HOMEMADE WIRE BONDING

As an electronics hobbyist I would say the hardest part of building a circuit would be making a circuit board . Using SMT parts requires custom circuit boards in most cases. At the semiconductor level the circuit is wired using wire bonding . This is a method of attaching tiny wires to silicon usually using sonic or thermal energy .Wire bonding machines are typically used to attach the silicon to the pins of the carriers using tiny wires. Wire bonding machines are very expensive which makes them unavailable to hobbyists ,

until now !

This is my homemade wire bonding machine. Using small magnet wire I set out to solder wires to all the pins of a smt chip .It was nearly impossible because the solder was too thick and my hand was not steady enough. So I made the gadget.

It may be hard to make out because my camera is fuzzy .But that is a few scraps of wood a $5 soldering iron and a cheap door hinge.I replaced the cheap tip with a steel nail because it would burn up too fast and dull . Using this device I was easily able to attach the wires. Using solder paste I should be able to attach them to even smaller chips such as qfn. Doesn't this open a lot of possibilities ? You could attach the wires to other components and then glue them to the bare side of the chip and you might not need a circuit board at all. First you use the soldering iron to remove the insulation from the wire .Then you apply solder. Then you position the wire where you want it making sure the tip of the irons comes down right on top of the wire . When you drop the iron a connection is made. You might need some good magnifiers. I use the removed lens of binoculars to inspect connections. Other tools you might need are tweezers and small wire snippers (fingernail clippers might work).It doesn't really matter how you build them as long as they work. Here is an image of a chip I soldered .All the pins are not soldered but I could have soldered them.

Another good tip is the way I took that picure.My camera is not that great but I used a binocular lens to magnify it.

I am looking for linux users to try my program "Vectronics" which is an svg schematic editor.I think it is great. Here is a link to schematics created with Vectronics in svg format.

If you like it you can donate to me ;).