[labnetwork] Question about TPT HB16 Wire Bonder

[Gustavo de Oliveira Luiz]

Hi Mario,

We have a TPT HB16 here at UofA's nanoFAB. It is our first (and only)
wirebonder in the lab, bought in 2020, and we are quite happy with it.
Support from CWI Technical Sales (North America rep.) has been very good
and helpful, and it was required mostly for process issues as we learned
how to optimize parameters. I don't remember any major issues that would
have caused significant downtime or required a service visit in these 4
years.

The bonding process, once good parameters are found, works very
consistently. It has required minimal maintenance, mostly replacing wire
spools and bonding tips. It has an automatic and a semi-automatic mode for
bonding, but I'd call both semi-automatic to some extent. The stage only
moves the sample automatically in one direction, meaning that moving
between bonds is still done manually in either case. But this is OK in most
cases, since sample orientation typically needs adjustment between bonds at
least for the use cases we've had so far. And their height sensing is very
robust, making it easy to bond dies on packages with different heights.

The only thing I would warn anyone about is regarding their wedge bonding
tip. They made it such that the wire feeds from the top, which allows for
smaller clearances around packaging sides, but also adds a bit of tension
on the wire being fed under the tip (45° forward for ours). This tension
will cause the wire to snap off of the tip every once in a while, depending
on bonding parameters. At the beginning it would happen often enough that
we decided to train the users on how to feed the wire back in place,
otherwise I would be called multiple times a day to assist with that. This
is not a bad solution, the procedure is not too complicated and poses
almost no risk for the equipment, and we still show this to all users
working with wedge bonding. However, as we learned more about wire bonding
and got better at finding good parameters, this issue happens less often.

We don't have much experience with other wire bonders, but at least based
on our users' feedback I would recommend the TPT HB16 if it ticks most if
not all of the boxes in your list of requirements.

Cheers,
--
Gustavo de Oliveira Luiz, PhD
Applications/Research Specialist
nanoFAB, University of Alberta
+1 (780) 619-1463

On Tue, Nov 26, 2024 at 5:38 PM Beaudoin, Mario <beaudoin at physics.ubc.ca>
wrote:

> Dear Network,
>
> I'm interested in potentially getting a TPT HB16 semi-automatic
> wirebonder.  Anyone has any experience with such bonders?  Would you
> recommend?  Anyone has any experience with other brands, such as Westbond
> 4KE/4KEH bonders?
>
> Regards,
>
> Mario
>
> --
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