Toward Ultrasonic Wire Bonding for High Power Device: A Vector Based Resonant Frequency Tracking and Constant Amplitude Control

The electrical packaging for high power devices such as IGBT or MOSFET is achieved by heavy aluminum ultrasonic wire bonding. In this process, the amplitude stability of ultrasonic transducer determines the bonding quality, which demands more accuracy in resonant frequency tracking (RFT) and constant amplitude control (CAC). In this investigation, we proposed a vector based resonant frequency (VRFT) tracking and vector based constant amplitude control (VCAC) to control the ultrasonic transducer. The current of dynamic branch was conducted by calculating the voltage and current vector of ultrasonic transducer. Small signal model of ultrasonic transducer was established and applied into RFT and CAC. A control strategy of fuzzy self-tuning PID closed loop was utilized to RFT and CAC. The PID parameters was calculated by the linear control theories and modified by the fuzzy controller which improved the vibration stability of the transducer. A prototype of 100Watt/60kHz ultrasonic driver was self-developed to verify the VRFT and VCAC. It demonstrated that the locked frequency of VRFT can be controlled within less than 0.04 millisecond when staring from the swept frequency, and the vibration response is fast with the varying bonding pressure. The amplitude of fuzzy PID VCAC is more stable and robust compared to the classical PID control, which improved the bonded joint quality in heavy aluminum wire packaging. Note to Practitioners—This article was motivated by the reliability and efficiency of IGBT/ MOSFET device packaging through ultrasonic aluminum wire bonding. This bonding process requires more amplitude stability of the ultrasonic transducer to achieve acceptable bonded quality. Currently, the resonant frequency tracking (RFT) by classical PID control is in slow speed, and the amplitude of the transducer cannot be controlled constantly due to the inherent static capacitor of the transducer. These issues for the ultrasonic control are originated from the engineer’s experience or simple heuristic rule instead of advanced approaches. To improve the vibration performance, we proposed a vector based model consisting of the relationship the dynamic branch current and the total current of the transducer, to control the RFT and constant amplitude control (CAC). Moreover, the vector based is utilized into the fuzzy PID control, where the calculation is reduced by area coefficient defuzzy. The verification experiments prove that the response time of the proposed vector based RFT and CAC, and the bonded joint quality is optimized obviously. It is noted that in our control strategy, the RMS value, the phase of voltage and current of the transducer are acquired by DSP processor, and the calculation of fuzzy PID controller is not complicated, which is feasible to implement in application. This significantly benefits the demand of accurate control to the ultrasonic power in electronic packaging.