Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-01
2003-09-23
Sells, James (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S556000, C156S581000, C228S049100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06623577
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application P2001-67793 filed on Feb. 1, 2001; the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric component compression bonding machine and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known, as apparatuses for manufacturing, e.g., flat panel displays such as plasma display panels, electric component mounting machines which are used to mount the electric components composed of, for example, film-type elements and so forth.
FIG. 1
shows one example of a glass substrate pair on which electric components are mounted by means of an electric component mounting machine, in which FIG.
1
(
a
) is a plan view and FIG.
1
(
b
) is a side view thereof. The glass substrate pair
1
as illustrated in the figure is composed of two substrates
1
a
and
1
b
as joined to each other having different dimensions and shapes. On the lower surface of the upper substrate
1
a
and the upper surface of the lower substrate
1
b,
a plurality of electric components
2
are mounted along the respective sides of the substrates through anisotropic conductive film
3
(referred to as ACF hereinafter).
Also, in the case of this type of the electric component mounting machine for use in manufacturing glass substrate pairs, the lead electrodes of the electric components
2
are connected to the corresponding lead electrodes of the glass substrate pair
1
by affixing strips of the ACF
3
to the glass substrate pair
1
along the sides where the electric components
2
are to be mounted, temporarily securing the electric components
2
to the glass substrate pair
1
by means of the adhesivity of the ACF
3
, and then thermocompression bonding the electric components
2
as temporarily secured to the glass substrate pair
1
by the electric component compression bonding machine.
FIG. 2
shows one example of an electric component compression bonding machine
10
. The electric component compression bonding machine
10
as illustrated in
FIG. 2
is composed of a pressure application tool
13
in the form of an elongated shape which is moved up and down by means of a pressurized cylinder
11
and provided with an embedded heater
12
, a backup tool
15
located opposed to the pressure application tool
13
as a pressure receiving tool which is moved up and down by elevator means (not shown in the figure) and provided with an embedded heater
14
, and a sheet member
16
located between the pressure application tool
13
and the backup tool
15
. The sheet member
16
is located to intervene between the pressure application tool
13
and the electric components
2
during pressing the electric components
2
with the pressure application tool
13
and serves to absorb the disparity in the flatness of the pressing surface of the pressure application tool
13
in order to make it possible to apply a uniform pressure to the entirety of the area to be presses, and therefore is designed to cover the entirety of the pressing surface of the pressure application tool
13
.
The pressure application process is performed by means of the electric component compression bonding machine
10
as follows. At first, the glass substrate pair
1
to which the electric components
2
have been temporarily secured in the previous step is placed on a substrate stage (not shown in the figure) and positioned to the appropriate location where compression bonding is carried out. In the case where the electric component
2
-
1
is the leftmost electric component among the group of the electric components which are arranged along the side of the glass substrate pair
1
to be pressed at this time, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the positioning is carried out in order that the left end “a” of the electric component
2
-
1
is aligned to or located slightly inside of the left end “A” of the pressure application tool
13
(more exactly, the left end of the pressure application surface of the pressure application tool
13
). Next, the backup tool
15
is moved upward to support the glass substrate pair
1
from the lower position as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, and thereafter the pressure application tool
13
is moved down by means of the pressurized cylinder
11
. By this configuration, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the four electric components
2
-
1
,
2
-
2
,
2
-
3
and
2
-
4
located within the span of the pressure application tool
13
are thermocompression bonded to the glass substrate pair
1
at a time through the ACF
3
under the application of pressure by the pressurized cylinder
11
and the application of heat by the heaters
12
and
14
.
After the thermocompression bonding of the electric components
2
-
1
to
2
-
4
has been completed, the pressure application tool
13
is moved up while the backup tool
15
is moved down. Next, in the case where the electric component
2
-
6
is the rightmost electric component among the group of the electric components which are arranged along the side of the glass substrate pair
1
to be pressed at this time, as illustrated in
FIG. 4
, the positioning is carried out in order that the right end “b” of the electric component
2
-
6
is aligned to or located slightly inside of the right end “B” of the pressure application tool
13
(more exactly, the right end of the pressure application surface of the pressure application tool
13
). In the same manner as the previous procedure, after the backup tool
15
is moved up to support the glass substrate pair
1
from the lower position, the pressure application tool
13
is moved down in order to bond the four electric components
2
-
3
,
2
-
4
,
2
-
5
and
2
-
6
located within the span of the pressure application tool
13
by thermocompression.
Meanwhile, when the type of the glass substrate pair
1
to be handled by the electric component compression bonding machine
10
is changed, the dimensions of the glass substrate pair
1
and the electric components
2
will change as well as the intervals between adjacent electric components on the glass substrate pair
1
resulting in the shortcoming as illustrated in FIG.
5
. Namely, in the case where the electric component
2
-
1
is the leftmost electric component among the group of the electric components which are arranged along the side of the glass substrate pair
1
to be pressed at this time. When the left end “c” of the leftmost electric component
2
-
5
a
is aligned to or located slightly inside of the left end “A” of the pressure application tool
13
, the right end “B” of the pressure application tool
13
is positioned in the middle of the upper surface of the electric component
2
-
5
a
so that, as a result, the pressure application surface of the pressure application tool
13
can cover only part of the electric component
2
-
5
a.
Accordingly, if the pressure application process were carried out in this condition, the ACF
3
as located under the electric component
2
-
5
a
is affected by heat transferred from the pressure application tool
13
or from the backup tool
15
through the electric component
2
-
6
a.
Since the ACF
3
is made of a thermoset material, the portion of the ACF
3
as located under the electric component
2
-
6
a
but not located just under the pressure application tool
13
is hardened without pressure applied by the pressure application tool
13
.
Because of this, even if an amount of heat and a pressure are applied to the portion of the electric component
2
-
6
a
having not yet processed in a later step, the lead electrodes of the electric components
2
can not be connected to the lead electrodes of the glass substrate pair
1
since the portion of the ACF
3
as located under the electric component
2
-
5
a
has already been hardened as described above. Accordingly, there occurs connection failure in that portion so that the glass substrate pair
1
becomes defective.
The shortcoming can be
Iwanaga Kunihiro
Ogawa Yoshitsugu
Ogimoto Shinichi
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Sells James
Shibaura Mechatronics Corporation
LandOfFree
Electric component compression bonding machine and method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Electric component compression bonding machine and method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electric component compression bonding machine and method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3084723