Innovation in Copper Bond Wire Package Immersion Decapsulation Technique for Stressed Soic Products

Abstract This study presents a revolutionary methodology in an otherwise tedious and inconsistent manual decapsulation process of copper-wired small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) plastic package. The author explains how the consistency was achieved by adopting important changes such as (1) application of the 1-volt electrochemical bias, (2) optimization of etching solution agitation at 3.5 RPM, and (3) adoption of a symmetrical stainless-steel cathode. With the power of consistency, the added benefit of the adoption changes is the correct measurement of wire bond integrity tests such as wire pull, wire diameter, and magnitude of etch. The paper also discusses additional improvements to address the issue of long cycle time via laser ablation.