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The purpose of this paper is to attempt to study the failure mechanism of BGA (ball grid array) Cu wire bond ball lift and specifically focused on substrate outgassing’s impact on Cu wire bonding quality and reliability.

The Galvanic corrosion theory has been widely adopted in explaining the failure mechanism of Cu ball bond lift issue during reliability test or field application in the presence of moisture. In this study, ion chromatography was performed on BGA substrate halogen analysis. EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) was also used to detect the contaminant’s element at the bottom surface of a window clamp. Further FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis verified that the contamination is from substrate outgassing during wire bonding. A new window clamp design proved effective in reducing the negative impact from substrate outgassing during wire bonding.

The solder mask in a fresh substrate contains a chlorine element. The chlorine can be detected in the BGA substrate outgassing during wire bonding by FTIR and EDX analyses, which have a negative impact on the Cu wire bonding. The window clamp with a larger opening can reduce the negative impact of the Cu wire bonding from the BGA substrate outgassing.

Because of the limitation of time and resources, bonding pad surface contamination from substrate outgassing and its correlation with Cu bonding ball lift failure after reliability test will be studied in depth later.

The BGA substrate outgassing has negative impacts on Cu wire bondability. A window clamp with a larger opening can reduce the negative impact from substrate outgassing.

The purpose of this paper was to attempt to confirm the root cause of wafer damage issue by heavy Al wire wedge bonding and propose some permanent solutions for it.

The infra red–optical beam-induced resistance change (IR-OBIRCH) analysis defines the position of an abnormal hotspot. A cross section and an scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirmed the wafer damage issue and its position. Based on the position of wafer damage, the wedge tool with different life and Al buildup was checked found to be on the wedge tool. Finite element analysis (FEA) modeling analysis and simulation experiment guarantee the Al buildup, and low wedge deformation thickness (WDT) can cause the wafer damage issue. Finally, design of experiment (DOE) experiments are designed to optimize wedge tool dimension and wedge-bond parameters to eliminate wafer damage issue.

Wafer damage issue caused the Vpwr-OUTPUT leakage issue by IR-OBIRCH analysis. Al buildup was found on wedge tool with different life and its size gets larger along with the increase in wedge tool life. Low WDT and bigger Al buildup can cause the wafer damage. Designing new wedge tool and parameters optimization can increase WDT.

Because of the limitation of time and resources, finite element method (FEM) modeling and wedge tool dimension could not be studied more deeply.

This paper sets an example on how to find out the root cause of wafer damage by a step-by-step analysis and put forward a quick solution accordingly for the issue.