Method of controlling a wire bonding apparatus

Abstract

There is provided a method of controlling a wire bonding apparatus comprising a main arm fluctuated by a drive motor, a sub-arm coupled to the main arm by a coupling force given by a coupling motor, a bonding tool attached to the sub-arm, and ultrasonic wave application means for applying ultrasonic wave to the bonding tool while allowing one end of a wire held by the bonding tool to be in contact with a joining portion of a semiconductor chip to thereby join the wire to the joining portion. This control method is characterized in that the main arm and sub-arm are coupled by a first coupling force given by the coupling motor for a time period during which the one end of the wire is not in contact with the joining portion of the semiconductor chip, that the main arm and the sub-arm are coupled by a second coupling force given by the coupling motor for a time period during which the one end of the wire is in contact with the joining portion of the semiconductor chip and ultrasonic wave is not applied to the bonding tool, and that the main arm and the sub-arm are coupled by a third coupling force given by the coupling motor for a time period during which the one end of the wire is in contact with the joining portion of the semiconductor chip and ultrasonic wave is applied to the bonding tool.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.