IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART VOL. NO.

2, JUNE 1995 423

Optimization of Copper Wire

Bonding on A1-Cu Metallization
Luu T.Nguyen, David McDonald, Anselm R. Danker, Member, ZEEE, and Peter Ng

Abstract-This paper reports the successN implementation of

copper wire ball bonding for selected TO-220 devices on a high
volume commercial scale. Since August 1992, copper wire bond-
ing has been used in production at National SemiconductorCorp.
The development of copper wire ball bonding involves a three-
prong approach: optimum pad metal composition, modifications
to the wire bonder and optimization of the assembly parameters.
The critical material parameter is bond pad hardness. This needs
to be above a critical threshold value to avoid silicon cratering.
The metal composition best suited for the wire bonding procem
is sputtered AWu(2%). Typical production yields of 99.8% at (a) (b)
lead bond are obtained with 1.5 (37.5 pm) copper with Fig. 1. (a) 'Qpical TO-220 3-lead used in the study. The lead fingers were
ball shear and wire pull averaging 100 f 20 gms and 15 f 2 excised to allow for subsequent microscopic work. The top and side views
gms, respectively. Five issues related to copper wire bonding of of the final package configuration are also depicted. Enlarged view of the
TO-220 power IC packages are discussed: 1) Typical bonding chip and the areas of analysis indicated ( 5 0 ~ ) .
failure modes; 2) the relation between bond pad composition and
hardness; 3) the influence of the metal deposition systems; 4)
TABLE I
the optimization of bonding conditions; 5) the reliability of the CHARACTERXSTTCS
OF GOLDAND COPPERBONDING
FOR 1.5 MIL WIRE
copper wire bonded devices.

I. INTRODUCTION

C OPPER WIRE BONDING offers several mechanical and

electrical advantages as well as cost savings over its
gold wire predecessor: high bond pull strengths, long wire
spans without sagging, resistance to wire sweep [l], [2], better
resistance to intermetallic growth, heat sinking capabilities and
enhanced electrical conductivity [3]-[7]. Furthermore, copper
proper threshold was needed to harden the pad and absorb the
is not subject to sudden price fluctuations in the precious
shock of the ball. Once a range of copper concentration and
metals market, which gold is. Bonding conditions differ from
structure was deemed acceptable, optimization of wire bonding
the standard gold ball bonding. Generally, higher bond force
conditions through design of experiment studies can identify
and power are used due to the higher copper wire stiffness.
the best range of parameters to use for production.
A blanket of inert gas (e.g., argon, nitrogen, hydrogen, or a
combination thereof) is also needed to prevent oxidation. The
major differences between gold and copper bonding are listed II. FAILUREMODESIN WIREBALLBONDING
in Table I for comparison. Fig. 2 depicts gold and copper wire bonds with 1.5 mil (37.5
One of the applications where copper wire bonding can be pm) wires. Copper oxidizes easily and has a harder modulus
substituted for gold wire bonding is in transistor outline (TO) than gold, as indicated in Table II; average values from several
packages where high current capability is typically needed. vendors are given for the same grade. As a result, several
Fig. l(a) depicts a voltage regulator in a TO-220 package kinds of damage that are not generally encountered with gold
with the die mounted on top of the die pad of the frame. bonding can be imparted to the silicon die. These potential
The bond pads on the device analyzed are shown in Fig. I@). reliability defects were eliminated in order to ensure that a
The limiting factor in copper wire bonding is the bond pad viable manufacturing process was obtained. A description of
hardness. The concentration of the copper and aluminum metal the potential failure modes is listed below.
deposited on the bond pad was found to be critical, since a
Dielectric Cracking: During thermosonic bonding, control
Manuscript received February 1994; revised July 1994. of the application force and power is critical to the forma-
L. Nguyen and D. McDonald are with National Semiconductor Corporation, tion of a good metal-to-metal joint. High power and low
Santa Clara, CA 95052 USA. force can transmit the load directly to the pad underlying
Danker and P. Ng are with National Semiconductor Corporation,
Malacca, Malaysia. oxide, leading to hairline cracks and subsequent leakage
IEEE Log Number 9407914. failures. This is referred to as dielectric cracking.
1070-9886/95$04.00 1995 IEEE

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 TABLE I1
OF MAINDIFFERENCES
COMPARISON BETWEEN
GOLDAND COPPER

Be,Ca Ti,Yt, B
Ball shear (a) (b) (c)
Mode -ball shear Ball shear Ball shear Fig. 3. (a) Die cratering from copper wire bonding together with the picture
of a typical crater. (b) Before metal decoration for clarity. (c) After metal
Mode ull Neck break Neck break decoration for clarity.

Metal Extrusion: Overbonding extrudes the aluminum

metallization around the ball periphery. This can weaken
the ball-to-pad adhesion and can lead to dielectric crack-
ing or silicon cratering. In addition, the reduced thickness
of aluminum metallization under the pad can also lead to
thermal cycling failures.
The implementation of copper wire ball bonding overcame
all of these potential failure modes by optimizing pad hardness
(a) (b) and by properly selecting and controlling the bonding condi-
Fig. 2. (a) Copper ball bond. (b) Gold ball bond. tions. Statistical process controls have been implemented to
guarantee quality bonding.
Silicon Cratering: Silicon cratering refers to the complete
fracture and removal of the silicon pad underlayers during 111. EXPERIMENTAL
bonding, as illustrated in Fig. 3 [8]-[lo]. Cratering can Bond pad hardness was measured with a LECO Microhard-
occur due to a combination of excessive power and low ness Tester equipped with a Knoop indenter using a 5.0-g load
force bonding 111. This is induced by improper bonding and a dwell time of 15 s. Pad metal composition was charac-
parameters and can occur for both copper and gold wire terized by Auger and SEMEDX, while the in-depth study of
bonding. Since copper is less malleable than gold, a copper nodules distribution was carried out at the SISIR Lab
higher force is needed to deform the ball. Large stresses (Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research) in
can be imparted to the pad underlayers and the silicon Singapore using wavelength disperse X-ray analysis (WDX).
as a result. This can lead to open circuit failures if not The latter technique is capable of detecting all elements with
properly controlled. an atomic number greater than 5, in concentration greater than
“Non-Stick” to Leadframe: One advantage of copper wire 0.1% and within areas as small as 1.0 pm2. WDX has energy
bonding is the possibility of bonding directly to a bare resolution one order of magnitude greater than EDAX so that
copper frame. Silver plating on the lead fingers is no low atomic number elements can be easily detected.
longer needed as in gold wire bonding. However, since
the bonding temperature is raised up to 240°C (compared
to 22OOC for Au), a blanket of inert gas must shroud Iv. PAD COMPOSITION AND HARDNESS
the area to protect against oxidation. Failure to do so Early attempts at copper wire bonding made use of thin films
would lead to poor bond strength and may even result in like titanium nitride (TiN) or tungsten carbide (WC), which
“nonstick” types of failure. Low power during bonding have a greater hardness than silicides such as molybdenum
can also produce “nonstick” failures. silicide (MoSi2). These hard barrier metals can resist bond
Weak Bond: A weak bond is characterized by low pull and damage and crack propagation. However, such options are
shear strengths. This may caused by surface oxidation more expensive than incorporating copper directly into the
from high temperature treatment or poor blanketing of the aluminum metal. The addition of a small amount of copper
work area with the inert gas mixture. (e.g., from 0.5 to 4 wt.%) to the aluminum metallization im-
Ball Uniformity: The wire ball formation must be spheri- proves the resistance to electromigration, increases the current
cal so that the proposed bond area can bear the appropriate density capability, and increases the bond pad hardness.
tensile or shear load. The shape is controlled by governing The characteristics of the Al-Cu metal depends on several
certain parameters of the bonding machine. If the “elec- parameters, such as the concentration of Cu in the A1 metal, an-
trical flame off’ is not timed properly or if it is not set neal history, deposition conditions, and even machine design.
for the appropriate voltage and polarity, the spherical ball Fig. illustrates the Auger spectra obtained for two samples of
is not obtained. More stringent controls are needed for A 1 4 3 (3%) metal; one with no annealing and the other after
copper wire bonding than for gold, since copper oxidizes annealing for 4 h in a nitrogen atmosphere. Both samples are
readily, and more energy is needed to form the ball. profiled through the bond pad area while tracking AI, Si, and

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NGUYEN et al.: OPTIMIZATION OF COPPER WIRE BONDING

7 TABLE I11
DEPENDENCY
OF PAD METALLIZATION
ON
MACHMETYPESAND DEPOSITION
CONDITIONS

2
E
* 3
d

M. Multiple

U
much Cu is piled-up against the AYSi interface, the bonding
.I

impact of the ball may force the Cu against the oxide, crack the
Fig. 4. Auger scans of Al-Cu (3%) pad metallization before and after underlying silicon, and lead to pad cratering. The latter may
annealing. occur at the onset of bonding or may be sufficiently subtle to
show up only after thermal cycling or thermal shock testing.

v. EFFECTOF METALDEPOSITION
SYSTEM
The nature of the pad metal also depends on the type of
sputterer system used (i.e., multiple wafer systems versus
single wafer systems). Deposition conditions such as rate,
temperature, time, pressure, gas composition, cool down time
and wafer load, all affect the grain structure obtained and
thus the pad metal hardness. Multiple wafer systems typically
have slow deposition rates, low deposition temperatures, and
long deposition times. In order for single wafer systems to
be comparable in throughput with multiple wafer systems,
i i2 is zi 2+
SPUrrERTIME ( m i d the reverse deposition conditions are true. These conditions
-Al-SiCu Si- can vary between different sputtering systems for similar
Fig. Auger scans of AI-Cu pad metallization at different Cu concentra- settings. Table I11 lists pad hardness values obtained for three
tions (2, 3, and systems (A, B, and C) compared with the control unit (D).
System A (hot) refers to system A run at a hotter deposition
Cu. A defocused electron beam is used to average the analysis temperature. Three die runs were used for data collection.
area to avoid variations due to the Cu grain distribution. Hardness values are normalized to the hardness of the samples
Before annealing, the pad shows little or no Cu in the first from the control System D ;each average value represents
half of the metallization. Most of the Cu is concentrated in three die runs. For each wafer, one die each was taken from
a broad peak before the AYSi interface. The annealed sample the top, bottom, left, right, and center. Five indentations were
exhibits a very different Cu profile. The Cu level becomes done on each of the four bond pads of each die. A response
more evenly distributed throughout the thickness of the pad surface methodology approach is needed to obtain the required
metal, with significantly less pile-up near the AYSi interface. metallization properties and the best deposition parameters.
Aside from annealing, the concentration of the Cu also Fig. 6 shows the enlarged views of the sectioned aluminum
dictates its solubility in the metallization. Fig. depicts such layer of samples retrieved from System A (normalized hard-
dependency for samples with three Cu concentrations: 2, 3, ness 0.74) and System C (normalized hardness Fig. 7
and 4 wt.%. shows the Cu distribution of these two samples as analyzed
At both 3% and 4%, the profiles for all the samples tested from a WDX machine. A high distribution of Cu near the
indicate a small concentration of Cu at the surface, which after surface of the metallization, as is the case for the sample of
approximately A drops down to a low level throughout (normalized) hardness translates into high pad hardness.
most of the A1 metallization. The Cu level increases toward Precaution should be taken in determining pad hardness
the AYSi interface, reaching a maximum just before or at the as measured by conventional microhardness testing. The test
interface boundary. The sample with 2% Cu differs slightly involves placing a diamond indenter of a specific geometry
in profile. The initial concentration of Cu near the surface onto the surface at a chosen load for a chosen duration. The
decreases and becomes more or less constant throughout the size of the indentation is then measured and translated into
A1 metallization without any pile-up at the AUSi interface. a hardness value. The load should be chosen such that the
The Cu distribution in the pad metallization is critical to depth of the indentation does not exceed the depth of the
the bonding quality. A high concentration of Cu at the surface metallization and thus enter the underlying oxide and silicon.
would raise the hardness of the pad and provide a damping Also, at lighter loads, the values registered may reflect whether
barrier to the copper ball. However, it was believed that if too the tip of the indenter is located directly on some Cu nodules

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426 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS, PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL. 18, NO. 2, JUNE

(b)
Fig 6. Enlarged views of the aluminum layers of two representativebond pad samples of hardness 0.74 (a) and 1.13 (b) normalized
with respect to the control samples generated by System D.

which can precipitate out of the metal, and give erroneous

readings. Thus, averaging the hardness values over a large
pad area is essential. 8
Deposition parameters were chosen for each of the different
sputter systems used so as to meet the desired bond pad hard- 96
ness and structure needed for copper wire ball bonding. Based
on WDX and Auger scans, the composition of annealed Al-Cu 94
(2%) seemed toprovide the best distribution of Cu through Bo$-oe
the pad. The hardness of the ensuing films also indicated LOCATION LOCATIW
that this concentration was appropriate for bondability. Fig. (a) (b)
8 illustrates the hardnes of 1.6 pm films with 0.5, 2, and Fig. 7. Distribution of copper and aluminum in the previous two represen-
4% Cu concentrations. Beyond 2% Cu, no appreciable gain tative bond pad samples of normalized hardness 0.74 (a) and 1.13 (b).
in hardness was achieved, and actually a slight decrease was
observed. At the 0.5% concentration, the film obtained was
too soft for bonding. and a ST-series piezoelectric transducer. The Power Logicon
In order to achieve optimum pad hardness and to include is essentially a phase lock loop ultrasonic generator. Under
ease of metal etching during fabrication, a 2% Cu concentra- normal bonding conditions, the generator sends out a voltage
tion was deemed appropriate. signal of a certain amplitude and a frequency that matches the
transducer resonant frequency. The transducer then resonates
VI. OPTIMIZATION OF BONDINGCONDITIONS and produces a transverse wave on the bonding tool. The tool
in turn oscillates from 20 to 150 pin (3.8 pm). Certain bonding
conditions alter both the resonant frequency and impedance
A. Wire Bonding of the transducer during bonding. Only through closed-loop
The development work was done with a modified K&S control that the generator can track changes in frequency and
1419 bonder and a Uthe IOG-CC power supply unit. The maintain the proper bonding movement. A control module
latter consists of a model two-stage Power Logicon allows automatic tuning and tracking over a kHz range.

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NGUYEN et al.: OPTIMIZATION OF COPPER WIRE BONDING 421

TABLE IV
EVALUATION
MATRIX OF THE WIRE BONDING
PARAMETERS
FOR Al-Cu PAD METALLIZATION

i i i i i ;
Fig. 8. Hardness of film as a function of Cu concentration in AI film. Values
normalized to the hardness of the control film made with System D of Table
TABLE V
MAINEFFECTSAND INTERACTIONS RECORDED
FOR THE EVALUATIONOF Al<U (2%)

c’4
NORMAL POWER ENVELOPE Z-STAGE ENVELOPE COEFFICIENT IMPORTANCE
US.power stage 1 (US.1) Significant
US.power stage 2 2) Significant
US.1 pulse duration Not Significant
Total time Not Significant
US.1 power US.2 power Not Significant
US.1 power Total bond time Not Significant
BoNDlTME BONDTIME U.S.1 power U.S.1pulse duration Significant
US.2 power Total bond time Not Significant
(a) (b) US.2 power US1 pulse duration Significant
Fig. 9. (a) Power envelope used in normal bonding conditions. (b) Power Total bond time US1 pulse durati Not Significant
envelope used with the two-stage power supply.

The two-stage power supply, which enables independent

This range allows the generator to be used with different control of the ultrasonic wave pulse, was used for the DOE
applications, tools, and transducers without the need for re- study. Four bonding parameters were evaluated: 1) the first
tuning. stage bond power level; 2) the second stage bond power level;
Copper wire has a thin oxide layer covering the wire surface. 3) the first stage pulse duration; the total bond time. A 16-
In order to facilitate a good bond, the generator must first leg DOE factorial matrix with the bond parameters at 2 levels,
break through the oxide to make the bond. In a standard high and low as shown in Table IV, was performed
ultrasonic bond, if the power used to break through the initial so that the optimum bond settings for the Al-Cu (2%) could
oxide layer is too high, die cratering may occur. On the other be determined. Numbers in the two stages of the ultrasonic
hand, reducing power often leads to bond “nonstick” type (US) power envelope applied refer to machine settings. Visual
failures. These problems are overcome by using a two-stage inspection, ball shear and wire pull testing were performed on
pulse method that allows independent power and time level each of the 16 legs, and was used as criteria for evaluating
adjustments to optimize the setting. The first stage breaks quality bonds. The visual inspection included checks for ball
through the oxide while the second stage facilitates the bond. concentricity, uniformity, wire straightness over long spans
Field tests indicated that a high power first stage coupled and checks for cracking or cratering of the underlying silicon.
with a low power (-30% lower) second stage facilitated good The values of each of the tests observed for copper wire bonds
bonding and minimized the incidence of cratering. Fig. 9 had to be equal or greater in quality when compared to gold
illustrates the power envelope used in both a single and a wire bonds in order to be judged acceptable. Each test leg
two-stage condition. consists of 200 units, with 20 units dedicated for ball shear
(80 balls), 160 units for bond cratering check (640 pads), and
B. Design of Experiment (DOE) Evaluation 13 units for wire pull (50 wires) tests.
As was shown in Table 111, the metallization morphology Statistical methods were used to interpret the results from
depends on the system used. The new generation of single the factorial experiment and decide which of the factors and
wafer sputterers, which run at high deposition rates and interactions between factors were deemed significant. The
high temperatures, are capable of producing the requisite main effects and first order interactions for the DOE evaluation
pad hardness. The older generation of multiple wafer metal of Al-Cu (2%) are listed in Table V.
sputterers, which run at lower depostion rates and lower Results indicate that the ball snear strength strongly depends
temperatures, consistently produce much lower pad hardness. on the power level setting of the first stage, and less strongly
In order to open up the bonding process window that would on the second stage of the application of ultrasonic energy.
allow quality copper bonding to the various pad hardnesses The other two parameters, the ultrasonic pulse duration and the
produced from these different machines, the focus was shifted total bond time, do not have as much influence. Similarly, there
to optimizing the bonding machine parameters. is a strong interaction between the two first order effects of the

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428
QUALIFICATTON
Operating lifr
US-1 pulse duration and the two stages of power application:
US-1 power US-1 pulse duration and US-2 power US-1
pulse duration. None of the other interactions are significant,
and all the higher order terms are neglected.
The results of the evaluation led to the selection of optimum
bonding machine parameters that gave quality bond for all of deposition and Mick O’Brien of National Semiconductor
the Al-Cu (2%) metal hardnesses produced from the various (NSUK), Greenock, Scotland, for help in the wafer prepa-
sputter machines listed in Table 111.
VII. RELIABILITY OF COPPER WIRE BONDEDDEVICES
The reliability of copper ball bonding to aluminum pads is program. Help from C. S . Lim and S. H. Chong of NSEM
dependent on the type of intermetallics formed, their rate of Test Group and J. K. Ng of NSEM Failure Analysis Group
growth and the quality of the bond adhesion. Qualification is also appreciated.
tests are designed to establish the capability of the bond
to sustain the interconnect through a series of stress tests.
The reliability tests that were performed were autoclave (15
psi, 12loC), temperature cycle (-65OC to +15OoC for 1000
cycles), temperaturehumidity bias (85”C, 85% RH),operating
life (150OC for 500 h), and high temperature storage (150OC
for 1000 h). The typical sample size for each test is 77.
Results are shown in Table VI for the control lot (1.5 mil
Au wire on 100% A1 metal) and two lots of Al-Cu (2%)
metals with 1.5 mil Cu wire. No failures are observed for the
standard qualification tests listed for the packages assembled
with Al-Cu (2%) pad metallization.
This paper has addressed the following issues regarding the
successful implementation of copper wire ball bonding in high
power TO packages:
Bond Pad Composition and Hardness: The bond pad
metal hardness needs to be above a critical threshold to
avoid silicon cratering and ensure a viable manufacturing
process. A bond pad metal composition of annealed
Al-Cu (2%) gave a sufficiently broad process window
of hardness values best suited for manufacturability.
Metal Deposition and Pad Hardness: The bond pad met-
allization obtained shows a strong dependency on the
sputterer system. Deposition rate, temperature, pressure,
cool-down time, and gas composition all affect the metal
grain structure and thus hardness. The newer generation
of single wafer sputterers are more suited to copper wire
bonding. The older generation of multiple wafer sputterers
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS. PACKAGING, AND MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY-PART A, VOL. 18, NO. 2, JUNE 1995
TABLE VI produces softer bond pads. Deposition parameters for
RESULTS FOR AI-Cu (2%) WIREBONDING both systems should be optimized to give metal hardness
values needed for Cu wire ball bonding.
Optimization of Wire Bonding: A two-stage ultrasonic
wire bonding power supply, opens up the bonding process
window to allow for quality bonds with lower bond pad
hardness. Good bond strengths can be obtained without
imparting damage to the bond pad underlayers, provided
that the proper metallization morphology and ensuing
hardness is generated.
Reliability of 1.5 mil Cu Wire Bonding: Packages bonded
with 1.5 mil Cu wire pass all the standard reliability tests
required to qualify a new process. Switching from gold
to copper wire ball bonding gave several electrical and
mechanical advantages as well as substantial cost savings
when used in high volume scales.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank R. Chinn for the discussion on metal
ration. Thanks are due to B. Patmon, R. Chan, C. M. Teo,
and K. C. Yap of National Semiconductor (NSEM), Malacca,
Malaysia, for the support through a protracted development
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[ l ] L. T. Nguyen and F. J. Lim, “Wire sweep during molding of integrated
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[2] L. T. Nguyen, A. S. Danker, N. Santhiran, and C. R. Shervin, “Flow
modeling of wire sweep during molding of integrated cicrcuits,” ASME
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[3] L. Levine and M. Sheaffer, “Copper ball bonding,” Semiconduct. Int.,
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[4] J. Hirota, K. Machida, T. Okuda, M. Shimotomai, and R. Kawanaka,
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[5] S. Mori, H. Yoshida, and N. Uchiyama, ‘The development of new copper
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[6] J. Kurts, D. Cousens, and M. Dufour, “Copper wire ball bonding,” in
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[7] K. Atsumi, T. Ando, M. Kobayashi, and Osamu Usuda, “Ball bond-
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[8] S. L. Khouri, D. J. Burkhard, D. P. Galloway, and T. A. Scharr,
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[IO] W. J. Tomlinson, R. V. Winkle, and L. A. Blackmore, “Effect of
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[l I] S. A. Gee, L. T. Nguyen, and V. R. Akylas, “Wire bonder characteriza-
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NGUYEN al.: OPTIMIZATION OF COPPER WIRE BONDING
Luu T. Nguyen, for photograph and biography, please see p. 22 of the March
issue of this TRANSACTIONS.
David McDonald received the B.S. degree in elec-
tronic engineering from Cal Poly State University,
San Luis Obispo, in 1987.
H~ joined National Semconductor in 1987, and
is currently a staff product engineer in the Power
Management Group.
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429
Anselm R. Danker (M’89) received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees in physics from the University of
Malaysia, in 1982 and 1985, respectively.
He joined National Semiconductor in 1987 as a
process engineer, and has worked on TO-220 copper
wire development since 1990.
Mr. Danker is a member of the Malaysian Insti-
tute of Physics.
Peter Ng received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Federal
Institute Of in 1975.
He joined National Semconductor in 1984, and worked on the TO-
92/202/220 Assembly Line as a process engineer for lead bonding. In 1991,
he joined the Process Development Group to work on TO-220 copper wire
development. He was a senior engineer in charge of TO-220 hybrid assembly
and TO-220 lead bond operation. He is currently with National Semiconductor,
Omega, Malacca, Malaysia.