Co-simulation of MATLAB and ANSYS for ultrasonic wire bonding process optimization

Ultrasonic wire bonding is a solid-state joining process, used in the electronics industry to form electrical connections, e.g. to connect electrical terminals within semiconductor modules. Many process parameters affect the bond strength, such like the bond normal force, ultrasonic power, wire material and bonding frequency. Today, process design, development, and optimization is most likely based on the knowledge of process engineers and is mainly performed by experimental testing. In this contribution, a newly developed simulation tool is presented, to reduce time and costs and efficiently determine optimized process parameter. Based on a co-simulation of MATLAB and ANSYS, the different physical phenomena of the wire bonding process are considered using finite element simulation for the complex plastic deformation of the wire and reduced order models for the transient dynamics of the transducer, wire, substrate and bond formation. The model parameters such as the coefficients of friction between bond tool and wire and between wire and substrate were determined for aluminium and copper wire in experiments with a test rig specially developed for the requirements of heavy wire bonding. To reduce simulation time, for the finite element simulation a restart analysis and high performance computing is utilized. Detailed analysis of the bond formation showed, that the normal pressure distribution in the contact between wire and substrate has high impact on bond formation and distribution of welded areas in the contact area.