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studleylee
RamblingThoughts: How cheap is still usable? Where do the savings go? I agree ...
Oneppm
As I've learned (the hard way) from years of promoting WLP technologies "it's ...
Copper turns to gold in IC packaging
Mark LaPedus
9/9/2010 7:43 PM EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. - There is a sea of change taking place in one segment of IC packaging, a move that will dramatically reduce assembly costs and possibly chip prices.
It could also possibly enable cheaper end-user products-and accelerate shakeout in the semiconductor industry. The change has little to do with the recent hype and buzz about 3-D devices, based on a chip stacking technology called through-silicon-vias (TSVs).
The big change in the industry isn’t glamorous, but after a few false starts, there is a sudden and swift shift towards copper wire bonding in chip-packaging. For years, in IC packaging, the industry has mainly used workhorse wire bonders, which are basically hi-tech sewing machines. Wire bonding provides the connections between a device and the leads using fine wires, mainly based on gold.
But gold prices have jumped by a whopping 200 percent in recent times, prompting many (but not all) chip makers to switch gears and move towards wirebonding using copper wiring--and for good reason. By some estimates, copper bonding is up to 30 percent less expensive than gold in the overall IC-assembly process.
For that reason and others, Broadcom, MediaTek, ST, TI and others have or are quietly ramping up devices using copper wire bonding technology. Several chip-packaging houses, namely Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd. (SPIL) and STATS ChipPAC Ltd., are pushing copper bonding.
Two Taiwan vendors alone, ASE and SPIL, are supposedly projected to procure a combined total of over 4,000 copper-enabled wirebonders this year. However, rival Amkor Technology Inc. and others are still seeing more demand for gold bonding and are lukewarm about copper.
About 90 percent of today’s chips are still packaged via wire bonding using gold wiring. The projections are all over the map, but gold is quickly losing its luster, as some believe that about 70 percent of all devices packaged via wire bonding will use copper instead of gold by 2013 or so.
Compared to gold-based bonding, copper-enabled wire bonding could reduce overall IC packaging costs by a whopping 20-to-30 percent, said Christian Rheault, senior vice president of marketing at wire bonding equipment giant Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc.
This, in turn, translates into a ''5 percent step reduction’’ in terms of the average price drop for a single chip, Rheault said.
The shift to copper bonding could also enable cheaper end-user products like cell phones, PCs and others, but it also has some chilling ramifications. The cheaper copper bonding process could take a bite out of margins and sales for the IC industry, meaning that the chip landscape is possibly due for another ''structural change," he added.
''As more customers move to copper, especially leaders in the consumer and mobile markets, the competition must react to stay competitive’’ or they will be left behind, said Flynn Carson, vice president of technical programs at Singaporean chip-packaging provider STATS ChipPac.
Rich Rice, senior vice president of North American sales for ASE, the world’s largest independent IC packaging and test house, described the shift from gold to copper bonding as a ''game changer." Gold-based wire bonding ''won’t go away, but for most applications, we see copper as a viable replacement," Rice said.
He also believes that copper bonding will actually improve the overall health of the industry. Depending on the product, copper bonding can reduce overall IC-assembly costs from 8-to-15 percent, he said. And if chip makers jump on the copper bandwagon-and maintain their average selling prices (ASPs) at or near the same levels- they can actually boost their margins, he said.
That is a big if and a matter of debate. There is a chance that some, but not all, chip makers will misbehave and lower their ASPs during the shift to copper bonding. Some may look to undercut the competition, fueling a price war and a shakeout in the IC industry.
It could be wishful thinking, but many insist that chip makers won’t demand lower prices from their IC packaging vendors by moving to copper. Others speculate that some chip makers could take advantage of the cost savings in copper and gouge their packaging vendors.
Right now, there is a danger that the subcontractors may get stuck with too much copper bonding capacity amid the current slowdown. Prior to the recent lull, ASE and SPIL separately went on a buying binge of copper bonders. But in July, SPIL pushed out its bonder orders from K&S, amid a slowdown from one customer, reportedly MediaTek.
But with or without copper, there are signs that the shakeout in the chip packaging market is accelerating. The big subcontractors are getting bigger and the weaker vendors are slowly disappearing.
It could also possibly enable cheaper end-user products-and accelerate shakeout in the semiconductor industry. The change has little to do with the recent hype and buzz about 3-D devices, based on a chip stacking technology called through-silicon-vias (TSVs).
The big change in the industry isn’t glamorous, but after a few false starts, there is a sudden and swift shift towards copper wire bonding in chip-packaging. For years, in IC packaging, the industry has mainly used workhorse wire bonders, which are basically hi-tech sewing machines. Wire bonding provides the connections between a device and the leads using fine wires, mainly based on gold.
But gold prices have jumped by a whopping 200 percent in recent times, prompting many (but not all) chip makers to switch gears and move towards wirebonding using copper wiring--and for good reason. By some estimates, copper bonding is up to 30 percent less expensive than gold in the overall IC-assembly process.
For that reason and others, Broadcom, MediaTek, ST, TI and others have or are quietly ramping up devices using copper wire bonding technology. Several chip-packaging houses, namely Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd. (SPIL) and STATS ChipPAC Ltd., are pushing copper bonding.
Two Taiwan vendors alone, ASE and SPIL, are supposedly projected to procure a combined total of over 4,000 copper-enabled wirebonders this year. However, rival Amkor Technology Inc. and others are still seeing more demand for gold bonding and are lukewarm about copper.
About 90 percent of today’s chips are still packaged via wire bonding using gold wiring. The projections are all over the map, but gold is quickly losing its luster, as some believe that about 70 percent of all devices packaged via wire bonding will use copper instead of gold by 2013 or so.
Compared to gold-based bonding, copper-enabled wire bonding could reduce overall IC packaging costs by a whopping 20-to-30 percent, said Christian Rheault, senior vice president of marketing at wire bonding equipment giant Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc.
This, in turn, translates into a ''5 percent step reduction’’ in terms of the average price drop for a single chip, Rheault said.
The shift to copper bonding could also enable cheaper end-user products like cell phones, PCs and others, but it also has some chilling ramifications. The cheaper copper bonding process could take a bite out of margins and sales for the IC industry, meaning that the chip landscape is possibly due for another ''structural change," he added.
''As more customers move to copper, especially leaders in the consumer and mobile markets, the competition must react to stay competitive’’ or they will be left behind, said Flynn Carson, vice president of technical programs at Singaporean chip-packaging provider STATS ChipPac.
Rich Rice, senior vice president of North American sales for ASE, the world’s largest independent IC packaging and test house, described the shift from gold to copper bonding as a ''game changer." Gold-based wire bonding ''won’t go away, but for most applications, we see copper as a viable replacement," Rice said.
He also believes that copper bonding will actually improve the overall health of the industry. Depending on the product, copper bonding can reduce overall IC-assembly costs from 8-to-15 percent, he said. And if chip makers jump on the copper bandwagon-and maintain their average selling prices (ASPs) at or near the same levels- they can actually boost their margins, he said.
That is a big if and a matter of debate. There is a chance that some, but not all, chip makers will misbehave and lower their ASPs during the shift to copper bonding. Some may look to undercut the competition, fueling a price war and a shakeout in the IC industry.
It could be wishful thinking, but many insist that chip makers won’t demand lower prices from their IC packaging vendors by moving to copper. Others speculate that some chip makers could take advantage of the cost savings in copper and gouge their packaging vendors.
Right now, there is a danger that the subcontractors may get stuck with too much copper bonding capacity amid the current slowdown. Prior to the recent lull, ASE and SPIL separately went on a buying binge of copper bonders. But in July, SPIL pushed out its bonder orders from K&S, amid a slowdown from one customer, reportedly MediaTek.
But with or without copper, there are signs that the shakeout in the chip packaging market is accelerating. The big subcontractors are getting bigger and the weaker vendors are slowly disappearing.
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mark.lapedus
9/9/2010 8:06 PM EDT
Copper wirebonding doesn't sound sexy. But it could be big. Can you imagine cheaper versions of the iPad, iPhone or other products? Thoughts out there?
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T in Az
9/9/2010 8:56 PM EDT
I think wire bonding is near it's end, copper or gold. Fine-pitch copper pillar combined with less corporate profit margins is where I think cheaper products will be found, but that doesn't guarantee it will be.
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Oneppm
9/15/2010 1:57 PM EDT
As I've learned (the hard way) from years of promoting WLP technologies "it's too early to count the wire bond suppliers out!"
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Jimelectr
9/12/2010 1:06 AM EDT
Interesting topic! I have to wonder if T in Az is correct about the end being near for wirebonding. RF and microwave people like me hate the little inductors placed in series with every signal. Seems like there ought to be a better way to connect from the silicon to the PCB. The best package is no package in reality. Maybe the end of packaging houses is near. Being from the PCB design side of things but working for a semiconductor manufacturer, I see the chip dimensions shrinking faster than the PCB traces and spaces. The PCB is defined by chemical etching, after all. Seems like there should be a way to make an interposer, in silicon preferably for low cost and high volume, to fan out the signals from the chip to the board. Maybe through-silicon vias can help if the price comes down. BTW, my previous job was at Orthodyne Electronics, manufacturer of wirebonders, now part of K & S, and now I work for Broadcom. I've not heard anything about copper wirebonding. Most of Orthodyne's customers used thick aluminum wire for their power devices, and as far as I know, Broadcom uses thin gold wirebonds. Most of what I see is wirebonded QFN packages for test chips because it's quicker than having a BGA designed (almost like a mini-PCB, from what I understand). Chips in or close to production get put into BGA's, some of which are flip-chipped. While nobody can exactly predict the future, I for one am glad I don't work for a wirebonder maker or packaging house!
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Kiran_NSN
9/12/2010 10:04 AM EDT
Thank you Lapedus for this article. Really a good article providing lot of information not just regarding the bonding but also about the alternate packaging technologies such as flip chip. At least from the information provided I can say that we will have everything for some more time till there is more research is done on the reliability of copper wire bonding. But as all of us know its the cost which will drive the corporates to find alternate options. If the price of gold is going to increase at the same rate then the semiconductor companies should choose the best alternative, it can be copper bonding or the flip chip. On a final note I feel copper is as sexy as gold if it can bring profits to my business.
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ted_h
9/13/2010 4:03 PM EDT
I don't see any mention of intermetallic compounds at the junction of the copper wire and the bond pad. Cheap high volume chips still use aluminum rather than gold, so is this a non-issue?
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BHD
9/13/2010 4:58 PM EDT
Hi Mark - nice piece. I don't see the end of wirebonding, be it gold or copper, when the packaging houses can do eight or nine-die stacks of commodity memories at a price that Apple will pay.
I'd put up a couple of images if I could, but in lieu go to EIQ at http://www.electroiq.com/index/Semiconductors/sst-blogs/chipworks-blog-display/blogs/sst-blogs/chipworks/post987_7451506051585892995.html
(I know, competition!)
Keep it coming,
Dick
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Rich Krajewski
9/13/2010 5:50 PM EDT
Great. So now the controller board in my washing machine is going to crap out in two years instead of five. That's okay. I found a machine from 20 years ago that runs really well, without any IC.
I'm glad automakers are thinking about this a little longer. Auto electronics are bad enough right now without building in more failure points.
Maybe copper would be better in non-critical, non-stressed environments. You know. Not too much water or shaking.
I was going to say something about NASA probably being interested in this (they could bookmark it on their browser, right next to the "miles vs. kilometers" page), but I changed my mind.
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CJV3
9/14/2010 12:10 AM EDT
Interesting read. However, packaging costs may not see such a significant reduction if copper is used. Copper bonders are more expensive and slower than gold wire bonders. Cover gas needs to be used. Yield tends to be lower. Machine uptime tends to be less. Many current mold compounds and substrates may still have halogen contents too high to make copper-aluminum bonds reliable. It can be made to work. But a rush to change could result in an unacceptable situation with respect to product reliability.
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studleylee
11/21/2011 1:40 PM EST
RamblingThoughts: How cheap is still usable? Where do the savings go? I agree with CJV3. The trend to pinch every penny out a process is accelerating, and so is the decline of product lifetime expectancy,and increase in infant mortality of products. This shares some aspects of counterfeit parts. They may operate functionally, but will they last over time. Would you want this in your drive-train control of your new hybrid? Or that Personal aircraft you bought used that over 10years old. I think it's really an blurring of ethics issue of the 'Gild My Pockets' culture. People are only thinking in terms of their career success v.s. a Culture of Pride.
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