1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to testing of semiconductor components within a semiconductor wafer and specifically to wireless testing of the semiconductor components within the semiconductor wafer simultaneously and, optionally, measuring a performance of the semiconductor components within the semiconductor wafer.
2. Related Art
A semiconductor device fabrication operation is commonly used to manufacture components onto a semiconductor substrate to form a semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor device fabrication operation uses a predetermined sequence of photographic and/or chemical processing steps to form components onto the semiconductor substrate. However, imperfections within the semiconductor wafer, such as imperfections of the semiconductor substrate, imperfections of the semiconductor device fabrication operation, or imperfections in design of the components themselves, may cause one or more of the semiconductor components to operate differently than expected.
Conventional automatic test equipment (ATE) is commonly used to verify that the semiconductor components within the semiconductor wafer operate as expected. The conventional automatic test equipment includes a full complement of electronic testing probes to carry out a testing operation. This full complement of electronic testing probes includes electronic testing probes to apply power, digital testing signals, and/or analog testing signals to each of the semiconductor components to perform the testing operation. This full complement of electronic testing probes also includes electronic probes to read signals at various nodes of the semiconductor components to verify that each of the semiconductor components operates as expected during the testing operation.
Improvements in semiconductor device fabrication techniques have allowed the manufacture of more complex semiconductor components, in greater quantities, onto the semiconductor substrate requiring more electronic probes to perform the testing operation. Typically, the electronic probes are in direct contact with specially designated locations, commonly referred to as testing points, within the semiconductor components. These more complex semiconductor components require more testing points to perform the testing operation which occupy more real estate on the semiconductor substrate that could be allocated elsewhere. As a result, these improvements in semiconductor device fabrication have led to an increase of the overall size and cost of the conventional automatic test equipment.
Thus, there is a need for automatic test equipment that verify the semiconductor components within the semiconductor wafer operate as expected that overcomes the shortcomings described above. Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds