Micro-doping in ultrafine-grained gold bonding wires

227 p.Wire bonding remains the dominant form of interconnection technology, and is expected to be used in 85% of total IC units worldwide by 2010. As device miniaturization continues, the diameters of wires get finer, requiring higher mechanical strength from the thin wires for handling. However, strong wires with low ductility pose an insurmountable hurdle in manufacturing because of formability issues. Therefore, strategies to attain both high strength and ductility (dual improvement) in Au wires need to be developed, a goal shared by researchers in the field of nanocrystalline (NC) and ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MSE