Gold stud bump in flip-chip applications

Abstract

As power requirements and operating frequencies increase, more and more designs will look toward ball bumps as an interconnect solution. While solder has traditionally been the incumbent material for these bumps, solder's limitations have become manufacturing and performance limitations. As a result, packaging designers are looking toward gold bumps as a strong contender in the first-level interconnect battle. This paper briefly discusses the limitations of the solder connection process and compares that to the gold bump process. Furthermore, it describes the four leading alternatives for achieving gold bump flip-chip connections.