Electricity: measuring and testing – Measuring – testing – or sensing electricity – per se – With rotor
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-16
2003-01-14
Le, N. (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Measuring, testing, or sensing electricity, per se
With rotor
Reexamination Certificate
active
06507186
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test and repair system and a test and repair method for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of them is favorable or defective and for repairing a member to be processed which is determined as defective, a member test apparatus and a member test method for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at a plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of them is acceptable or defective, a data processing apparatus and a data processing method for communicating data with the member test apparatus, a member repair apparatus and a member repair method for communicating data with the data processing apparatus, and an information storage medium for storing programs as software for causing a computer to execute various processing operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, circuit products such as LSIs (Large Scale Integrated circuit) are manufactured by forming semiconductor circuits on a silicon wafer, and improvements are desired in the integration degree and productivity. At a typical site of manufacturing, various operations are managed on the basis of a unit referred to as operation lot for mass-producing such circuit products as planned with high yields.
For example, when one operation lot is set to include
25
silicon wafers, each manufacturing carrier serving as a member transfer jig is also provided with
25
holding slots serving as member mounting positions such that each silicon wafer serving as a member to be processed is removably mounted in each of the holding slots. Since the transfer of such manufacturing carriers allows silicon wafers to be moved in operation lots, a number of silicon wafers can be processed in operation lots.
At the site of manufacturing where a number of silicon wafers are moved in operation lots with the manufacturing carrier in this manner, various manufacturing processing apparatuses are arranged along the manufacturing line for individually performing a number of manufacturing steps, and the silicon wafers are transferred in operation lots to each of the manufacturing processing apparatuses with the manufacturing carrier.
At such a manufacturing site, unique identification data is provided to each of a number of silicon wafers, a plurality of operation lots, and a plurality of manufacturing carriers, and identification data is provided to each of a plurality of holding slots for each manufacturing carrier. The operation states are managed on the basis of the identification data.
Since current highly-integrated circuit products require frequent tests in the manufacturing process, various member test apparatuses are disposed at respective positions along the aforementioned manufacturing line. Such a member test apparatus comprises test supporting means including guide rails or robot arms which removably support a manufacturing carrier to be tested.
A plurality of silicon wafers mounted on the manufacturing carrier thus supported are tested by quality determining means to determine whether each of them is acceptable or defective, and if all the silicon wafers mounted on one manufacturing carrier are determined as acceptable, the manufacturing carrier is transferred to the next manufacturing processing apparatus along the manufacturing line.
If any defective silicon wafer is found by the member test apparatus, however, the identification data of the manufacturing carrier and the holding slot associated with the wafer are displayed on a display of the member test apparatus, for example. In this case, an operator who recognized the displayed data on the display of the member test apparatus once removes the manufacturing carrier from the manufacturing line to extract the defective silicon wafer from the holding slot associated therewith, and mounts the defective silicon wafer on another repair carrier to newly set an operation lot dedicated to repair.
For example, when all the holding slots of the repair carrier are loaded with silicon wafers, the repair carrier is transferred to a member repair apparatus arranged independently of the manufacturing line. The member repair apparatus also comprises repair supporting means including guide rails or the like which removably support the repair carrier.
All the silicon wafers mounted on the repair carrier thus supported are repaired in sequence by the member repair apparatus. The repair carrier with its silicon wafers all repaired is again subjected to a test by an operator using the member test apparatus, for example, to ensure the completion of the repair.
The repair carrier in which the completion of the repair is ensured for all the silicon wafers is again transferred to the manufacturing line by an operator, and the silicon wafers are returned to the holding slots of the original manufacturing carriers from the repair carrier. The manufacturing carriers are returned to the manufacturing line since only acceptable silicon wafers are mounted on the manufacturing carriers.
A silicon wafer which is determined as defective after the second test is subjected to additional repair, for example, and a silicon wafer on which a predetermined number of repairs and tests are repeated is discarded. When a silicon wafer is discarded in this manner, its manufacturing carrier is returned to the manufacturing line after another silicon wafer is replenished, for example.
At the manufacturing site where semiconductor circuits are formed on silicon wafers as described above, since a defective silicon wafer is repaired, circuit products can be mass-produced with high yields and with a minimized number of discarded silicon wafers.
The aforementioned manufacturing site, however, requires that the operator extracts the silicon wafer which has been determined as defective from the manufacturing carrier to mount it on the repair carrier and returns the silicon wafer for which repair is completed to the holding slot of the original manufacturing carrier from the repair carrier. These operations are complicated and easily cause erroneous transfer of silicon wafers.
In addition, since the repair operation is performed in operation lots similarly to the normal operation, it is necessary to form an operation lot dedicated to the repair from defective silicon wafers. As a result, the repair operation is performed only after a predetermined number of defective silicon wafers are accumulated on a repair carrier, resulting in significant delay of manufacturing operations for a manufacturing carrier in which a defective silicon wafer is present.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the aforementioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide at least one of a test and repair system and a test and repair method capable of repairing a defective silicon wafer without requiring complicated operations, a member test apparatus and a member test method in the test and repair system and method, a data processing apparatus and a data processing method in the test and repair system and method, a member repair apparatus and a member repair method in the test and repair system and method, and an information storage medium for storing programs as software for causing a computer to execute the data processing method with the data processing apparatus.
The test and repair system of the present invention comprises a member test apparatus for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at a plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective, and a member repair apparatus for repairing the member to be processed which is determined as defective by the member test apparatus, and further comprises a data processing apparatus for integrating and controlling the member test apparatus and the member repair ap
Hayes & Soloway PC
Le N.
LeRoux Etienne
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