Automated 300mm Wafer Test System

• Subject Area: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• Term: Funded in 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495657714

The focus of the scientific work of the Chair of Circuit Design at the TU Munich is the integration of sensors with readout circuits and the resulting improvements in sensor properties. A larger number of sensors integrated on a silicon wafer or wafer piece and the associated readout circuits can provide a much more comprehensive picture of the sensor and/or environmental parameters to be measured than is possible via single sensors. In order to demonstrate the advantages of such multi-sensor systems, it is necessary to integrate the sensor technology with integrated circuits, if possible on one piece of silicon, together as a system on chip or system in chip-scale flip-chip package.At the Chair of Circuit Design, circuit and sensor system concepts are designed, verified, and fabricated via partners (e.g., TUM's ZEITlab - see Section 3.2) and semiconductor foundries (contract manufacturers such as Global Foundries and XFAB). These circuits must then be tested under boundary conditions that are as close to the application as possible - also statistically due to manufacturing fluctuations - with regard to their electrical properties. In some cases, this also requires trimming of the circuits. For these characterizations and adjustments, measurement equipment is needed that allows both a certain throughput of circuits to be measured and the most flexible possible modification of the environmental conditions (such as temperature or mechanical stress) and the electrical boundary conditions (such as the supply voltage).The core of the application is a 300 mm wafer prober, which is to be equipped for the purposes of sensor technology with special metrological capabilities such as externally supplied tempered air, wetting with liquids and the application of a defined bias on the wafers to be measured. In addition, this wafer prober is to be equipped with manipulators for electrical measurements and specially adapted measuring devices for accurate data acquisition (induced currents, voltages and their time characteristics due to the sensor properties) of the circuits under investigation. Since the circuits integrated on the wafer can often only be manufactured with insufficient accuracy, a semi-automatic machine is requested here for higher measurement throughput, as well as an additional laser for trimming certain circuit parameters. Furthermore, the measuring station is to be equipped with the measuring devices necessary for sensor applications, as they are required in currently active, applied for and foreseeable future sensor projects. Since a new focus area of nanosensors is currently being established at TUM (also with new professorships), the measurement setup is also well equipped to support other research groups in their metrological work here within this focus area across chairs and within the framework of the faculty's own ZEITlab.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Halbautomatisches 300mm Wafer Test System
• Instrumentation Group: 2780 Spezielle Meß- und Prüfgeräte für Halbleiter und Röhren (außer 620-659)
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Ralf Brederlow