High Quality Subcontract Packaging and Assembly at Catalyst Microtech LLC

Does Catalyst Microtech have the capability?

In today's environment, expanded wirebond capabilities are a necessity and this can clearly be seen with the current set of wirebond equipment at Catalyst Microtech. We are capable of anything from 0.7 mil wire through 20 mil heavy wire. Although this might sound impressive, it's the equipment and the features of this equipment that define the capability in wirebond.

Wirebond capabilities can be divided into 2 groups - Gold Ball bonding and Aluminum Wedge bonding. Listed below is a description of each set of bonders used at Catalyst Microtech as well as the key features of each machine type.

Gold Ball Bonders

The President of Catalyst Microtech served many years working for Kulicke & Soffa Industries, so it's no small wonder that there is a preference for K&S wirebonders. This preference was earned by the reliability and capabilities of the K&S wirebonders..

K&S 8020 wirebonder

K&S 1488 Turbo Plus wirebonder

Unlike many subcontractors that assemble small quantities using manual wirebonders, Catalyst Microtech invested in fully automatic wirebond equipment. Both models listed above are capable of volume production utilizing a magazine to magazine indexing system.

The K&S 8020 wirebonder is our premier wirebonder with enhanced capabilities useful for special applications. This model utilizes a high frequency transducer system that greatly improves wirebond pitch capability and reduces the operating temperature requirements for certain applications. If you require fine pitch bonding or reduced temperature bonding, we have the bonder for your product.

The K&S 1488 wirebonders are the workhorses at Catalyst Microtech. The 1488 wirebonders are enhanced with all the optional software features required for almost any application. If you were to rate our capability on each machines' features, these wirebonders alone would rate at the top. Each of the 1488 Turbo Plus machines come with the following optional software installed:

Micro BGA Looping	Low Dropset Loops
Ball Bumping	J-Wire Loops
Stand-Off Stitch bonding	SR Loops
AIM PRS	BGA 1 Loops
Fine Pitch VLL	BGA 2 Loops

These are not standard software features that normally come with the wirebonders but in certain applications, they are vital.

The ball bumping feature allows Catalyst Microtech to perform an in-house bumping operation on low/medium volume production in preparation for a flip-chip application.

The Stand-Off Stitch bond is a unique wirebond process that first places a ball bump on a die then reverse bonds from a package lead to the top of the ball bump. This provides an extremely low looping height above the die. If your loop requirements are too low for normal bonding methods, Stand-Off Stitch bonding may be the answer.

J-Wire looping is another wirebond option used in special applications and enable wirebonds to "go around" other wirebonds or obstacles. If your die pad layout doesn't permit straight wirebonds from pad to lead then the "J-wire" option may solve the problem.

BGA looping was developed to reduce wire sag during the molding operation. With wire lengths increasing and smaller wire sizes being used, it became necessary to develop special looping algorithms that provide added strength to the wirebonds. K&S developed premium looping software suitable for BGA applications.

Aluminum Wedge Bonders

Our K&S 1471 / 1472 wirebonders have been upgraded with the latest software, version 9.48-A6. As with our gold wirebonders, the 1471 / 1472 wirebonders also utilize the magazine to magazine indexing system for volume production.

These machines include enhanced wirebond parameters for forward / reverse bonding, stitch bonding, clamp tear / table tear bonding as well as repeatable looping control designed for RF devices.

With the hardware / software upgrade, the 1471 / 1472 wirebonders are capable of wirebond programs containing a maximum of 2000 wires. If your product is a single chip application or a complex multichip device, we have the right equipment.

Heavy Wire Bond

Our Orthodyne 20B heavy wire bonder bonds anything from 4 mil up to 20 mil wire, with optional capabilities from 3 mil up to 25 mil wire. If your application is RF, the 20B is capable of Ribbon bonding with the addition of an easily installed ribbon bond option. The 20B has a demand control transducer and features automatic looping and stepback controls that result in consistent wire looping from one wire to the next. It's not enough to make a wirebond, it takes a machine like the Orthodyne 20B to make each wirebond the same.