Wafer prober for in-line cleaning probe card

Details Wafer prober for in-line cleaning probe card Wafer prober for in-line cleaning probe card

2000-08-17

2002-07-16

Le, N. (Department: 2858)

Electricity: measuring and testing

Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components

Of individual circuit component or element

C324S754090, C324S1540PB, C134S006000, C134S007000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06420891

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wafer probing test machine, more specifically, to a wafer prober to clean probe card in-line by spraying three phases of CO
2
.
B. Description of the Related Art
In the course of testing wafers of semiconductor devices, pads of wafer chip are contacted with probe-card to test or examine whether or not the electric circuit on each chip is disconnected and also to test electric characteristics of each chip. The wafer probing test machine (or wafer prober) is used for this wafer test.
FIGS. 1 and 2
illustrate a typical testing apparatus
100
including a prober
120
, a test head
130
and a tester
150
. The testing apparatus
100
is used to test the performance of a die on a wafer. As illustrated, a probe card
140
sits below and in contact with test head
130
. During testing, the prober
120
supports the wafer
123
on a chuck
122
and positions the wafer
123
so as to precisely align the bond pads of a die to be tested with the probe tips
142
on the probe card
140
. The chuck
122
is connected to a staging device
124
by rods
121
.
The staging device
124
typically positions the chuck
122
along a x-y-z plane by moving along a stage floor
125
on a ball screw stage assembly (not shown). The chuck
122
typically includes a vacuum chuck wherein the wafer
123
being tested is held in position by drawing a vacuum within a plurality of interconnecting channels (not shown) that are formed within the surface of the chuck. Once aligned, chuck
122
is raised via rods
121
such that the bond pads of the die on the wafer
123
are forced against the probe tips
142
on the probe card
140
.
Typically, the bond pads of the die on the wafer
123
are made of metallic materials, such as aluminum, which can oxidize when exposed to air. Also, organic material left over from certain fabrication processes can be disposed on the bond pads. When probe card tips
142
repeatedly contact bond pads on the wafer
123
, metal oxides such as aluminum oxides and other materials on the bond pads can build-up on the probe card tips
142
, as illustrated in FIG.
3
. Thereby the materials built-up on the probe card tips
142
interfere with the function of the probe pins during testing operations. Thus, it becomes necessary to periodically clean the probe pins on a probe card.
In conventional cleaning operations, a probe maintenance station is utilized in order to clean probe pins on a probe card used in testing fabricated semiconductor device. This requires the removal of the probe card from the production line in order to clean the probe pins and then results in a certain amount of production downtime. The production downtime includes the time to remove the probe card from the prober, and the time to install and perform a complete new set up for a clean probe card. Also, as manufacturing techniques have improved, it has become possible to probe more semiconductor dies in parallel at one time and therefor requires increasingly wider probe card arrays. This has resulted in ever increasing difficulty and downtime in order to have the probe card arrays taken off-line, to replace the probe card arrays, and then to bring the system back on-line, as well as additional time to clean the removed probe card arrays and bring the arrays back into the service.
Accordingly, there is a need for improving probe pin cleaning systems and methods that overcome or avoid the above problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of present invention to provide a wafer prober capable of cleaning probe pins in-line, which employs sprayer, such as CO
2
triple point sprayer, to in-line clean the probe pins on probe card.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the wafer prober capable of cleaning probe pins in-line according to the present invention is used in the wafer probing test system having a test machine and a test head. The wafer prober includes a housing having a probe card holder for holding a probe card, a staging device installed in the housing and moving along a X-Y-Z plane, and a chuck installed on the staging device for holding a wafer to be tested. The chuck further includes at least a nozzle installed at the staging device for cleaning probe pins of the probe card by spraying solid, vapor and liquid CO
2
.
Since the wafer probing test system according to the present invention does not need to remove the probe card away from the prober to clean, and does not need to position the probe card again, the production downtime can be greatly reduced. Additionally, due to that the wafer probing test system employs the nozzle to spray out three phases of CO
2
to clean the probes, the probes do not be damaged and the lifetime of the probe can be extended.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4923828 (1990-05-01), Gluck et al.
patent: 5935339 (1999-08-01), Henderson
patent: 6033484 (2000-03-01), Mahoney
patent: 6057694 (2000-05-01), Matsuda
patent: 6092537 (2000-07-01), Kanno
Patent Abstract of 63-015,870 (Osaka Oxygen Ind. Ltd.). fled May 38, 1988 in Japan.

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