Wafer probe test, also known as intermediate test, is an indispensable part of integrated circuit production. Its purpose is to screen out bad chips as far as possible before chip packaging to save packaging costs.

Wafer probe test is an important technical indicator of the development process of wafer production, it is not only a teaching method to save the cost of chip packaging, and we have been able to become a key influence on China's process design control, yield management, product service quality issues, and through the reduction of the total test environment costs. During the wafer probe test work process, the unqualified die will be marked, and then when the wafer is cut into individual die, the unqualified die with the marking will be rejected in order to avoid unnecessary and increasing costs.

The main equipment for wafer probe testing includes probe test benches, probe testers, and probe test cards, all of which are executed by the test system. Probe test benches can be categorized into manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic probe test benches. The main task of the probe test bench is to realize the precise contact between the probe on the probe test card and the test pattern on each die on the wafer, and the quality of the contact directly affects the test results. The position control module controls the movement of the bearing platform according to the working instructions and sends the chip to the test position accurately to realize automatic test. The probe tester is mainly responsible for electrical testing tasks, including functions such as downloading test programs, applying voltage and current, and collecting test data.

During the test process, the test system will extract the corresponding test program according to the category of the chip under test. The test program will control the probe tester to complete the initial setup and send test signals through the test system to start testing the chip, collect and categorize the test results, and ultimately generate a report on the test results.

Probe for test card is a bridge between the test management system and wafer connection, by the circuit board and probe can be composed. The circuit board is designed to be partially connected to the probe tester, while the probes are used to make contact with the solder pads (pads) on the wafer to be able to collect input data signals directly from the wafer or to check the resultant output values. Depending on the type of chip being tested, the structure of the test card will be understood to be different, and the number and layout of the probe studies on the analytical test card will also develop differently.

With the rapid development of chip manufacturing technology, wafer probe testing shows more and more important industrial value. However, wafer probe testing is also facing more and more challenges, such as the increase of chip area and density, resulting in the need for longer test time and more complex procedures, mechanical equipment and power supply to perform test work and monitor test results.