Surface mounting to an irregular surface

Details Surface mounting to an irregular surface Surface mounting to an irregular surface

2001-07-12

2003-03-04

Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)

Metal fusion bonding

Process

With measuring, testing, indicating, inspecting, or...

C257S737000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06527159

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
This invention relates generally to surface mounting technology utilized to electrically and physically interconnect electronic components.
In surface mount technology (SMT), two surfaces may be electrically interconnected using solder bumps or balls that are deposited upon one of the surfaces and then reflowed or heated to solder the two surfaces together. SMT may be an advantageous process because it is not necessary to work in the region between the two surfaces to be joined and because a large number of components may be connected in the same reflow step.
A problem may arise, however, when one of the surfaces to be bonded is irregular. For example, one surface to be surface mounted to another surface may be warped. When the surface mount bumps of uniform size are deposited, an open or poor connection may result. Conversely, if the warp of one surface extends toward the other, solder balls in the intervening area may be excessively deformed causing them to squeeze out and short other electrical components.
Referring to
FIG. 6
, a first relatively flat substrate
10
may be surface mounted to an irregular substrate
12
. In this case, the substrate
12
is warped for illustration purposes. The solder bumps or balls
14
may be applied to the flat surface
12
. However, when the two surfaces
10
and
12
are brought together, some of the solder balls may not make effective contact with the surface
12
because of its curvature, while other balls may be excessively deformed raising the possibility of shorts to adjacent components.
Thus, there is a need for a way to deal with the possibility that the spacing between two surfaces to be surface mounted may not be uniform and regular throughout.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5118584 (1992-06-01), Evans et al.
patent: 5435482 (1995-07-01), Variot et al.
patent: 5461261 (1995-10-01), Nishiguchi
patent: 5465152 (1995-11-01), Bilodeau et al.
patent: 5747102 (1998-05-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5828128 (1998-10-01), Higashiguchi et al.
patent: 5894984 (1999-04-01), Sakai et al.
patent: 6119925 (2000-09-01), Lin et al.
patent: 6234373 (2001-05-01), Wark
patent: 6271109 (2001-08-01), Weygan et al.

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