An alternative to gold in microcircuits. Free Technical Library News

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Alternative to gold in chips

27.04.2016

Taiwanese scientists from the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) have succeeded in developing a technology for connecting integrated circuit elements using aluminum wires, which will be cheaper to manufacture than the gold and copper electrical contacts currently used. This development is designed to output an electrical signal from integrated elements to the external housing of microcircuits - for interaction with other components on the system board.

The quality of contacts is critical for the speed of computing processes and the quality of the device. Previously, gold wires with a diameter of 12,5 microns and larger (including those with an admixture of beryllium or other elements) were most often used for these purposes. Copper wires up to 75 microns in diameter are a cheaper alternative to gold, although there are also certain difficulties in their production: in order to avoid corrosion, soldering wires to a microcircuit must be carried out in a gaseous environment consisting of 95% nitrogen and 5% hydrogen. In some cases, silver is also used as an analogue.

In total, about 90% of devices using semiconductor integrated circuits and light-emitting diode (LED) devices now contain contacts made of gold, silver or copper.

Aluminum and its compounds with magnesium and silicon have also previously been used in microcircuits, but the NCKU research team claims that in the course of four years of work they managed to solve the problem of low conductivity and elasticity (ductility) of aluminum.

The key feature of the technology is the application of the thinnest layer of zinc to the surface of the wire. The diameter of the wire is about 18 microns, aluminum must be completely purified of impurities in order to increase thermal conductivity, elasticity and hardness.

The use of this technology will reduce production costs compared to integrated circuits that use gold or copper contacts, the developers assure. The cost of aluminum raw materials is much cheaper compared to analogues. The price of gold on the world market is about $62 thousand per kg, the cost of silver is much lower and amounts to about $1,25 thousand per kg, for copper this figure is about $7, while the price of aluminum is three times lower - only about $2 per kg.

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