Application of Time Domain Reflectometry in Evaluating Irregular Inter-metallic Compound Growth in Gold Wire Bonds Encapsulated with Green Epoxy Mold Compound

In this paper, we have successfully used the comparative TDR technique as a means to detect and locate intermittent electrical failures in various packaged devices caused by weak interconnect interfaces or transmission traces that are degraded due to electromigration or intermetallic diffusion processes. A series of different common fail signatures from the resultant TDR waveforms can be correlated with cross section images of weak interconnect interfaces will be shared.