JPH03225989A - Flexible circuit board assembly and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To check a product and the number of products quickly and to dispose of a packaging and dispatch process in a mastery manner by providing the following: a support sheet used to arrange and hold individual flexible circuit boards; and a holding means used to hold the individual flexible circuit boards partly on the support sheet. CONSTITUTION:In a flexible circuit board assembly 1, a sheet of paper having a proper thickness, a phenol-based resin sheet such as a thin bakelite sheet or the like or various kinds of synthetic resin sheets containing a polyester resin or the like can be used for a support sheet 4. It is suitable to adopt a heat-resistant resin sheet of, e.g. a polyimide resin which is favorable for a reflow soldering treatment, an automatic soldering treatment or the like of circuit components or the like to mounting parts 3A. When many flexible circuit boards 3 are arranged and held on the surface of the support sheet 4, the flexible circuit board assembly 1 which can be provided substantially with the advantage of a sheet shipment system can be constituted. When a low-adhesive tape 5 which is used as a holding means is pasted on flexible parts 3B of the individual flexible circuit boards 3 and on the expanded part of the support sheet 4 in common, the individual flexible circuit boards 3 are supported partly by the support sheet 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a flexible circuit board assembly having a structure in which a large number of flexible circuit boards are arranged and held on a support sheet, and a manufacturing method therefor. More specifically, a flexible circuit board assembly in which a large number of flexible circuit boards formed into a desired shape can be arrayed and held on a support sheet using a portion of the flexible circuit boards using a low-adhesive tape or the like; Regarding its manufacturing method.

"Prior Art" This type of flexible circuit board uses a suitable conductive material such as copper foil on one or both sides of a base member made of a suitable insulating resin film, and is used as a terminal part for connection with the outside or for mounting components. A required circuit wiring pattern including lands etc. is formed, and in the case of a double-sided type, a conductive part is formed as necessary in the required part of both the front and back circuit wiring patterns, and generally the above-mentioned connection terminal part and A surface coating layer made of an insulating film or ink is provided as a coverlay for circuit wiring patterns other than parts mounting lands, etc., and individual flexible circuits are formed by punching according to the outline of the product. This constitutes the substrate.

As the insulating base material, in addition to inexpensive polyester film, materials with good heat resistance such as polyimide film, which is typical under the trade name Kapton, can be used.Also, when heat dissipation is required, circuit wiring patterns can be used. It is also suitable to use a metal sheet whose surface is provided with an appropriate insulating layer. Except for particularly large products, such flexible circuit boards generally have the required size typical for flexible copper-clad laminates in the case of small products with fine, high-density circuit wiring patterns. A single or continuous sheet-like base material is prepared, and a large number of flexible circuit boards are formed on the conductive foil side with the required circuit wiring pattern as described above by photo-etching according to the subtractive method. After arranging the sections, a surface coating layer such as the above-mentioned coverlay film is formed, and then individual flexible circuit boards are punched out from the sheet-like base material along a predetermined product shape using a separating means such as a punching die. The desired product was obtained by separation.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In the case of products with complex shapes such as those described above where individual flexible circuit boards are small, it is difficult to check the product at the time of shipping, check the quantity, or in the packaging process on the manufacturing side. In addition, the handling of the product is difficult and there is a considerable risk of damage to the product during the process. On the other hand, even on the user side, this kind of small flexible circuit board products are supplied individually separated, because in addition to such difficulties in handling, it also makes the circuit component mounting process difficult. However, it is not preferable to use this material because it will result in a decrease in the overall yield. Therefore, as described above, the required flexible circuit boards were formed into multiple sections on a sheet-like base material, or most of them were punched out along the outline of each circuit board, and an appropriate number of parts were connected to the sheet-like base material. Although the above-mentioned problems can be solved by adopting the state's so-called sheet shipping method and mounting circuit components on it, in any case, with this method, individual flexible Since it is necessary to punch out and separate the flexible circuit board from the sheet-like base material, it is usually difficult to employ.

``Object and Structure of the Invention'' The present invention provides a method for individually shipping flexible circuit board products of this type, or a method for cutting each flexible circuit board from a sheet-like base material in the case of the above-mentioned sheet shipping method. Apart from employing the possible partial connection method, it is also possible to arrange and hold a large number of flexible circuit board products formed into a desired shape on a suitable support sheet such as paper or synthetic resin film in a part thereof. By providing a flexible circuit board assembly that can be configured and a manufacturing method thereof, it is possible to easily and reliably process product checks, quantity checks, packaging processes, etc. at the product shipping stage, while also facilitating the circuit component mounting process and subsequent steps. The separation process of each flexible circuit board can be carried out smoothly and reliably with high efficiency without the risk of damaging the product, thereby significantly increasing the overall yield from the product manufacturing and shipping stage to the equipment mounting stage. It provides a method that can be used to improve

For this purpose, the structure of the flexible circuit board assembly according to the present invention is as follows:
It is equipped with a large number of flexible circuit boards formed into a required shape, and is provided with a preferably heat-resistant support sheet used to arrange and hold each of these flexible circuit boards. It is configured to include a holding means such as a low adhesive agent or a low adhesive tape for holding a portion of the circuit board.

In order to manufacture such a flexible circuit board assembly equipped with a support sheet, first, a large number of flexible circuit boards are sectioned and formed on a required sheet-like base material, and each of these flexible circuit boards is divided into sections. Unnecessary parts of the sheet-like base material are punched out so as to form part of each product shape, and then the sheet-like base material is preferably placed on a support sheet having good heat resistance to form each of the flexible circuits. By holding only the product shape forming part of the board on the support sheet using a low adhesive agent or low adhesive tape, and then cutting along the remaining external part of the product shape of each flexible circuit board. It is possible to adopt the steps of removing unnecessary portions of the sheet-like base material and holding a large number of flexible circuit board products arranged and held on the support sheet.

"Example" The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the illustrated embodiment. In FIGS. 1 and 2, l is a flexible circuit board assembly constructed according to the present invention. This flexible circuit board assembly l is made of a sheet-like base material made of a single-sided or double-sided flexible copper-clad laminate, and is fabricated by photo-etching to form connection terminals or parts for mounting according to specifications. A mounting section 3A including a land etc. and a flexible section 3B connected thereto, for example.
A large number of flexible circuit boards 3 are provided with a required circuit wiring pattern formed therebetween, and each of these flexible circuit boards 3 is placed on a suitable support sheet 4 at a required interval from top to bottom in the figure. They are arranged in many directions. Reference numeral 5 denotes a low-adhesive tape for holding a large number of these flexible circuit boards 3 arranged on the support sheet 4. 3B and support sheet 4
A flexible circuit board assembly 1 having a structure in which a portion of each flexible circuit board 3 is held by a support sheet 4 is constituted by commonly adhering them to the exposed portions of the flexible circuit boards 3 .

In the above flexible circuit board assembly 1, the support sheet 4
Various synthetic resin sheets including phenolic resin sheets such as paper or thin Bakelite plates and polyester resins of appropriate thickness can be used for the mounting part 3.
Glue-flow soldering or automatic soldering of circuit components for A is advantageous in processing, so it is also suitable to use a heat-resistant resin sheet such as polyimide resin, and as described above, a large number of flexible circuit boards 3 can be soldered in this manner. By aligning and holding the flexible circuit board assembly 1 on the upper surface of the support sheet 4, it is possible to construct the flexible circuit board assembly 1 which can substantially have the advantages of the conventional sheet shipping method.

As a holding means for arraying and holding a large number of flexible circuit boards 3 on the support sheet 4, a low adhesive tape 5 such as the one described above is used.
In addition to the method using
It is also possible to employ means for adhering and holding parts of each flexible circuit board 3 to the support sheet 4 which can be detached at will, such as by disposing a low-adhesive agent in the corresponding parts.

As a method for manufacturing the above-mentioned flexible circuit board assembly l, first, a sheet-like base material of a required size made of a single-sided or double-sided flexible copper-clad laminate is prepared, and this sheet-like base material is As shown in FIG. 3(1), a mounting portion 3A is formed on the base material 2 using photo-etching means in the area indicated by diagonal lines within the broken line.
A required circuit pattern such as a connection terminal portion or a land for component mounting is formed on the flexible portion 3B connected to the mounting portion 3A, and a necessary wiring pattern is formed on the flexible portion 3B connected to the mounting portion 3A. The flexible circuit board 3 is formed into a large number of sections (in addition, through-hole conductive parts may be formed as desired for the mounting portion 3A of each flexible circuit board 3, and a film member or the like may be used to form a through-hole conductive part. Formation of a necessary surface coating layer, plating of required parts such as circuit component mounting lands and external connection terminal parts, etc. can be performed all at once in a sheet state by conventional methods.

Next, in order to form a part of the product shape of each flexible circuit board 3, as shown in FIG. By a single punching process, unnecessary portions of the sheet-like base material outside the flexible portions 3B disposed at the uppermost and lower portions and between the flexible portions 3B are punched and removed to form cutout portions 2A and 2B. The parts to be cut out in this first stage punching process are not limited to the parts to be cut out to form each flexible part 3B as described above, but should be uniform in thickness, etc., and should be suitable for holding parts of the holding means described later and Considering the shape forming process etc. for the second stage mounting part 3A, in the case of the shape example shown in the figure, the above-mentioned cutout parts 2A and 2B are appropriate, and therefore this first stage punching process is performed as usual. This can be easily done by using a punching die or the like.

After the first stage punching process, as shown in FIG. 4, the sheet-like base material 2 formed as described above is appropriately placed on the upper surface of the support sheet 4 made of the various members described above. In that case, it is also preferable to utilize the through holes H for positioning provided at each of the four corners of the sheet-like base material 2 and the support sheet 4 to perform the processing quickly. Therefore, as shown in the same figure, a low adhesive tape 5 having an appropriate width 1 is attached to the exposed part of the support sheet 4 from the soil of the flexible part 3B of each flexible circuit board 3, so that each flexible part At the stage where the entire sheet-like base material 2 is held by the support sheet 4 at the portion 3B, a second stage cutting process is performed using a so-called half-cut method without cutting the support sheet portion to cut each flexible circuit. The product outer shape of each flexible circuit board 3 is finally formed by completely cutting the sheet-like base material portion along the product outer shape line indicated by the broken line of each mounting portion 3A on the board 3. . Here, for the method of cutting the outer shape of these mounting parts 3A, existing die punching means such as a die press for all punching or a steel rule tie can be used, but each mounting part 3A
A unique half-cut separation means is created by installing a separation cutting blade that matches the external cutting line of A on a suitable metal support plate, and processing the cutting edge of the cutting blade with high precision using wire-cut electric discharge machining means. The outer shape of each mounting portion 3A is completely cut with high precision without cutting the support sheet 4, and the outer shape of each mounting portion 3A is cut to the extent that approximately half the thickness of the support sheet 4 is reached by using the It is preferable to separate and form the individual flexible circuit boards 2 to 3 from the sheet-like base material 2 in cooperation with a single-stage punching process, and unnecessary sheets are removed in the process of such a half-cut separation means. By removing the base material portion, as shown in FIG.
It is possible to construct a flexible circuit board assembly l having a structure in which a large number of flexible circuit boards are arranged and held on the board.

In the above embodiment, the low adhesive tape 5 was used as a means for partially holding each flexible circuit board 3 to the support sheet 4, but as shown in FIG. Finally, each flexible circuit board 3
Various other methods can be adopted as long as the individual flexible circuit boards 3 can be easily removed by aligning and holding them on the support sheet 4 using a portion of the flexible circuit boards 3. Figure 5 shows an example.
In the holding means of this embodiment, for example, by providing an appropriate low adhesive agent 6 at least at the corresponding portion of the support sheet 4 where each flexible portion 3B is located, each flexible circuit board 3
This figure shows a structure in which a part of the wafer is removably attached to the support sheet 4 in an aligned state.

3 "Effects of the Invention" The structure of the flexible circuit board assembly according to the present invention includes a large number of flexible circuit boards formed into a desired shape, and arranges and holds these individual flexible circuit boards. The structure includes a support sheet for holding a part of each flexible circuit board, and a holding means for holding a portion of each flexible circuit board on the support sheet, so that each flexible circuit board can be thin and small. Flexible circuit board assemblies that can be shipped in sheets in various forms including flexible circuit board products that can be easily separated from individual flexible circuit board products at low cost. can be provided to

The structure has a structure in which parts of a large number of flexible circuit boards are aligned and held on a support sheet so that they can be easily separated, so even small and thin products can be quickly processed in bulk product and quantity checks in sheet form. In addition, the packaging and shipping process can be handled efficiently.

Even in the circuit component mounting stage, the sheet state can be processed intensively and efficiently, and the supporting sheet can be easily constructed of a heat-resistant material, which is advantageous for soldering processing and the like.

4. Such a flexible circuit board assembly can be easily manufactured in a consistent process by using a two-step punching and cutting process.

By employing the flexible circuit board assembly and its manufacturing method of the present invention, the overall yield of individual flexible circuit boards from the product manufacturing/shipping stage to the equipment mounting stage can be significantly increased. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual partial plan configuration diagram of a flexible circuit board assembly constructed according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a conceptual enlarged cross-sectional configuration of essential parts of the flexible circuit board assembly. Figure 3 (1) and (2) are explanatory diagrams of the process of forming an array of flexible circuit boards on a sheet-like base material, and the first stage for forming a partial outline of each flexible circuit board. Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the cutting process, and Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the process in which the sheet-like base material is then held on the support sheet with low adhesive tape, and Fig. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the other holding structure for the support sheet of each flexible circuit board. It is a diagram for explaining. 5 1... Flexible circuit board assembly 2... Sheet-like base material 2A... Not required Cutting part 2B...
Unnecessary Cutting part 3...Flexible circuit board 3A...Mounting part 3B...Flexible part 4...Support sheet 5...・・・
Low adhesive tape 6...Low adhesive H...
・Amendment for alignment hole procedure 1 (spontaneous) 1. Indication of the case Patent application No. 02 021437 2. Name of the invention Flexible circuit board assembly and its manufacturing method 3. Person making the amendment relationship

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) Equipped with a large number of flexible circuit boards formed into required shapes, a support sheet for arraying and holding each of these flexible circuit boards, and each of the above-mentioned flexible circuit boards on the support sheet. 1. A flexible circuit board assembly comprising a holding means for holding a portion of the flexible circuit board assembly. (2) The flexible circuit board assembly according to claim 1, wherein the means for holding a portion of each flexible circuit board to the support sheet is comprised of a low adhesive agent or a low adhesive tape. (3) The flexible circuit board assembly according to claim (1) or (2), wherein the support sheet is constructed using a heat-resistant member. (4) A large number of flexible circuit boards are sectioned on a required sheet-like base material, and unnecessary parts of the sheet-like base material are punched out so as to form a part of the product shape of each of these flexible circuit boards. Then, this sheet-like base material is placed on a support sheet to hold the product shape forming portion of each flexible circuit board on the support sheet, and then the product shape of each flexible circuit board is A flexible circuit comprising the steps of removing unnecessary parts of the sheet-like base material by cutting along the remaining outer shape and holding a large number of flexible circuit board products arranged and held on the support sheet. Manufacturing method of substrate assembly. (5) A claim in which the step of holding the product shape forming portions of each flexible circuit board on the support sheet comprises applying a common low adhesive tape to the support sheet from above the product shape forming portions. The method for manufacturing a flexible circuit board assembly according to item (4). (6) The step of holding the product shape forming portions of each flexible circuit board on the support sheet comprises adhering the product shape forming portions to the support sheet using a low adhesive agent ( 4) Method for manufacturing a flexible circuit board assembly. (7) The method for manufacturing a flexible circuit board assembly according to any one of claims (4) to (6), wherein a sheet member with high heat resistance is used as the support sheet.