KR20070024798A - Probe Station with Cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, there is provided a fixed chuck on which a wafer is mounted and fixed on an upper surface thereof; A probe card having a probe tip in electrical contact with an upper surface of the wafer; A test head installed at an upper portion of the probe card to apply a test signal; And a stage capable of moving the fixed chuck three-dimensionally in the horizontal and vertical directions to inspect the wafer for defects. The laser is irradiated from the center of the fixed chuck positioned on the stage to be attached to the tip of the probe tip. Provided is a probe station with a built-in cleaning device further comprising a laser cleaning device capable of removing foreign substances. According to the disclosed probe device built-in probe station, the trouble of having to separate the probe card from the probe station for cleaning the probe card and performing a separate cleaning operation and then mounting it again to the probe station and the inefficiency caused by the probe card is eliminated. In addition, by cleaning through a laser beam can be prevented by mechanical cleaning method to improve the life of the probe card.

Description

Probe station having cleaning apparatus

1a and 1b are views showing a typical probe card,

2 is a conceptual diagram schematically showing a cleaning device built-in probe station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 to 5 illustrate embodiments of the laser cleaner shown in FIG. 2.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

5 ... probe tip 10 ... probe card

101, 102, 103 ... Laser cleaner 110 ... Laser generator

120 Internal Optical System 140 External Optical System

140 ... optical connector 150 ... optical cable

160 ... Optical joint 200 ... Testhead

300 ... Fixed 310 ... Horizontal Hole

320 ... Vertical Hole 400 ... Stage

W ... wafer

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a probe station used in a wafer test process of a semiconductor production process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a probe station equipped with a cleaning device having a cleaning device capable of removing foreign substances attached to a probe tip of a probe card. .

In general, in the semiconductor manufacturing process, an electric die sorting (EDS) process for inspecting electrical characteristics of each unit chip constituting a wafer is performed. This is done to determine the chip. To this end, a probe card is connected to an inspection device called a probe station to inspect a die mounted on the wafer.

As described above, the probe card is for testing each chip on the wafer. The probe tip, which is fixed with epoxy on a printed circuit board (PCB), is brought into contact with the pad (PAD) of the chip to be tested, and then the electrical signal of the test system. It plays a key role in connecting each signal wiring of the test and each pad on the wafer at the same chip level so that the tester can conduct a qualitative test. This general probe card 10, as shown in Figure 1a and 1b, is provided with a probe tip (5) that can be in electrical contact with each chip on the wafer (not shown) to inspect the electrical state It is a structure that there is.

By the way, the probe card 10 as described above is attached to the contaminants such as metal residue generated from the wafer pad on the probe tip 5 of the probe card 10 by repeating the process of testing each chip on the wafer. Therefore, the probe card 10 has a problem that causes a malfunction of the test system due to adverse effects such as electrical leakage during the electrical characteristic test.

Accordingly, a cleaning operation to periodically remove the contaminants attached to the probe tip 5 of the probe card 10 is necessary, and as such a cleaning method, conventionally, very fine glass powder or fine sand powder is mixed with the adhesive. Mechanical cleaning method to remove contaminants by contact friction rubbing sand paper (Sand paper) produced by coating on a flat plate, and mixed solvent mixed with a metal oxidant to immerse the probe card for a certain time to oxidize There is a chemical cleaning method.

However, in the conventional probe card cleaning method as described above, after the probe card is separated from the probe station, it is troublesome to perform the cleaning operation in a separate cleaning device. That is, there is a limitation that the inspection work at the probe station does not have continuity for periodic cleaning of the probe card.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a probe station with a built-in cleaning device capable of maintaining continuity of wafer inspection by easily cleaning the probe tip without removing the probe card. have.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be described below and will be appreciated by the embodiments of the invention. In addition, the objects and advantages of the present invention can be realized by means and combinations indicated in the claims.

The cleaning device built-in probe station of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises: a fixed chuck on which a wafer is mounted and fixed on an upper surface thereof; A probe card having a probe tip in electrical contact with an upper surface of the wafer; A test head installed at an upper portion of the probe card to apply a test signal; And a stage capable of three-dimensionally moving the fixed chuck in the horizontal and vertical directions to inspect the wafer for defects, and irradiating a laser beam from an approximately central portion of the fixed chuck positioned on the stage to It is further provided with a laser cleaning device that can remove the foreign matter attached to the tip.

Here, the laser cleaning apparatus may include a laser generator for generating a laser beam, and a laser beam guide means for guiding the laser beam generated by the laser generator to the center of the fixed chuck to be irradiated to the tip portion of the probe tip. have.

In addition, the fixed chuck is formed with a horizontal hole penetrating from the side portion to the center portion, and a vertical hole penetrating vertically from the horizontal hole to the upper side of the center portion of the fixing chuck, wherein the laser beam guide means is formed from the laser generator. A laser beam guide part for injecting the generated laser beam in parallel with the horizontal hole, and installed at an intersection point of the horizontal hole and the vertical hole, and directing a traveling direction of the laser beam introduced from the laser beam guide part through the horizontal hole; It may include an internal optical system to convert side by side.

Further, the laser beam guide portion preferably includes an external optical system for converting the traveling direction of the laser beam generated from the laser generator to be parallel to the horizontal hole.

Further, the laser beam guide portion may include an optical connector installed at an inlet side of the horizontal hole, and an optical cable connecting the optical connector and the laser generator.

In addition, the laser beam supply unit may include an optical connector installed at the inlet side of the horizontal hole, and an optical joint connecting the optical connector and the laser generator.

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

Prior to this, it should not be construed as being limited to the terms or words used in the specification and claims, nor to the common or dictionary meanings, and that the inventors should properly interpret the concept of terms in order to best explain their invention in the best way possible. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments shown in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, at the time of the present application, these can be replaced It should be understood that there may be various equivalents and variations in the range.

2 is a conceptual diagram schematically illustrating a probe device with a built-in cleaning device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 1A and 1B, the same reference numerals denote the same members having the same configuration and function.

As shown, the cleaning device built-in probe station according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, having a probe tip (5) in electrical contact with the upper surface of the wafer (W), in order to inspect the wafer (W) defects A probe card 10 is provided. The wafer W is mounted and fixed on an upper surface of a fixed chuck 300 such as a vacuum chuck using a vacuum, and a test head 200 is installed on an upper portion of the probe card 10 to transmit an inspection signal to the probe card 10. Is authorized. On the other hand, the stage 400 is installed below the fixed chuck 300 to fix the fixed chuck 300 on which the wafer W is mounted and fixed in the horizontal direction (X, Y axis direction) and vertical direction (Z axis direction). It allows three-dimensional movement.

In the embodiment of the present invention as described above, the probe station irradiates a laser beam from the approximately center of the fixed chuck 300 located on the stage 400 to remove the foreign matter attached to the tip of the probe tip (5) Laser cleaning apparatus (101, 102, 103) which can be further provided.

3 to 5 are views illustrating various embodiments of the laser cleaner.

As shown in the drawing, the laser cleaners 101, 102, and 103 guide the laser generator 110 to generate the laser beam, and the laser beam generated by the laser generator 110 to the center of the fixed chuck 300. It is provided with a laser beam guide means for irradiating to the tip of the tip (5).

As an embodiment for guiding the laser beam generated from the laser generator 110 to the center portion of the fixed chuck 300, the fixed shaft 300 is a horizontal hole 310 penetrated from the side portion to the center portion, and the horizontal The vertical hole 320 vertically penetrated from the hole 310 to the upper side of the center portion of the fixed shaft 300 may be formed. Here, the laser beam guide means, the laser beam guide portion for injecting the laser beam generated from the laser generator 110 in parallel with the horizontal hole 310, and the laser beam introduced from the horizontal hole 310 The internal optical system 130a may be installed at an intersection point of the horizontal hole 310 and the vertical hole 320 so as to change the traveling direction so as to proceed in parallel with the vertical hole.

As shown in FIG. 3, the laser beam induction part may be an external optical system 130b for converting the traveling direction of the laser beam generated from the laser generator 110 to be parallel to the horizontal hole 310. As described above, the change of the laser beam path using the external optical system 130b is accompanied by a phenomenon of light attenuation, but has an advantage of low price.

In addition, as the laser beam guide portion, as shown in Figure 4, the optical connector 140 is installed at the inlet side of the horizontal hole 310, the optical connector 140 and the laser generator 110 is connected The optical cable 150 may be. As described above, when the optical cable 150 and the optical connector 140 are used to guide and change the path of the laser beam, there is almost no optical attenuation.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, the laser beam guide part includes an optical connector 140 installed at an inlet side of the horizontal hole 310, and an optical joint part connecting the optical connector and the laser generator 110. 160. Using the optical joints as described above has an advantage that there is almost no light attenuation, but the cost increases somewhat compared with the case of using the external optical system 130.

In the embodiment of the present invention as described above, it is necessary to separate the probe card 10 as in the prior art, in order to periodically remove foreign substances such as metal residue attached to the tip of the probe tip 5 of the probe card 10. In the state in which the wafer to be tested is removed, foreign matters can be easily removed by irradiating the laser beam to the tip of the probe tip 5 through the center of the fixed shaft 300. That is, the cleaning of the probe tip 5 may be performed while only the wafer W is removed without moving the probe card 10. Therefore, the wafer W inspection at the probe station can be efficiently performed with continuity.

In addition, there is no deformation and wear of the probe tip 5 at all, and the cleaning operation is performed through a laser beam capable of perfect cleaning in response to the probe tip 5 having various structures and shapes. Can be extended.

As described above, according to the cleaning apparatus built-in probe probe station of the present invention, the following effects are obtained.

First, in order to clean the probe card, the probe card may be separated from the probe station, and a separate cleaning operation may be performed, and then the cumbersomeness and the inefficiency caused by the probe card may be improved.

Second, there is no deformation and wear of the probe tip due to the non-contact cleaning, and the cleaning operation can be extended through the laser beam capable of perfect cleaning in response to the probe tip 5 of various structures and shapes, thereby extending the life of the probe card. have.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated by the limited embodiment and drawing, this invention is not limited by this, The person of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs, Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalents of the claims to be described.

Claims (6)

A fixed chuck on which the wafer is mounted and fixed on the upper surface; A probe card having a probe tip in electrical contact with an upper surface of the wafer; A test head installed at an upper portion of the probe card to apply a test signal; And a stage capable of moving the fixed chuck three-dimensionally in the horizontal and vertical directions, wherein the probe station inspects the wafer for defects. And a laser cleaning device for irradiating a laser beam from a substantially central portion of the fixed chuck positioned on the stage to remove foreign substances attached to the tip of the probe tip. According to claim 1, wherein the laser cleaning device, And a laser generator for generating a laser beam, and a laser beam guide means for guiding the laser beam generated by the laser generator to the center of the fixed chuck to be irradiated to the tip of the probe tip. The method of claim 2, The fixing chuck is formed with a horizontal hole penetrating from the side portion to the center portion, and a vertical hole penetrating vertically from the horizontal hole to the upper side of the fixing chuck. The laser beam guide means includes a laser beam guide part for incident the laser beam generated from the laser generator in parallel with the horizontal hole, and is installed at the intersection of the horizontal hole and the vertical hole and flows through the horizontal hole from the laser beam guide part. And an internal optical system for converting the traveling direction of the laser beam to be parallel to the vertical hole. The method of claim 3, wherein the laser beam guide portion, And an external optical system for converting the traveling direction of the laser beam generated from the laser generator to be parallel to the horizontal hole. The method of claim 3, wherein the laser beam guide portion, And an optical connector installed at an inlet side of the horizontal hole, and an optical cable connecting the optical connector and the laser generator. The method of claim 3, wherein the laser beam guide portion, And an optical connector installed at an inlet side of the horizontal hole, and an optical joint connecting the optical connector to the laser generator.

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