Abstract: According to the present invention provided is a gold wire for IC chip bonding which wire is unlikely to be broken after thermosonic wire bonding at an increased ultrasonic output, subsequent reverse deformation involving severe bonding and deformation of a ball neck portion and formation of a loop. The bonding gold wire essentially consists of 0.0001-0.005 wt % of Pt, 0.0001-0.005 wt % of Ag, 0.0005-0.005 wt % of Mg and 0.00005-0.005 wt % of Eu; with the balance being Au, said Au having less than 0.001% by weight of incidental impurity.

Abstract: The gold wire used for the wire bonding of a semiconductor device comprises at least three kinds of elements selected from rare earth elements such as La, Ce and Pr: Be, Ca, Mg, Ag, Fe: and platinum group elements; and the balance of Au at high purity.

Abstract: This invention relates to a wire bonding gold line used for connecting a semiconductor tip electrode with an outside lead portion. This gold wire characteristically contains gold (Au) having a purity level 99.996-99.9995 wt % and 0.0032-0.008 wt % by total weight of said gold wire of germanium (Ge) so that the electric resistance of the wire bonding gold line is reduced, while the mechanical strength such as tensile strength and high temperature strength is excellent and a gold ball can be shaped into the form of a nearly perfect sphere in the connection of the tip electrode.