Patent ID: 7724007

Claim:
A probe apparatus for inspecting a plurality of chips arranged on a wafer, by contacting probes of a probe card with electrode pads of the chips while mounting on a mounting table the wafer, the mounting table being horizontally and vertically movable by a mounting table driving unit, the probe apparatus comprising: an imaging unit provided at the mounting table and having an upward view to image the probes; a moving body movable horizontally at a height position within a range between the mounting table and the probe card; a first and a second imaging unit of which optical axes are spaced from each other, provided at the moving body and having a downward view to take an image of a surface of the wafer; and a control unit obtaining respective positions of the mounting table at which a focus of the imaging unit for imaging the probes and a focus of the first imaging unit for imaging the wafer are made to coincide with each other and then the focus of the imaging unit for imaging the probes and the second imaging unit for imaging the wafer are made to coincide with each other by moving the mounting table; obtaining respective positions of the mounting table at which the images of the wafer on the mounting table are sequentially taken by the first and the second imaging unit for imaging the wafer by moving the mounting table; obtaining a position of the mounting table at which the image of the probes is taken by the imaging unit for imaging the probes; and calculating a position of the mounting table at which the wafer contacts with the probes based on the obtained positions of the mounting table.