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The introduction of copper as wire bonding material brings about a new challenge of aluminum bond pad bimetallic corrosion at the copper/aluminum galvanic interface. Aluminum is well known to undergo pitting corrosion under halide-contaminated environments, even in slightly acidic conditions. This paper aims to study the corrosion morphology and progression of aluminum influenced by different halide contaminations in the presence and absence of galvanic contact with copper. We used a new corrosion characterization platform of the micropattern corrosion screening to simulate the copper wire bonding on the aluminum bond pad. The corrosion screening data and subsequent SEM–EDX analyses showed a striking difference in morphology and progression between chloride-induced and fluoride-induced aluminum corrosion. The corrosion products formed play a vital role in the resulting morphology and in sustaining further aluminum corrosion.

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Corrosion of aluminum bond pads in wirebonded packages can lead to device reliability issues under the harsh conditions in automotive applications. Corroded Al (aluminum) surface forms a mud-crack type appearance with a relatively very thick aluminum oxide/hydroxide (> 0.1μm) compared to thin protective native aluminum oxide (< 7nm). Various factors contributing to the formation of mud-crack type corrosion are identified. In all cases of mud-crack corrosion observed for packaged devices, Cl (chlorine) was detected on the corroded Al pad. The corrosive impact of high levels of Cl on the Al pad resulting in thick aluminum oxide growth will be discussed. The concentration levels of Cl to form mud-crack corrosion is far beyond the level of ionizable Cl typically present in packaging materials (such as mold compound or organic die attach) so the source of high levels of Cl is due to foreign contamination. The effect of Cl on mud-crack corrosion depends on other factors including pH and applied bias voltage. Corrosion susceptibility is found to be significantly reduced, even in the presence of high levels of Cl, when the pH > 6 and close to the neutral value of a pH of 7. It was also found that Cl is not essential to form mud-crack corrosion. Conditions leading to the corrosion in the absence of Cl are presented. F (fluorine) is a known contaminant in semiconductor processing and its influence on Al pad corrosion is examined. The differences on the impact of F vs. Cl on mud-crack corrosion will be discussed. Corrosion was observed irrespective of the wirebonds in the package (gold (Au) or copper (Cu)). However, the type of bi-metallic contact influences the extent of corrosion. The impact of bi-metallic contact on the mud-crack corrosion will be presented.