The wire sag problem in wire bonding technology for semiconductor packaging [1]

Wire bonding still being chose as microelectronic packaging in these days despite any
other modern types of package due to its cost and reliability. There are lots of requirements of
more light and thin electronic products. Thus, there will be the needs of controlling wire sag
and sweep in the upcoming years. Many multi-national companies have developed low wire
sweep wires thus reducing the pitch of wire bond. However, bond pitch and layer pitch are
said to be very crucial for packaging of semiconductor. Wire deformation can be seen by
doing transfer molding process due to the epoxy compound flow that reveals the wire
deformation. If the wire deformation is parallel to the leadframe plane, it being called as wire
sweep. Meanwhile, if the wire deformation is perpendicular to leadframe plane, it is called as
wire sag. The problem is that, if the wire sweep and wire sag is too much, it may lead to wire
crossover and even shorting. Because of that, sweep and sag stiffness have to be measured in
order to find the resistance ability of a wire bond.
To begin the test, wire bond have to be placed in 3-dimensional wire bond packaging
which have three layers of the chips in it. Due to the 3-dimensional structure of the package,
wire bond will have the different bond spans, bond heights and also die thicknesses. In order
to determine the wire sweep or wire sag, transfer molding process being conducted by using
high viscosity epoxy molding compound. As being mentioned before, the direction of
movement for the wire bond due to the epoxy will determine whether it is wire sweep or wire
sag. For 3-dimensional package, it will be a problem if there is excessive wire sag and wire
sweep because it may induce shorting and IC failure.
Hence, tests being conducted by a lab-made micro sag sweep machine to address the
prediction of the deflection of wire sag during transfer molding process. By using wire bonds
with various bond spans and bond heights, numerical result from analysis being compared
with experimental data. It is strongly proved that sag stiffness may determine the resistance
ability of a wire bond to the direction of deflection during transfer molding process. If the sag
stiffness value is bigger, the possibility to overcome the short circuiting due to sag sweep
would be higher.

Challenges and developments of copper wire bonding technology [2]

Copper wire bonding is the solution for substituting gold wire bonding in terms of
cost saving. Copper also owns high electrical and thermal conductivities compared to gold
wire. These are advantageous to giving higher signal speed, less heat generation and also
provide better heat dissipation. But, despite all the goods, there are also the bad of using
copper for wire bonding.
Oxidation is likely to happen in producing free-air-ball (FAB) of copper wire because
of the effect of surface tension while being exposed to high temperature. Inconsistency of ball
shape and size due to oxidation will lead to difficulty of controlling bonding parameters.
Bond pad damage and silicon cratering is the effect that will happen due to higher bonding
force and ultrasonic power because of hardened FAB (due to oxidation). Oxidation also
contributes to appearance of non-stick bond especially on second bonding.
Hence, oxidation must be avoided in order to get the symmetrical shape and deviated
size of FAB. First solution is to introduce hydrogen so that it can provide additional heating
energy to form gas. Anti-oxidation performance will be better with higher gas flow rate
because lower gas flow rate will brings to severe oxidation to copper wire bonding. Second
way to avoid oxidation is to use electroplating oxidation-resistant metal on copper bonding
wire. These also able to extend shelf life and better anti-oxidation performance but will cause
a problem to FAB shape.
Due to high temperature during bonding process, intermetallic compound (IMC)
growth will likely to happen between FAB and aluminium pad. Moderate amount of IMC is
good because it may improve the bonding performance. But, higher amount of IMC will lead
to interfacial heat generation. Thus it will forms brittle bonding interface that will brings to
bonding failure.
To detect wire bond failure, failed packages are generally de-capsulated to expose
bond balls and check ball lifts. After that, SEM inspection and EDS analysis was performed
to determine the failure mechanism. However, IMC residue cannot be easily detected by
using SEM. So, TEM is needed because it will provide clearer image of packages cross
section. X-ray also being used as non-destructive method to inspect voids, lifting and break of
wire bond.
REFERENCES

[1]

H.-K. Kung, H.-S. Chen, and M.-C. Lu, "The wire sag problem in wire bonding
technology for semiconductor packaging," Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 53, pp.
288-296, 2013.

[2]

P. Liu, L. Tong, J. Wang, and L. S. H. Tang, "Challenges and developments of copper

wire bonding technology," Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 52, pp. 1092-1098, 2012.