Manufacturing process of LED flexible circuit board

Abstract

The invention discloses a manufacturing process of an LED flexible circuit board, which is applied to the flexible circuit board, the flexible circuit board comprises an aluminum substrate and an insulating surface film covering the front surface of the aluminum substrate, and the insulating surface film is provided with a plurality of welding holes to expose part of the aluminum substrate. A welding hole is formed in the aluminum substrate, a copper layer is electroplated in the welding hole so as to be adsorbed to the exposed part of the aluminum substrate, the copper layer can be welded with soldering tin, and the manufacturing process of the flexible circuit board comprises the following steps: step 1, manufacturing a strip-shaped aluminum substrate; step 2, etching a circuit on the aluminum substrate; step 3, covering the aluminum substrate with the insulating surface film; and 4, a brush electroplating rod is adopted, a brush part capable of conducting electricity is arranged on the brush electroplating rod, the brush electroplating rod rolls or translates relative to the surface of the insulating surface film, the brush part is inserted into the welding hole so as to make contact with the part, exposed in the welding hole, of the aluminum substrate, and the copper layer is obtained through electroplating.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of LED light strips, and in particular to a manufacturing process of an LED flexible circuit board. Background Art

[0002] Existing LED flexible circuit boards generally use copper as the conductive base material, and an insulating film is covered on the copper substrate. A plurality of through holes are opened on the insulating film, and then LED lamp beads, resistors and other components are soldered to the copper substrate at the through holes. However, the price of copper is high. In order to reduce costs, some people replace the copper substrate with an aluminum substrate. Although the aluminum substrate can achieve conductivity, it is difficult to tin it, and it is difficult to solder components to the aluminum substrate. Therefore, the existing technology etches the circuit by electroplating a layer of copper film on the aluminum substrate. There are mainly two types of existing copper plating processes. One is the chemical copper plating method, which is achieved by combining chemical molecules with the aluminum surface, but it is not resistant to high temperatures and is unstable in nature; the other is the physical copper plating method, which uses an ordinary electroplating rod and an aluminum substrate without etched circuits. At this time, there is no short circuit inside the entire aluminum substrate. Therefore, after any position of the aluminum substrate contacts the electroplating rod, the entire aluminum substrate can form a good conduction, so that the entire aluminum substrate is electroplated with a copper film, and then the circuit is etched on the copper film, and finally the copper film is covered with an insulating mask. That is, the existing physical copper plating method can only be used for electroplating on aluminum substrates that are not covered with an insulating mask and have not been etched with circuits (at this time, there is no short circuit inside the aluminum substrate), and cannot be used for electroplating on aluminum substrates that have been covered with an insulating mask and have been etched with circuits. Because there is a short circuit on the aluminum substrate at this time, there is a welding hole on the insulating mask, and the electroplating rod needs to contact the aluminum substrate at the welding hole. However, since the insulating mask has a certain thickness, the exposed aluminum substrate at the welding hole is lower than the surface of the insulating mask, and the electroplating rod cannot be in good contact with the aluminum substrate at the welding hole, making it difficult to achieve copper plating. And because it is necessary to electroplate a copper film on the entire aluminum substrate, the demand for copper is still large and the cost is still high. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art and to provide a more cost-effective manufacturing process for a LED flexible circuit board that can be copper-plated on an aluminum substrate with etched circuits and covered with an insulating film.

[0004] The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied to the flexible circuit board, the flexible circuit board includes an aluminum substrate and an insulating mask covering the front of the aluminum substrate, the insulating mask is provided with a plurality of welding holes to expose a portion of the aluminum substrate, the welding holes are electroplated with a copper layer to be adsorbed on the exposed portion of the aluminum substrate, the copper layer can be welded with solder, and the manufacturing process of the flexible circuit board includes the following steps:

[0005] Step 1, making a strip-shaped aluminum substrate;

[0006] Step 2, etching a circuit on the aluminum substrate;

[0007] Step 3, covering the insulating mask on the aluminum substrate;

[0008] Step 4, using a brush plating rod connected to the cathode, the brush plating rod is provided with a conductive brush part, the brush plating rod rolls or translates relative to the surface of the insulating mask, so that the brush part is inserted into the welding hole to contact the exposed aluminum substrate in the welding hole, and the copper layer is electroplated.

[0009] The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to the embodiment of the present invention has at least the following beneficial effects: First, the existing circuit boards are first plated with a copper film on the aluminum substrate, and then the circuit is etched on the copper film, which requires a large amount of copper, and because the copper film is very thin, there is a risk of reliability in etching; the present invention etches the circuit directly on the aluminum substrate, and because the aluminum substrate is thicker, the etching reliability is high. Secondly, for the flexible circuit board structure in the present invention, since the aluminum substrate is etched with a circuit and covered with an insulating film, and the insulating film is provided with a welding hole, if the existing physical copper plating method is adopted, since the insulating film has a certain thickness, the exposed aluminum substrate at the welding hole is lower than the surface of the insulating film, and the electroplating rod cannot make good contact with the aluminum substrate at the welding hole, making it difficult to achieve electroplating. The present invention adopts a brush plating rod to roll or translate relative to an insulating mask. Since the brush part is relatively soft, the brush part can extend into the welding hole and make good contact with the exposed aluminum substrate, thereby making the aluminum substrate etched with circuits conductive, thereby electroplating a copper layer at the welding hole to facilitate subsequent soldering. The process is simple and the plating effect is good. There is no need to electroplate a whole layer of copper film on the aluminum substrate, which effectively reduces the amount of copper used and significantly saves costs.

[0010] Additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will be given in part in the following description and in part will be obvious from the following description, or will be learned through practice of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The specific embodiments of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings;

[0012] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the LED flexible circuit board;

[0013] Figure 2 It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of a single-layer LED flexible circuit board;

[0014] Figure 3 It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of a double-layer LED flexible circuit board;

[0015] Figure 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a brush plating rod;

[0016] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of electroplating. DETAILED DESCRIPTION This section will describe in detail the specific embodiments of the present invention. The preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings. The purpose of the accompanying drawings is to supplement the description of the text part of the specification with graphics, so that people can intuitively and vividly understand each technical feature and the overall technical solution of the present invention, but it cannot be understood as a limitation on the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0017] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that descriptions involving orientations, such as up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., and orientations or positional relationships indicated are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the present invention.

[0018] In the description of the present invention, "several" means one or more, "more" means more than two, "greater than", "less than", "exceed" etc. are understood as not including the number itself, and "above", "below", "within" etc. are understood as including the number itself. If there is a description of "first" or "second", it is only used for the purpose of distinguishing the technical features, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying the relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features or implicitly indicating the order of the indicated technical features.

[0019] Reference Figures 1 to 4 The present invention provides a manufacturing process for a LED flexible circuit board, which is applied to a flexible circuit board, such as Figure 2 The flexible circuit board is a single-layer circuit board. The flexible circuit board includes an aluminum substrate 10 and an insulating film 21 covering the front of the aluminum substrate 10. A bottom film 22 is provided on the back of the aluminum substrate 10. A plurality of welding holes are opened on the insulating film 21 to expose a portion of the aluminum substrate 10. A copper layer 20 is electroplated in the welding hole to be adsorbed on the exposed portion of the aluminum substrate 10. The copper layer 20 can be welded with solder 30. The manufacturing process of the flexible circuit board includes the following steps:

[0020] Step 1, preparing a strip-shaped aluminum substrate 10;

[0021] Step 2, etching a circuit on the aluminum substrate 10;

[0022] Step 3, covering the insulating mask 21 on the aluminum substrate 10;

[0023] Step 4, using a brush plating rod 40 connected to the cathode, such as Figure 4As shown, the brush plating rod 40 is provided with a brush part capable of conducting electricity, and the brush part can be arranged around the conductive rod or only on one side of the conductive rod. The brush plating rod 40 rolls (when the brush part is arranged around the conductive rod) or translates (when the brush part is arranged on one side of the conductive rod) relative to the surface of the insulating film 21, so that the brush part is inserted into the welding hole to contact the exposed aluminum substrate 10 in the welding hole, and the copper layer 20 is obtained by electroplating.

[0024] like Figure 5 As shown, step 4 specifically includes: the flexible circuit board moves slowly from left to right, and during the movement, the middle part of the flexible circuit board is immersed in the electroplating tank, and the anode copper conductor is located in the electroplating tank. At this time, the brush plating rod 40 is arranged outside the electroplating tank to prevent copper ions from adhering to the brush. The brush plating rod 40 can be located above or below the flexible circuit board. The specific setting position is not limited. The brush plating rod 40 only needs to contact the flexible circuit board outside the electroplating tank to roll or translate relative to the surface of the insulating mask 21, so that the brush part is in contact with the exposed aluminum substrate 10 in the welding hole. In this way, the aluminum substrate etched with a circuit and covered with an insulating mask can be electroplated with a copper layer only at the welding hole, saving copper and facilitating electroplating.

[0025] like Figure 3 In some embodiments, the flexible circuit board is a double-layer circuit board, the aluminum substrate 10 includes a first aluminum substrate 11 and a second aluminum substrate 12, an insulating film 23 is provided between the first aluminum substrate 11 and the second aluminum substrate 12, the first aluminum substrate 11 is used to etch the circuit connected to the components, the second aluminum substrate 12 is used to etch the conductive circuit, the insulating mask 21 covers the first aluminum substrate 11, the welding holes include component welding holes 211 and power supply welding holes 212, the component welding holes 211 are used to expose part of the first aluminum substrate 11, and the power supply welding holes 212 are used to expose part of the second aluminum substrate 12. Correspondingly, step 1 includes making a strip-shaped first aluminum substrate 11 and a second aluminum substrate 12; step 2 includes etching component connection circuits on the first aluminum substrate 11 and etching conductive circuits on the second aluminum substrate 12; step 3 includes covering the first aluminum substrate 11 with an insulating mask 21; step 4 includes using a brush plating rod 40 to roll or translate relative to the surface of the insulating mask 21, so that the brush part is inserted into the component welding hole 211 and the power supply welding hole 212 to contact the first aluminum substrate 11 exposed in the component welding hole 211 and the second aluminum substrate 12 exposed in the power supply welding hole 212, and electroplating to obtain a copper layer 20.

[0026] In some embodiments, the flex can be a multi-layer wiring board.

[0027] First, the existing circuit boards are first plated with a copper film on an aluminum substrate, and then the circuits are etched on the copper film, which requires a large amount of copper, and because the copper film is very thin, there is a risk of reliability in etching; the present invention etches the circuit directly on the aluminum substrate, and because the aluminum substrate is thicker, the etching reliability is high. Secondly, for the flexible circuit board structure in the present invention, since the aluminum substrate is etched with circuits and covered with an insulating film, and the insulating film is provided with welding holes, if the existing physical copper plating method is used, since the insulating film has a certain thickness, the exposed aluminum substrate at the welding hole is lower than the surface of the insulating film, and the electroplating rod cannot make good contact with the aluminum substrate at the welding hole, making it difficult to achieve electroplating. The present invention adopts a brush plating rod to roll or translate relative to an insulating mask. Since the brush part is relatively soft, the brush part can extend into the welding hole and make good contact with the exposed aluminum substrate, thereby making the aluminum substrate etched with circuits conductive, thereby electroplating a copper layer at the welding hole to facilitate subsequent soldering. The process is simple and the plating effect is good. There is no need to electroplate a whole layer of copper film on the aluminum substrate, which effectively reduces the amount of copper used and significantly saves costs.

[0028] It is easy for those skilled in the art to understand that the above preferred embodiments can be freely combined and superimposed without conflict.

[0029] The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the patent scope of the present invention. All equivalent structural changes made using the contents of the present invention's specification and drawings under the inventive concept of the present invention, or directly or indirectly applied in other related technical fields, are included in the patent protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A manufacturing process of LED flexible circuit board, applied to flexible circuit board, characterized in that: The flexible circuit board comprises an aluminum substrate (10) and an insulating surface film (21) covering the front side of the aluminum substrate (10), wherein the insulating surface film (21) is provided with a plurality of welding holes to expose a portion of the aluminum substrate (10), wherein a copper layer (20) is electroplated in the welding holes to be adsorbed onto the exposed portion of the aluminum substrate (10), and wherein the copper layer (20) can be welded with solder (30), and the manufacturing process of the flexible circuit board comprises the following steps: Step 1, preparing a strip-shaped aluminum substrate (10); Step 2, etching a circuit on the aluminum substrate (10); Step 3, covering the insulating mask (21) on the aluminum substrate (10); Step 4, using a brush plating rod (40) that is conductive to the cathode, the brush plating rod (40) being provided with a brush portion that can conduct electricity, the brush plating rod (40) rolling or translating relative to the surface of the insulating film (21), so that the brush portion is inserted into the welding hole to contact and conduct with the exposed aluminum substrate (10) in the welding hole, thereby obtaining the copper layer (20) by electroplating.

2. The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to claim 1, characterized in that: Step 4 specifically includes: the flexible circuit board is partially immersed in the electroplating tank, the brush electroplating rod (40) is located outside the electroplating tank, the anode copper conductor is located in the electroplating tank, and the brush electroplating rod (40) contacts the flexible circuit board outside the electroplating tank to roll or translate relative to the surface of the insulating film (21), so that the brush part contacts and conducts with the exposed aluminum substrate (10) in the welding hole.

3. The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to claim 1, characterized in that: The aluminum substrate (10) comprises a first aluminum substrate (11) and a second aluminum substrate (12); an insulating film (23) is provided between the first aluminum substrate (11) and the second aluminum substrate (12); the first aluminum substrate (11) is used for etching a circuit for connecting components; the second aluminum substrate (12) is used for etching a conductive circuit; the insulating film (21) covers the first aluminum substrate (11); the welding holes comprise component welding holes (211) and power supply welding holes (212); the component welding holes (211) are used for exposing a portion of the first aluminum substrate (11); and the power supply welding holes (212) are used for exposing a portion of the second aluminum substrate (12).

4. The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to claim 3 is characterized in that: Step 1 includes making a first aluminum substrate (11) and a second aluminum substrate (12) in a strip shape; Step 2 comprises etching component connection circuits on the first aluminum substrate (11) and etching conductive circuits on the second aluminum substrate (12); Step 3 includes covering the insulating mask (21) on the first aluminum substrate (11); Step 4 includes using a brush plating rod (40) to roll or translate relative to the surface of the insulating mask (21), so that the brush portion is inserted into the component welding hole (211) and the power supply welding hole (212) to contact the first aluminum substrate (11) exposed in the component welding hole (211) and the second aluminum substrate (12) exposed in the power supply welding hole (212), and the copper layer (20) is obtained by electroplating.

5. The manufacturing process of the LED flexible circuit board according to claim 1, characterized in that: A bottom film (22) is provided on the back side of the aluminum substrate (10).

Images