Influence of Medical Sterilization on Material Systems of Electronics

Medical micro devices should be sterilized by one of the not so harmful processes before they are in use. Each process will be affecting the parameters of the packaging and electronic materials. This paper describes the results of experiments of gold and aluminium wires for bonding electrical contacts as well as flip-chip-contacts on RFID under the influence of sterilization by moist heat according DIN EN 554. The experiments of pull- and shear measurements give the results that contacts with gold wires will be suitable in most cases and the contacts consisting of aluminium wires break down. Flip-chip-contacts are working after more than 25 sterilization procedures again