Tokyo Electron Limited

Ibiden Company Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Tokyo Electron Limi Ted

Tokyo Electron Yamanashi Limited

Nippo Precision Co., Ltd

Junichi Hagihara

Kunihiro Furuya

Shigekazu Komatsu

Tadayoshi Hosaka

Naoki Muramatsu

Kiyoshi Takekoshi

Hisashi Kaneko

Nobuo Hayasaka

Takamasa Usui

Shinji Iino

Hisatomi Hosaka

Yoshiyuki Ido

Kunihiko Hatsushika

Hitoshi Kato

Ken Nakao

Masaru Suzuki

Toshihiro Yonezawa

Yasuhito Yamamoto

Tsuyoshi Argua

A wafer inspection system is provided. The wafer inspection system includes: a transfer region in which a transfer device is arranged; an inspection region in which test heads for inspecting a substrate are arranged; and a maintenance region in which the test heads are maintained. The inspection region is located between the transfer region and the maintenance region, a plurality of inspection rooms accommodating the test heads are adjacent to each other in the inspection region, and the test heads are configured to be unloaded from the inspection region to the maintenance region.

Wafer inspection system

A wafer inspection system is provided. The wafer inspection system comprises: a transfer region in which a transfer device is arranged; an inspection region in which test heads for inspecting a substrate are arranged; and a maintenance region in which the test heads are maintained. The inspection region is located between the transfer region and the maintenance region, a plurality of inspection rooms accommodating the test heads are adjacent to each other in the inspection region, and the test heads are configured to be unloaded from the inspection region to the maintenance region.

Wafer inspection system, wafer inspection apparatus and prober

Test head and wafer inspection apparatus

A maintenance carriage of a wafer inspection apparatus can easily unload a test head. A wafer inspection apparatusincludes a cell towerin which cellsare arranged at four levels, and each of the cellsaccommodates a test head. At an outside of the cell tower, a maintenance carriageis arranged. The maintenance carriageincludes a carriage baseconfigured to be moved through rollers; a test head caseconfigured to accommodate the test head; a lift deviceprovided uprightly from the carriage baseand configured to move up and down the test head case; and a horizontal position adjusting stageprovided between a lifterof the lift deviceand the test head caseand configured to move the test head casehorizontally with respect to the lifter

Maintenance carriage for wafer inspection apparatus and maintenance method for wafer inspection apparatus

A reliability evaluation test apparatus of this invention includes a wafer storage section which stores a wafer in a state wherein the electrode pads of a number of devices formed on the wafer and the bumps of a contactor are totally in electrical contact with each other. The wafer storage section transmits/receives a test signal to/from a measurement section and has a hermetic and heat insulating structure. The wafer storage section has a pressure mechanism which presses the contactor and a heating mechanism which directly heats the wafer totally in contact with the contactor to a predetermined high temperature. The reliability of an interconnection film and insulating film formed on the semiconductor wafer are evaluated under an accelerated condition.

Reliability evaluation test apparatus, reliability evaluation test system, contactor, and reliability evaluation test method

The present invention restrains, during a transfer of a substrate, a central portion of the substrate from being warped by its own weight, which might be caused by a super-enlargement of a diameter of the substrate. A substrate transfer apparatusincludes: a support partwhich is moved above a substrate w of a large diameter; and an upside grip mechanismdisposed on the support part, the upside grip mechanismcapable of supporting a peripheral portion of the substrate w from above. The support partis provided with a non-contact sucking and holding parthaving a suction holeand a blow hole. The non-contact sucking and holding partsucks and holds the substrate w in a non-contact manner, by blowing a gas onto the central portion of the upper surface of the substrate w and sucking the central portion to form an air layersuch that the central portion of the wafer w is not warped.

Substrate transfer apparatus and vertical heat processing apparatus

Disclosed herein is a vertical heat treatment apparatus which includes a thermal reactor having a reactor opening, a cover that hermetically closes the reactor opening, a holder that holds a large number of to-be-processed substrates via a ring-shaped support plate in such a manner as to arrange the substrates vertically at predetermined intervals, and an elevator mechanism that loads the holder into and unloads the holder from the thermal reactor. A transfer mechanism has a plurality of transfer plates that are arranged at predetermined intervals to carry to-be-processed substrates, and transfers the to-be-processed substrates between the storage container and the holder. The support plate is divided into an outer support plate and an inner support plate. The outer support plate has a cutout section through which the transfer plates can vertically pass to transfer the to-be-processed substrates. The inner support plate is placed at the inner periphery of the outer support plate and provided with a block section for blocking up the cutout section. Therefore, a plurality of to-be-processed substrates can be transferred at a time to the holder having the ring-shaped support plate. This makes it possible to reduce the transfer time, increase the processing volume, and provide increased throughput.

Vertical heat treatment apparatus and method of transferring substrates to be processed

A probe apparatus is capable of being scaled-down and reducing a manufacturing cost thereof in a probe apparatus having a plurality of probe apparatus main bodies. A loader unit for transferring a wafer between carriers accommodating therein wafers and the probe apparatus main bodies includes: an upper camera for imaging the arrangement of chips to be inspected of the wafer; a lower camera for imaging probe needles; an X-Y-&#x398; stage for moving the position of the wafer W in a horizontal direction and a second loader mechanism for moving the wafer in a vertical direction. Accordingly, a fine alignment of the wafer is performed by the loader unit to adjust the position of the wafer.

Probe apparatus, probing method, and storage medium

An inspection apparatus includes a movable mounting table having a temperature control device, an elevation drive unit for vertically moving the mounting table, a controller for controlling the elevation drive unit and a probe card having probes arranged above the mounting table. The elevation drive unit includes first and second driving shafts connected to each other through coupling members to drive the mounting table, a motor for driving the first and second driving shafts, and a torque detection unit for detecting a torque between the first and second driving shafts based on a contact load between the probes and the at least one device. The controller includes a torque controller for controlling the torque based on detection results of the torque detection unit when the probe card expands or contracts due to temperature variation.

Inspection apparatus

An inspection apparatus includes a movable mounting table for mounting thereon a target object, a probe card disposed above the mounting table and a control unit for controlling the mounting table. The target object is inspected by bringing a plurality of electrode pads of the target object mounted on the mounting table into contact with a plurality of probes of the probe card with a predetermined contact load by overdriving the mounting table. Further, the mounting table includes a mounting body whose temperature is controllable, a support body for supporting the mounting body, an elevation driving mechanism provided in the support body and pressure sensors provided between the mounting body and the support body to thereby detect the contact load. The control unit controls the elevation driving mechanism in accordance with detection signals from the pressure sensors.

Inspection apparatus having a capacitive pressure sensor between the mounting body and the support body

A conventional probe card is very complex in a support structure of probe terminals and it has been difficult to change an array of the probe terminals correspondingly to various arrays of electrode pads of an object to be checked. A contactor () of the present invention simultaneously sets its probe terminals in contact with a plurality of electrode pads of an object to be checked and electrical checking of the object is made once or a plurality of times. It has a plurality of first electrodes () arranged on a first substrate (silicon substrate) () and probe terminals () respectively provided on these electrodes (). The probe terminal () has a conductive support () provided on the first electrode, elastic support plate () whose one end is fixed to the upper end of the conductive support column (), and probe terminal (bump)fixed to the free end portion of the elastic support plate ().

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Junichi Hagihara