Nippon Steel Materials Commercializes Cu Bonding Wire

Nippon Steel Materials, an electronic material and component maker wholly owned by Nippon Steel Corporation, announced on Tuesday the firm developed new copper bonding wire and starts the commercial production in March 2008. The new bonding wire will be cheaper by 75% than gold bonding wire. The firm will start the commercial production with initial capacity at 20 million meters per month at Nippon Micro Metal, a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Materials. The firm will produce the copper bonding wire mainly with 20-25 micrometers diameter especially for fine-pitch devices.The copper bonding wire is coated by a precious metal to prevent surface oxidation. Bonding strength and lifetime are remarkably improved compared with bare copper wire thanks to the surface treatment. Bonding strength of the new copper bonding wire improves by 1.5-2 times than bare copper wire. Lifetime lengthens to more than 60 days from 7 days of bare copper wire.Additionally the new wire doesn’t need hydrogen gas but only nitrogen gas in a bonding process. Bare copper wire needs both hydrogen and nitrogen gasses to prevent surface oxidation during a bonding process. Initial and running costs can be reduced with the new bonding wire as a result.Nippon Micro Metal produces gold bonding wire as well. The current production is about 200 million meters per month, which represents the third market share in the world. Nippon Steel Materials aims to raise the market share of gold bonding wire while to increase output of the new copper bonding wire as much as one third of gold bonding wire after 3 years.