In January 2010, World Gold Council and semiconductor industry body SEMI published a survey of semiconductor manufacturers' attitudes and perceptions surrounding gold and copper bonding wire. SEMI surveyed 45 leading semiconductor companies across the world including both integrated device manufacturers and fabless semiconductor companies, with revenues totalling $136 billion in 2008.  This is representative of 56% of the global industry and includes responses from fourteen of the top twenty supplier rankings for 2008.

• The results show that 58% of the companies surveyed do not use copper wire technology in their products, 42% use it in some products and none of the companies use it in the majority of products. 
• The majority of the companies surveyed, 71%, are considering the switch to copper wire for some new products, 14% are considering it for the majority of products and 15% are not considering switching. 
• All respondents (apart from just one) identified important advantages of gold bonding wire over copper bonding wire. Eleven companies selected “Total Cost” as their only response. Gold remains the recognised superior material choice.
• The main concern which would prevent the companies using copper wire technology in the future (in order) is in-service reliability, closely followed by process yield and unproven historical performance.
• Half the companies surveyed were not aware that over 50% of the economic value of some end-of-life electronic products is derived from the gold content and only 21% of companies consider the impact on recyclability of waste electronics when selecting bonding wire material (see more here)

Download the report here and the associated press release here.