Assessment of Electrical, Electronic, and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts Copper Wire Bonds for Space Programs

The NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program co-manager, requested the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) to compile a body of publicly available knowledge on copper (Cu) wire bonds and perform reliability testing and analysis on these bonds, including environment tests, sample destructive physical analysis, and bond pull/shear tests during environment test intervals. The goal was to understand the risks of using Cu wire bonds for space applications and develop guidelines on Cu bond pull/shear limits for NASA applications. This document contains the results of the NESC assessment.