ASPECTS OF THE SURFACE-ROUGHNESS OF CERAMIC BONDING TOOLS ON A NANOMETER-SCALE INVESTIGATED WITH ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY

Ceramic bonding capillaries were studied using a stand-alone atomic force microscope (AFM) demonstrating the importance of nanoscale characterization for industrial quality control. Bonding tools represent an example of a nanotribological system in industry as the friction at the bonding wire/capillary interface is responsible for the formation of the contact between the bonding wire and bonding pad. The detailed structure and homogeneity of micro- and nanometer scale structures on the surface are crucial for the performance of the capillary during the bonding process. The surface of bonding tools prepared under different conditions could be imaged at the very end, giving information on the formation of a nanoscale roughness. A special roughness analysis based on methods of fractal analysis was used in order to obtain a direct correlation between the roughness and lateral length scale of the AFM images.