Gold bonding wires for semiconductor devices featuring increased strength
and modulus of elasticity, stable loop shapes, suppressing the flow of
wires, suppressing the leaning, and totally improved junctions of the
wedge junction portions or wear characteristics for realizing a
narrow-pitch connection, and enhanced the productivity on an industrial
scale, and a method of producing the same. A gold bonding wire for a
semiconductor device has a crystal grain structure in cross section in
the lengthwise direction of the bonding wire, wherein a ratio of the area
of crystal grains having an orientation [111] to the area of crystal
grains having an orientation [100] is not smaller than 1.2 in the crystal
orientations in the lengthwise direction of the wire.