JPH10289934A - Probe device and probe method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [Problem] To reliably remove moisture caused by dew condensation even in a large-diameter (for example, 12-inch class) test object, and to surely prevent contamination of the test object. A probe device and a probe method are provided. SOLUTION: A loader chamber 1 having tweezers 3 for transporting a wafer W, and X, Y,
A prober chamber 2 having a main chuck 5 movable in the Z and θ directions; a partition partitioning the prober chamber 2 and the loader chamber 1; and an opening / closing door for opening / closing a wafer W loading / unloading port of the partition. When the opening / closing door 10 is opened in the probe device that cools the wafer W through the chuck 5 and inspects the electrical characteristics of the wafer W while supplying dry air that does not dew at the cooling temperature of the wafer W into the prober chamber 2. A hot air blowing device 11 for blowing hot air onto the wafer W passing through the loading / unloading port 9A is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a probe apparatus and a probe method which are suitably used for inspecting electrical characteristics of an object to be inspected such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter simply referred to as "wafer") at a low temperature. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional probe apparatus of this kind is usually
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a loader chamber 1 for transferring the wafer W and pre-aligning the wafer W is provided, and a prober chamber 2 for receiving the wafer W from the loader chamber 1 and inspecting the electrical characteristics. Have been. Tweezers 3 and a sub chuck 4 are provided in the loader chamber 1, and the wafer W is pre-aligned in the sub chuck 4 with reference to an orientation flat while the wafer W is carried by the tweezers 3. Further, a main chuck 5 and an alignment mechanism 6 are provided in the prober chamber 2, and the main chuck 5 on which the wafer W is placed is X, Y,
The wafer W is aligned with the probe needles 7A of the probe card 7 above the main chuck 5 by the alignment mechanism 6 while moving in the Z and θ directions, and the wafer W and the probe needles 7A are brought into electrical contact with each other. , An electrical characteristic inspection of the wafer W is performed. The probe card 7 is detachably attached to a head plate 8 forming the top surface of the prober chamber 2.

The loader chamber 1 and the prober chamber 2 are partitioned by a partition wall 9, and an opening / closing door (not shown) is attached to a loading / unloading opening 9A of the wafer W of the partition wall 9. The opening / closing door is opened when the wafer W is transferred between the loader chamber 1 and the prober chamber 2 via the tweezers 3.

Inspection of the wafer W includes not only a normal temperature inspection but also a low temperature inspection and a high temperature inspection. For this reason, the main chuck 5 has a built-in temperature adjusting mechanism, and the temperature of the wafer W is reduced by using this temperature adjusting mechanism, for example, from −tens to +10.
The temperature can be set in a wide range of 160 ° C.
For example, when the inspection of the wafer W is performed at a low temperature of −40 ° C., the inspection is performed by cooling the wafer W on the main chuck 5 to −40 ° C. via a temperature adjusting mechanism.
In this case, dry air having a dew point of −40 ° C. or less is supplied into the prober chamber 2 so that dew condensation and freezing do not occur on the surface of the wafer W. After the inspection, the wafer W is lifted from the main chuck 5 with tweezers 3 and the wafer W is carried out from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1.

[0005]

However, when a low-temperature inspection of a 12-inch wafer W, which will become the mainstream in the future, using a conventional probe device, a phenomenon that is not assumed up to the current 8-inch wafer W is considered. In other words, during the transfer of the wafer W from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1, a phenomenon has occurred in which the surface of the wafer W is dewed and frozen and frost adheres to the entire surface. When the wafer W is transferred to the loader chamber 1 as it is,
During this time, the problem has arisen that the frost on the wafer W melts, dusts such as particles adhere, and the surface of the wafer W is contaminated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. For example, even for a large-diameter test object of a 12-inch class, water caused by condensation is reliably removed, and contamination of the test object is prevented. It is an object of the present invention to provide a probe device and a probe method that can surely prevent the occurrence of an error.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a probe apparatus including a loader chamber having a transport mechanism for transporting an object to be inspected, and X, Y, Z, and θ adjacent to the loader chamber. A prober chamber having a mounting table movable in the direction, a partition that divides the prober chamber and the loader chamber, and an opening / closing door that opens and closes a loading / unloading port for the object to be inspected of the partition. In the probe device that cools the test object and supplies the dry air that does not dew at the cooling temperature of the test object into the prober chamber and performs an electrical characteristic test of the test object, the opening and closing door is opened. A hot air blowing device for blowing hot air to the object to be inspected which sometimes passes through the carry-in / out port is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the probe device according to the first aspect, the hot air blowing device includes a hot air blowing mechanism integrated with the opening and closing door;
A gas heating mechanism connected to the hot air blowing mechanism is provided.

A probe device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the probe device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the gas heating mechanism is a vortex tube.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a probe device according to any one of the first to third aspects, further comprising an air cylinder for opening and closing the opening and closing door, and blowing the hot air. A solenoid valve is provided in the device, and the solenoid valve is opened by the pressure of compressed air for driving the air cylinder to open.

In the probe method according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, an opening / closing door of a partition wall between the loader chamber and the prober chamber is opened, and the device to be inspected is transferred from the loader chamber to a mounting table in the prober chamber. After closing the opening / closing door, the test object is cooled to a predetermined test temperature through the mounting table, and dry air that does not form dew at the cooling temperature of the test object is supplied into the prober chamber. In a probe method for performing a low-temperature inspection of an inspection object, a hot air is blown to the inspection object in a process of opening the opening / closing door and transporting the inspection object from the prober chamber to the loader chamber.

A probe method according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the invention according to the fifth aspect, hot air is blown from the opening / closing door that opens horizontally on the prober chamber side. is there.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The same or corresponding parts as those of the prior art will be designated by the same reference numerals based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the probe device of the present embodiment includes a loader chamber 1, a prober chamber 2, tweezers 3, a sub chuck 4, a main chuck 5, an alignment mechanism (not shown), a probe card 7, and the like. Have been. Further, it is partitioned by a partition wall 9 of the loader room 1 and the prober room 2. The bulkhead 9 is formed with a loading / unloading port 9A.
A is opened and closed by a door 10.

A receiving hole 2A for receiving dry air is formed in the prober chamber 2, and a pipe (not shown) for supplying dry air is connected to the receiving hole 2A. And
From this hole, for example, dry air having a dew point of -70 ° C is supplied into the prober chamber 2 and the dry air in the prober chamber 2 is discharged from a discharge hole (not shown), and the dry air in the prober chamber 2 is discharged at a dew point of -70 ° C. It is kept clean and always clean. Further, a temperature adjustment mechanism (not shown) is built in the main chuck 5, and the temperature adjustment mechanism sets the wafer W mounted on the main chuck 5 to a low temperature of, for example, about −60 ° C. to perform a low-temperature inspection. I can do it. Further, the wafer W is heated by the temperature adjusting mechanism, and is heated to + 160 ° C.
High-temperature inspection up to the extent is possible.

In the probe device of the present embodiment, a hot air blowing device 11 for blowing hot air to the wafer W passing through the loading / unloading opening 9A when the opening / closing door 10 is opened is provided. The hot-air blowing device 11 includes a hot-air blowing mechanism 12 integrated with the opening / closing door 10, a gas heating mechanism (for example, a vortex tube) 14 connected to the hot-air blowing mechanism 12 via a pipe 13 </ b> A, and a vortex tube 14. A solenoid valve 15 connected via a pipe 13B. When the vortex tube 14 receives high-pressure air of, for example, about 30 ° C.,
It is configured to generate high-temperature air around 80 ° C. and air around -30 ° C. Also, the solenoid valve 15
The opening operation is performed in synchronization with the opening operation of an air cylinder, which opens and closes the opening / closing door 10, which will be described later, and supplies high-pressure air to the vortex tube 14. Since the vortex tube 14 is conventionally known, a detailed description is omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the opening and closing door 10 and the hot air blowing mechanism 12 are attached to a loading / unloading port 9A of the partition 9 via a frame 16, and both are air cylinders provided on the side. The loading / unloading entrance 9A is opened and closed via the opening 17. FIG. 4A is an exploded perspective view showing a relationship between the opening / closing door 10 and the hot air blowing mechanism 12. As shown in this figure, the hot-air blowing mechanism 12 has a rectangular box body 12 that is thinly formed with the inner side (the loader chamber 1 side) entirely open.
A and a nozzle plate 12 for closing the opening of the box body 12A.
B and a connecting part 12C for connecting the pipe 13A to the box 12A. Box body 12A, nozzle plate 1
2B and the door 10 are overlapped in this order, and are integrated by screws 12D at their respective peripheral edges, forming a narrow space 12E inside as shown in FIG. 4B. A large number of nozzle holes are formed in the nozzle plate 12B so as to be evenly distributed over substantially the entire surface, and hot air is blown from these nozzles. Further, an opening 10A is formed in the door 10 so that each nozzle hole is not closed by the door 10. As described above, the hot air blowing mechanism 12 is integrated with the opening / closing door 10 to carry out the entrance 9A of the partition 9.
Are opened and closed, and when the carry-out port 9A is opened, hot air is blown directly below. Therefore, when hot air is supplied from the pipe 13A, the box body 12 is connected via the connecting part 13C.
A hot air flows into the space 12E of A, and the nozzle plate 12B
Hot air is blown out from each nozzle hole evenly.

The prober chamber 2 is provided in the frame 16.
A concave portion 16A bulging into a rectangular shape is formed on the side, and an opening / closing door 10 integrated with the hot air jetting mechanism 12 is connected to the concave portion 16A via a plurality of hinges 18 so as to be openable and closable. The loading / unloading port 9 via the hinge 18 at the upper end
It rotates about 90 ° from A to the prober chamber 2 side and stops at a horizontal position. In FIG. 4A,
19 is a hinge stop plate, and 20 is a mylar.

As shown in FIG. 1, a solenoid valve 15 of the hot air blowing device 11 and an air cylinder 17 used for opening and closing the door 10 are connected via an air pipe 21. That is, the air cylinder 17 has a first pipe 17A that supplies compressed air when the door 10 is opened, and a second pipe 17B that supplies compressed air when the door 10 is closed. The air pipe 21 is the first pipe 1
It branches off from 7A. Therefore, when the door 10 is opened, compressed air is supplied to the solenoid valve 15 through the air pipe 21, and the pressure of the compressed air drives the solenoid valve 15 to open the valve and supply high-pressure air to the vortex tube 14. Then, hot air is blown out from the hot air blowing mechanism 12 directly below.

Next, an embodiment of the probe method of the present invention will be described together with the operation of the above-described probe device. Loader room 1
, The tweezers 3 takes out one 12-inch wafer W from the cassette, performs pre-alignment of the wafer W on the sub chuck 3, and then moves the wafer W into the prober chamber 2.
Carry in. At this time, based on the sequential control of the controller, the air cylinder 17 is driven to open the opening / closing door 10 and open the carry-in / out entrance 9A of the partition 9. As a result, the hot air blows out from the hot air blowing mechanism 12 directly below. After that, the tweezers 3 picks up the wafer W on the sub-chuck 3 and carries it into the prober chamber 2 from the loading / unloading opening 9A. The wafer W is delivered onto the main chuck 5 so as not to be heated as much as possible. Thereafter, the tweezers 3 are withdrawn from the prober chamber 2 and stand by in the loader chamber 1 to carry out the wafer W after the inspection, and the air cylinder 1
7 is driven to close the carry-in / out entrance 9A by the opening / closing door 10, and isolates the prober chamber 2 from the loader chamber 1.

On the other hand, in the prober chamber 2, dry air having a dew point of -70 ° C. is continuously received from the receiving hole 2A and discharged from the discharge hole to always maintain the air in the prober chamber 2 at the dew point and to store the air therein. Particles do not stay and maintain a clean environment. In such an environment, the main chuck 5 receiving the wafer W from the tweezers 3 holds the wafer W by vacuum suction of the wafer W, and holds the wafer W at, for example, −6.
While cooling to 0 ° C., the wafer is moved in the X, Y, Z and θ directions to align the electrode pads of the wafer W with the probe needles 7A under the action of an alignment mechanism (not shown). Next, the main chuck 5 is moved up in the Z direction, and is brought into contact with the probe needle 7A to perform a low-temperature inspection of the wafer W at −60 ° C.
After the inspection, the wafer is lowered in the Z direction, and subsequently, the main chuck 5 is index-fed to inspect all the IC chips on the wafer W.

When the inspection of all the IC chips is completed, the main chuck 5 moves to the unloading position of the wafer W and stops. In synchronization with this, the air cylinder 17 is driven to open the opening / closing door 10 and open the carry-in / out entrance 9A. At this time, compressed air is supplied to the air cylinder 17 from the first pipe 17A to open the door 10, and the hot air blowing device 11 operates. That is, the compressed air reaches the solenoid valve 15 of the hot-air blowing device 11 via the air pipe 21 branched from the first pipe 17A, opens the solenoid valve 15, and supplies high-pressure air of, for example, 30 ° C. to the vortex tube via the pipe 13B. 14. The vortex tube 14 generates high-temperature air of, for example, about 80 ° C. from high-pressure air,
The high-temperature air is supplied to the hot-air blowing mechanism 12 via the pipe 13A, and the low-temperature air generated at the same time as the high-temperature air is exhausted to the outside of the system. In the hot-air jetting mechanism 12, the high-temperature air that has flowed into the space 12E of the box 12A jets hot air from directly below each nozzle hole of the nozzle plate 12B.

The hot air blowing mechanism 12 of the hot air blowing device 11
The tweezers 3 is driven to advance from the loader chamber 1 to the prober chamber 2 in a state in which hot air of 80 ° C. is blown out, the wafer W on the main chuck 5 is taken out, and the wafer W is unloaded from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1. I do. During this time, air with a high dew point is transferred from the loader chamber 1 to the prober chamber 2 through the carry-in / out port 9A.
Therefore, the dew point in the prober chamber 2 rises considerably. Further, the low-temperature wafer W is carried into the loader chamber 1 in an air atmosphere with a high dew point. If the wafer W is kept at a low temperature, when the wafer W comes into contact with the above-mentioned air having a high dew point, it frosts on its surface, freezes, and the wafer W becomes covered with frost and becomes pure white. That is, when the wafer W is lifted from the main chuck 5 by the tweezers 3, the temperature of the wafer W sharply rises from −60 ° C. However, since the diameter of the wafer W is as large as 12 inches, the temperature of the wafer W differs from that of a wafer up to 8 inches. Since the temperature rises slowly and remains at a temperature considerably lower than the room temperature, the wafer W becomes covered with frost and becomes pure white.

However, in the present embodiment, when the wafer W is unloaded into the loader chamber 1, the tweezers 3 retreat from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1 at a considerably slower speed than when the wafer is loaded under the control of the controller under the control of the controller. It passes under the mechanism 12 for about 13 seconds, for example. During this time, hot air of 80 ° C. is blown from the hot air blowing mechanism 12 to the wafer W,
The frost on the surface of the wafer W is melted and evaporated, or the water is scattered, so that the water can be reliably removed from the wafer W. Furthermore, since the wafer W reaches a temperature considerably higher than the normal temperature due to the hot air, even if the wafer W is carried out from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1 and comes into contact with air having a high dew point, dew condensation and frost formation on the surface are prevented. be able to. Therefore, when the wafer W is stored in the cassette by the tweezers 3, no moisture adheres to the surface of the wafer W, and the wafer W is completely dried.

According to the present embodiment as described above,
When the wafer W is unloaded from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1, hot air of about 80 ° C. is blown onto the wafer W by the hot air blowing device 11, and the wafer W is unloaded from the prober chamber 2 to the loader chamber 1 at a slow speed. When the wafer 2 reaches the loader chamber 1, dew condensation and frost formation on the wafer W can be prevented by the hot air, and the temperature of the wafer W has risen and is completely dried. Therefore, there is no possibility that the wafer W is contaminated by dust such as particles in the loader chamber 1.

In the above embodiment, the hot air blowing device 11
Although the vortex tube 14 that heats air is used as the gas heating mechanism, a heater or the like may be used as a heating source, or an inert gas such as nitrogen may be used instead of air. Further, although the solenoid valve 15 is used as a valve for supplying hot air, an electric valve may be used.

[0026]

According to the first to sixth aspects of the present invention, even for a large-diameter test object of, for example, a 12-inch class, water caused by dew condensation after a low-temperature test can be reliably removed. It is possible to provide a probe device and a probe method that can remove the sample and reliably prevent contamination of the test object.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of an embodiment of a probe device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a state in which a hot air blowing mechanism of the hot air blowing device shown in FIG. 1 is attached to a partition.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing the air cylinder shown in FIG. 2;

4A is an exploded perspective view of the hot air blowing mechanism and the opening / closing door shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view of a part of the hot air blowing mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an example of a conventional probe device in which a prober chamber is cut away.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing the inside of the probe device shown in FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 loader room 2 prober room 3 tweezers (transfer mechanism) 5 main chuck (mounting table) 9 partition 9A loading / unloading door 10 opening / closing door 11 hot air blowing device 12 hot air blowing mechanism 14 vortex tube (gas heating mechanism) 15 solenoid valve 17 air cylinder

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H01L 21/68 G01R 31/28 K

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A loader chamber having a transport mechanism for transporting an object to be inspected, and X, Y, Z, and θ adjacent to the loader chamber.
A prober chamber having a mounting table movable in the direction, a partition that divides the prober chamber and the loader chamber, and an opening / closing door that opens and closes a loading / unloading port for the object to be inspected of the partition. In the probe device that cools the test object and supplies the dry air that does not dew at the cooling temperature of the test object into the prober chamber and performs an electrical characteristic test of the test object, the opening and closing door is opened. A probe device, further comprising a hot air blowing device for blowing hot air onto the object to be inspected, which sometimes passes through the carry-in / out port. 2. The hot-air blowing device according to claim 1, further comprising a hot-air blowing mechanism integrated with the door, and a gas heating mechanism connected to the hot-air blowing mechanism.
The probe device according to claim 1. 3. The probe device according to claim 1, wherein the gas heating mechanism is a vortex tube. 4. An air cylinder that opens and closes the door, a solenoid valve is provided in the hot air blowing device, and the solenoid valve is opened by a pressure of compressed air for driving the air cylinder to open. The probe device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein 5. An opening / closing door of a partition wall between a loader chamber and a prober chamber is opened, a test object is transported from the loader chamber to a mounting table in the prober chamber, and the opening / closing door is closed. A probe method for performing a low-temperature inspection of the inspected object while supplying dry air that does not dew at the cooling temperature of the inspected object into the prober chamber while cooling the inspected object to a predetermined inspection temperature through the inspection method; A probe method, wherein a door is opened and hot air is blown to the test object in a process of transferring the test object from the prober chamber to the loader chamber. 6. The probe method according to claim 5, wherein hot air is blown from the opening / closing door that opens horizontally on the prober chamber side.