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Anyone have tips/recommendations for manual wire bonders? Been thinking about getting an ebay unit for ages.
Wedge or ball? Gold or aluminum? Heat or ultrasonic? Any brands to specifically look for, or to avoid?
So this is an interesting idea someone just showed me: https://ephemeron-labs.com/new-products-1/8sr4jlt168t5rifluoslpgdys8qwd0
Basically tweezers + XYZ stage and some silver epoxy. Would be super easy to DIY.
Definitely not as slick as a real wire bonder but would probably work fine for low volume and large'ish pads
Could pair it with Norland 130 for a more streamlined system (UV light to tack in place, heat to fully cure later). Not sure how conductive NCA130 is compared to traditional silver epoxy though
@breakingtaps watching this intently. A few years ago, I started and then abandoned a project to build a wirebonder. I still have an ultrasonic transducer, some bond wire, and some wedge tips hanging around. Based on what I was able to gather, wedge was more accessible just because the machine is simpler, no need for the wire baller. Most used units I saw were combined heat and ultrasonic. I'm excited to see what you find out.
@North Heh, I considered trying to DIY one for a hot minute, but decided that might end up being quite the rabbit-hole 
Interesting re: wedge, makes sense. Will keep you updated as I learn more!
@breakingtaps @North @jmorris and with enough xyz stages you don't even need the tweezers any more!
@breakingtaps @jmorris Oh this is weird, I like it
@breakingtaps I used such a setup (but with goniometric stages) during my thesis work to contact III-V components.
- stripped optical fiber as a tool
- dip into epoxy droplet, pull up to neck down epoxy into a cone
- touch bond pad with tip of epoxy cone
resulting dabs can be 20-50 µm.
@MisterHW Oh awesome, thanks for the confirmation! 20-50um would work great for me, I was planning pads around there (or a bit larger).
Guess it's time to build one!
@breakingtaps YMMV depending on the viscosity. I can't remember which brand the 2K silver epoxy was, but it needed 80-125°C to cure for tens of minutes, while the containers always went back into the freezer.
@jmorris @breakingtaps There's no deeper wisdom here, I think. But it's a bit of a different feel. Consider you're twisting the micrometer screws blind, only seeing the device and tool under a stereo microscope.