Wire bonding is still the most popular chip interconnect technology in microelectronic packaging and will not be replaced by other interconnect methods for a long time in the future. Au bonding wire has been a mainstream semiconductor packaging material for many decades due to its unique chemical stability, reliable manufacturing, and operation properties. However, the drastic increasing price of Au bonding wire has motivated the industry to search for alternate bonding materials for use in microelectronic packaging such as Cu and Ag bonding wires. The main benefits of using Cu bonding wire over Au bonding wire are lower material cost, higher electrical and thermal conductivity that enables smaller diameter Cu bonding wire to carry identical current as an Au bonding wire without overheating, and lower reaction rates between Cu and Al that serve to improve the reliability performance in long periods of high temperature storage conditions. However, the high hardness, easy oxidation, and complex bonding process of Cu bonding wire make it not the best alternative for Au bonding wire. Therefore, Ag bonding wire as a new alternative with potential application comes to the packaging market; it has higher thermal conductivity and lower electric resistivity in comparison with Cu bonding wire, which makes it a good candidate for power electronics, and higher elastic modulus and hardness than Au bonding wire, but lower than Cu bonding wire, which makes it easier to bond. This paper begins with a brief introduction about the developing history of bonding wires. Next, manufacturability and reliability of Au, Cu, and Ag bonding wires are introduced. Furthermore, general comparisons on basic performance and applications between the three types of bonding wires are discussed. In the end, developing trends of bonding wire are provided. Hopefully, this review can be regarded as a useful complement to other reviews on wire bonding technology and applications.
Keywords: bonding wire; development trends; general comparison; manufacturability; reliability.