Wire bonding is the manufacturing process for creating metallurgical bond connections between a thin wire (12.5 – 50 µm for gold fine-wires and 150 – 500 µm for aluminum thick-wires) and a suitably coated circuit carrier through friction welding. In principle this process consists of pressure welding with the aid of ultrasound. The metallurgical bond is mainly caused by frictional heat created through the relative movement between the two bonding partner materials. To achieve high reliability over longer time and under difficult environmental conditions high quality requirements regarding material and mechanical strength properties must be met by the surfaces of the bonding partners.

Fig. 9.1: Bond connection: Al thick-wire on clad AlSi; (a) Macro photograph,

b) micro structure with ruptured wire.

== AlSi Clad Strip for Bond Connections==