General use wire bonder, upstairs in south side of MRC. This section refers to the ball bonder (the leftmost machine), not the wedge bonder.

Procedure

Setting up Work Station

(the stand that holds your sample and puck during bonding)

Press tab on side to lower clamp onto sample
Turn bottom base to raise or lower
This stand is heated by the wire bond station- make sure temperature is set at appropriate level if you're using this
If using Rodolfo method for In contacts, use a lab jack to hold sample instead (more easily raised and lowered). The lab jack in the wire bonding lab is more stable than our lab jack (currently in the PL lab).

Loop - position raised to after 1st bond
Tail - length of wire left at end of needle tip, between tip and ball
Test - test ultrasonic wave generator (USW)
Power, time, force settings control ultrasonic wave generator
Search - height of tip above bond site - make sure is not set to 0 or very low level before creating bond- otherwise tip will hit too hard and clog tip
Clamp - up is open, down is closed. Automatically closes after 1 min up, hit reset to re open
Light - self explanatory
Temperature - press set twice to change, use up/down arrows
Setup/reset - use when short or open light comes on
Motor - controls arm - should always be on
NEFO - Negative Electronic Fire Off system - spark generator to cut wire - should always be on
Manual spark - used to cut wire yourself
Semi-auto - after 1st bond, wire is cut, ball formed according to ball size

Turn on power- 3 green lights turn on initially
- Power light
- "1st" light - first bond made
- "2nd" light - second bond made
Press "reset" button
Check that tip is threaded. If not:
- Press up on clamp button (controls both clamps) to open clamps
- Thread wire through clamps
- Pull wire through needle - make sure the wire is around the hook, still in clamp
- Kink wire
- Close clamp using clamp button

Use for bond pads or non-solder contacts

Move work station under tip
Set search height > 5-6
Focus microscope and use black gun to right of microscope to use crosshair to navigate to first bond site. Make sure you redo crosshair if you change the height.
Click mouse button and hold down. Tip will decrease in height above sample.
Move mouse to control stage so that tip is right above desired bond location
Release mouse to form bond
Tip is automatically raised to loop height

If normal contacts:

Form first bond on bond pad (not on sample) using semi-auto method
After first bond is formed, gently lower sample stage (you should be using the lab jack), pulling wire from the needle
When wire is long enough, use tweezers to cut the length of wire. Hold the other length of wire hanging from the needle to stop it from threading back into the needle.
Press the cut length of wire into the solder contact. Make sure wire is firmly inserted into In.

(90% of wirebonder operation, according to Johhny)

Issue: no ball is created at needle tip after creating a bond
- Hit reset, rethread wire, try again - otherwise tip can clog.

Issue: extra wire is dangling from second bond
- rebend the wire and fold back on itself- dont' try to cut it, as this will disconnect the contact