Japanese hybrid microcircuit manufacturers face a tough road ahead

The development of new copper bali bonding-wire S MORI (Mitsubishi Metal Co. Ltd., Saitama, Japan), H YOSHIDA, N UCHIYAMA 1988 Proceedings of the 38th Electronics Components Conference (88CH2600-5), Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9-11 May 1988 (New YorL NY, USA: IEEE 1988), pp. 539-545 By adding dopants to high-purity 6N Cu, a new Cu ball-bonding wire, MCI, was developed. This wire offers a number of significant advantages over 6N Cu bonding wire: (1) it is possible to reduce the loop bend and the scattering of loop height when MCI is used instead of6N Cu wire; (2) although MCI contains some dopants, the ball hardness of MC1 is slightly lower than that of 6N Cu wire; (3) MCI has higher ball-bonding strength and wider preferred bonding condition window. It is shown that the ball-neck strength of Cu is stronger than that of Au. This higher strength of Cu ball neck contributes to the excellent loop stability in the molding process. It is also possible to make a long loop, which is essential for high-lead--count semiconductor devices, with this wire. (7 refs.) Thermosonie gold-wire bonding to precious-metni-free copper lead-frames B LANG, S PINAMANENI (Nat. Semicond. Corp., Santa Clara, CA, USA) 1988 Proceedings of the 38th Electronics Components Conference (88CH2600-5), Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9-11 May 1988 (New York, NY, USA: IEEE 1988), pp. 546--551 The consistency and quality of Au wire thermosonically wedge-bonded to copper-alloy leadframes plated with pure copper is investigated, and its bondability is compared to that of the Au/Ag and Au/ Au bonds. The considerations required to achieve successful bonds are also described. Special emphasis is given to the importance of the surface finish of the Cuplated leadframes, and the die-attach and wirebonding conditions required.

Hybrid integrated circuits High frequency hybrid integrated circuits A SONKOLY, G SZARAZ, B ZSOLDOS Hiradastechnika (Hungary), vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 42--45 (1988). In Hungarian The paper deals with some design problems of the high frequency hybrid integrated circuits. A method is briefly shown to design a two-stage cascade wide band amplifier using an optimisation method for determining of the circuit elements. The article gives useful information on the possibilities of thin and thick film hybrid technique. (3 refs.) Japanese hybrid microcircuit manufacturers face a tough road ahead T CHIBA (Matsushita Electronic Component Co, Ltd., Osaka, Japan) JEE, J. Electron. Eng. (Japan), vol. 25, no. 257, pp. 72-74 (May 1988)

The market and product trends are shown, and a diagram illustrating the changes in microcircuit production in Japan is included. Applications for hybrid microcircuits in 1985 are compared with those in 1987 (January-October). A description of the principal trends of technology mainly for thick-film hybrid microcircuits covering printing technology, semiconductor connection technology, measuring technology and CAD, is also included.

HIMAT-I automatic test system for hybrid circuits P KREMER, T MODIS, K SZEDMAK (MIKI, Merestech Fejleszto Vallalat, Budapest, Hungary) Meres Autom. (Hungary), voL 36, no. 5, pp. 128-129 (1988). In Hungarian The automatic measuring equipment HIMAT-1 has been developed especially for measuring powerhybrid circuits accuracy for parameter measurement is approx. 0.1%. Each measurement function has been realised on a separate printed circuit board. Beside the functions mentioned, the measuring system includes optional units (attenuators, dummy loads, etc.) required for measuring the car ignition circuit family HIM-5 X. A Commodore 64 computer has been used to control the measurement sequences and to evaluate the results. Programming of the measurement functions can be achieved by command words of an extended version of the C-64 BASIC language. The system has a floppy disc drive, a display unit and a printer. (no refs.)

High-density interconnects for electronic lmeka#ng C W EICHELBERGER, R J WOJNAROWSKI, R O CARLSON, L M LEVINSON (GE Corporate Res. & Dev., Schenectady, NY, USA) Proc. SPIE -- InL Soc. Opt Eng. (USA), vol. 877, pp. 90--91 (1988). (Micro--Optoelectmnic Materials, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 13-14 Jan. 1988) High-density interconnect (HDI) is a unique, novel hybrid approach currently in the development stages at the GE Research and Development Center. The authors" approach uses polymer layer overlays laminated over bare chips mounted on a substrate. The overlays are laser-patterned with copper to connect the chips and I/O. The advantages of the HDI hybrid approach can be summarised as follows: the overlay layer makes the entire chip area available for interconnect lines; the interconnect has very high density: 2-rail pitch has been demonstrated; via and line formation are under computer control. Thus, no patterning mask is used. Chip misalignment is accommodated by computer-adaptive writing; copper is the conductor metallisation; the chips can be almost touching; the interconnect technology accommodates any chip size and mixed chip technologies; the process is ideal for prototype or moderate volume production; the overlay can be removed and replaced without chip damage, and chips are mounted directly on the substrate for good heat dissipation. (no refs.) 51