Smart Cantilever Probe with Integrated Force and Acoustic Emission Sensor
- Acoustic emission (AE) testing recently found its application in the wafer testing sector of the semiconductor industry. To find out the mechanical robustness of semiconductor devices, contact pads on the chip surface are intentionally overstressed with an indenter tip and the appearing oxide cracks are detected with help of the generated AE signals. This is done in a customized test bench with a patented sensor-indenter system. This paper presents an improved version of the measurement setup that solves certain disadvantages of it and can be used in a standard wafer prober. The main components of the developed sensor system are a strain gauge for contact force measurement and a piezoelectric sensor element for AE signal detection. Both components are integrated on a cantilever beam which has an exchangeable indenter tip at its free end. The cantilever probe is electrically conductive to enable electrical tests via the indenter tip. This smart sensor-cantilever combination (SCC) can be mounted with several adapter components on a carrier plate to place it in a wafer prober. For both sensor elements amplifier circuits are developed to enhance their signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). A prototype setup is shown together with simulated and experimental results to demonstrate its performance. The mechanical properties of the cantilever, as well as the force sensor and the AE crack signals, already fulfill the requirements for an implementation in a wafer prober. To further improve the sensor resolutions and detection limits, several optimizations regarding the design of the SCC are in progress.
Author: | Florian Tremmel, O. Nagler, C. Kutter, Rainer Holmer |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1109/SENSORS56945.2023.10325021 |
ISBN: | 979-8-3503-0387-2 |
Parent Title (English): | 2023 IEEE SENSORS, Vienna, Austria, 10/29/2023 - 11/1/2023 |
Publisher: | IEEE |
Document Type: | conference proceeding (article) |
Language: | English |
Year of first Publication: | 2023 |
Release Date: | 2023/12/14 |
Tag: | Acoustic emission testing; operational amplifier circuit; piezoelectric sensor; strain gauge |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 4 |
Institutes: | Fakultät Elektro- und Informationstechnik |
Begutachtungsstatus: | peer-reviewed |
research focus: | Energie und Mobilität |
Licence (German): | Keine Lizenz - Es gilt das deutsche Urheberrecht: § 53 UrhG |