JP2009064830A - Prober - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a prober capable of suppressing energy consumption for cooling accompanying the operation of the prober and reducing the number of pipes.
A prober of the present invention includes a gas supply port 54a for supplying a dry gas cooled by a cooling facility 4 to a flow path 54, and a heat exchanger 61 for supplying the dry gas from the flow path 54 to the heat exchanger 61. The temperature is raised by the gas discharge path 63 for discharging through the gas, the heating means 64 for heating the dry gas flowing through the gas discharge path 63, the heat exchange in the heat exchanger 61 and the heating by the heating means 64. A gas supply unit 65 for supplying the dry gas to the inspection atmosphere to prevent condensation, and the heat exchanger 61 is a dry gas flowing in the gas discharge path 63 and a dry gas supplied from a dry gas supply source 71. Exchange heat with gas.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a prober in which a probe of a probe card is brought into contact with an electrode pad of a circuit formed on a substrate to be inspected to inspect the electrical characteristics of the circuit at a low temperature.

  In the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, the quality of each integrated circuit chip is determined in a wafer state by inspecting various electrical characteristics after completion of the integrated circuit chip. In such an inspection, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) is placed on a mounting table, and, for example, the probe needle of the probe card is aligned with the wafer, and then the mounting table is raised to integrate the integrated circuit chip on the wafer. The electrode pads and the probe needles are sequentially contacted or collectively contacted. Recently, such probing is also performed in order to determine the quality of the circuit portion up to that stage before the integrated circuit is completed.

  On the other hand, since integrated circuit chips are used in various environments, in order to ensure that they operate normally in those environments, inspections are performed in a fairly wide temperature range, and on the cooling side, for example, about -200 ° C. In some cases, the substrate is cooled to a very low temperature. For this reason, it is necessary to flow the refrigerant through the mounting table to cool the mounting table. In addition, if the mounting table and the wafer are cooled, moisture in the inspection atmosphere may condense, causing water droplets on the surface of the wafer or ice to adversely affect the inspection. A dry atmosphere is required.

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 describes the system shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, 1 is a container for inspecting a semiconductor wafer, and 2 is a cooling facility. In this system, the dry air is heat-exchanged with the refrigerant of the cooling component 22 through the heat exchanger 21 in the cooling facility 2, and the dry gas cooled to, for example, −20 ° C. in the container 1 by the line r 1. The mounting table 11 is cooled by being supplied to the mounting table 11 and passing through the mounting table 11. Then, the dry gas discharged from the mounting table 11 is once returned to the cooling facility 2 by the line r2 and divided, and a part thereof is passed through the heat exchanger 21 and the other part is heated by the heating means 23. To join. The dry gas thus brought to room temperature is sent to the outflow portion 12 in the container 1 through the line r3 to prevent dew condensation on the wafer.

  Since this system uses dry air as a fluid for cooling the mounting table 11 and supplies the dry air that has been discharged from the mounting table 11 and returned to room temperature to the inspection atmosphere, the consumption of dry air can be reduced. There is an advantage. Further, there is an advantage that the cold air discharged from the mounting table 11 can be used for cooling the dry air in the line r1 via the heat exchanger 21.

  However, the line r1 for sending the dry gas cooled from the cooling facility 2 to the container 1 side, the line r2 for returning the dry gas from the container 1 to the cooling facility 2 side, and the drying gas returned to the normal temperature by the cooling facility 2 to the container 1 Three pipes with the line r3 sent to the side are required. In a semiconductor manufacturing factory, a large number of such inspection devices are arranged in a clean room, and piping, power cables and power cables are provided between the utility equipment provided in the utility equipment storage room normally partitioned from the clean room and each inspection device. Utility lines such as signal cables are routed.

  On the other hand, an inspection device and a tester, which is a large component, are arranged in the clean room. However, since the unit price per unit area of the clean room is extremely expensive, the space is minimized. For this reason, it is advantageous to reduce the number of utility lines connected to one inspection apparatus as much as possible from the viewpoint of maintenance workability. Also, since the above-mentioned piping of dry air flows a considerably low temperature gas, a heat insulating layer is provided on the outer periphery of the piping to prevent dew condensation, and it is troublesome to draw many long distances for such piping.

JP 2005-528781 A (paragraph 0047, FIG. 3)

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a situation, The objective is suppressing the energy consumption for the cooling accompanying the driving | operation of a prober, and providing the prober which can reduce the number of piping. is there.

The present invention provides an electrode of a circuit formed on a substrate to be inspected in the housing while the substrate to be inspected is placed on a mounting table provided in the housing, and the substrate to be tested is cooled through the mounting table. In a prober for inspecting the electrical characteristics of the circuit by bringing the probe of the probe card into contact with the pad,
A flow path for passing a cooling gas for cooling the mounting table provided in the mounting table;
A heat exchanger for taking in a dry gas from a dry gas supply source, exchanging heat and supplying it to a cooling facility;
A gas supply port for supplying the dry gas cooled by the cooling facility as a cooling gas to the flow path;
A gas discharge path for discharging dry gas from the flow path through the heat exchanger;
Heating means for heating the dry gas flowing through the gas discharge path;
A gas supply unit that supplies dry gas, which has been heated by heat exchange in the heat exchanger and heating by the heating means, to the inspection atmosphere to prevent condensation, and
The heat exchanger is for performing heat exchange between a dry gas flowing in the gas discharge path and a dry gas supplied from the dry gas supply source.

In the prober described above, the heat exchanger and the heating means are disposed in an atmosphere separated from the inspection area for inspecting the substrate by a partition plate, for example, in the housing. In this case, the heat exchanger and the heating means may be installed below the inspection area.
Moreover, it is preferable that the said heat exchanger and a heating means are provided in this order from the upstream.

  In the present invention, the prober is provided with a heat exchanger, and the cooling gas passed through the mounting table for cooling the mounting table of the prober and the dry gas guided to the cooling facility are transferred by the heat exchanger. We are exchanging heat. For this reason, when the temperature of the cooling gas is raised to, for example, room temperature and used as an atmospheric gas for preventing dew condensation, energy for the temperature rise is received from the dry gas introduced to the cooling facility, and thereby the dry gas As a result, the energy consumption for cooling and heating can be reduced. Since the prober has a heat exchanger, the piping from the mounting table to the heat exchanger and the piping from the heat exchanger to the prober are routed compared to the case where the heat exchanger is provided in the cooling facility. Since this is not necessary, the number of pipes between the cooling facility and the prober can be reduced.

  A substrate inspection system to which an embodiment of the prober of the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, this board inspection system includes a prober 3 and a cooling facility 4. The prober 3 includes a casing 30 that forms an exterior of the apparatus. The atmosphere in the casing 30 is divided into an inspection area 32 and a power system storage area 33 by a horizontal partition plate 31. .

  In the inspection area 32 of the housing 30, a mounting table 50 for mounting a wafer W as a substrate to be inspected is provided. The mounting table 50 is provided so as to be rotatable about the Z axis (movable in the θ direction) with respect to the Z moving part 51, and the Z moving part 51 is movable in the Z direction (vertical direction) with respect to the X stage 52. Is provided. The X stage 52 is configured to move along a guide rail extending in the X direction (left and right direction in FIG. 1) on the Y stage 53, and the Y stage 53 extends along the guide rail extending in the Y direction on the partition plate 31. It can be moved. Therefore, the mounting table 50 can move in the X, Y, Z direction and θ direction.

A first camera 56 with a visual field upward for imaging a probe needle 81 (described later) is provided on a side surface of the Z moving portion 51 via a fixed plate 55.
A probe card 80 having a plurality of probe needles 81 mounted vertically is mounted horizontally on the upper surface of the housing 30. On the upper surface side of the probe card 80, an electrode group electrically connected to each probe needle 81 is formed. By exchanging signals between the electrode group and a test head (not shown), the wafer is obtained. It is configured to inspect the electrical characteristics of the circuit formed in W.

In a region between the mounting table 50 and the probe card 80, there is a second camera 57 that is movable in the horizontal direction in the housing 30 and has a downward view for imaging the surface of the wafer W. Is provided. Based on the imaging results of the first camera 56 and the second camera 57, the wafer W and the probe needle 81 are aligned.
In the mounting table 50, in order to cool the mounting table 50 to a set temperature according to the inspection recipe, a flow path 54 is provided for allowing dry air, which is a cooling gas, to flow. On the other hand, a first gas supply pipe 60 for guiding a dry gas, for example, dry air, to the cooling facility 4 is provided in the utility system storage area 33 in the housing 30. A gas supply control mechanism 70 such as a valve and a dry air supply source 71 are provided on the upstream side of the first gas supply pipe 60. The dry air supply source 71 is, for example, a gas cylinder and is provided adjacent to the prober 3.

  Here, the cooling equipment 4 will be described before the gas piping and the like in the prober 3 are described in detail. A heat exchanger 41 for cooling the dry air sent from the first gas supply pipe 60 is provided in the cooling facility 4. On the primary side of the heat exchanger 41, a cooling fluid cooled by a cooling means, for example, a refrigerator 42 flows, and the dry air flowing to the secondary side of the heat exchanger 41 is cooled to a predetermined temperature by the cooling fluid. To cool down. Connected to the secondary side of the heat exchanger 41 is a second gas supply pipe 62 for sending the dry gas supplied and cooled by the first gas supply pipe 60 to the mounting table 50. .

  Returning to the description of the configuration of the prober 3 again, the second gas supply pipe 62 is connected to the gas supply port 54 a of the flow path 54 disposed in the mounting table 50. A gas exhaust pipe 63 is connected to the gas exhaust port 54 b of the flow passage 54, and the gas exhaust pipe 63 is routed to the lower power system storage area 33 through the partition plate 31. Yes.

  A heat exchanger for exchanging heat between the dry air flowing in the gas discharge pipe 63 and the dry air flowing in the first gas supply pipe 60 is provided in the utility system storage area 33 of the housing 30. 61 is provided. In this example, the dry air discharged from the mounting table 50 flows on the primary side of the heat exchanger 61, and the dry air supplied from the dry air supply source 71 flows on the secondary side of the heat exchanger 61. . In the utility system storage area 33 of the housing 30, a heating unit 64 made of, for example, a heater is provided on the downstream side of the heat exchanger 61 of the gas discharge pipe 63.

  Further, the gas discharge pipe 63 on the downstream side of the heating means 64 is routed to the vicinity of the mounting table 50, and dry air is supplied into the inspection area 32 of the housing 30 at the tip thereof to prevent condensation. For this purpose, a gas supply unit 65 is attached. The gas supply unit 65 has a plurality of holes 68 formed in, for example, a wall of a hollow rectangular member 67, and is configured such that dry air is discharged vertically and laterally through the holes 68. Yes.

  2, a first temperature detection unit 91 for detecting the temperature of the mounting surface of the mounting table 50 is provided in the mounting table 50, and the temperature of the gas supply unit 65 is set. A second temperature detection unit 92 is provided for detection. 2 is a control unit, and the control unit 93 adjusts the cooling capacity of the cooling means 42, for example, the flow rate of the primary side fluid, based on the temperature detection value obtained by the first temperature detection unit 91. Then, the temperature detection value is controlled so as to become the set cooling temperature, and the heat generation amount of the heating means 64 is adjusted based on the temperature detection value obtained by the second temperature detection unit 92 to thereby detect the temperature detection value. For example, has a function of controlling the temperature so as to reach room temperature.

  Subsequently, the operation of the substrate inspection system described above will be described. First, the temperature of dry air or the like will be described with reference to FIG. For example, dry air at 25 ° C. is supplied from the dry air supply source 46 to the heat exchanger 61 via the first gas supply pipe 60. For example, -45.degree. C. dry air discharged from the mounting table 50 flows through the heat exchanger 61. Therefore, the 25.degree. C. dry air is deprived of heat by the -45.degree. And is discharged from the heat exchanger 61.

  The dry air at −20 ° C. is supplied to the secondary side of the heat exchanger 41 of the cooling facility 4 through the first gas supply pipe 60. Since the cooling fluid cooled by the cooling means 52 flows on the primary side of the heat exchanger 41, the −20 ° C. dry air flowing on the secondary side of the heat exchanger 41 is deprived of heat by the cooling fluid. The dry air is cooled to -55 ° C, for example. The dry air at −55 ° C. is supplied to the mounting table 50 via the second gas supply pipe 62 and the supply port 54a of the mounting table 50, flows through the flow path 54 in the mounting table 50, and the mounting table 50. And the dry air at −55 ° C. are subjected to heat exchange, and the mounting table 50 is maintained at −45 ° C. which is the inspection temperature.

  The dry gas discharged from the discharge port 54b of the mounting table 40 is heated to −45 ° C., and the dry air at −45 ° C. is supplied to the heat exchanger 61 through the gas discharge pipe 63, as described above. In addition, the heat of the 25 ° C. dry air supplied from the first gas supply pipe 60 to the heat exchanger 61 is removed, and the temperature is raised to −30 ° C. The -30 ° C. dry air is heated to 25 ° C., which is normal temperature, by the heating means 64 and supplied from the gas supply unit 65 into the inspection region 32. Thereby, the inside of the inspection area 32 is maintained in a dry atmosphere, and condensation of the wafer W and the mounting table 50 is prevented.

  With the temperature of the mounting table 50 set to the inspection temperature in this way, the wafer W is mounted on the mounting table 50 from the outside of the housing 30 by a transfer arm (not shown), and the first camera 56 and the second camera Based on the above-described imaging result by the camera 57, the coordinates (mounting so-called alignment) of the mounting table 50 where the electrode pad of the chip of the wafer W and the probe needle 81 come into contact are performed. Then, for example, the mounting table 50 is sequentially moved to the contact coordinate position so that the electrode pads of the chip on the wafer W and the probe needles 81 of the probe card 80 are brought into contact with each other. Inspection of physical characteristics.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the heat exchanger 61 is provided in the prober 3, and the drying air for cooling that has been passed through the mounting table 50 and the drying air that is guided to the cooling facility 4 are converted into the heat exchanger. Heat exchange is performed by 61. Accordingly, energy for raising the temperature of the cold air discharged from the mounting table 50 to the temperature of, for example, room temperature for preventing dew condensation is received from the dry air guided to the cooling facility 4, and the dry air is thereby cooled. Energy consumption for cooling and heating can be reduced.

  The cooling facility 4 is provided outside the clean room in which the prober 3 is disposed. The piping connecting the cooling facility 4 and the prober 3 is only two gas supply pipes 60 and 62, and a dry air supply source 71. Is provided in the vicinity of the prober 3, the number of pipes connecting the utility equipment outside the clean room and the prober 3 is smaller than when the heat exchanger 61 is provided on the cooling equipment 4 side. Even when the dry air supply source 71 is not provided in the vicinity of the prober 3, the piping from the dry air supply source 71 to the cooling equipment 4 or the prober 3 is the same in FIGS. 2 and 3. The number of pipes connecting the cooling equipment 4 is one less in the case of the present invention than in the conventional case (FIG. 3).

  Furthermore, since the inside of the housing 30 is divided into an inspection atmosphere and a utility system storage area by the partition plate 3 and the heat exchanger 61 and the heating means 64 including a heater are installed in the utility system storage area, the inspection atmosphere is improved. The temperature of the inspection atmosphere is not disturbed without being affected by the heat of the heat exchanger 61 or the heating means 64.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows the probe apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the effect | action of the said probe apparatus. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the conventional probe apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

W board to be inspected 3 prober 30 casing 31 partition plate 32 inspection area 33 force system storage area 4 cooling equipment 41 heat exchanger 50 mounting table 54a gas supply port 54b gas discharge port 61 heat exchanger 60 first gas supply pipe 62 Second gas supply pipe 63 Gas discharge pipe 64 Heating means 65 Gas supply section 80 Probe card 81 Probe needle

Claims (4)

A substrate to be inspected is placed on a mounting table provided in the housing, and the probe of the probe card is brought into contact with an electrode pad of a circuit formed on the substrate to be tested while cooling the substrate to be inspected through the mounting table. In a prober for inspecting the electrical characteristics of the circuit,
A flow path provided in the mounting table, for passing a cooling gas for cooling the mounting table;
A heat exchanger for taking in dry gas from a dry gas supply source, performing heat exchange, and supplying it to a cooling facility;
A gas supply port for supplying the dry gas cooled by the cooling facility as a cooling gas to the flow path;
A gas discharge path for discharging dry gas from the flow path through the heat exchanger;
Heating means for heating the dry gas flowing through the gas discharge path;
A gas supply unit that supplies dry gas, which has been heated by heat exchange in the heat exchanger and heating by the heating means, to the inspection atmosphere to prevent condensation, and
The prober according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger is for exchanging heat between a dry gas flowing in the gas discharge path and a dry gas supplied from the dry gas supply source.   The heat exchanger and the heating means are arranged in an atmosphere in which the mounting table is placed and the inspection area for inspecting the substrate is partitioned by a partition plate in the housing. 1. The prober according to 1.   The prober according to claim 2, wherein the heat exchanger and the heating means are installed below the inspection area.   The prober according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heat exchanger and the heating means are provided in this order from the upstream side.

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