Patent Application
20080308609
Applicant hereby claims foreign priority under 35 U.S.C §119 from Swiss Application No. 976/07 filed Jun. 15, 2007, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
The invention concerns a bond head for a wire bonder.
Wire bonders are used for producing wire connections between a semiconductor chip and a substrate. Bond heads for wire bonders are known for example from EP 317787, EP 1098356, U.S. Pat. No. 7,159,751 or WO 2006036669. These bond heads comprise a platform which is movable in the horizontal x/y plane and on which a rocker is held which is rotatable about a horizontal axis. An ultrasonic transducer is fastened to the rocker, at whose one end a capillary is clamped. A wire clamp is further fastened to the rocker, which clamp is located above the capillary. The capillary is used for fastening the wire to a connection point of the semiconductor chip and to a connection point of the substrate and for guiding the wire between the two connection points. The wire is wound up on a wire coil and is supplied to the capillary from a wire feed apparatus, with the wire running through the wire clamp and a longitudinal bore of the capillary.
From U.S. Pat. No. 7,025,243a bond head is known in which the rocker is rotatable by means of a first motor about the horizontal axis and in which the wire clamp is rotatable by means of a second motor about the same horizontal axis, so that the distance between the wire clamp and the capillary is changeable.
From EP 802012 a bond head is known in which the ultrasonic transducer is fastened by means of a link structure to the rocker, with additional damping elements being provided in order to suppress undesirable vibrations.
From US 20060076390 abond head is known to which a sensor is fastened which supplies an output signal representative of predetermined vibrations of the bond head and in which at least one actuator is arranged between the horn and the rocker which enables a motion of the horn relative to the rocker. A control device calculates a control signal for the actuator from the output signal of the sensor and controls the actuator in order to eliminate the vibrations of the horn or at least to reduce the same. The actuator can perform only small movements in the range of a few micrometers on the one hand, but with a relatively high frequency on the other hand.
In order to fasten the wire to a connection point of the semiconductor chip or the substrate, the rocker is rotated about the horizontal axis until the wire portion protruding from the capillary touches the contact point. The further downward movement of the capillary is subjected to resistance, so that the so-called bond force builds up. When the capillary impinges on the connection point, a force momentum occurs which depends on the lowering speed of the capillary and the moment of inertia of the rocker.
The invention is on the one hand based on the object to develop a bond head in which the wire clamp is movable relative to the capillary and on the other hand on the object to reduce the force momentum occurring during the impingement of the capillary on the connection point.
A bond head for a wire bonder comprises a platform which is movable in a horizontal plane and on which a rocker is arranged which is rotatable about a first horizontal axis. An ultrasonic transducer is fastened to the rocker, which transducer is rotatable about a second horizontal axis. A linear motor is arranged in accordance with the invention close to the first horizontal axis, with which the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer is adjustable relative to the rocker. A sensor supplies an output signal from which the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer can be derived. A controller to which the output signal of the sensor is supplied adjusts the position of the linear motor and thus the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer. The controller is also arranged to supply the linear motor with a predetermined current in order to generate the required bond force during the bonding.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the invention. The drawings are not shown true to scale. In the drawings:
According to the invention, the ultrasonic transducer 6 is held on the rocker 4 so as to be rotatable about the horizontal axis 7. The rotational bearing can be realized in many ways. Three examples will be explained below in closer detail.
This example is shown in
This example is shown in
This example is shown in
When the wire is fastened to a connection point, the ultrasonic transducer 6 is excited to perform ultrasonic vibrations by means of the piezoelectric drive 12, which vibrations usually comprise several vibration nodes and antinodes. The linear motor is a voice-coil motor, for example. The stator 8 is preferably a permanent magnet and the rotor 9 a coil. On the other hand, the stator 8 could be an electromagnet and the rotor 9 a permanent magnet. The stator 8 is fastened to rocker 4 and the rotor 9 to the ultrasonic transducer 6 or vice-versa. The following explanations relate to the preferred case that the rotor 9 is fastened to the ultrasonic transducer 6. They apply analogously for the case that the stator 8 is fastened to the ultrasonic transducer 6.
The rotor 9 fastened to the transducer 6 changes the vibration properties of the ultrasonic transducer 6. This must be taken into account as far as possible in the design of the ultrasonic transducer 6. The rotor 9 is advantageously directly integrated in the ultrasonic transducer 6. It is also possible on the other hand to glue the rotor 9 by means of a suitable adhesive to a part of the ultrasonic transducer 6. In this case, the rotor 9 is preferably fastened to the ultrasonic transducer 6 in a vibration node of the longitudinal ultrasonic vibrations.
The ultrasonic transducer 6 with the rotor 9 fastened to the same has other kinematic properties than the ultrasonic transducer 6 without rotor 9. In the production of a wire connection, the rocker 4 is rotated about the axis 3 in order to lift or lower the capillary 11. These rotations are subject to high accelerations. One important requirement is that the ultrasonic transducer 6 does not change its position relating to the rocker 4 or only changes the same to the lowest possible extent while the rocker 4 is rotated about the axis 3. When this requirement is fulfilled or is fulfilled at least approximately, the linear motor does not have to apply any force or only a very low one in order to keep constant the position of the ultrasonic transducer 6 relative to the rocker 4 during the rotations of the rocker 4 about the axis 3. The ultrasonic transducer 6 with the rotor 9 fastened to the same comprises a center of mass 18. In order to fulfill the required demand, the angular velocity ω1 with which the ultrasonic transducer 6 rotates about the axis 7 must be equal to the angular velocity ω2 with which the rocker 4 rotates about the axis 3. This can be achieved in such a way that the position of the axis 7 along the direction designated as x-direction is displaced from the position of the center of mass 18 in the direction towards the capillary 11. The optimal x-position of the axis 7 can be determined on the basis of mathematical equations which place in relation the two angular velocities w, and w2 with the moments of inertia of the rocker 4 or the ultrasonic transducer 6, or they are determined experimentally. Because the axis 7 does not extend through the center of mass 18 of ultrasonic transducer 6 and rotor 9, the ultrasonic transducer 6 would rotate about the axis 7 under the influence of gravity during standstill of the rocker 4. The linear motor must therefore apply a low force during the standstill of the rocker 4 in order to keep constant the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer 6 relative to the rocker 4.
In the production of a wire connection between a connection point of a semiconductor chip and a connection point of a substrate, whereby the substrate can also be a semiconductor chip, the wire end protruding from the capillary is molten at first into a ball. Thereafter, the wire ball is fastened to the connection point of the semiconductor chip by means of pressure and ultrasonic sound. The piezoelectric drive 12 applies ultrasonic sound to the horn 10. This process is called ball bonding. The wire is then pulled to the required wire length, formed into a wire loop and welded to the connection point of the substrate. This latter process part is called wedge bonding. After the fastening of the wire to the connection point of the substrate, the wire is torn off and the next bond cycle can begin. The possibility to rotate the ultrasonic transducer 6 held on the rocker 4 about the horizontal axis 7 allows performing the fastening of the wire to the connection point of the substrate according to a new method. The position of the horn 10 shall be understood as the rotational position of the horn 10 (or the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer 6) relative to the rocker 4. The rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer 6 is definitely characterized by the position of the linear motor, with the position of the linear motor being defined for example as distance A between the rotor 9 and the sensor 16. Therefore the rotational position of the ultrasonic transducer 6 is the same as the position of the linear motor and is the same as the distance A. When the distance A increases, then the distance between the tip of the horn 10 and the wire clamp 14 decreases. Once the wire ball has been fastened to the connection point of the semiconductor chip, the following steps as explained below will be performed. These process steps will be illustrated with reference to
The relationship between the current intensity I1 to be set in the above mentioned method step 5 and the bond force must be determined prior to the start of production process of the wire bonder by a calibrating measurement.
While embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown and described, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 976/07 | Jun 2007 | CH | national |
