ISO Cu Wire Preservation

Nisene first saw copper bond wires almost 10 years ago. They were like a unicorn…a mythical creature created from the hysteria surrounding rapidly rising costs for gold. While the cost of gold has historically increased and decreased, the switch to copper metal bonding actually created a technological advantage, so much so that it solidified copper’s presence in the industry.

So here we are almost 10 years later with multiple advancements in the testing arena to provide a solution to the fact that copper bonding is highly reactive during decapsulation, and what have we learned? That copper bonding is still a topic of discussion for problems during testing.

On June 25th I will be presenting at the 2019 CALCE/SMTA Symposium for Counterfeit Parts and Materials in Maryland. The topic on hand? Copper wire and counterfeit detection. Nisene has been providing a copper wire decap solution for 8 years now so this isn’t new to us. What we’re focusing on now is matching the best solution to your needs. Are you processing large volumes of samples 5 days a week? Do your processes allow “wet” processing? You’ll want to look at the JetEtch Pro CuProtect or JetEtch Pro TotalProtect. Both provide solutions that don’t require additional equipment for sample prep and can still provide large volume throughput. Does your lab require the most pristine bond wire possible? Are you only concerned with bond wire for tests like bond pull? You’ll want to look at the Nisene PlasmaEtch.

Below are our most recent run on a PlasmaEtch with Pd coated Cu bond wires. These were after 2 hours of processing in the PlasmaEtch with no sample prep/bulk removal. This particular application also required no use of ultrasonic.

Although the industry is very familiar with the CuProtect and it is arguably the most popular method of copper wire preservation on the market, we still regularly field requests for demo on this tool. The image below shows copper bond wires after processing on our CuProtect. The biggest benefit of the CuProtect is its time in use. Because of that we’ve established tried and true recipes that provide the highest repeatability and success with copper wire decap.

What processes does your lab currently use? Do they need reevaluation or comparison to other processes available now?

Contact us today to talk about our processes.