DE102022100875A1 - silver alloy wire - Google Patents

Abstract

An alloy wire is created. The alloy wire comprises an Ag-Pt-Ge alloy, the alloy wire comprising 0.1˜3 wt% Pt, 1 ppm˜2 wt% Ge. The alloy wire may also contain 1ppm∼0.1wt% of at least one of the following additive elements: Ca, Cu, In, Mg, Si, Ti and Sc. The alloy wire may also include a surface plating layer comprising Au, Pd or Pt, the surface plating layer having a thickness of 0.01 µm to 10 µm. Alloy wire shape can be round or flat ribbon.

Description

The present application claims priority from Taiwanese application no. 110113667 , filed April 16, 2021, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

technical field

The disclosure relates to alloy wires and more particularly to the alloy wires used for wire bonding in electronic packaging.

Description of the prior art

Wire bonding is the primary connection method in integrated circuit (IC) and light emitting diode (LED) packaging processes. Bond wires provide not only signal transmission and power transmission between chips and chip carriers (substrates), but also heat dissipation performance. Therefore, a bonding wire is required to have excellent electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, sufficient strength and formability. However, in order to prevent the chips from cracking due to the hot press process of wire bonding and to ensure the good contact and bonding properties between the wires and the bonding pads, the hardness of the wire should not be too high. Since the polymer encapsulating materials for encapsulation usually contain corrosive chloride ions and have hygroscopic properties that absorb moisture from the environment, the wires are required to have good resistance to oxidation and corrosion.

In the wire bonding process, the terminal of the wire is first melted by electrical flaming (EFO) and a free air sphere (FAB) is formed by surface tension. Then the FAB is pressed down through the ceramic capillary and bonded to a bond pad to form a first solder joint, and the other terminal of the wire is pulled to another bond pad to bond to it and form a second solder joint, thereby a circuit is formed. The shape of the FAB determines the quality of the subsequent first ball bond. Besides, intermetallics are formed at the bonding interface between the first ball bond and the bonding pad of the semiconductor chip. These intermetallics can ensure the bonding properties of the interfaces, but excessive intermetallics can cause interface embrittlement and Kirkendall voids. Besides, the resistance of the wire itself to oxidation and corrosion is also an important factor that determines the reliability of electronic products.

When the product is used after completing the encapsulation processes of the semiconductor devices or the light emitting diodes, the high current density through the metal wires can also activate internal atoms, so that electron migration is generated, resulting in the voids being formed at the terminal of the wires, what a reduction in electrical and thermal conductivity or even the occurrence of wire breakage and product failure. A through current can also result in partial melting of the encapsulation wire, causing a rapid increase in voltage, which also leads to wire breakage and product failure. This problem is particularly serious for the packaging of the high voltage and high current electronic products, and it is the main factor affecting the reliability of these electronic products.

1. (1) Golddrähte: Golddrähte können einen geringen spezifischen Widerstand aufweisen, aber es besteht eine große Anzahl von spröden intermetallischen Verbindungen (einschließlich Au₂Al, AuAl₄, Au₅Al₂ usw.), die an der Drahtbondgrenzfläche zwischen den Golddrähten und den Aluminiumkontaktstellen gebildet werden, was die elektrische Leitfähigkeit verringert. Außerdem wird die intermetallische Reaktion an der Gold/Aluminium-Grenzfläche durch die Bildung von vielen Kirkendall-Leerstellen begleitet, was auch den spezifischen Widerstand der Bondgrenzfläche erhöht und zu einer Abnahme der Zuverlässigkeit der Verbindung führt.
2. (2) Kupferdrähte: In den letzten Jahren hat die Kapselungsindustrie begonnen, Kupferdrähte als Bonddrähte für die Halbleiter und die Leuchtdioden zu verwenden. Obwohl Kupferdrähte eine bessere elektrische Leitfähigkeit aufweisen, sind sie für Korrosion anfällig. Daher müssen Kupferdrähte während der Lagerung und des Transports abgedichtet und geschützt werden und ihr Drahtbondprozess erfordert ferner die Unterstützung von teurem Stickstoff und Wasserstoff. Im anschließenden Zuverlässigkeitstest der Kapselung von elektronischen Produkten treffen außerdem Kupferdrähte immer noch auf die Probleme von Oxidation und Korrosion. Weiterhin sind Kupferdrähte zu hart und ihr Drahtbonden kann leicht Probleme wie z. B. Chipbruch verursachen. Obwohl einige Untersuchungen die Verfahren zum Beschichten von Kupferdrähten mit anderen Metallen vorgeschlagen haben, um die Probleme von Oxidation und Korrosion zu lösen (siehe beispielsweise US-Patent Nr. 7645522B2 , US-Patentveröffentlichung Nr. 2003/0173659A1 , US-Patent Nr. 7820913B2 ), macht die hohe Härte der Kupferdrähte den Drahtbondprozess für einen Ausfall anfällig, so dass die für die Kapselung von elektronischen Produkten mit hoher Spannung und hohem Strom erforderliche Zuverlässigkeit immer noch nicht erreicht wird.
3. (3) Silberdrähte: Silber ist das Element mit dem geringsten spezifischen Widerstand unter allen Materialien, aber reines Silber hat das Problem der Sulfidierungskorrosion in der Umgebung, die Schwefel enthält, und reine Silberdrähte erzeugen auch spröde intermetallische Verbindungen (Ag₂Al oder Ag₄Al), wenn sie an Aluminiumkontaktstellen gebondet werden. Außerdem sind reine Silberdrähte für eine Ionenwanderung innerhalb des Kapselungsmaterials, das Wasserdampf enthält, anfällig. Mit anderen Worten, reines Silber wird durch einen elektrischen Strom hydrolysiert, so dass Silberionen gelöst werden und dann mit Sauerstoff reagieren, so dass instabiles Silberoxid (AgO) gebildet wird. Das AgO wird dann desoxidiert, so dass Silberatome gebildet werden und blattaderartige Silberwhisker zur positiven Elektrode wachsen, was schließlich einen Kurzschluss zwischen der positiven und der negativen Elektrode verursacht. (Bitte siehe H. Tsutomu, Metal Migration on Electric Circuit Boards, Three Bond Technical News, 1. Dez. 1986). Außerdem wurde bei einigen Forschungen die Beschichtung von anderem Metall auf die Oberfläche eines Silberdrahts vorgeschlagen, um die Probleme von Sulfidierungskorrosion und Silberionenwanderung zu lösen (Siehe beispielsweise US-Patent US 6696756 ), aber die resultierenden Drähte können immer noch nicht die gewünschte Zuverlässigkeit und den gewünschten spezifischen Widerstand erreichen.
4. (4) Legierungsdrähte: Legierungsdrähte umfassen beispielsweise Legierungen auf Goldbasis und Legierungen auf Silberbasis. Diese Legierungen umfassen ferner beispielsweise Kupfer, Platin, Mangan, Chrom, Kalzium, Indium usw., aber sie können immer noch nicht sowohl eine niedrige Impedanz als auch hohe Zuverlässigkeit gleichzeitig erreichen.

Examples of commonly used encapsulation wires include the following options:

1. (1) Gold Wires: Gold wires may have low resistivity, but there are a large number of brittle intermetallic compounds (including Au ₂ Al, AuAl ₄ , Au ₅ Al ₂ , etc.) that form at the wire bonding interface between the gold wires and the aluminum pads are formed, which reduces the electrical conductivity. In addition, the intermetallic reaction at the gold/aluminum interface is accompanied by the formation of many Kirkendall voids, which also increases the resistivity of the bonding interface and leads to a decrease in the reliability of the connection.
2. (2) Copper Wires: In recent years, the packaging industry has started to use copper wires as bonding wires for the semiconductors and the light emitting diodes. Although copper wires have better electrical conductivity, they are prone to corrosion. Therefore, copper wires need to be sealed and protected during storage and transportation, and their wire bonding process further requires the support of expensive nitrogen and hydrogen. In addition, in the subsequent reliability test of the encapsulation of electronic products, copper wires still encounter the problems of oxidation and corrosion. Furthermore, copper wires are too hard, and their wire bonding can easily cause problems such as cracking. B. cause chip breakage. Although some sub Research that has suggested methods of coating copper wires with other metals to solve the problems of oxidation and corrosion (see, for example, U.S. Patent No. 7645522B2 , U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0173659A1 , U.S. Patent No. 7820913B2 ), the high hardness of the copper wires makes the wire bonding process prone to failure, so the reliability required for the packaging of high-voltage, high-current electronic products is still not achieved.
3. (3) Silver Wires: Silver is the element with the lowest resistivity among all materials, but pure silver has the problem of sulfidation corrosion in the environment containing sulfur, and pure silver wires also produce brittle intermetallic compounds (Ag ₂ Al or Ag ₄ Al ) when bonded to aluminum pads. In addition, pure silver wires are susceptible to ion migration within the encapsulation material, which contains water vapor. In other words, pure silver is hydrolyzed by an electric current so that silver ions are dissolved and then react with oxygen to form unstable silver oxide (AgO). The AgO is then deoxidized to form silver atoms and leaf vein-like silver whiskers grow toward the positive electrode, eventually causing a short circuit between the positive and negative electrodes. (Please see H. Tsutomu, Metal Migration on Electric Circuit Boards, Three Bond Technical News, 1 Dec 1986). Also, some researches have suggested coating other metal on the surface of a silver wire to solve the problems of sulfidation corrosion and silver ion migration (See, for example, U.S. Patent U.S.6696756 ), but the resulting wires still cannot achieve the desired reliability and resistivity.
4. (4) Alloy Wires: Alloy wires include, for example, gold-based alloys and silver-based alloys. These alloys also include, for example, copper, platinum, manganese, chromium, calcium, indium, etc., but they still cannot achieve both low impedance and high reliability at the same time.

In conclusion, the existing pure metal wires, metal-clad composite wires and element-added alloy wires cannot meet all the requirements for the encapsulation. Therefore, there is still a need for a high reliability wire.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide an alloy wire having an Ag-Pt-Ge alloy with 0.1-3 wt% Pt, 1 ppm-2 wt% Ge and the balance is Ag.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire may further include at least one of additive elements selected from the group consisting of Ca, Cu, In, Mg, Si, Ti, and Sc.

In one or more embodiments, a total amount of the additive elements can range from 1 ppm to 0.1 wt%, and each of the additive elements can be present in an amount less than that of Pt or Ge.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire can be a round wire.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire can have a diameter of 10 μm to 300 μm.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire may comprise a ribbon wire.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire may have a thickness of 20 μm to 300 μm.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire may have a width of 100 μm to 2000 μm.

In one or more embodiments, the alloy wire may further include a surface coating layer.

In one or more embodiments, the surface plating layer may comprise Au, Pd, Pt, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof.

In one or more embodiments, the surface coating layer may have a thickness of 0.01 µm to 10 µm.

character list

• 1 stellt ein Segment eines runden Legierungsdrahts von einigen Ausführungsformen der vorliegenden Offenbarung dar.
• 2A stellt ein Segment des runden Legierungsdrahts mit der Oberflächenüberzugsschicht gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen der vorliegenden Offenbarung dar.
• 2B stellt eine Schnittansicht in der zur Länge des runden Legierungsdrahts mit der Oberflächenüberzugsschicht in 2A parallelen Richtung gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen der vorliegenden Offenbarung dar.
• 3 stellt ein Segment des Flachbandlegierungsdrahts von einigen Ausführungsformen der Offenbarung dar.
• 4A stellt ein Segment des Flachbandlegierungsdrahts mit der Oberflächenüberzugsschicht von einigen Ausführungsformen der Offenbarung dar.
• 4B stellt einen Schnitt in der zur Länge des Segments des Flachbandlegierungsdrahts mit der Oberflächenüberzugsschicht in 4A parallelen Richtung von einigen Ausführungsformen der Offenbarung dar.

Aspects of this disclosure are best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It should be noted that, in accordance with standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the different where features may be arbitrarily enlarged or reduced for clarity of discussion.

• 1 12 illustrates a segment of round alloy wire of some embodiments of the present disclosure.
• 2A 12 illustrates a segment of the alloy round wire with the surface coating layer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
• 2 B FIG. 12 is a sectional view along the length of the alloy round wire with the surface coating layer in FIG 2A parallel direction according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
• 3 12 illustrates a segment of the flat ribbon alloy wire of some embodiments of the disclosure.
• 4A 12 depicts a segment of the flat strip alloy wire with the surface coating layer of some embodiments of the disclosure.
• 4B provides a cut in to the length of the segment of flat strip alloy wire with the surface coating layer in 4A parallel direction of some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples for implementing different features of the created subject matter. These are of course examples only and are not intended to be limiting. For example, the formation of a first feature over or on top of a second feature in the description that follows may include embodiments in which the first and second features are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional features are formed between the first and the second feature can be formed. Additionally, the present disclosure may repeat reference numbers and/or reference letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.

Furthermore, spatially relative terms such as B. "beneath", "below", "lower", "overlapped", "upper" and the like may be used herein for ease of description to indicate the relationship of one element or feature to another element(s) or feature(s). en) as shown in the figures. The spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly as well.

Further, when a number or range of numbers is described as "about," "approximately," and the like, the term is intended to include numbers that are within a reasonable range, inclusive of the number being described, such as, e.g. B. within ±10% of the number described or other values as understood by those skilled in the art. The term "about 5 nm" includes, for example, the dimension range from 4.5 nm to 5.5 nm.

The terms used herein are intended to represent specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the concept of the invention. Expressions used in the singular form also cover expressions in the plural form, unless the expression has a significantly different meaning in the context. In this patent specification it is understood that terms such as B. "Includes," "has," and "comprises" are intended to indicate the presence of the features, numbers, steps, acts, components, parts, or combinations thereof disclosed herein and are not intended to exclude the possibility that one or more other features, numbers, steps, acts, components, parts, or combinations thereof may be present or added.

The present disclosure provides an Ag-Pt-Ge alloy wire that improves resistance to sulfidation corrosion and high-temperature creep of the wire and balling property during the wire bonding process, so that the wire bonding yield is improved.

That US Patent No. 8101123B2 discloses a silver alloy wire with Ag-Au-Pd. Although the addition of Au and Pd in the Ag alloy composition can improve the mechanical properties and oxidation resistance of the pure silver wire, and the addition of Pd can also alleviate the ion migration problem of silver, the alloy wire with this composition often has abnormal phenomena such as B. an eccentric ball or pin tip ball during the EFO ball formation process, resulting in a decrease in wire bond yield. In addition, this type of wire is poor in high-temperature creep resistance, and its luster and sulfidation resistance are also poor. The US patent publication No. 2013/0171470 discloses an Ag-Au-Pd silver alloy wire and the grain structure of the alloy has a large number of recrystallization twins. Although the twin structure can improve the electromigration life of the wire, such a wire has insufficient balling properties, high-temperature creep resistance, luster and sulfidation resistance. The JP patent no. 1997275120 , U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080240975A1 , the CN Patent Publication No. 10215454A , U.S. Patent No. 20130126934 , TW Patent No. I 408787 and US Patent No. 10840208B2 disclose the addition of Pt and other trace elements to Ag alloys. However, these conventional silver alloy wires also have insufficient balling properties during wire bonding and lack in high-temperature creep resistance, luster and sulfidation resistance.

Ge is added to the silver alloy wire in the present disclosure, which can improve the sulfidation corrosion resistance of the wire and the bonding strength of the solder joint. However, if the amount of germanium is too high, wire formability decreases. In addition, an appropriate amount of platinum (Pt) can improve the wire's resistance to oxidation, sulfidation and chloride ion corrosion. It also has a significant inhibitory effect on the migration of silver ions, and it can reduce the formation of intermetallic compounds between the silver alloy wire and the aluminum pad as well. However, if the amount of platinum is too high, the resistivity of the wire increases significantly. It was confirmed through experiments that by adding only a small amount of Ge, the high-temperature creep resistance of the Ag—Pt—Ge ternary silver alloy wire is significantly improved compared to the Ag—Pt binary silver alloy wire. Besides, during the EFO process, the Ag-Pt-Ge ternary silver alloy wire can form a perfect FAB superior to any conventional silver alloy wires, and consequently the shape and quality of the first ball joint formed by the wire bonding are also excellent . Furthermore, it was confirmed by experiments that the intermetallic interface growth of the Ag-Pt-Ge silver ternary alloy wire after wire bonding and subsequent reliability tests is slower than that of the conventional gold wire. Compared to a copper wire or palladium plated copper wire, it is less likely to have deficient intermetallics and less likely to fail the metal residue test. The alloy wire of the disclosure also exhibits excellent performance in ball shear strength and wire tensile strength, and with the addition of the fourth trace element, the above-mentioned advantageous effect can be further enhanced.

According to some embodiments 1 the first form of the alloy round wire 10 in the present disclosure. 1 12 shows a segment of the alloy round wire 10. The material of the alloy round wire 10 is an Ag-Pt-Ge alloy formed by adding both Pt and Ge to the silver base material, the silver base material being substantially pure silver. The round alloy wire 10 comprises about 0.1 to about 3 wt% Pt, for example about 1 to about 2 wt% or about 0.5 to about 1.5 wt%, about 1 ppm to about 2 wt % Ge, for example about 100 ppm to about 1% by weight or about 500 ppm to about 1.5% by weight, and the balance is Ag. The round alloy wire 10 has a diameter of about 10 microns to about 300 microns, such as. B. about 100 microns to 200 microns or about 50 microns to 250 microns. In other embodiments, the alloy round wire 10 may also include other elements, but the additive elements should be chosen to avoid precipitation of the intermetallic phase with the silver, which can cause problems such as galling. B. embrittlement of the material, increased corrosion or reduced electrical conductivity. Therefore, the additive elements are better fully miscible with the silver atoms without forming precipitates to ensure wire formability. For example, in some embodiments, the alloy round wire 10 may include at least one additive element selected from the group consisting of Ca, Cu, In, Mg, Si, Ti, and Sc. The total amount of the aforementioned additive elements is in the range of about 1 ppm to about 0.1% by weight, for example about 10 ppm to about 0.05% by weight or about 5 ppm to about 0.01% by weight. and each of the additive elements is present in an amount less than that of Pt or Ge. In some embodiments, the alloy round wire 10 does not include any additive elements: that is, the alloy round wire 10 has only Pt and Ge added to the silver base material. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the above-mentioned alloy round wire may also be uniformly coated with a surface coating layer as in 2A until 2 B shown where 2 B the sectional view of the longitudinal direction of FIG 2A is. The surface plating layer 22 may comprise substantially pure gold, substantially pure palladium, substantially pure platinum, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof. The surface coating layer 22 can be formed by an appropriate plating method (eg, electroplating, sputtering, and vacuum evaporation). will. Due to the chemical inertness of the surface coating layer 22, the alloy round wire 20 can be protected from corrosion inside and at the same time exhibits a lubricating effect during wire drawing. The surface coating layer 22 has a thickness of about 0.01 to about 10 µm, for example about 0.1 µm to about 5 µm or about 1 µm to about 8 µm.

According to some embodiments 3 the flat strip alloy wire 30 of the second form of the present disclosure. 3 is a segment of the flat strip alloy wire 30. The material of the flat strip alloy wire 30 and the additive elements can refer to the round alloy wire 10 shown in 1 is shown, which is not repeated here. According to some embodiments, the ribbon alloy wire 30 has a thickness of about 20 μm to about 300 μm, for example about 50 μm to about 125 μm or about 100 μm to about 250 μm. According to some embodiments, the ribbon alloy wire 30 has a width of about 100 μm to about 2000 μm, for example about 500 μm to about 1400 μm or about 1000 μm to about 1800 μm. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the flat strip alloy wire may also be uniformly coated with a surface coating layer, as in 4A until 4B shown where 4B the sectional view of the longitudinal direction of FIG 4A is. The surface plating layer 42 may comprise substantially pure gold, substantially pure palladium, substantially pure platinum, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof. The surface coating layer 42 can be formed by an appropriate plating method (eg, electroplating, sputtering, and vacuum evaporation). The surface coating layer 42 has a thickness of about 0.01 to about 10 µm, for example about 0.1 µm to about 5 µm or about 1 µm to about 8.5 µm.

Regarding the substantially pure metal described in the specification, taking pure silver as an example, pure silver is expected to be completely free of impurities such as e.g. B. other elements and compounds is in design, but in the actual process of smelting, refining, plating, etc., it is difficult to completely remove the above impurities to achieve 100% pure silver mathematically or theoretically. Therefore, in other embodiments, the alloy wire and/or its coating layer may further comprise other metals, non-metal elements, or other impurity components. If the amount of the aforementioned impurities falls within the allowable range set by the relevant standard or specification, the silver is considered "substantially pure silver". Those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention belongs should understand that the above-mentioned respective standards or specifications differ according to different properties, conditions, requirements, etc., so no specific standards or specifications are listed in the text.

In addition, the addition of other metal elements must be adjusted according to the needs of the application in order to avoid deteriorating the properties of the alloy wire. For example, when copper is added to the above-mentioned alloy wire, it produces a material strengthening effect, but meanwhile it greatly lowers the resistance to oxidation and sulfidation corrosion of the alloy wire. In addition, copper increases the hardness of the alloy and causes the alloy to become brittle, making the wire drawing process difficult and at the same time easily causing chip breakdown during the wire bonding process.

Besides, although the addition of rare earth elements can refine the grains of the alloy for wire application requirements for wire bonding in packaging, the fine grains have more grain boundaries, which can impede electron transfer and increase the resistivity of the alloy. Therefore, this is not suitable for the packaging requirements of high-speed, high-frequency integrated circuit electronic products. Further, the chemical activity of the rare earth element increases the oxidation and corrosion damage of the wire, which causes the encapsulation wire to melt more easily when the current is applied, which is not conducive to the reliability of electronic products. Moreover, adding calcium to the alloy makes the formability of the wire worse. Adding low-melting point indium or tin to the alloy forms a low-temperature phase that lowers the temperature resistance of the wire, and a continuous current easily causes the wire to melt. Beryllium (Be) is a toxic flammable solid and dry dust or fumes from this are all toxic. When ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), osmium (Os), or iridium (Ir) is added, their melting point (2310°C, 1965°C, 3045°C, and 2410°C, respectively) is higher than the boiling point of silver (2212 °C), so their melting is extremely difficult and increases the electrical resistivity significantly. In addition, some of the additive elements cause precipitation of the intermetallic phase with silver in the phase equilibrium diagram, which It causes embrittlement and higher corrosion of the material, and it also reduces the conductivity of the wire.

The reason for choosing Ag, Pt and Ge is that these three elements can completely form a solid solution with each other in the phase balance diagram without generating any brittle precipitates of the intermetallic phase, so that the formed alloy wire can have better formability, and the Addition of Pt and Ge does not have much influence on the resistivity of Ag.

In some embodiments, the method for forming the above alloy wire is to first form a thick alloy wire, and then alternately perform multiple cold working steps and annealing steps to successively reduce the diameter of the thick wire. The thick wire is formed by heating and melting Ag, Pt and Ge and then casting them into an ingot. Then, the ingot is cold-worked to form the above-mentioned thick wire containing at least Ag, Pd, and Ge. In another embodiment, Ag, Pt and Ge are heated and melted, then cast continuously to form the thick wire. In some embodiments, the aforementioned cold working step includes wire drawing, extrusion, or a combination thereof. Alternatively, the aforementioned cold working step and annealing step may be any known or future developed cold working/annealing method.

The foregoing has outlined features of several embodiments so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description that follows. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures to carry out the same purposes and/or achieve the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein. It should also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure and that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

QUOTES INCLUDED IN DESCRIPTION

This list of documents cited by the applicant was generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Patent Literature Cited

• TW 110113667 [0001]
• US7645522B2 [0006]
• US 2003/0173659 A1 [0006]
• US 7820913 B2 [0006]
• US6696756 [0006]
• US 8101123 B2 [0025]
• JP 1997275120 [0025]
• US20080240975A1 [0025]
• CN 10215454A [0025]
• US20130126934 [0025]
• US 10840208 B2 [0025]

Claims (9)

Alloy wire (10) comprising an Ag-Pt-Ge alloy containing 0.1-3 wt% Pt, 1 ppm-2 wt% Ge and balance Ag. alloy wire (10) after claim 1 further comprising at least one of additive elements selected from the group consisting of Ca, Cu, In, Mg, Si, Ti and Sc, wherein a total amount of the additive elements is in the range of 1 ppm to 0.1 wt% % and each of the additive elements is present in an amount less than that of Pt or Ge. alloy wire (10) after claim 1 or 2 , wherein the alloy wire (10) is a round wire (20). alloy wire (10) after claim 3 , wherein the alloy wire (20) has a diameter of 10 µm to 300 µm. alloy wire (10) after claim 1 or 2 , wherein the alloy wire (10) is a ribbon wire (30). alloy wire (10) after claim 5 , wherein the alloy wire (30) has a thickness of 20 µm to 300 µm. alloy wire (10) after claim 5 or 6 , wherein the alloy wire (30) has a width of 100 µm to 2000 µm. Alloy wire (10) according to any one of Claims 1 - 7 wherein the alloy wire (10, 20, 30, 40) further comprises a surface coating layer (22, 42). alloy wire (10) after claim 8 wherein the surface coating layer (22, 42) comprises Au, Pd, Pt, an alloy thereof or a combination thereof and/or the surface coating layer (22, 42) has a thickness of 0.01 µm to 10 µm.

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