Ag-based alloy wire for semiconductor package

Abstract

An Ag-based alloy wire for a semiconductor package is highly reliable and can be fabricated with low costs. The Ag-based alloy wire includes 0.05˜5 wt % of at least one kind of a first additive ingredient selected from the group consisting of platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), osmium (Os), gold (Au), and nickel (Ni), and Ag as a remainder.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0031998, filed on Mar. 30, 2007, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a semiconductor package, and more particularly to a silver (Ag)-based alloy wire for wire bonding.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]In semiconductor packages, semiconductor chips can be electrically connected to a package substrate using wire bonding. In conventional semiconductor packages, an aluminum pad of a semiconductor chip and a package substrate are bonded using gold (Au) wires. Au has been widely used because of its high chemical stability and high electrical conductivity. However, in order to meet the continuous demand to decrease the manufacturing costs in the semiconductor industry and add...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The present invention provides an Ag-based alloy wire for a semiconductor package, which is highly reliable and requires low fabricating costs.

Problems solved by technology

However, such Au—Ag alloy wires still include Au at high composite rates, which limits the cost reduction.

However, the Ag wire has a reliability problem when bonded to the aluminum (Al) pad.

Particularly as illustrated in FIG. 1, when performing a high humidity reliability test, a bonding surface of the Ag wire and the Al pad are most likely corroded or a chip crack occurs so that a bonding strength is significantly decreased.

Moreover, the Ag wire has a drawback of a poor plasticity, which degrades product yield.

Therefore, fabrication of the Ag wires requires many heat annealing operations, which increases the manufacturing costs.

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