Patent ID: 7719297

Claim:
A probe apparatus for sequentially measuring electrical characteristics of chips to be inspected by contacting electrode pads of the chips with probes of a probe card by moving a mounting table which mounts thereon an inspection substrate, wherein the chips are arranged in columns and rows on the inspection substrate, and the mounting table is movable in X, Y and Z directions by a driving unit, the probe apparatus comprising: an imaging unit that captures images of the electrode pads on the inspection substrate mounted on the mounting table or those of specific points on the mounted inspection substrate, each specific point having a specific positional relationship with an electrode pad; means for calculating, based on a captured result of the imaging unit, contact positions in the X, Y and Z directions on coordinates of a driving system managed by the driving unit, wherein the probes are expected to contact with the electrode pads of the inspection substrate mounted on the mounting table at the contact positions; a storage unit that stores correction data obtained in advance by using a reference substrate differing from the inspection substrate, wherein in the correction data, reference points on the reference substrate are associated with correction amounts corresponding to differences in the X, Y and Z directions between actual contact positions for the reference points and contact positions on the coordinates of the driving system calculated by using a captured result of the reference points by the imaging unit; and means for obtaining actual contact positions by obtaining relative positions of the electrode pads of the inspection substrate with respect to the reference points and correcting the contact positions calculated by the calculating means based on the relative positions and the correction data stored in the storage unit.