S-parameter extraction of bond wires based on EM field simulations of computed tomography-generated 3D CAD models

In this paper a method is proposed for extracting S-parameters of bond wires using computed tomography (CT) analysis techniques and 3D EM field simulations. The method is based on the generation of bond wire CAD models from CT image data. Such models represent the geometry of the actual manufactured devices and are suitable for use in 3D EM field simulation for non-destructive evaluation of the S-parameters of these devices. To demonstrate this approach two CAD models of bond wires - one of a BGA package and one of a test object - have been generated. The computed S-parameters obtained from EM field simulation using the model of the test object have been compared to a measurement with a vector network analyzer. The proposed method is especially suitable for evaluation and analysis of bond wires in microwave or high-speed digital IC packages. It can be combined with other extraction methods for an S-parameter extraction of a full IC packages.