Patent ID: 7857190

Claim:
A wire bonding apparatus comprising: a moving mechanism for moving, in XYZ directions, a capillary having a wire inserted therethrough and executing bonding on a work; a first means for taking an image of the work; a light path device for conducting an elevation image of a vicinity of a tip end of the capillary to the first means; a ball formation device for forming a tip end of the wire into a ball of a prescribed shape by an electrical discharge between a discharge electrode and the wire; an electrical discharge state acquisition device for acquiring a state of the electrical discharge between the discharge electrode and the wire; a second means for opening and closing a plurality of clampers, respectively, for gripping the wire; and a computer for controlling wire bonding between a first bonding point and a second bonding point, said computer including a third means for electrically detecting whether the electrical discharge of the ball formation device is normal or not by processing electrical discharge state signals acquired by the electrical discharge state acquisition device during the electrical discharge of the ball formation device and indicative of electrical discharge state between the discharge electrode and the wire, a fourth means for detecting a shape of a tip end of the wire by processing elevation images of the wire in the vicinity of the tip end of the capillary acquired by the first means via the light path device, a fifth means for, when an electrical discharge anomaly is detected by the third means and a condition of the wire at the tip end of the capillary detected by the fourth means is not a prescribed condition, paying out the wire at the tip end of the capillary until the wire at the tip end of the capillary attains a prescribed condition, by an up-and-down movement of the capillary caused by the second means and moving mechanism, based on a condition of the wire at the tip end of the capillary detected by the fourth means, and a sixth means for, when a condition of the wire at the tip end of the capillary detected by the fourth means is a prescribed condition after an electrical discharge anomaly is detected by the third means, reforming the tip end of the wire into a ball of a prescribed shape by the ball formation device based on the tip end shape of the wire detected by the fourth means.