Selective nickel and gold plating for enhanced wire bonding technology

Nickel and gold are electrodeposited on wire bond pads by a newly developed selective plating process in which plating is done without photoresist. The gold terminal metal offers exciting advantage over the traditional aluminum metallurgy. The unique self-encapsulating structure of gold and nickel over copper seed is illustrated. The plating tool, process control and thickness uniformity are described. We have evaluated this structure with probing, aging and stress under high temperature (200/spl deg/C) in conjunction with bonding. We also varied the bonding conditions to allow a wider choice of inter-level dielectrics and structure/device placement under pads. All the data shows that this is a viable alternative to the current process of record.