Bond Pad Probe Marks Effect on Intermetallic Coverage

The paper presents a study on the effect of semiconductor die’s bond pad probe marks on the interface between the wire and the bond pad. The probe marks are quantified in terms of percentage area in the bond pad, while the interface strength between the wire of Gold material to the Aluminum bond pad is measured through the intermetallic coverage (IMC). Actual evaluation showed that the size of the probe marks has significant impact on the bond pad area, especially on IMC. Validations were made comparing the IMC and shear strength performance of the wire ball bonded on the worst-case probe marks and on the standard probe marks. The learnings on this study could be used on future works with similar requirement.