JP2001077160A - Tester for semiconductor substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tester for a semiconductor substrate for measuring a test signal accurately from a main tester body. SOLUTION: In a tester for a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of test signals are fed to a device part formed on a wafer (W), and the quality is judged from the result. The tester includes a probe card 34 with a plurality of needles 342 put on the main face and used in contact electrically with the device part and a grounding part 343 near the needles 342 on the main face, and a measuring chip 35 with a contact part 353 on the main face and used in contact electrically with the needles 342, and a needle 352 on the main face and used in contact electrically with the grounding part 343.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor substrate test apparatus for testing a semiconductor substrate (hereinafter, typically referred to as a wafer) on which semiconductor integrated circuit elements and the like are built, and more particularly, to a semiconductor substrate test apparatus which is sent from a tester body. The present invention relates to a semiconductor substrate test apparatus capable of measuring a waveform of a test signal to be measured with high accuracy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art After a large number of semiconductor integrated circuit elements are formed on a substrate such as a silicon wafer or a glass plate, they are completed as electronic components through various processes such as dicing, wire bonding and packaging. An operation test is performed on such an IC device before shipment, and such a test is performed both in a finished product state and in a wafer state.

In recent years, in particular, with the development of semiconductor manufacturing technology, a ball grid array (BGA: Ball
Devices employing a chip size package (CSP), such as a Grid Aray type IC device, have become widespread. In this type of IC device, packaging is performed in a wafer state, and then dicing is performed. Done. Therefore, the operation test of the device is often performed in a wafer state.

As a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus for testing an IC device in a wafer state, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 5-154
One disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 31 is known. In this type of semiconductor substrate testing device, the test is performed by vacuum-absorbing a wafer to be tested on a wafer chuck and bringing a needle (needle-shaped contact) provided on a probe card into contact with a contact formed on the wafer. Done.

[0005]

In the operation test of an IC device, one or more predetermined test signals are transmitted from the tester body to each contact of the IC device via a test head. For example, a test signal a and a test signal b as shown in FIG. 4 are transmitted.
If the different test signals a and b are out of phase, the device test cannot be performed at a high clock frequency. Therefore, the waveform of the test signal shown in FIG. In general, the phase of both test signals is corrected.

In a test apparatus called a handler, which tests a completed IC device, general phase correction is performed by connecting an oscilloscope for observing a waveform to a contact pin of a test head. , Test head contact pin and ground point (earth, GN
If D) is too far away, noise or the like is mixed in the waveform output to the oscilloscope, and an accurate waveform cannot be obtained. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a waveform such as a waveform y and a waveform z is observed for a normal waveform x. For this reason, if there is a ground point near the contact pin, it is used, and if there is no ground point nearby, a separate ground pad is provided.

However, in a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus for testing a wafer, the needles corresponding to the contact pins of the handler are arranged at a narrow interval of 150 μm, so that it is extremely difficult to provide a ground point near the needle. there were.

For this reason, the waveform of the test signal has been observed by using the wiring pattern portions of the probe card arranged at relatively wide intervals, but in this method, the test signal inputted to the contact of the device on the wafer is used. Since the waveform of the test signal is measured by using a contact far from the input as an input unit instead of observing the signal itself, there is a problem in the accuracy of the obtained waveform.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus capable of measuring a signal characteristic such as a waveform of a test signal sent from a tester main body with high accuracy.

(1) According to a first aspect of the present invention, a test is performed by sending a plurality of test signals to a device section formed on a semiconductor substrate, and the pass / fail of the device section is determined according to the result. A plurality of first needle-shaped contacts that are in electrical contact with the device portion, and a ground portion provided near the first needle-shaped contacts is provided on one main surface, A probe card electrically connected to the test head substrate, a contact portion electrically contacting the first needle contact, and a second needle contact electrically contacting the ground portion are provided on one main surface. A semiconductor substrate test apparatus including the provided measurement chip is provided.

In the present invention, the measuring chip has one or more pairs of second needle-like contacts and contact portions according to the arrangement of the first needle-like contacts and ground portions of the probe card. Is more preferable.

Further, in the present invention, it is more preferable that the apparatus further comprises a measuring chip stage for moving the measuring chip with respect to the first needle-like contact and the ground portion of the probe card.

Further, according to the present invention, there is further provided a substrate stage for holding the semiconductor substrate and bringing the device portion into contact with a first needle contact of the probe card, and the measuring chip is provided on the substrate stage. Is more preferable.

In the present invention, the apparatus may further include a signal characteristic measuring device connected to an output terminal of the measuring chip and outputting a characteristic of the test signal.

The characteristics of the test signal in the present invention are as follows:
Although not particularly limited, for example, a signal waveform of a test signal can be given.

(2) According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of needle-like contacts electrically connected to a test head substrate of a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus and electrically contacting device portions of the semiconductor substrate are provided. A probe card for a semiconductor substrate testing device provided on a main surface, wherein a grounding portion is provided near the needle contact.

In the present invention, the grounding portion may be provided with one grounding portion for one needle-like contact, or may be provided in common with a plurality of needle-like contacts.

(3) According to a third aspect of the present invention, a grounding portion for electrically contacting a first needle-like contact provided on a probe card for a semiconductor substrate testing device, A measurement chip for a semiconductor substrate test apparatus, comprising: a second needle contact that is in electrical contact with a ground portion provided in the vicinity.

(4) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of test signals are sent to a device section formed on a semiconductor substrate to perform a test, and the pass / fail of the device section is determined according to the result. A method for measuring characteristics of the test signal, wherein the semiconductor substrate test device measures characteristics of the test signal by using at least a portion near a portion of the semiconductor substrate test device that contacts the device section as a contact point. A method for measuring test signal characteristics in an apparatus is provided.

In the present invention, the characteristics of the test signal are not particularly limited, and examples thereof include a signal waveform of the test signal.

In the present invention, the semiconductor substrate testing apparatus includes a needle contact for transmitting a test signal to the device section;
It is more preferable to have a grounding portion provided near the needle-like contact, and to measure the characteristics of the test signal using the needle-like contact and the grounding portion as input portions.

[0022]

In the above invention, before or during testing a semiconductor substrate such as a wafer or a glass substrate to be tested, the second needle-like contact of the measuring chip is brought into contact with the ground portion of the probe card and the contact of the measuring chip is brought into contact. The portions are brought into contact with the first needle contacts of the probe card, and a test signal is transmitted in this state. A test signal, which is substantially the same as that input to the device portion of the semiconductor substrate to be tested, is input to the second needle-like contact and the contact portion of the measurement chip, and is output to a signal characteristic measuring device such as an oscilloscope. You. Therefore, the characteristics of the test signal can be measured in the same electrical environment as in the actual test, and the reliability of the measurement result is significantly increased. In the present invention, the first probe card is used.
Since the grounding part is provided near the needle-shaped contact, there is a very small possibility that noise or the like is mixed in the test signal obtained from the grounding part via the measuring chip.

Such a measurement is performed for each first needle-like contact or several groups (pairs) of the probe card, and for this purpose, the measuring chip is moved to each first needle-like contact. If a large number of pairs of second needle-shaped contacts and contact portions are provided on the measuring chip, the test signals sent to each of the large number of first needle-shaped contacts can be measured at once, and all the first needle-shaped contacts can be measured. The measurement time for the contacts can be reduced. vice versa,
When a pair or a small number of pairs of second needle contacts and contact portions are provided on the measurement chip, a simple cable for a signal characteristic measuring device such as an oscilloscope is sufficient.

Further, by disposing the measuring chip on the substrate stage of the semiconductor substrate, the measuring chip can be moved on the substrate stage, so that a dedicated stage device for the measuring chip is not required and the cost is reduced. It is also advantageous in terms of space.

[0025]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is an overall view showing a semiconductor substrate test apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of the semiconductor substrate test apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the probe card of FIG. . In FIG. 3, two measurement chips are shown, and the right measurement chip 35 is a diagram in which the left measurement chip is turned upside down.

As shown in FIG. 1, a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment includes a tester body 10 for outputting a test signal and executing a test, and a test head connected to the tester body 10 via a cable or the like. And a prober 30 to which a wafer W to be tested is supplied and a plurality of device parts built in the wafer W are sequentially moved so as to contact a needle (needle-shaped contact) of the test head 20. ing.

In the prober 30, a wafer W to be tested has a large number of semiconductor circuits (device units) integrated on a single wafer. When a test is performed, a wafer chuck (not shown) is used. )) And is held in a state where it is positioned with high precision. For this reason, the wafer chuck is provided on the wafer stage 31, and the wafer stage 31 can be moved with high precision in the XY plane shown in FIG. It can move up and down in the Z-axis direction.

Although not shown, when a high temperature test is performed by applying a predetermined temperature to the wafer W, the wafer W is heated via a heater built in the wafer chuck. I have.

In the prober 30 of the present embodiment, a card holder 33 is provided above the wafer stage 31.
Here, a probe card 34 is held. The probe card 34 of the present example has a substrate 341 made of ceramics or silicon and formed in a rectangular shape, and a plurality of needles 342 are provided on one main surface (the lower surface in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the upper surface in FIG. 3). (Corresponding to the first needle-shaped contact of the present invention), and are arranged in a plurality of rows as shown in FIG. On the same main surface of the substrate 341, a pattern of a ground portion 343 connected to the ground is provided with the needle 34.
It is formed between two rows.

The needle 342 is provided, for example, upright so as to come into contact with a terminal (a contact in a state before wire bonding) of one device unit integratedly formed on the wafer W. By sequentially moving in the XYZ space, it is possible to contact each terminal of the device section to be tested.

Further, the probe card 34 of the present embodiment
Is mounted on a main surface on the opposite side of the substrate 341 (the upper surface in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the lower surface in FIG. 3), one of connectors 344 including a zero insertion / extraction force connector or the like.

The zero insertion / extraction force connector (Zero Insersi
on Force Connector) is a test head 20 described later.
A connector that does not need to apply a force in the insertion / removal direction (vertical direction in this example) when the connector is inserted into and removed from the other zero insertion / removal force connector 221 provided on the side. The rail that is engaged with the rail is driven back and forth by the cylinder to raise and lower the cam that engages with the rail, and the pitch of the socket contact sandwiching the pin contact is narrowed or widened by the vertical movement of the cam, or other methods. Can be used.

Each needle 342 and zero insertion / extraction force connector 3
The contacts 44 are electrically connected to each other by wiring patterns and through holes (both not shown) formed on the substrate 341 of the probe card 34.

In the semiconductor substrate testing apparatus of the present invention,
Means for electrically connecting the probe card 34 and the test head 20 are not limited to the zero insertion / extraction connector described above, and there is no problem even if other types of connectors or connection terminals are used.

On the other hand, a test head 20 of the semiconductor substrate test apparatus 1 is located above the wafer stage 31. Although not shown, various substrates such as a performance board are provided here. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a top panel 21 is fixed to the lowermost surface of the test head 20, and a contact ring 22 is further fixed to a lower surface of the top panel 21. Further, the other side 221 of the above-described zero insertion / extraction force connector is fixed to the contact ring 22. A cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 shows a state where the zero insertion / extraction force connectors 221 and 344 are attached.

Although not shown in detail, the positioning of the probe card 34 and the contact ring 22 is performed by using a guide pin provided on the probe card 34 side and a guide bush provided on the contact ring 22 side. And the like.

A zero insertion / extraction force connector 221 attached to the contact ring 22 side and a test head 20
Are electrically connected to each other by a number of wires or daughter boards.

In particular, in the prober 30 of this embodiment, FIG.
2 is provided on the flange 311 of the wafer stage 31 in an upward direction as shown in FIG. The measurement chip 35 is made of a substrate 3 made of the same ceramics or silicon as the substrate 341 of the probe card 34.
1 and one main surface of the substrate 351 (FIGS. 1 and 2).
Then, the top view, the bottom view in the left view of FIG. 3, and the top view in the right view of FIG.
In addition, one needle 352 (corresponding to a second needle contact of the present invention) and one contact portion 353 connected to the ground.
Is formed. The distance between the needle 352 and the contact portion 353 is determined by the probe card 34 described above.
The distance between the needle 342 and the grounding part 343 is set substantially equal to that of the measurement tip 35 as shown in FIG.
Is brought closer to the pair of needles 342 and the ground part 343 of the probe card 34, the needle 3
53 contacts the ground portion 343 of the probe card 34 and the needle 342 of the probe card 34 simultaneously contacts the contact portion 353 of the measurement chip 35.

The needle 352 of the measuring chip 35
The contact section 353 is connected to the oscilloscope 40 via a cable or the like as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 3, and the waveform of the measured test signal is observed.

Next, the operation will be described. When testing the wafer W, the target wafer W is first held while being suction-held while being positioned on the wafer chuck.
Needle 3 of probe card 34
The wafer stage 31 is moved up while being positioned on the XY plane so that the wafer stage 42 comes into contact with the wafer stage 31. As a result, a test of some of the device sections is executed. When the test is completed, the wafer stage 31 is slightly lowered, and the needle 342 of the probe card 34 comes into contact with the contact of the next device. Then, the wafer stage 31 is raised again while being positioned on the XY plane. This operation is sequentially repeated to test the device portion of the wafer W in all regions. When a high-temperature test is performed on the wafer W, the heater inside the wafer chuck is operated to heat and raise the temperature of the wafer W to, for example, 100 ° C.

In particular, in the semiconductor substrate testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, before the above-described wafer test is performed or when the need arises during the wafer test, the tester main body 10 transmits the test data via the test head 20. The waveform of the test signal sent to the device section is measured, and the phase of each test signal is corrected.

That is, the wafer stage 31 is moved in the XY plane, and the measurement chip 35 fixed to the flange 311 is positioned below the probe card 34. Here, the wafer stage is raised so that the contact part 353 of the measurement chip and the needle 352 are in contact with one needle 342 of the probe card 34 and the ground part 343 formed in the vicinity thereof. Then, in this state, a predetermined test signal is transmitted from the tester main body 10, and this is observed with an oscilloscope.

In this example, the test signal is input to the oscilloscope 40 at substantially the same position as the device section of the wafer W to which the actual test signal is input, that is, the tip of the needle 342 of the probe card 34 is used as the input section to the oscilloscope 40. The waveform of the test signal observed by the oscilloscope is substantially equal to the waveform actually input. The probe card 34 has a grounding portion 343 near the needle 342.
Is provided, noise and the like are prevented from being mixed in the signal waveform observed by the oscilloscope 40, and as a result, an accurate test signal waveform can be obtained.

In this embodiment, the substrate 3 of the measuring chip 35
The same material as that of the substrate 341 of the probe card 34 is adopted as the material 51, but by doing so, at least the same fine needles and ground portions as those of the probe card 34 can be formed. Therefore, the probe card 34
The material is not particularly limited as long as it is possible to manufacture a fine material according to the pattern of the needle and the grounding portion.

The embodiments described above are described for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not described for limiting the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus capable of measuring signal characteristics such as a waveform of a test signal transmitted from a tester main body with high accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing a semiconductor substrate test apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of the semiconductor substrate test apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the probe card of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram illustrating an example of a test signal output from an IC test apparatus (tester main body).

FIG. 5 is a waveform chart for explaining the problem of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Semiconductor substrate testing apparatus 10 ... Tester main body 20 ... Test head 30 ... Prober 31 ... Wafer stage 34 ... Probe card 342 ... Needle (first needle contact) 343 ... Ground part 35 ... Measurement chip 352 ... Needle (Second) Needle-shaped contact) 353 contact part 40 oscilloscope (signal characteristic measuring device)

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor substrate test apparatus for transmitting a plurality of test signals to a device section formed on a semiconductor substrate to perform a test, and for determining whether the device section is good or bad according to a result of the test. Probe card electrically connected to a test head substrate, having a plurality of first needle-like contacts electrically contacting the first head-like contact and a grounding portion provided near the first needle-like contact on one main surface. A semiconductor chip comprising: a contact portion electrically contacting the first needle contact; and a measurement chip provided on one main surface with a second needle contact electrically contacting the ground portion. Substrate testing equipment. 2. The measuring chip has one or more pairs of second needle-like contacts and contact portions according to the arrangement of the first needle-like contacts and ground portions of the probe card. 2. The semiconductor substrate test apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The semiconductor substrate testing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a measurement chip stage for moving said measurement chip with respect to said first needle-like contact and ground portion of said probe card. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a substrate stage for holding said semiconductor substrate and bringing said device portion into contact with a first needle-like contact of said probe card, wherein said measuring chip is provided on said substrate stage. 4. The semiconductor substrate testing device according to any one of items 1 to 3. 5. The measurement chip is connected to an output terminal of the measurement chip,
5. The semiconductor substrate testing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a signal characteristic measuring device for outputting characteristics of the test signal. 6. The semiconductor substrate testing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the characteristic of the test signal is a signal waveform. 7. A probe for a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus, wherein a plurality of needle-shaped contacts electrically connected to a test head substrate of the semiconductor substrate testing apparatus and electrically contacting device parts of the semiconductor substrate are provided on one main surface. A probe card for a semiconductor substrate testing device, comprising: a card, wherein a ground portion is provided near the needle contact. 8. The probe card for a semiconductor substrate test apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said ground portion is provided in common for a plurality of needle-like contacts. 9. A contact portion provided on a probe card for a semiconductor substrate testing apparatus, the contact portion being in electrical contact with a first needle-like contact, and an electrical contact being made with a ground portion provided near the first needle-like contact. A measurement chip of a semiconductor substrate test device, comprising: a second needle-like contact. 10. A characteristic of the test signal of a semiconductor substrate test apparatus for transmitting a plurality of test signals to a device portion formed on a semiconductor substrate to perform a test, and determining whether the device portion is good or bad according to the result. A method of measuring a test signal characteristic in a semiconductor substrate test apparatus, wherein a characteristic of the test signal is measured by using at least a vicinity of a portion of the semiconductor substrate test apparatus that contacts the device section as a contact point. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the characteristic of the test signal is a signal waveform. 12. The semiconductor substrate testing apparatus has a needle-like contact for transmitting a test signal to the device section, and a grounding section provided near the needle-like contact. The method for measuring test signal characteristics in a semiconductor substrate test apparatus according to claim 10, wherein characteristics of the test signal are measured as an input unit.