Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Automatic and/or material-triggered control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-28
2002-11-26
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Automatic and/or material-triggered control
C156S367000, C156S382000, C156S583800, C156S583900, C156S583200, C156S378000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06484775
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC-card manufacturing apparatus suitable for manufacture of thin, non-contact-type IC cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
IC cards containing electronic components such as IC chips are generally known. Such an IC card must be manufactured such that the card has no uneven surface which would otherwise result due to accommodation of an electronic component therein. Therefore, methods and apparatuses for manufacturing such an IC card have been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2(1990)-16234 and in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6(1994)-176214, 9(1997)-277766, and 11(1999)-48660.
Meanwhile, a thin, flexible, non-contact-type IC card having a thickness of a few hundreds of micrometers has recently been put in practical use.
FIG. 17
shows a typical IC-card manufacturing apparatus
100
for manufacturing such a thin, non-contact-type IC card. The IC-card manufacturing apparatus
100
includes a lower press platen
101
and an upper press platen
102
. The lower press platen
101
is attached to a base
104
via a heat-insulating plate
103
, and the upper press platen
102
is attached to an elevation member
106
via a heat-insulating plate
105
. Thus, the lower press platen
101
serves as a stationary platen, and the upper press platen
102
serves as a movable platen. Heaters
107
and coolant passages
108
are provided within the lower press platen
101
, and heaters
109
and coolant passages
110
are provided within the upper press platen
102
. Further, a tubular lower chamber member
111
is provided on the base
104
in order to cover the circumference of the lower press platen
101
, and an upper chamber member
112
is provided on the elevation member
106
in order to cover the circumference of the upper press platen
102
. When the upper press platen
102
is lowered, the lower chamber member
111
and the upper chamber member
112
mate to thereby form a sealed chamber
113
. Reference numeral
114
denotes an evacuation port provided on the upper chamber member
112
. An unillustrated evacuator (e.g., a vacuum pump) is connected to the evacuation port
114
in order to enable evacuation of air from the chamber
113
. Reference numeral
115
denotes a seal member provided on the upper chamber
112
.
In such an IC-card manufacturing apparatus
100
, a laminated substrate M used for fabrication of an IC card is placed on the lower press platen
101
. The laminated substrate M is configured as shown in FIG.
16
. Reference character P denotes an electronic component which is composed of an IC chip Pi and an antenna Pa and is mounted on a base sheet S. The base sheet S and the electronic component P are sandwiched by hot-melt sheets Ta and Tb, which are in turn sandwiched by thermoplastic resin sheets (sheets of, for example, polyethylene terephthalate) La and Lb, which carry adhesive layers Ba and Bb, respectively. Subsequently, the laminated substrate M is subjected to thermocompression bonding. Specifically, after the elevation member
106
shown in
FIG. 17
is lowered, air is evacuated from the chamber
113
, and the laminated substrate M is pressed by means of the lower press platen
101
and the upper press platen
102
, which have been heated through supply of electricity to the heaters
107
and
109
. Thus, the laminated substrate M undergoes thermocompression bonding in a state in which air bubbles have been removed from the interior of the laminated substrate M. Subsequently, the supply of electricity to the heaters
107
and
109
is stopped, and cooling water is supplied to the coolant passages
108
and
110
, whereby the laminated substrate M is cooled.
Incidentally, when a thin, flexible IC card is manufactured, the states of heating and pressure-application during thermocompression bonding of the laminated substrate M greatly affect production quality. For example, when heating control is not performed properly, a manufactured product loses its flatness due to generation of warpage or distortion, and when pressure control is not performed properly, problems such as layer shifting and partial delamination occur easily, resulting in deterioration and variation in quality and decreased commercial value.
In view of the forgoing, the above-described conventional IC-card manufacturing apparatus
100
is designed such that each of the lower press platen
101
and the upper press platen
102
performs the heating step and the cooling step to thereby, secure continuity in heating control and pressure control. However, since a longer production cycle time is needed to complete fabrication of the laminated substrate M, productivity and mass-production efficiency are low, and increased energy consumption makes energy conservation and economy difficult to achieve.
The above-described problems can be solved through employment of a system in which the heating step and the cooling step are performed at different stages (locations). However, in this case, when the laminated substrate M is transferred from the stage for the heating step to the stage for the cooling step, heating and pressure application are cancelled, resulting in deterioration and variation in quality and decreased commercial value.
In view of the foregoing, the assignee of the present invention has proposed an IC-card manufacturing apparatus (basic apparatus) which comprises a laminated-substrate sandwiching unit including upper and lower sandwiching members for sandwiching a laminated substrate M in a sealed state; an evacuation unit for evacuating air from the interior of the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit; a pre-heating press unit for elevating the temperature of the evacuated laminated-substrate sandwiching unit—which holds the laminated substrate M—to a pre-heating temperature lower than a regular heating temperature; a thermocompression-bonding press unit for receiving the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit transferred from the pre-heating press unit and for heating the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit to the regular heating temperature to thereby effect thermocompression bonding; and a cooling press unit for receiving the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit transferred from the thermocompression-bonding press unit and for cooling the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-182014).
Since this basic apparatus is equipped with a laminated-substrate sandwiching unit, the laminated substrate M can be accommodated within the evacuated laminated-substrate sandwiching unit in a sealed state, so that the heated state and the pressurized state can be maintained continuously; i.e., the temperature and pressure of the laminated substrate M can be maintained. As a result, commercial value can be increased greatly by means of improved quality,and homogeneity.
Incidentally, the laminated-substrate sandwiching unit provided in the above-described basic apparatus has upper and lower sandwiching members each consisting of a frame portion and a plate portion. The plate portion projects outward from the pressure-application surface of the press platen, and its circumferential edge portion is fixed to the frame portion. Therefore, the frame portion and a peripheral portion of the plate portion located outside the press platen are not heated, even if the interior portion of the plate portion in direct contact with the press platen is heated to high temperature, so that the plate portion assumes a shape of a wok (a convex shape) due to the difference in thermal expansion between the central and peripheral portions of the plate portion.
In this case, when the plate portion is thin, the deformation of the plate portion is suppressed by means of pressure applied from the press platen. However, when the thickness of the plate portion is 1 mm or greater, the plate portion deforms even in a state of pressure being applied from the press platen. Although the amount of deformation is relatively small, the deformation makes it impossible to press the
Birch, Stewart, Kolasch and Birch LLP
Crispino Richard
Koch, III George R.
Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd.
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