Have you ever wondered how those intricate and minute connections found in medical or optoelectronic devices are bonded? Have you ever thought of the fact that the bonding for these elements is robust enough to withstand extreme conditions like heat and shock. Pure gold is the material of choice for these applications. Why is gold a good material for bonding?
Wire bonding has always been the main method in the interconnection of elements – between different semiconductor devices or integrated circuits within a package. This is often the most cost effective and efficient interconnect method.
The demand to increase functionality lessen die size and increase interconnects is common in the industries that utilizes this bonding method. Because of this need, manufacturers are constantly innovating on the pitch and sizes of interconnects to make products smaller and more efficient.
What is meant by fine pitch?
As electronic feature sizes continue to get smaller, the number of electronic connections needed in ever smaller spaces requires bonding wire that is smaller in diameter, and attachment at reduced distance from its nearest neighbor.; This ever finer spacing or pitch, and even ultra-fine pitch, presents challenges for producing wire, bond pads, and the equipment that attaches wires to pads.
Gold as a bonding material
Gold is not only used as a measure of wealth but is also a favorite material of choice for designers of high performance electronic circuits. Gold is used as a bonding material due to the metal’s basic metallurgical properties, which include low contact resistance, ductility and resistance to surface oxidation. It can be drawn micro-thin and still maintain its properties.
Applications of fine pitch gold wire
Many fine pitch gold bonding wire are made to meet the various manufacturing requirements of the most advanced electrical and semiconductor devices.
They are used in the optoelectronic industry both for bonding high speed chips that manage the networks, and individual optical devices that control precise information encoding onto a stream of light. In the highly advanced optoelectronic industry, the bonding that this fine gold wires provide result low noise distortion at microwave signal speeds, precision, and chemically stable products.
Bonding for extremely accurate radio frequency (RF) packaging for the defense, aerospace and commercial industries is achieved with the use of fine pitch gold wire. RF applications involve attention to details in its packaging – the higher the frequency at which the packages are used, the more important the wire and die connection becomes.
Many medical electronic devices requiring reliability and flawless performance depend on gold for their wire bond. For implantable devices, in particular, achieving the smallest possible size is critical. These fine pitch wires find applications in cochlear implants, pacemakers and other medical monitoring devices.
Coining offers a solution to your fine pitch gold wire need
Coining can offer the ideal solution for fine point gold wire requirements. Our engineers have many years of technical experience designing and producing products for the world’s most demanding applications. They can assist on the complex configurations and issues. Customers can be sure of a fast and efficient response to requirements.