantageous in terms of energy.

The present invention solves these problems and aims to provide an inspection device that can reliably bring a group of contact electrodes into contact with an electrode pad of an object to be inspected with low contact pressure. It is about providing.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a mounting table on which an object to be inspected is placed, a group of contact electrodes that are brought into contact with the electrode pads of the object to be inspected,
In an inspection apparatus having a support substrate that supports this electrode group, vibration generating means is provided on the support substrate.

(Function) In the apparatus having the above configuration, the vibration generating means is provided on the support substrate to apply vibration to the contact electrode group, so that the contact electrode group and the object to be inspected can be brought into reliable contact.

Since the vibration generating means is provided on a relatively lightweight plate-shaped support substrate, the mechanical configuration is simple and easy to assemble, and less energy is required for vibration.

Furthermore, the support substrate on which the vibration generating means is supported has a simple mechanical configuration, is heavy like a mounting table (and is not directly connected to movable parts or drive means with a complicated configuration). Therefore, the adverse effects of vibration on other parts such as these movable parts are small, and the durability of the device is not impaired.

. (Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to testing the electrical characteristics of an IC will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an inspection device employing a crystal probe.

The apparatus of this embodiment includes a mounting table 10 on which a semiconductor wafer 20 as an object to be inspected is placed, an insulating support substrate 30 disposed above the mounting table 10, and a lower surface of the support substrate 30. It consists of a crystal probe 40 as a group of contact electrodes fixedly supported by the support substrate 30, and an ultrasonic vibrator 50 as a vibration generating means provided on the upper surface side of the support substrate 30.

The mounting table 10 is configured to be movable in the θ direction around the Z axis and in the X and Y axes directions perpendicular to the Z axis by a driving means (not shown). IC chip 22 formed on wafer 20'2
An alignment operation can be performed to ensure that the crystal probe 40 and the crystal probe 40 are in contact with each other.

The crystal probe 40 is formed by etching a crystal plate only along two specific axes, making use of the anisotropic etching property of crystal.

A specific configuration of this crystal probe 40 is shown in FIG.

In the crystal probe 40 shown in the figure, four crystal substrates 40A to 40D formed by etching are arranged at predetermined positions, and each crystal substrate 40A to 40D has a pattern wiring section 46 and a pattern wiring section 46. An electrode needle portion 42 located at the tip is formed. A metal film layer having a predetermined pattern is formed on each electrode needle portion 42 and each pattern wiring portion 46 by means such as sputtering or plating. Further, each pattern wiring section 46 and each electrode needle section 42 are mounted so that the center side thereof is diagonally downward at an angle of 5° to ]-0°.

Inspection using the crystal probe 40 is performed by bringing the electrode needle parts 42, 42, . . . of the crystal probe 40 into contact with the electrode pads of the IC chips 22 of the semiconductor wafer 20. This is done by energizing the internal circuit of the IC chip 22 through the .

As shown in FIG. 1, the ultrasonic transducer 50 is fixed on the support substrate 30, and by driving the ultrasonic transducer 50, the support substrate 30 and the crystal probe 40 are
It is possible to apply ultrasonic vibration to Note that a scope window 52 is formed in the center of the ultrasonic transducer 50 in the same way as the support substrate 30 so as not to obstruct observation using a microscope (not shown).

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 1.

First, an IC chip 2 which is an object to be inspected is placed on a mounting table 1-0.
Two or more formed semiconductor wafers 20 are placed. Next, in order to make the IC chip 22 to be inspected correspond to the crystal probe 40, the movement of the mounting table 10 in the X and Y directions is controlled to accurately position the 1c chip 22 and the crystal probe 40. Next, by raising the mounting table 10 in the Z direction in the figure, the electrode pads of the IC chip 22 can be brought into contact with the electrode needles 42 of the crystal probe 40 all at once.

When the contact between the crystal probe 40 and the IC chip 22 is completed, the ultrasonic vibrator 50 is driven to vibrate the crystal probe 40 before starting the energization test. By vibrating the crystal probe 40 in this way, very fine vibrations are applied to the electrode needle part 42,
Therefore, the contact between the electrode needle portion 42 and the electrode pad of the IC chip 22 can be made extremely reliable.

In this way, since the contact between the electrode pads of the IC chip 22 and the electrode needle portion 42 can be made more reliable through vibration, it is possible to reduce the contact pressure between the two, thereby preventing undesirable loads or damage to the electrode pads. can be prevented from giving.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 3, when the electrode pads 22a of the IC chip 22 are configured in a hemispherical bump shape, unlike a planar shape, the contact pressure between the contact electrode group and the electrode pads is is required not to become excessive.

That is, the bump-shaped electrode pad 22a as described above
In order to ensure subsequent thermocompression bonding, it is preferable that the surface of the electrode needle part 42, which is a group of contact electrodes, not be damaged by contact with the electrode needle part 42. Examples are particularly useful.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the invention. That is, the vibration generating means of the present invention can be applied to any type of inspection apparatus that employs a method of bringing a contact/electrode group into contact with an object to be inspected. Further, the object to be inspected is not limited to the semiconductor wafer in the above embodiments, but may be an LC, D, or the like.

For example, in the example shown in FIGS. 4(A) and 4(B), a fill l-electrode 60 is used as the contact electrode group. In this inspection device, one end of a flexible film electrode (FPC) 60 is curled, and a flexible member 62 such as felt is interposed inside the curl to form a probe electrode. In this example as well, by providing the ultrasonic vibrator 50 on the support M plate 30 and applying zero ultrasonic vibration f=f to the film electrode 60, the LCD 70 which is the object to be inspected is The contact between the film electrode 60 and the film electrode 60 can be made more reliably.

Furthermore, in the example shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of probe needles 80 are used as the contact electrode group, and in this example as well, by providing the ultrasonic transducer 50 on the support substrate 30, Similarly, contact between the probe needle 80 and the bump-shaped electrode pad 22a, which is the object to be inspected, can be achieved softly and reliably.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, by providing the vibration generating means on the support substrate that supports the contact electrode group, the contact between the object to be inspected and the contact electrode group is controlled by contact pressure. It can be performed more reliably while reducing the amount of damage, and can be applied to various types of objects to be inspected.

Furthermore, by providing the vibration generation means on a support substrate that is relatively lightweight and has a simple structure, it is possible to generate vibrations with little energy, and also to minimize the negative effects of vibrations on other components such as moving parts. can do.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory perspective view showing the crystal probe in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an IC chip. The perspective view, FIGS. 4(A) and 5(B), and FIG. 5 are schematic explanatory views showing other embodiments of the present invention. 10... Mounting table, 20... Semiconductor wafer, 30...
- Inspection device, 40... Crystal probe, 42... Electrode needle portion, 50... Ultrasonic vibrator, 60... Film electrode, 80... Probe needle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an inspection apparatus having a mounting table on which an object to be inspected is placed, a group of contact electrodes that come into contact with electrode pads of the object to be inspected, and a support substrate that supports this electrode group, An inspection device characterized by being provided with a vibration generating means.