The emergence of high volume copper ball bonding

Copper ball bonding has emerged as a high-volume semiconductor assembly process. It already is well established in the high-power, low-pin count market segment. In addition to having better properties than gold, copper provides higher electrical and thermal conductivity, higher strength and stiffness, and better intermetallic reliability than comparable gold ball bonds. As these benefits are demonstrated, it migrates into higher I/O, more demanding, fine pitch product lines. Cost savings achievable with copper ball bonding are substantial and represent a major cost improvement for our highly competitive industry.