KR100328634B1 - Pre-aligner in wafer handling device of wafer probe system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses an apparatus for pre-alignment in a wafer handling apparatus of a wafer probe system. In the disclosed invention, the OCR camera 4 is disposed on the vertical portion of the spindle chuck 1 in which the wafer is placed. The OCR camera 4 is connected to the horizontal moving means 6, so that it can move left and right.

Therefore, the OCR camera 4 is provided with only one optical sensor 5 which simultaneously performs pre-alignment and character recognition functions. On the other hand, under the spindle chuck 1, the center of the wafer is aligned with the center of the spindle chuck 1 according to the information recognized by the optical sensor 5 of the OCR camera 4, and the flat zone or notch is notched. In order to align with the reference position of the camera 4, a rotating means 2 for rotating the spindle chuck 1 at an arbitrary angle is provided.

Description

Pre-alignment device in wafer handling device of wafer probe system

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pre-alignment apparatus in a wafer handling apparatus of a wafer probe system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a center of a wafer in a probe system for testing each semiconductor chip of a finally produced wafer. The present invention relates to a device for pre-aligning and bearing.

In general, individual semiconductor chips are formed through a number of processes on a wafer in which a plurality of scribing lines are formed in the vertical and horizontal directions.

In manufacturing the package, first, a sawing process of separating the wafer into individual chips along the scribing line is performed, followed by a die bonding process of attaching the separated chips to the lead frame. .

Next, a wire bonding process of electrically connecting and connecting the inner lead of the chip and the lead frame with a metal wire is performed, and a molding process of sealing a predetermined area including the lead wire of the chip and the lead frame with an epoxy resin. Do this. Subsequently, the trim bar supporting the lead frame is cut and a trim and forming process of bending the outer lead protruding to the outside into a predetermined shape is performed to complete one package.

As described above, a step of forming a semiconductor chip on the wafer, testing whether the semiconductor chip operates properly before the sawing process for manufacturing the package, and testing the semiconductor chip of each package is also performed after the package is manufactured.

This test process is carried out by a probe system, which is a semiconductor analysis method including the characteristics inspection of each semiconductor chip and package on a wafer. In the inspection by the probe system, a probe is placed on a pad of a transistor or an IC chip to check the characteristics of the chip, and the inspection is performed by connecting to a tester using an interface board called a probe card.

For such a probe test, the wafers are loaded into the probe system, stored in a cassette, taken out of the cassette one by one and placed in a spindle chuck. However, before testing in such a state, in order to recognize the unique function of the semiconductor chip configured in the wafer, the unique characters carved into the notch or flat zone of the wafer are referred to as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The operation recognized by the camera is performed first. For this recognition operation, the center of the wafer is aligned with the spindle chuck, and the orientation of the wafer, that is, the notch or flat zone, is aligned with the reference position of the OCR camera. This operation is called pre-alignment.

The configuration of a conventional pre-alignment apparatus used for this purpose is as follows. Align the wafer by rotating the spindle chuck at a predetermined angle according to the OCR camera disposed on the vertically upper side of the spindle chuck, the pre-alignment optical sensor and the character recognition optical sensor provided in the OCR camera, and the information detected by each sensor. It consists of a rotating means. There is also a lifting means for lifting and lowering the spindle chuck to a height for loading and unloading the wafer into and out of the cassette.

By the way, in the conventional pre-alignment apparatus, since the OCR camera is fixed, conventionally, two optical sensors are required for pre-alignment and character recognition. However, it is pointed out that since the optical sensor is very expensive, the unit cost of the device is too high.

In addition, if the size of the wafer is changed, there is an inconvenience of having to readjust the position of the OCR camera according to the size.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional pre-alignment device, by using only one optical sensor to perform the pre-alignment function and the character recognition function at the same time, the unit price is lowered and various sizes It is an object to provide a pre-alignment device for a wafer probe system that can be quickly applied to a wafer.

Another object is to enable the pre-alignment function without using the optical sensor at all.

1 is a view showing a pre-alignment apparatus capable of simultaneously performing a pre-alignment and a character recognition function with one optical sensor according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

2 is an operation explanatory diagram showing a state in which the OCR camera is moved according to the size of the wafer

3 illustrates a pre-alignment apparatus capable of performing a pre-alignment function without an optical sensor according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

4A to 4K are explanatory diagrams showing a pre-alignment operation

-Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawing-

1,11; Spindle chuck 2; Rotating means

3; Elevating means 4, 12; OCR camera

5; Optical sensor 6; Horizontal vehicle

10; Carrier arm 13; Image processing unit

14; A central processing unit 15; Driving part

In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, the pre-alignment device in the wafer handling apparatus capable of simultaneously performing the pre-alignment function and the character recognition function by using only one optical sensor is configured as follows.

An OCR camera is placed on the vertical top of the spindle chuck on which the wafer is placed. The OCR camera is connected to the horizontal moving means, and can move left and right. Therefore, the OCR camera is provided with only one optical sensor which simultaneously performs pre-alignment and character recognition.

On the other hand, under the spindle chuck, the spindle chuck can be arbitrarily used to align the center of the wafer with the center of the spindle chuck according to the information recognized by the optical sensor of the OCR camera, and to align the flat zone or notch with the reference position of the OCR camera. Rotating means for rotating at an angle is provided.

On the other hand, the pre-alignment apparatus in the wafer handling apparatus which can perform the pre-alignment function without using the optical sensor at all is comprised as follows.

An OCR camera is placed on the vertical top of the spindle chuck on which the wafer is placed. An image processing unit for analyzing the image taken by the OCR camera and measuring the edge position and the rotation angle of the wafer is connected to the OCR camera. The central processing unit which connects the center of the wafer and the spindle chuck with the information analyzed by the image processing unit and emits a control signal for setting the position of the flat zone or notch is connected to the image processing unit. A drive unit for rotating and linearly moving the spindle chuck in response to a signal from the central processing unit is installed in the spindle chuck.

According to the configuration of the present invention described above, since the OCR camera can be moved left and right, it is possible to simultaneously perform the pre-alignment and character recognition function with one optical sensor. In addition, by rotating the spindle chuck left and right according to the information photographed by the OCR camera, it is possible to perform a pre-alignment function without using an optical sensor at all.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Example 1

1 is a diagram illustrating a pre-alignment apparatus capable of simultaneously performing a pre-alignment and a character recognition function with one optical sensor according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 2 illustrates a state in which an OCR camera is moved according to a wafer size. It is operation explanatory drawing shown.

As shown in FIG. 1, the wafer to be tested is placed on the spindle chuck 1 by a carrier arm (not shown). Lifting means 3 is disposed below the spindle chuck 1, and the spindle chuck 1 is lifted and lowered by the lifting means 3 to a height to carry or unload the wafer. In addition, the rotating means 2 is disposed under the spindle chuck 1 so that the flat chuck or notch portion of the wafer is brought to the alignment position by the rotating means 2. Is rotated. As the lifting means 3 or the rotating means 2, a motor or a pneumatic cylinder may be used.

An OCR camera 4 for photographing the wafer surface is disposed on the vertical top of the spindle chuck 1. The OCR camera 4 is connected to the horizontal moving means 6, so that it can move left and right.

As the horizontal moving means 6, a linear drive motor may be used.

In this way, since the OCR camera 4 can photograph while moving the center and the edge of the wafer, only one optical sensor 5 for pre-alignment and character recognition functions is provided in the OCR camara 4.

Hereinafter, the operation of the first embodiment configured as described above will be described in detail.

When the carrier arm holding the wafer reaches the upper part of the spindle chuck 1, the OCR camera 4 is moved to the upper part of the center of the spindle chuck 1 by the horizontal moving means 6, thereby imaging this portion. The carrier arm is moved in accordance with the photographed image so that the center of the wafer coincides with the center of the spindle chuck 1.

When the center between the wafer and the spindle chuck 1 coincides, the spindle chuck 1 is lifted by the elevating means 3 so that the wafer is placed on the spindle chuck 1. The spindle chuck 1 is lowered and returned to its original position.

Subsequently, the OCR camera 40 is horizontally moved to a flat zone or notch recognition position, and the spindle chuck 1 is rotated by the rotation means 2, so that the flat zone or notch of the wafer is photographed by the OCR camera 4 When recognized by the optical sensor 5 and the flat zone or notch is in the alignment reference position of the OCR camera 4, the rotating means 2 is stopped and the wafer is kept in that state.

Then, the OCR camera 4 horizontally moves to the character recognition position again to recognize the unique characters imprinted on the wafer, thereby completing the pre-alignment and character recognition operations.

The wafer pre-aligned in this operation is moved from the raised spindle chuck 1 back to the carrier arm and conveyed to the probe test equipment.

On the other hand, when the size of the wafer is changed from 200 mm to 300 mm, the OCR camera 4 should be moved to the edge of the large diameter wafer by the horizontal moving means 6 as shown in Fig. 2, so that the OCR camera 4 There is no need to change the position according to the wafer size.

Example 2

3 is a diagram illustrating a pre-alignment apparatus capable of performing a pre-alignment function without an optical sensor according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, and FIGS. 4A to 4K are explanatory diagrams showing a pre-alignment operation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the wafer is placed on the spindle chuck 11 by the transfer arm 10. The OCR camera 12 is disposed vertically above the spindle chuck 11, and the OCR camera 12 is not provided with an optical sensor. Instead, an image processing unit 13 and a central processing unit 14 which read out an image captured by the OCR camera 12 and issue a control signal are provided, and the spindle chuck 11 is provided by a control signal from the central processing unit 14. Is provided with a drive unit 15 to rotate by rotating at any angle.

That is, the image processing unit 13 and the central processing unit 14 read and pre-align the image photographed by the OCR camera 12 whose optical character recognition is a main function without using an optical sensor. First, the image processing unit 13 analyzes the image photographed by the OCR camera 12 to recognize the edge position of the wafer and to calculate the angle at which the wafer should be rotated. According to the information analyzed by the image processor 13, the intensive care unit 14 sends a control signal to the driver 15 that matches the center of the wafer with the center of the spindle chuck 11 and sets the flat zone or the notch direction.

Hereinafter, the pre-alignment operation of the second embodiment configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4A to 4K.

First, it is known in advance that it is a function of the image processing unit and the central processing unit to recognize and store the position of the notch or the edge position of the wafer.

When the wafer W is settled on the spindle chuck 11 as shown in FIG. 4A, assuming that the center of the spindle chuck 11 is C1, the center of the wafer W is C2, and the notch is N, FIG. 4A In the center, the center C2 of the wafer is deflected to the upper right with respect to the center C1 of the spindle chuck 11, while the notch N is located at the upper left, and the scribing line S of the wafer W is the spindle. It is inclined at 45 degrees with respect to the longitudinal and horizontal axis lines of the chuck 11.

In this state, when the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 45 ° clockwise as shown in FIG. 4B, the scribing line S is placed vertically and horizontally. Therefore, the notch N is located above the vertical axis with reference to the drawings. At this time, the OCR camera 12 is located below the vertical axis. Therefore, the notch N is not found in the image photographed by the OCR camera 12.

Therefore, the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 90 ° clockwise as shown in Fig. 4C, and it is confirmed whether the notch N is found. Of course, since the notch N is not found, when the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 90 degrees clockwise again, it becomes as shown in Fig. 4D. At this time, since the notch N is located below the vertical axis, it is photographed by the OCR camera 12. The notch N position is confirmed by this operation.

Then, in order to match the center C1 of the spindle chuck 11 with the center C2 of the wafer W, the spindle chuck 11 is clockwise as shown in FIG. 4E so that the identified notch N position is not affected. After rotation by 45 degrees, the edge position of the wafer on which the notch N is arranged is stored.

Subsequently, after the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 180 °, the edge position of the wafer is stored, and then the wafer is moved upward by the average distance from the position of FIG. 4E, based on the drawing. The center C2 is located on the horizontal axis of the spindle chuck 11.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4H, the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 90 degrees clockwise to store the edge position of the wafer, and as shown in FIG. During these two operations, the center C2 of the wafer is always located on the longitudinal axis of the spindle chuck 11.

Then, if the wafer is moved downward by the average distance between the respective positions, the center C2 of the wafer coincides with the center C1 of the spindle chuck 11 as shown in Fig. 4J. In this case, the notch N is located at the upper left.

Finally, when the spindle chuck 11 is rotated 225 ° in the clockwise direction, the notch N is positioned vertically below the OCR camera 12 in a state where the center of the wafer and the center of the spindle are exactly coincident with each other. The alignment operation is complete.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, by moving the OCR camera horizontally, it becomes possible to perform the pre-alignment and the character recognition function with one optical sensor. In addition, it is possible to quickly and easily apply to various sizes of wafers.

In addition, by reading the image photographed by the OCR camera in which character recognition is inherently function, the spindle chuck is rotated and aligned, and thus the pre-alignment function can be performed without using the optical sensor at all.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above-described specific preferred embodiments, and various changes can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the invention claimed in the claims. will be.

Claims (2)

A pre-alignment device for aligning the wafer in advance in a wafer handling apparatus and recognizing the unique characters imprinted on the wafer prior to a wafer probe test, A spindle chuck on which the wafer is placed; An optical character recognition camera disposed on a vertical portion of the spindle chuck and having a center of a wafer, a pratt zone or notch of the wafer, and an optical sensor for recognizing the unique character; Horizontal movement means connected to the optical character recognition camera to horizontally move the optical character recognition camera to a center portion and an edge of a wafer so that the optical character camera performs the three functions; Is installed in the lower portion of the spindle chuck, according to the image taken by the optical character recognition camera, so that the center of the spindle chuck coincides with the center of the wafer, the flat zone or notch of the wafer and the unique character is the vertical lower portion of the optical character recognition camera Rotating means for rotating the spindle chuck at an angle to be located at; And And an elevating means for elevating the spindle chuck to a height for carrying in or carrying out the wafer. An apparatus for prealigning a wafer in a wafer handling apparatus prior to a wafer probe test, the apparatus comprising: A spindle chuck on which the wafer is placed; An optical character recognition (OCR) camera disposed above the vertical of the spindle chuck; An image processor configured to analyze an image photographed by the optical character recognition camera and set a flat zone or notch position of a wafer and a rotation angle at which the spindle chuck should be rotated; A central processing unit for generating a control signal that matches the center of the wafer and the spindle chuck with the information analyzed by the image processing unit and sets the position of the flat zone or notch to be vertically below the optical character recognition camera; And Drive unit for rotating and linear movement of the spindle chuck in response to the signal of the central processing unit Pre-aligned device of a wafer probe system comprising a.