Metal fusion bonding – Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator – Solid flux or solid filler
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-13
2004-06-01
Silverman, Stanley S. (Department: 1754)
Metal fusion bonding
Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator
Solid flux or solid filler
C228S004100, C228S006200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06742694
ABSTRACT:
This application claims the priority benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-039888, filed on Feb. 16, 2001, and entitled “Solder Ball Disposing Apparatus, Solder Ball Reflow Apparatus, and Solder Ball Bonding Apparatus.”
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for bonding a bonding pad formed on the slider for disposing the head of a head gimbal assembly (hereafter referred to as an HG assembly), which is a component of a hard disk drive, to a lead pad formed on the tip of a lead wire with a solder ball.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7
is a perspective view of an HG assembly suitable for electrically bonding a lead wire to a slider using solder ball bonding, and
FIG. 8
is a partially enlarged view of an end of the HG assembly shown in FIG.
7
.
A main structure of the HG assembly
100
is composed of a base plate
101
, a load beam
102
, a suspension plate
103
, and a flexure
104
. An opening
101
a
is formed on the base plate
101
and a reinforcing ring
105
is fixed to the bottom side, viewed in
FIG. 7
, of the circumference of the opening
101
a
. The opening
101
a
is used when the HG assembly
100
is pivotably held by the HG holding means of a magnetic disk apparatus (not shown), and the HG assembly
100
pivots around the virtual vertical line
200
passing through the center of the opening
101
a
as the axial center in the J-K directions shown by an arrow.
An end
102
a
of the load beam
102
is fixed to the protruded portion
103
a
of the suspension plate
103
bonded to the base plate
101
, and is elastically held on the base plate
101
by the suspension effect desirably obtained by the opening
103
b
formed in the suspension plate
103
. The load beam
102
also extends in the radial direction of the virtual vertical line
200
, and a tab
102
b
extending in the same direction is formed on another end of the load beam
102
.
The flexure
104
extends from the tip of the HG assembly
100
to a multi-collector portion
104
a
in a crank shape, and laser-welded to the load beam
102
at joining points
107
,
108
, and
109
, and fixed to and held by the base plate
101
at the protruded holders
101
b
and
101
c
. Four lead wires
110
-
113
are disposed on the upper surface (the surface seen in the upper side in
FIG. 7
) of the flexure
104
through an insulating sheet so as not to contact with each other. The main portions of these lead wires
110
-
113
are protected by protective sheets
115
,
116
, and
117
, and the ends of these lead wires
110
-
113
are disposed in a line on the multi-connector portion
104
a
to form a connecting surface.
As shown in
FIG. 8
, the vicinity of the tip of the flexure
104
is fixed to the load beam
102
at the joining point
108
, and the portion of the flexure
104
beyond the joining point
108
is freed from the load beam
102
. In this portion, an arch-shaped opening
119
is formed, and a slider
120
is adherent and fixed to the flexure tongue
104
c
formed to protrude toward the center of the arch-shaped opening
119
from the platform
104
b
that constitutes the endmost portion of the flexure
104
(see FIG.
5
).
This flexure tongue
104
c
is supported at a point by a pivot
102
c
protruded from the load beam
102
(also shown in
FIG. 5
by a broken line) at the position corresponding to the center portion of the slider
120
. Thereby, the slider
120
can have a prescribed amount of tilt (also often called pitch, roll, or yaw) to all direction from the load beam
102
.
As shown in
FIG. 7
, four lead wires
110
to
113
run toward the far end forming pairs from the vicinity of the protective sheet
117
, bend substantially normal at the arch-shaped opening
119
(
FIG. 8
) in a floating state, and terminate on the platform
104
b
. Here, the paired lead wires bend so as to be substantially normal to the front surface
120
a
of the slider
120
over two openings
121
and
122
formed between the platform
104
b
and the flexure tongue
104
c
, and further form lead pads
110
a
to
113
a
to correspond to the pad bonding surfaces of four bonding pads
123
to
126
formed on the front surface
120
a
of the slider
120
, respectively.
Next, a bonding method by a conventional solder-ball bonding apparatus for electrically connecting four bonding pads
123
to
126
with lead pads
110
a
to
113
a
formed corresponding thereto, respectively, will be described below.
Of the above-described HG assembly, the portions other than the slider are equivalent to the slider
120
holding means. An example of this bonding method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-189,148, by the present applicant. This method is implemented by a solder-boll holder
150
, a suction pad
152
, and an optical unit
153
shown in
FIGS. 9
or
10
.
The solder-ball holder
150
shown in
FIG. 9
has four solder-ball holding holes
150
a
to
150
d
formed on the upper surface
150
e
at prescribed distances. The hopper
151
is a box-shaped member held movably in A-B direction shown by the arrow on the upper surface
150
e
of the solder-ball holder
150
, and has a storage
151
a
for storing a large number of solder balls
155
. On the bottom of the storage
151
a
is formed a slot
151
b
for discharging solder balls
155
. When the hopper
151
moved to the discharging position to cover the four solder-ball holding holes
150
a
to
150
d
, it feeds one ball
155
to each of the solder-ball holding holes.
FIG. 9
shows the state when a ball is held by each solder-ball holding hole.
The suction pad
152
is composed of a cylindrical portion
152
a
that has a spatially continuous hollow portion, a conical portion
152
b
that has a suction hole
152
e
at the end, a discharging pipe
152
c
, and a connecting portion
152
that connects these components as shown in FIG.
9
. The discharging pipe
152
c
is connected to a suction means (not shown), and balls are discharged from the discharging pipe
152
c
in the timing described later.
The suction pad
152
is carried by a carrier (not shown), approaches sequentially to the four solder-ball holding holes
150
a
to
150
d
of the solder-ball holder
150
, and sucks and carries the solder ball
155
held by each solder-ball holding hole.
FIG. 9
shows the state when the suction pad
152
sucks and carries the solder balls.
The solder balls are carried along a prescribed route, and suction is released at the position, for example, where a solder ball
155
comes in contact with the pad bonding surface
123
a
of the bonding pad
123
and the bonding surface
110
b
of the lead pad
110
a
, in the HG assembly
100
held in a state tilted by about 45 degrees against the F-G direction (vertical direction). At this time, the solder ball
155
stops in the state of point contact to both bonding surfaces.
FIG. 10
is a constitutional diagram showing the state when the optical unit
153
for reflowing solder balls
155
is approached to a solder ball, which stops in contact with the pad bonding surface
123
a
of the bonding pad
123
and the bonding surface
110
b
of the lead pad
110
a
, as described above, together with the major constitution of the optical unit
153
itself.
The optical unit
153
is composed of a lens holder
153
b
that has a hollow laser-beam path space
153
a
formed inside and holds a series of condenser lenses
154
disposed on the laser-beam path, a nitrogen gas inlet
153
c
for introducing nitrogen gas N
2
into the laser-beam path space
153
a
, a tip
153
d
to approach a solder ball
155
and output converged laser beams, and a laser-beam introducing port
153
e
connected to optical fibers
156
for introducing laser beams into the laser-beam path space
153
a.
The nitrogen gas inlet
153
c
has a nitrogen gas inlet
153
f
, and a laser-beam output opening
153
g
for radiating converged laser beams to the solder ball
155
is formed on the tip
153
d
. The optical fibers
156
are optically connected to a laser oscillator (not shown), and leads the las
Mita Yasuhiro
Pattanaik Surya
Satoh Takuya
Shi Lan
Tsuchiya Tatsumi
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
Cooke Colleen P.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies - Netherlands B.V.
Martin Robert B.
Silverman Stanley S.
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