PROBE CLEANING APPARATUS AND PROBE CLEANING METHOD USING THE SAME

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning apparatus for removing a foreign substance stuck to a tip of a probe to be used for a test step of a semiconductor device or an integrated circuit and preventing occurrence of stick slip on the tip of the probe.SOLUTION: The cleaning apparatus includes: a vertical direction drive mechanism 23 for attaching a probe 11 having a spherical tip part or an inclined part straight extended from the halfway of the spherical tip part; horizontal direction drive mechanisms 32, 42 for stages 30, 40 for fixing a cleaning sheet 50; and a control device 60. The horizontal drive mechanisms 32, 42 are driven and controlled so that the pressing quantity of the probe 11 to the cleaning sheet 50 is continuously increased to a predetermined value by the control device 60 and a moving locus of the probe tip part 12 to the cleaning sheet 50 becomes a closed loop by the vertical direction drive mechanism 23.