Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Preformed panel circuit arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-28
2001-02-20
Gaffin, Jeffrey (Department: 2841)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Preformed panel circuit arrangement
C174S261000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06191369
ABSTRACT:
The present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei-9-300780 filed on Oct. 31, 1997, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board having a marker formed thereon, with which a member to be mounted on the printed circuit board may be conveniently positioned with respect to the printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various members which may be possibly mounted on a printed circuit board. For example, a double-sided adhesive tape may be often bonded on a flexible printed circuit board in order to secure the flexible printed circuit board to a certain place within a tight space in a housing of an electronic device. Also, an insulating adhesive tape may be bonded on such flexible printed circuit board in order to electrically insulate the conductive traces formed thereon from any other conductors (including conductive traces of other flexible circuit boards and other wiring conductors) housed in such electronic device. Further, various circuit elements and components, such as an integrated circuit chip (IC), may be mounted on a printed circuit board by soldering. Even relatively massive components and devices, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), may be mounted on a printed circuit board by means of a suitable attachment, such as a support frame and/or a fixture member.
Some prior art printed circuit boards have no suitable marker formed thereon, with which a member to be mounted on the printed circuit board may be conveniently positioned with respect to the printed circuit board. When, for example, a circuit element is to be mounted on a printed circuit board with no such marker, a special soldering jig may be often used to establish positioning of the circuit element with respect to the printed circuit board. Other prior art printed circuit boards have a marker usable for such purpose, which however has to be formed through a certain, additional and dedicated maker-forming process to be performed after the conductive traces of the printed circuit board have been formed. Accordingly, fabrication of any prior art printed circuit boards has suffered from time-consuming mounting process of members which need precise positioning with respect to the printed circuit boards.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printed circuit board having a marker formed thereon, with which a member to be mounted on the printed circuit board may be conveniently positioned with respect to the printed circuit board, and in which the marker may be formed without any need for additional and/or dedicated marker-forming process.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a printed circuit board comprising a substrate, a plurality of conductive traces formed on the surface of the substrate for electrical signal transmission, a marker trace formed on the surface of the substrate for indicating at least a part of a desired footprint of a member to be mounted on the surface of the printed circuit board, and the marker trace being formed of the same material as the conductive traces.
With this arrangement, since the marker trace is formed of the same material as the conductive traces, the marker trace may be formed through the same process as the conductive traces and thus simultaneously with the conductive traces. An assemblage worker can achieve precise positioning, with respect to a printed circuit board, of a member to be mounted on the printed circuit board, just by aligning the outer edges of the member to the outer boundary of the desired footprint on the printed circuit board which is indicated by the marker trace.
The marker trace may indicate the entire outer boundary of the desired footprint of the member.
Where the desired footprint of the member is of an elongate shape having opposite ends, the marker trace may indicate such portions of the outer boundary of the desired footprint of the member that correspond to the opposite ends of the elongate shape.
Where the desired footprint of the member is of a generally rectangular shape having four side edges, the marker trace may indicate such portions of the outer boundary of the desired footprint of the member that correspond to three of the four side edges of the generally rectangular shape. Alternatively, in such a case, the marker trace may indicate such portions of the outer boundary of the desired footprint of the member that correspond to the four side edges of the generally rectangular shape.
The member to be mounted on the surface of the printed circuit board may comprise a double-sided adhesive sheet or may comprise a liquid crystal display panel.
Alternatively or additionally, the member may comprise an interconnection-wiring rubber block for electrically interconnecting a liquid crystal display panel and at least some of the conductive traces formed on the surface of the substrate.
Further, the member may comprise a circuit element. Also, the member may comprise a terminal of a circuit element and the marker trace may also indicate a soldering area for the terminal.
Moreover, the marker trace may comprise a conductive trace for electrical signal transmission.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5042147 (1991-08-01), Tashiro
patent: 5418329 (1995-05-01), Katoh et al.
patent: 5777853 (1998-07-01), Dorfmeyer
patent: 5898574 (1999-04-01), Tan et al.
patent: 5903051 (1999-05-01), Miks et al.
Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Gaffin Jeffrey
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Norris Jeremy
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