Batch Constrained Bayesian Optimization for UltrasonicWire Bonding Feed-forward Control Design

Ultrasonic wire bonding is a solid-state joining process used to form electrical interconnections in micro and power electronics and batteries. A high frequency oscillation causes a metallurgical bond deformation in the contact area. Due to the numerous physical influencing factors, it is very difficult to accurately capture this process in a model. Therefore, our goal is to determine a suitable feed-forward control strategy for the bonding process even without detailed model knowledge. We propose the use of batch constrained Bayesian optimization for the control design. Hence, Bayesian optimization is precisely adapted to the application of bonding: the constraint is used to check one quality feature of the process and the use of batches leads to more efficient experiments. Our approach is suitable to determine a feed-forward control for the bonding process that provides very high quality bonds without using a physical model. We also show that the quality of the Bayesian optimization based control outperforms random search as well as manual search by a user. Using a simple prior knowledge model derived from data further improves the quality of the connection. The Bayesian optimization approach offers the possibility to perform a sensitivity analysis of the control parameters, which allows to evaluate the influence of each control parameter on the bond quality. In summary, Bayesian optimization applied to the bonding process provides an excellent opportunity to develop a feedforward control without full modeling of the underlying physical processes.