Patent ID: 7701236

Claim:
A probe apparatus for inspecting a plurality of chips to be inspected by mounting on a horizontally and vertically movable substrate mounting table a substrate on which the chips are arranged and then contacting probes of a probe card with electrode pads of the chips, the probe apparatus comprising: a loader unit for loading the substrate; and a probe apparatus main body, provided near the loader unit, for inspecting the chips of the substrate, wherein the loader unit includes: a first and a second loading port which mount therein two carriers such that transfer opening are spaced apart opposite to each other, the carriers having therein a plurality of substrates and being loaded from the outside; and a substrate transfer mechanism having a rotation center between the first and the second loading port, the substrate transfer mechanism being rotatable about a vertical axis and movable back and forth and up and down, wherein the probe apparatus main body includes a first and a second inspection unit disposed in accordance with the arrangement of the first and the second loading port and provided at both sides of a horizontal line perpendicular to a line which connects the first and the second loading port and passes through the rotation center, wherein each of the inspection units is provided with the substrate mounting table, the probe card and an imaging unit having a substrate imaging device which has a downward view to take an image of a surface of the substrate and is movable horizontally at a height position between the substrate mounting table and the probe card, wherein the substrate transfer mechanism is constructed to directly transfer the substrate between the substrate mounting tables and the carriers mounted in the first and the second loading port, and wherein position of the imaging unit at which the substrate is imaged, position of the substrate mounting table at which the substrate is transferred and position of the probe card in the first inspection unit are symmetrical with those in the second inspection unit with respect to the horizontal line, respectively.