Copper (Cu) wire bond is used in a majority of microelectronic devices but has not been fully accepted by all industries due to potential reliability issues. Good quality bond is believed to provide high reliability. Shear strength and intermetallic (IMC) coverage are being used as indicators, however there is no developed model. High shear strength is a result of large IMC coverage laterally under the ball, but the reliability of the bond is also related to IMC longitudinal growth (thickness). This work involves studying effect of shear strength on reliability of a variety of experimental Cu ball bonds by performing temperature aging experiments on test devices, in QFN packages. The ball bonds are made by altering ultrasonic power and time to obtain different IMC coverage. All test packages are monitored for resistance change at specific intervals by performing four point resistance measurement. Resistance increase is analyzed with initial shear strength to determine whether “good quality” bonds always lead to high reliability.

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