In this paper, gold ball wire bonding at low temperature using a high frequency transducer was evaluated. The substrates used were FR-4 laminates with two different gold-plated surface finishes: electrolytic and immersion gold-plated. Bonding temperatures of 120/spl deg/C, 80/spl deg/C and 40/spl deg/C were investigated with 1 mil fine pitch gold wire. Prior to wire bonding, the laminates and dice were plasma treated. The surfaces were analyzed prior to and after plasma treatment before wire bonding using XPS and AFM. Bonded areas were also analyzed using SEM. Design of experiment (DOE) techniques have been employed to optimize the bonding parameters at each temperature. The response of the DOE was evaluated by using bond shear and bond pull. The results show that bonding at low temperature is viable with the use of a high frequency transducer wire bonder.