High Performance mmWave Ribbon Bonding using 1x20 mil Gold Ribbon

With the current trend to higher power and higher frequency used in mmWave (and microwave) applications there is a need to improve the performance of the interconnects. We all know that at higher frequency the skin effect of the interconnect is the primary mode. We have therefore been utilizing ribbon bonding for these interconnects where the skin area of a ribbon wire is much larger on a ribbon than a similar cross-sectional conductor area round wire. We have been using 0.5x2 for many of our small bond pad applications. For the higher power requirements, we have gone to 1x10 mil gold ribbon which represents an upper limit for most fine wire thermosonic wedge bonders on the market. Going to a larger ribbon does have significant advantage for even higher power use. I have developed a process with the help of Deweyl Tool and TPT Wire Bonders to utilize 1x20 mil gold ribbon which has significantly larger skin area (~42 mil^2) than the ~5.4mil equivalent round wire (~15.8 mil^2) or even 2x10 mil ribbons (24 mil^2). The benefits of a single 1x20 ribbon over two 1x10 mil ribbons is fewer points of failure, narrower bond pad requirements, and consistent loop shapes.