Abstract: Provided are a laser machining device and a laser machining method capable of stably operating an autofocus function without causing an unfavorable state such as an overshoot etc. A laser machining device and a laser machining method of the present invention performs a normal AF (autofocus) control when a scan position of the machining laser light and the detecting laser light is located in a work central portion, and performs a slow-tracking AF (autofocus) control with a trackability to a displacement of a main surface of a work reduced to be lower than a trackability of the normal AF control when the scan position of the machining laser light and the detecting laser light is located in a work end portion.

Abstract: A linear drive mechanism which moves a detector having sensitivity in a first axial direction, relatively to a workpiece in a second axial direction orthogonal to the first axial direction, the linear drive mechanism includes: a drive shaft extending in the second axial direction; a mover which is supported in a non-contact fashion by the drive shaft and configured to move along the drive shaft integrally with the detector or the workpiece; a guide provided at a position deviated relative to the drive shaft in a third axial direction orthogonal to both the first axial direction and the second axial direction, the guide parallel to the drive shaft; and a resistance force generator which is provided on one of the mover and the guide, and is in contact with the other of the mover and the guide, the resistance force generator generates a resistance force which resists against movement of the mover.

Abstract: To provide a wafer processing method which can simplify the wafer processing process and efficiently obtain chips of stable quality. A wafer processing method includes: a tape attaching step of attaching a back grinding tape to the front surface of a wafer; a modified region forming step of applying a laser beam from the back surface of the wafer along a cut line to form modified regions inside the wafer; a back surface processing step of processing the back surface of the wafer having the modified regions to reduce a thickness of the wafer; and a dividing step of, in a state in which the back grinding tape is attached to the front surface of the wafer, applying a load to the cut line from the back surface of the wafer to divide the wafer along the cut line and obtain individual chips.

Abstract: Provided is a prober capable of suppressing the increase in installation area and the increase in device cost, and also improving the throughput, while maintaining the accuracy of the moving position of an alignment device shared by each of measuring units. The prober includes: a plurality of measuring units, each of which has a probe card electrically connected to a test head; a wafer chuck that holds a wafer in which a plurality of chips are formed; an alignment device which performs relative alignment between the probe card and the wafer held by the wafer chuck; a moving device which moves the alignment device among the measuring units; and a positioning and fixing device which is provided for every of the measuring units, and positions and fixes the alignment device which is moved to each of the measuring units.

Abstract: There are provided a detector, a surface property measuring machine and a roundness measuring machine for automatically measuring a plurality of surfaces to shorten the time necessary for measurement. This problem is solved by a detector provided with a stylus for supporting a contact coming in contact with a surface of an object to be measured, a holder configured to hold the stylus, a measuring part configured to hold the holder to be capable of swinging by a rotating shaft and detect a displacement of the holder, and a body configured to accommodate the measuring part, wherein the holder holds the stylus such that a stylus axis as an axis of the stylus and a body axis as an axis of the body are in parallel, and the stylus axis and the body axis are offset in a first direction perpendicular to the body axis and the rotating shaft.

Abstract: A three-dimensional coordinate measurement apparatus capable of reducing shaking of a Y carriage and improving measurement accuracy. The Y carriage is supported by two strut members which are across a surface plate and movable in a Y-axis direction. The two strut members include a first strut member having a driving mechanism and a second strut member which moves following the first strut member. A guide portion parallel to the Y-axis direction is formed in the surface plate on a first strut member side. Side surface support members support the first strut member on the surface plate by holding both opposed side surfaces of the guide portion. The driving mechanism includes a roller having an axis perpendicular to a surface plate surface, and the roller is brought into contact with one side surface of the guide portion and rolled to move the Y carriage relatively to the surface plate.

Abstract: The present invention provides a prober and a transfer unit being capable of improving throughput at each of the measurement units. The prober includes a transfer object housing that houses a plurality of transfer objects, the plurality of measurement units, the transfer unit that moves between the transfer object housing for housing the plurality of transfer objects and the plurality of measurement units to transfer the transfer objects into the transfer object housing or each of the measurement units, and a moving device. The transfer unit includes environment controller configured to control an environment in a casing, and air curtain formation means for causing the casing to be in a sealed or a substantially sealed state.

Abstract: The present invention provides a prober and a transfer unit being capable of improving throughput at each of the measurement units. The prober includes a transfer object housing that houses a plurality of transfer objects, the plurality of measurement units, the transfer unit that moves between the transfer object housing for housing the plurality of transfer objects and the plurality of measurement units to transfer the transfer objects into the transfer object housing or each of the measurement units, and a moving device. The transfer unit includes environment controller configured to control an environment in a casing, and air curtain formation means for causing the casing to be in a sealed or a substantially sealed state.

Abstract: The detector for a surface measuring device includes: an arm including a contact at a tip end of the arm; a rotation shaft configured to rotatably support the arm; a transmission part having one end connected to the arm at a position on a side opposite to the contact with respect to the rotation shaft; an elastic part having one end connected to another end of the transmission part and configured to generate a measuring force to be applied to the contact; a position adjusting part connected to another end of the elastic part and configured to move a position of the another end of the elastic part in a moving direction; and a tilt adjusting part connected to the arm and including a contact part arranged at position where the contact part can be brought into contact with the transmission part.

Abstract: A prober for preventing a collision between a probe and a probe position detecting camera and a prober operation method are provided. A prober that performs an inspection by bringing a probe into contact with an electrode of a wafer W includes: a probe position detecting camera for detecting the position of the tip of the probe to perform relative positional alignment between the electrode of the wafer W and the probe; a probe height detector, provided separately from the probe position detecting camera, for detecting the height of the tip of the probe from a reference plane serving as a reference for the height of the probe position detecting camera; and a first height adjusting mechanism for changing the height of the probe position detecting camera from the reference plane, based on the detection result of the probe height detector.

Abstract: The present invention provides a prober and a transfer unit being capable of improving throughput at each of the measurement units. The prober includes a transfer object housing that houses a plurality of transfer objects, the plurality of measurement units, the transfer unit that moves between the transfer object housing for housing the plurality of transfer objects and the plurality of measurement units to transfer the transfer objects into the transfer object housing or each of the measurement units, and a moving device. The transfer unit includes environment controller configured to control an environment in a casing, and air curtain formation means for causing the casing to be in a sealed or a substantially sealed state.

Abstract: The present invention provides a prober and a transfer unit being capable of improving throughput at each of the measurement units. The prober includes a transfer object housing that houses a plurality of transfer objects, the plurality of measurement units, the transfer unit that moves between the transfer object housing for housing the plurality of transfer objects and the plurality of measurement units to transfer the transfer objects into the transfer object housing or each of the measurement units, and a moving device. The transfer unit includes environment controller configured to control an environment in a casing, and air curtain formation means for causing the casing to be in a sealed or a substantially sealed state.

Abstract: Abbe error that needs to be considered in high accuracy positioning of a device to be maintained, is suppressed. A prober includes: a plurality of measurement sections arranged between a conveyance area and a maintenance area, each of the measurement sections having a device to be maintained which is used for inspection of a semiconductor element formed on a wafer, and a draw-out mechanism configured to draw out the device to be maintained to a side of the maintenance area; a conveyance unit configured to convey an object to be conveyed to a destination measurement section; and a loading part configured to load the object to be conveyed from the side of the maintenance area to the measurement section. The object to be conveyed is loadable into the measurement section from a conveyance area side and the maintenance area side.

Abstract: A grinding apparatus that performs thickness measurement across an entire wafer surface without degradation of throughput of wafer grinding and grinds the wafer precisely to a target thickness. A grinding apparatus includes a rough grinding stage for roughly grinding a wafer and a fine grinding stage for finely grinding the wafer. A first thickness measuring means for measuring the thickness of the wafer while the wafer is being transferred is provided to a column so disposed as to span an index table. A control unit of the grinding apparatus corrects a target thickness after fine grinding and computes a target thickness after correction on the basis of an average thickness across the entire surface of the wafer before fine grinding obtained from measured values of the first thickness measuring means.

Abstract: A wafer inspection method improving inspection accuracy and operation efficiency. A method for performing electrical inspection by bringing into contact with pads in chips on a wafer. A chuck step S1 for heating the wafer to an inspection temperature; a first position recognition step S2 for recognizing all the positions of the pads; a second position recognition step S3 for re-recognizing, before performing the electrical inspection, the position of the pads recognizing the positional shifts of the pads due to thermal expansion; and a correction step S4 for correcting contact positions with respect to the probes, the contact positions being corrected on the basis of pad positions, which have been re-recognized in the second position recognition step S3 on the basis of the pad positions recognized in the first position recognition step S2, and which have been updated.

Abstract: [Problem] To provide a processing device for grinding by suppressing brittle-mode grinding and stabilizing a wafer. [Solution] A processing device 1 is provided with: an index table 2 on which a wafer W is moved from a coarse grinding stage S2 to a fine grinding stage S3; a column 4 provided so as to span over the coarse grinding stage S2 and the fine grinding stage S3; a coarse grinding means 5 provided on the column 4 above the coarse grinding stage S2, the coarse grinding means 5 performing coarse-grinding processing on the wafer W; and a fine grinding means 6 provided on the column 4 over the fine grinding stage S3, the fine grinding means 6 performing fine-grinding processing on the wafer W.

Abstract: To provide a prober and a probe contact method capable of enhancing the reliability of electrical contact between electrode pads on a wafer and probes. A prober includes a wafer chuck, a probe card, a ring-shaped seal member provided on the wafer chuck, a Z-axis moving/rotating unit which lifts up and down the wafer chuck detachably fixed to a wafer chuck fixing part, a decompressor which depressurize an internal space formed by the probe card, the wafer chuck and the ring-shaped seal member, a lifting controller which controls the Z-axis moving/rotating unit to bring probes into contact with electrode pads in an overdrive condition, and a depressurization controller which controls the decompressor such that the wafer chuck is drawn to the probe card by depressurization of the internal space.

Abstract: Provided is a prober capable of maintaining parallelism between a probe card and a wafer as well as performing wafer-level inspection with high accuracy. A test head is held by a test head holding part, and the test head and a probe card are sucked and fixed to a pogo frame attached to a head stage. A wafer chuck is moved toward a probe card while being fixed to a Z-axis movement-rotation unit in a detachable manner, and the wafer chuck is drawn toward the probe card by reducing pressure in an air-tight space formed between the wafer chuck and the probe card using a pressure reducing unit. Then, an electrical inspection of a wafer is performed while the test head, the pogo frame, the probe card, and the wafer chuck are integrated with respect to the head stage.

Abstract: A height position of a surface of a wafer can be detected accurately and stably without being affected by variation in a thin film formed on the surface of the wafer. An AF (autofocus) device irradiates the surface of the wafer W with an AF laser beam, detects reflection light thereof for each wavelength with a detection optical system. An AF signal processing unit outputs a displacement signal indicating displacement of the surface of the wafer to a control unit on the basis of a detection result of the detection optical system. Moreover, the AF device includes a focus optical system disposed in an irradiation optical path which is an optical path from the light source unit to a light converging lens. The focus optical system adjusts a light converging point of the AF laser beam in a wafer thickness direction.

Abstract: Provided is an ultrasonic displacement sensor that more accurately identifies a plurality of models on a conveyance line on which a plurality of types of workpieces having different specifications coexists, in particular, on a conveyance line of cylinder blocks in a manufacturing facility of engines for automobiles, to thereby improve reliability.