There is currently little information regarding the physiochemical effects of common bonding wire dopants such as Ca and Pd despite the use of gold bonding wire as an electrical interconnection in over 80% of semiconductor devices. This paper presents experimental results on the residual microstrains in 4 N gold bonding wires with different concentrations of Ca-Pd, measured using peak broadening in X-ray diffraction. The effect of Ca was found to be more prominent. In order to understand more about the physiochemical action of Ca and its effects on the microstructure, TEM and depth sensing nano-indentation (DSI) were used to study 2 mm Ca-doped hard-drawn rods. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.