Assessment of Copper Bond Wire for Use in Long Term Military Applications

Reliability Society

Aaron Lecomte — Raytheon – Integrated Defense Systems

For years semiconductor manufacturers have used gold wire to connect the semiconductor die to the lead frames and external pins. However, rising gold prices are driving manufacturers towards less expensive alternative materials such as copper for use in high volume commercial plastic package devices. Military standards such as MIL-STD-883 do not define requirements for copper bond wire and therefore manufacturers are using qualification and process monitoring developed for gold wire to qualify the copper bond wire technology. Although copper bond wire designs are moving forward for commercial applications, there are concerns with quality and reliability for use of copper bond wire in high reliability military electronics with long mission life.

This presentation will review findings from the destructive physical analysis (DPA) testing performed on a number of standard commercial plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PEMs). We will focus on the die ball bond and lead frame crescent bond metallurgical structures, mechanical bond strength, wire composition, and manufacturing bonding process workmanship & overall quality.

Based on the DPA findings, potential risks will be defined along with recommendations to the qualification program of PEMs with copper bond wire for use in harsh environments and long term high reliability military programs.

Aaron Lecomte of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems

Biography:

Aaron Lecomte is an Electrical Engineer in the Materials Engineering group in Andover, Massachusetts. He has experience with failure analysis, reliability analysis, CCA design, and analog/digital/RF design and testing. He is responsible for the quality and process flow of Destructive Physical Analysis (DPA) for the Reliability Analysis Lab. Since coming on board with the DPA program, Aaron has improved the procedures to increase integrity of the program, streamline tasks, and reduce overall cycle time. Aaron is a certified Six-Sigma specialist, holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire, and is currently in pursuit of an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Agenda
5:30-6:00 – Sign In, Networking, Light Dinner & Refreshments
6:00-6:10 – Chapter Chair Greetings & Announcements
6:10-8:00 – Aaron Lacomte, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems
8:00-8:15 – Q&A session, meeting adjourns

Registration: http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/rl/events.html

Meeting Location: MACOM Hale Street Building, 121 Hale St, Lowell, Massachusetts