Wafer probe alignment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9927463-B2
Application number	US-201514887510-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 20, 2015
Priority date	Oct 20, 2015
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

A water probe alignment system and method for aligning a probe to a chip wafer for testing a chip on the wafer are provided. At least two corners of the probe are adjustable in a same direction in relation to a primary corner of the probe. The alignment approach includes providing a grid of signal pins for corresponding contact pads of the chip under test, determining for each signal pin whether an electrical contact is established to a corresponding contact pad of the chip under contact force, and adjusting a position of each of the at least two corners by a corner individual delta position value with respect to the direction depending on a result of the determining in order to establish an electrical contact between each of the pins and the corresponding contact pads of the chip under test.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wafer probe alignment system for aligning a pedestal to a chip wafer for testing a chip on the wafer, the wafer probe alignment system comprising:
the pedestal including multiple corners, and a grid of signal pins for contacting corresponding contact pads of the chip under test;
a memory;
a processor communicatively coupled to the memory to perform a method of controlling the grid of signal pins during probe alignment, wherein the wafer probe alignment system is adapted for an adjustment of at least two corners of the pedestal in a same direction in relation to a primary corner of the pedestal, the method comprising:
identifying the primary corner as a corner of the multiple corners of the pedestal closest to a region of the pedestal first to contact the chip under test;
determining for each signal pin whether an electrical contact is established to a corresponding contact pad of the chip under contact force; and
adjusting a position of each of the at least two corners relative to the primary corner along one or more axes in relation to the primary corner and according to a predetermined offset value for each of the at least two corners depending on a result of the determining in order to establish an electrical contact between each of the pins and the corresponding contact pads of the chip under test.

2. The wafer probe adjustment system of claim 1 , wherein the determining and the adjusting are performed in a repetitive manner until an electrical contact is established between each of the signal pins and the corresponding contact pads of the chip under test, thereby adjusting the position of each of the at least two corners at each incremental step.

3. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 1 , further comprising pre-aligning the grid of signal pins to the signal pads without an electrical or mechanical contact between any signal pin and its corresponding contact pad.

4. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 2 , further comprising storing a mapping of electrical contacts between each of the signal pins and the corresponding contact pads of the chip under test for each of the incremental steps.

5. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 4 , further comprising calculating a first and a second angle along edges from the primary corner to a corresponding adjacent corner of the primary corner depending on the mapping, wherein the first and second angle are determined using a base position of the primary corner and base positions of the at least two corners before any adjustment of the corresponding adjacent corners.

6. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 5 , further comprising generating a warning signal whether one of the first or second angle is above a corner individual threshold value.

7. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 4 , wherein the mapping is categorized in four quadrants of the grid of signal pins or in more than four segments of the grid of signal pins.

8. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 4 , further comprising a displaying the mapping of electrical contacts between each of the signal pins and their corresponding contact pads of the chip under test.

9. The wafer probe alignment system of claim 2 , further comprising:
addressing an open electrical contact between a signal pin and a corresponding contact pad when a maximum of incremental steps is reached by applying a predefined overvoltage to the signal pin of a with a predefined constant current.

10. A computer program product for aligning a pedestal to a chip wafer for testing a chip on the wafer, wherein the pedestal comprises multiple corners and a grid of signal pins for contacting corresponding contact pads of the chip under test, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being executable by one or more computing devices to cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method comprising:
determining for each signal pin whether an electrical contact is established to a corresponding contact pad of the chip under contact force; and
generating adjustment signals for adjusting a position of each of at least two corners of the multiple corners of the pedestal by a predetermined offset value in a direction depending on a result of the determining in order to establish an electrical contact between each of the signal pins and the corresponding contact pads of the chip under test.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Appinger Joerg G
• DENGLER Eberhard
• Dieterle Roland
• Eckert Martin
• Kuczera Gabriele
• TOMASCHKO Siegfried
• Torreiter Otto
• Trianni Quintino Lorenzo

Classifications

• G01R1/07307

  with individual probe elements, e.g. needles, cantilever beams or bump contacts, fixed in relation to each other, e.g. bed of nails fixture or probe card · CPC title

• G01R1/06794 Primary

  Devices for sensing when probes are in contact, or in position to contact, with measured object · CPC title

• G01R31/2887

  involving moving the probe head or the IC under test; docking stations (moving single probes G01R1/06705; moving individual probes in multiple probes G01R1/07392) · CPC title

• G01R31/2891

  related to sensing or controlling of force, position, temperature (G01R31/2874 takes precedence; sensing of force G01L; sensing of position G01B, G01D; sensing of temperature G01K; controlling in general G05) · CPC title