Method of identifying probe position and probing method in prober

摘要

A prober for a semiconductor wafer includes a probe card mounted in a card mounting opening and having a plurality of probes. A work table for placing a wafer thereon and movable in X, Y, Z, and &thgr; directions is disposed under the probe card. The work table includes a camera, and its operation is controlled by a controller. A tester is connected to the probe card through a test head. The probe card has a probe arrangement center that should be aligned with the center of the card mounting opening. In order to identify the positions of the probes after the probe card is mounted to the card mounting opening, the position of the center of the card mounting opening on absolute coordinates and the relative positions of the probes of the probe card are stored first in the memory of the controller. Subsequently, at least one of the probes of the probe card mounted in the card mounting opening is determined as a reference probe, the position of the reference probe on the absolute coordinates is detected, and the detected position is input to the controller. The relative position of the probe arrangement center relative to the reference probe is calculated by the controller by referring to the relative positions of the probes stored in the memory.