Development of gold to gold interconnection flip chip bonding for chip on suspension assemblies

Abstract

Gold to gold interconnection (GGI) flip chip bonding technology has been developed to bond the drive IC chip on the integrated circuit suspension used in hard disk drives. GGI is a lead free process where the Au bumps and Au bond pads are joined together by heat and ultrasonic power under a pressure head. The use of GGI flip chip assembly process will help to eliminate equipment parts and processing steps of the traditional flip chip C4 process and hence shortens the overall cycle time. With the integrated circuit suspension design, it becomes possible to assemble the drive IC chip close next to the magneto-resistive head slider on the suspension. This paper describes a flip chip bonding method joining the drive IC chip on integrated circuit suspension with GGI bonding. The reliability evaluations are concentrated on thermo-mechanical analysis, robustness and functional performance of the final assembly. GGI bonding for chip on suspension application is still relatively new and has not been achieved for volume use. Work is still being done to establish and extend the limits of the technology with regard to long term reliability.