Tokyo Electron Limited

Masahiko Akiyama

Hiroki Hosaka

Masataka Hatta

Toshio Miyazawa

In a transfer method for transferring a substrate in an inspection system configured to perform a test on electrical characteristics of the substrate, the inspection system including an inspection unit including a plurality of test devices configured to perform the test on the electrical characteristics of a substrate, a loader unit configured to mount a cassette which accommodates a plurality of substrates, and a transfer device configured to transfer a substrate between the inspection unit and the loader unit, an inspected substrate is received by the transfer device from the inspection unit. The inspected substrate received from the inspection unit is transferred toward the loader unit in a state where an opening portion of a transfer arm container of the transfer device. Then, the inspected substrate is delivered to the loader unit.

Transfer method and inspection system

According to the present invention, a main chuck, on which a wafer having a number of devices is held, is driven under the control of a computer, and the devices on the wafer are brought into electric contact with the probes arranged on the upper side of the main chuck. On the basis of outputs from the probes, a tester sequentially measures the electric characteristics of the devices. When a heat-generating type device is measured, the inspecting method and apparatus of the present invention execute the following steps step of predicting the temperature of the device under measurement on the basis of the amount of heat generated from the device under measurement, step of predicting the temperatures of the devices that surround the device under measurement, step of selecting next-measurement devices (which are suitable for next measurement in light of their temperatures) from among the devices the temperatures of which are predicted in step, and calculating the position coordinates of the next-measurement devices, and a step of repeating the steps with respect to each of the devices, adding the distance between the device under measurement and the next-measurement device to the already-calculated distance, and selecting the shortest measurement route along which all devices are measured.

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Yamanashi, Japan

Masahiko Akiyama