Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Preformed panel circuit arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-19
2003-03-11
Paladini, Albert W. (Department: 2827)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Preformed panel circuit arrangement
C174S254000, C174S259000, C361S776000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06531662
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a circuit substrate suitably incorporated in a battery pack and the like in a laptop personal computer, a mobile phone and so on. The present invention also relates to a battery pack incorporating such a circuit substrate. Further, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing such a circuit substrate.
BACKGROUND ART
For a laptop personal computer for example, a battery pack is available which utilizes a lithium ion battery, or a manganese battery for example. Such a battery pack is detachable from the personal computer itself.
As shown in
FIG. 29
, a common battery pack P comprises a case
1
and a plurality of batteries
2
encased therein. The case
1
incorporates a circuit substrate
10
including a printed circuit mounted with a connector C and other electronic parts (not illustrated). The circuit substrate
10
serves for battery power supply and electric signal exchange between the batteries
2
and external components. The battery pack P is under a certain limitation in terms of the size of case
1
, making it difficult to provide a large internal space other than for the batteries
2
. For this reason, the circuit substrate
10
is incorporated as a first and a second substrate splits
11
,
12
. With this arrangement, the first and the second substrate splits
11
,
12
are joined with each other by a joint structure to be described hereafter, and bent at the joint not shown in FIG.
29
.
FIG.
30
through
FIG. 32
show conventional joint structures between the first and the second substrate splits. According to the joint structure shown in
FIG. 30
, a first substrate split
111
and a second substrate split
121
are joined together via a plurality of lead wires R. Each of the lead wires R is bonded to wiring patterns P
111
, P
121
provided on respective surfaces of the substrate splits
111
,
121
. The lead wires R can be bent easily. The substrate splits
111
,
121
are electrically interconnected via the lead wires R. The circuit substrate thus provided by the substrate splits
111
,
121
and joined by the above joint structure includes a connector C, electronic parts D and so on, yet the circuit substrate can be incorporated into the case
1
through effective use of an internal space not occupied by the batteries
2
.
According to the joint structure shown in
FIG. 31
, a first and a second substrate splits
112
,
122
are joined together via an intermediate member
200
. The substrate splits
112
,
122
are each provided by a multi-layer substrate having through holes (not illustrated). When making this joint structure, first, the intermediate member
200
is made from a flexible film material
200
a
by forming thereon with a conductive pattern
200
b.
Then, after various steps of manufacture, finally, two ends of the intermediate member
200
are sandwiched by respective pairs of rigid members
112
a,
112
b,
122
a,
122
b,
to obtain the circuit substrate as shown in FIG.
31
. Thus, according to the circuit substrate in
FIG. 31
, the intermediate member
200
is exposed at the joint. The circuit substrate can be easily bent at this exposed portion. Therefore, the joint structure according to Conventional Example 2 offers the same advantage as achieved by the previous Conventional Example 1.
Further, according to a joint structure shown in
FIG. 32
, the circuit substrate can be made through manufacturing steps simpler than those for the conventional examples shown in FIG.
30
and FIG.
31
. Specifically, a first and a second substrate splits
113
,
123
are joined together and electrically interconnected with each other, simply via metal strips
300
,
310
. The circuit substrate can be bent into a desired shape by bending the metal strips
300
,
310
.
Now, the circuit substrate with any of the above conventional joint structures has a problem to be described below. Specifically, in the circuit substrate with the joint structure shown in
FIG. 30
, the lead wires R that serve as joint parts are short and very fine, which makes it difficult to handle by a manufacturing machine. Therefore, according to this circuit substrate, the lead wires R can be attached to the connecting region only by manual operation. With this circuit substrate, it is difficult to improve productivity through factory automation for example.
According to the joint structure shown in
FIG. 31
, it is anticipated that manufacturing process can be automated. However, this joint structure is complex in that the circuit substrate that includes the substrate splits
112
,
122
and the intermediate member
200
has a multi-layer structure. Therefore, this circuit substrate requires a large number of manufacturing steps, leading to increase in the cost of circuit substrate itself.
According to the joint structure shown in
FIG. 32
, it is possible to bend the metal strips
300
,
310
. However, this joint structure does not allow the joint to be flexibly bent as the circuit substrate is being shaped for appropriate fitting into the case
1
of the battery pack P. Therefore, with this joint structure, operation of incorporating the circuit substrate cannot be efficient, requiring a laborious procedure. Furthermore, the joint structure offers no such protection to the metal strips
300
,
310
as electrical insulation and resistance to heat, posing another problem of low reliability in electrical continuity.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a circuit substrate capable of eliminating or at least reducing the problems described above.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a battery pack incorporating such a circuit substrate.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing such a circuit substrate.
A circuit substrate provided by a first aspect of the present invention comprises:
a first substrate split formed with a predetermined wiring pattern and a second substrate split formed with a predetermined wiring pattern. The substrate splits are electrically and/or mechanically joined together, and the circuit substrate is bendable at the joint.
The joint is provided by a bendable joint member including a plurality of leads disposed in parallel and held by a thin piece of base film integrally therewith. The joint member is attached to the first and the second substrate splits.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first and the second substrate splits are electrically interconnected via the leads.
Preferably, the first and the second substrate splits are rigid printed wiring substrates.
According to the above arrangement, the joint member is provided by a plurality of leads held by the base film integrally therewith. The joint member is provided with electrical insulation, heat resistance and so on by the base film. Therefore, the joint member serves as a reliable electrical conductor. Further, the joint member is provided with a certain level of stiffness by the leads. The joint member is attached as the joint at a joint portion between the first and the second substrate splits. Therefore, the joint member can be handled easily by automated machinery, making possible to improve productivity through automation.
Further, the first and the second substrate splits can be provided by a simple substrate having one or two surfaces each formed with a wiring pattern. The joint member can be manufactured separately from the substrate splits, and then attached to the substrate splits. Therefore, each step of manufacturing the first and the second substrate splits as well as steps of manufacturing the joint member can be simple. Further, the joint member enables to reduce the number of parts and materials necessary for the circuit substrate as a whole, and to reduce product cost of the circuit substrate as a whole. Further, the joint member has a certain level of stiffness provided by the leads. The joint member is flexibly bendable because of the thin piece of base film. Therefore, the circuit substrate can be eff
Bednarek Michael D.
Paladini Albert W.
Rohm & Co., Ltd.
Shaw Pittman LLP
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