Comparative study of different Copper wire decapsulation techniques for failure analysis

Copper wire bonded products have brought difficulty to the failure analysis process, mainly because the existing decapsulation methods are not effective to preserve the physical properties of copper. This pushes the analysts to explore other techniques in order to improve the Copper decapsulation capability. There are a few decapsulation methods available for Copper wire package, all of which are known to mitigate degradation of Copper wires. However these methods need to be evaluated to fully understand the viability in failure analysis. The paper aims to evaluate and outline the advantages and disadvantages of different decapsulation techniques, namely, Electro-Chemical Immersion, Low Temperature Jet Etch, and Laser Ablation techniques. The paper also aims to provide comparative and feasibility data for failure analysis use.