NO.  Shipley Ronal (formerly LeaRonal) has just completed an exhaustive
study on this subject which elcuidates the relationship between wire
bondability and the gold plating process & deposit properties.  You really
need to have purity of the deposits determined to at least the range of
hundreths of a percent by weight.  Based on the info. you provided, you can
only state that you have somewhere between 0 and 0.1% impurities in your
deposit.  Our data indicates that under certain conditions you may
experience wire bond lifting and/or decreased wire pull strengths with even
less than 0.1 % impurities in the deposit.
    Contact me off-line for more info.  By the way, this data will be
presented in its entirety at the IPC PC Expo next month in Long Beach, CA.
Rob Schetty
Shipley Ronal
Freeport, NY  USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Coulter <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 8:06 PM
Subject: [TN] Soft gold purity,hardness and bondabilty


I just had my soft gold tank analyzed (foil analysis) . Purity is 99.9%
knoop hardness is 70. Can it be assumed that the parts plated in this tank
are wire bondable assuming they are plated at the proper ASF
(1-5 asf) and the gold and nickel thickness is adequate (nickel 100-200.
Gold 20-60 microinches)? Parts are cleaned with plasma machine using 100%
oxygen at 600 watts for 30 minutes prior to shipping to customer. Any light
shed on this subject will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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