Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – Of individual circuit component or element
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-01
2001-05-29
Metjahic, Safet (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
Of individual circuit component or element
C165S080400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06239602
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a temperature managing apparatus and method for simultaneously managing the temperatures of objects to be temperature controlled contained in a plurality of containers.
Further, the invention relates to a temperature managing apparatus and method for simultaneously managing the temperatures of objects to be temperature controlled serving as heat generators for generating heat.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a temperature managing apparatus wherein the objects to be temperature controlled each consist of an integral object (hereinafter referred to as a “shell”) obtained by integrally forming a contactor, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a “wafer”) and a wafer chuck by a vacuum force, and wherein the containers are each used as a test room for performing tests such as a reliability test, an electric characteristic test, etc. of a plurality of semiconductor elements (hereinafter referred to as “IC chips”) formed on the wafer.
In the above-mentioned reliability test, thermo-stress and electrical stress are applied to packaged IC chips, thereby to detect latent defects therein and then to eliminate defective IC chips. IC chips have been and are now more and more miniaturized and highly integrated in accordance with miniaturization and/or functionalization of electric products. Moreover, to further decrease the size of semiconductor products, various IC-chip mounting techniques are now being developed. In particular, a technique for mounting so-called bear chips that are not packaged have been and are being developed. Before putting bear chips on the market, they must be subjected to a reliability test. In the conventional reliability test, however, various problems, which include a problem of electrical connection between a bear chip and a socket, have to be solved before the test. Further, the conventional reliability test may require lots of time and effort and hence a high cost since small bear chips are handled therein.
In light of this, a technique for testing the reliability of IC chips, which are in a wafer state, is now proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publications Nos. 7-231019, 8-5666 and 8-340030. In particular, the first and second publications propose a technique for simultaneously bringing, when testing the reliability of a wafer, the contacts of the wafer into contact with those of a contactor (e.g. a probe sheet) in a reliable manner even under the influence of heat. In order to secure the accuracy of the test for testing the reliability of IC chips provided on a wafer, it is very important to put, as mentioned above, the contacts of the wafer into simultaneous and accurate contact with those of a contactor at a high temperature. Moreover, a technique for efficiently heating a wafer to a predetermined test temperature in, for example, a constant-temperature bath used for the reliability test, and accurately maintaining the wafer at the test temperature is also very important.
Although various techniques are necessary for the reliability test for testing IC chips in a wafer state, in which the contacts of the wafer are simultaneously put into contact with those of a contactor, have been proposed so far, there is no satisfactory technique for maintaining the wafer at a predetermined test temperature in a container such as a constant-temperature bath. Under these circumstances, the applicant of this invention proposed, in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 9-318920, a technique for maintaining a wafer at a constant test temperature when performing a reliability test. More specifically, the proposed invention relates to a technique for maintaining the temperature of a wafer contained in a wafer container at a constant value. In this proposed invention, however, to simultaneously control the temperatures of a plurality of to-be-tested objects each contained in a corresponding one of containers is left as a technique to be developed.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has been developed to solve the problem.
It is an object of the invention to simultaneously manage the temperatures of objects to be temperature controlled, as to-be-tested objects, contained in a plurality of containers.
It is another object of the invention to simultaneously manage the temperatures of heat generators, as objects to be temperature controlled, contained in a plurality of containers.
It is yet another object of the invention to simultaneously manage the temperatures of a plurality of integral objects as aforementioned each contained in a corresponding one of test chambers, which are used for executing one of a reliability test and an electric characteristic test of a plurality of IC chips formed on a semiconductor wafer included in each integral object.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a temperature managing apparatus for simultaneously maintaining, at a predetermined temperature, objects to be temperature controlled contained in containers, comprising:
a plurality of containers each containing an object to be temperature controlled;
a plurality of jackets provided in each of the containers for controlling the temperature of a corresponding one of the objects to be temperature controlled;
a tank for storing a temperature control medium for the jackets, the tank including first and second storage areas partitioned by at least one movable partition;
a pipe line and a pump for transferring the temperature control medium from the first storage area to each jacket;
a pipe line for transferring the temperature control medium from the each jacket to the second storage area;
a pipe line and a pump for transferring the temperature control medium from the second storage area to the first storage area via a heat exchanger for adjusting the temperature control medium to a predetermined temperature;
a thermometer for measuring a temperature of the temperature control medium in the second storage area; and
a partition driving mechanism for moving the at least one partition on the basis of the temperature measured by the temperature measuring device.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a temperature managing apparatus for simultaneously maintaining, at a predetermined temperature, heat generators contained in containers, comprising:
a plurality of containers each containing a heat generator;
a plurality of cooling jackets provided in each of the containers for controlling the temperature of a corresponding one of the heat generators;
a tank for storing a temperature control medium for the cooling jackets, the tank including first and second storage areas partitioned by at least one movable partition;
a pipe line and a pump for transferring the temperature control medium from the first storage area to each cooling jacket;
a pipe line for transferring the temperature control medium from the each cooling jacket to the second storage area;
a pipe line and a pump for transferring the temperature control medium from the second storage area to the first storage area via a heat exchanger for adjusting the temperature control medium to a predeter-mined temperature;
a thermometer for measuring a temperature of the temperature control medium in the second storage area; and
a partition driving mechanism for moving the at least one partition on the basis of the temperature measured by the temperature measuring device.
In the temperature managing apparatus according to the first or second aspect, it is preferable that the at least one partition includes two partitions, and the tank is partitioned by the two partitions into the first and second storage areas and a third storage area defined between the first and second storage areas.
In the temperature managing apparatus, it is more preferable that the plurality of jackets include an upper jacket located above each object to be temperature controlled, and a lower jacket located below the each object to be temperature controlled.
It is further preferable that the temperature managin
Furuya Kunihiro
Nakagomi Yoichi
Tsukada Hiroshi
Deb Anjan
Metjahic Safet
Morrison & Foerster
Tokyo Electron Limited
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