Casting pattern manufacturing method and apparatus applicable to precision circuit

Abstract

The present application relates to a casting pattern manufacturing method and apparatus applicable to a precision circuit. The manufacturing apparatus comprises a casting core and a heating apparatus, wherein the casting core consists of a template and a pressure body, a pattern cavity of a required pattern is formed on the template, a casting material is laid on the pattern cavity, and the pressure of the pressure body is transmitted to the casting material; and the heating apparatus heats the template, such that the casting material on the template partially or completely melts and fills the pattern cavity under the action of the pressure, and so as to obtain a casting pattern on the template after cooling and solidification. The new near-net forming casting process provided in the present application can replace processes such as etching, electroforming and powder metallurgy, so as to manufacture casting patterns such as parts and templates of materials such as metals, glass and ceramic, and the precision can reach a micron level. In the present application, a precision circuit board is prepared by curing an insulating material on a circuit pattern obtained by means of casting, thereby not only improving the manufacturing precision of the circuit board, but also avoiding pollution generated during production, and also greatly reducing manufacturing costs.

Description

A method and device for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on November 24, 2023, with application number 202311581055.1 and application name “A method and device for manufacturing metal patterns applicable to precision circuits”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application.

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on February 6, 2024, with application number 202410169354.2 and application name “A method and device for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present application belongs to the field of precision micromachining technology, and specifically relates to a method for producing a precision casting pattern using a casting process under a high-temperature process, and more particularly to a method and device for producing a casting pattern that can be applied to precision circuits. Background Art

[0004] Humans have been using copper for well over 10,000 years, and the ancients began casting bronze artifacts using materials like copper, arsenic, tin, and lead nearly 8,000 years ago. Our ancestors, who mastered bronze casting and smelting techniques, wielded bronze weapons to defeat Stone Age tribes while also creating exquisite bronze ritual vessels and coins. Today, copper's excellent electrical and thermal conductivity is primarily utilized in applications such as power electronics. Comparing ancient copper coins with circuits on modern circuit boards reveals that, in addition to being primarily made of copper, the patterns on these coins are just as precise as typical circuit diagrams!

[0005] The circuits on existing circuit boards are primarily created by laminating copper foil, obtained through electrolysis, with an insulating substrate to form a copper-clad laminate. The conductive pattern is then processed through processes such as platemaking, etching, drilling, chemical plating, and electroplating to create the conductive pattern. From the manufacture of the electrolytic copper foil to lamination to the copper-clad laminate, and finally to the printed circuit board (PCB) production process, the entire process involves numerous polluting production steps and wasteful intermediate materials. Statistics show that approximately 90% of the current circuit board manufacturing cost is lost in these steps.

[0006] Modern electronic technology, driven by high functionality and miniaturization, demands increasingly stringent circuit fabrication precision. Conventional circuit board wet processes, primarily based on isotropic chemical etching, struggle to achieve precision below 100μm. Only a few have achieved 50μm precision using ultra-thin copper foil. High-density interconnect (HDI) boards, manufactured using processes such as semi-additive deposition (SAP) or modified semi-additive deposition (mSAP), also primarily utilize a wet electroplating + etching process. Wet processes also include forming a thin copper film on a substrate using physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or sputtering, followed by etching, electroplating, and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to create circuits such as IC package substrates and through-silicon via (TSV) interposers. These wet processes present challenges such as contamination, complex processes, and high costs.

[0007] Circuits can also be made using conductive copper or silver paste. The conductive paste is printed on a substrate and then heated and baked to remove the solvent and solidify the resin. Electrical connections are achieved through the overlapping metal particles in the paste. This results in weak conductivity, limiting its application to low-current applications such as solar panels and low- to medium-power LED chip packaging. It is also relatively expensive.

[0008] Another circuit manufacturing method is low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) and high-temperature co-fired ceramics (HTCC). This involves printing a conductive paste made by mixing metal powder with glass or ceramic powder onto a green ceramic sheet. This paste is then sintered in a sintering furnace, creating a conductive path through the contact points between the metal powder particles. Given that low-temperature co-fired ceramics are still being used for filters and antenna-in-package (AiP) in mobile phones, it's clear that using them to create circuit board designs remains a distant dream.

[0009] Let's look at the casting process: The casting material is first melted into a casting liquid, poured into a prefabricated mold, and then cooled and processed through subsequent processes to produce the desired cast part. This makes it difficult to cast parts and patterns with thicknesses less than a millimeter. The thickness of the copper foil on circuit boards ranges from 17 to 70 μm, with a few thin copper types under 10 μm and thick copper types over 100 μm. For micron-thick circuit patterns formed by copper foil, it is difficult to achieve with existing casting technology, because the rough surface that needs to be removed from the resulting casting is much thicker than the copper foil on the circuit board!

[0010] Summary of the Invention

[0011] The purpose of the embodiments of the present application is to provide a method and apparatus for producing a casting pattern that can be applied to precision circuits, and to produce a precision casting pattern through a novel near-net-shape casting process and equipment.

[0012] The technical solution of the embodiment of this application:

[0013] A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits comprises a casting core and a heating device. The casting core comprises a template and a pressure body. A pattern cavity corresponding to a desired pattern is formed on the template. Casting material is applied to the pattern cavity. The pressure body is placed on the casting material and applies pressure thereto. The heating device heats the template and casting material in the casting core.

[0014] The pressure body includes an intermediate body and a pressure generator. The intermediate body is placed on the casting material, and the pressure generator is placed on the intermediate body. The pressure generated by the pressure generator is transmitted to the casting material through the intermediate body.

[0015] The intermediate body includes a pressure conduction layer and a heat insulation layer, the pressure conduction layer is placed on the casting material, the heat insulation layer is placed on the pressure conduction layer, the pressure generator is placed on the heat insulation layer, and the heat insulation layer forms thermal isolation between the pressure conduction layer and the pressure generator.

[0016] A method for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits:

[0017] Step 1: forming a pattern cavity corresponding to the desired pattern on the template;

[0018] Step 2: Laying casting material on the pattern cavity;

[0019] Step 3: placing a pressure body on the casting material to generate pressure thereon, and forming a casting core with the template;

[0020] Step 4: A heating device heats the template and casting material in the casting core. After the casting material is partially or completely melted into casting liquid, it flows under the pressure of the pressure body and fills the pattern cavity. After the flow ends, the casting core is cooled. After the casting liquid solidifies, the pressure body is removed to obtain the casting pattern on the template.

[0021] Step 5: Cover the casting pattern with a curable material, and solidify the curable material on the casting pattern through a curing process to obtain a casting pattern mosaic plate in which the casting pattern is wrapped with the solidified material.

[0022] Step 6: The solidifiable material is a metal material having a lower melting point than the casting material, and after solidification, a metal mold casting pattern mosaic plate is obtained in which the casting pattern is wrapped with the solidified metal material having a low melting point.

[0023] Step 7: The curable material is a curable insulating material, and after curing, an insulating casting pattern mosaic is obtained in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the cured insulating material.

[0024] Step 8: When the casting pattern in the insulating casting pattern mosaic plate is a metal pattern, and the metal pattern is a circuit pattern, a circuit board can be obtained in which an insulating plate wraps the circuit pattern.

[0025] Some beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present application:

[0026] 1. The embodiment of the present application provides a device for realizing a casting pattern that can be applied to precision circuits. The template and the casting material thereon can be heated in a variety of ways. When a heating method such as induction is used, the casting material on the template can be heated to a very high temperature, so that the casting process can be applied to most metals and inorganic non-metallic materials. By concentrating the heating area on the template area, it can have the advantages of both efficiency and cost. The new near-net-shape casting process provided by the embodiment of the present application is a near-net-shape casting process that can produce casting patterns with flat or curved surfaces. It breaks through the physical limitations of traditional casting processes at the microscopic scale and develops a new technical route that can perform precision processing on a variety of materials under high-temperature processes. It can be widely used in the production of precision patterns and mechanical parts of materials such as metals, glass, and ceramics at the microscopic scale.

[0027] 2. Through the methods for producing casting patterns and inlays provided in some embodiments of this application, high-precision casting parts can be produced not only from common materials but also from previously difficult-to-process materials such as tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, titanium, and zirconium. These methods can be used to produce parts, models, cavities / housings, dentures and implants, medical implants, microfluidic chips, microchannel heat sinks, tokens, logos, signs, printing plates, mold templates, embossing templates, metamaterial array plates, and other products.

[0028] The effects of the precision circuits produced in some embodiments of the present application are described below using copper as an example.

[0029] 3. Using the insulating cast pattern mosaic provided in some embodiments of the present application to produce precision circuit boards can solve the problem of improving circuit accuracy. Since it mainly relies on a production process based on physical methods, it can avoid the pollution problems caused by the traditional circuit board production process. Moreover, through a production process based on additive technology, many intermediate links and materials in the traditional circuit board process are simplified and eliminated, which can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost of the circuit board.

[0030] 4. In some embodiments of the present application, the copper circuit conductors obtained through a novel near-net-shape casting process contain significantly fewer impurities and defects than the electrolytic copper foil primarily used in existing circuit boards. Furthermore, the copper conductors obtained by crystallizing and solidifying the molten copper under pressure have a more complete crystal structure, resulting in superior conductivity, flexibility, and shear resistance compared to circuits formed from copper foil. The copper circuits obtained by shaping the desired pattern cavity on a template are all regular geometric shapes, which helps eliminate the stray losses and crosstalk caused by irregular edges in traditional etching processes and facilitates the precise design of circuit parameters such as impedance. By varying the shape and depth of the pattern cavity formed on the template, circuit patterns of varying widths and thicknesses can be obtained. By widening and deepening the cavity in the high-power region to form a wider and thicker copper circuit, and by directly forming a larger cavity to obtain a larger copper block as a heat sink, the circuit current carrying capacity and heat dissipation level of the circuit board can be greatly improved.

[0031] 5. Some embodiments of the present application can not only produce single-layer circuit boards, but also replace the electroplated through-holes (VIAs), through-silicon vias (TSVs), through-glass vias (TGVs) and other elements used for interconnection on existing circuit boards as interlayer interconnection elements between circuit boards by forming copper bumps, copper pillars, hollow copper pillars and other elements in the circuit pattern formed by the shapes of holes, pits and other shapes in each cavity in the pattern cavity corresponding to the required circuit pattern. After aligning and stacking multiple single-layer circuit boards, the electrical connection of the circuits between different circuit board layers and the solidification connection of the insulating substrate are achieved through methods such as thermal compression bonding, thereby producing a high-density interconnected multi-layer circuit board.

[0032] 6. Some embodiments of the present application can also utilize high-temperature resistant insulating materials such as glass and ceramics to form a circuit pattern substrate. The resulting circuit pattern and substrate bond creates a mosaic structure similar to cloisonné or Damascus craftsmanship, where the insulating substrate wraps the circuit pattern from multiple sides. This circuit board structure allows its upper operating temperature to approach the glass transition temperature of the high-temperature resistant insulating substrate or the melting temperature of the metal conductor. This allows the circuit boards provided by some embodiments of the present application to be used in extreme environments such as high-temperature and high-pressure applications, high-altitude polar climates, underground drilling, and outer space.

[0033] 7. With the existing processing technology level of mold templates, cavities with high-precision patterns can be formed on the template, and the ability of liquid copper to fill the cavity of the pattern on the template only needs to overcome its weak surface tension. Therefore, the main way to improve the accuracy of the circuit is to improve the accuracy of the cavity formation of the pattern on the template. With the improvement of the accuracy of the cavity of the pattern formed on the template, some embodiments of the present application can enable the production accuracy of ordinary circuit boards to quickly break through the existing 100-50μm level limit, and will soon evolve to an accuracy of 50-10μm, and is expected to impact the accuracy of 10-1μm. The circuit accuracy of 10-1μm will meet the requirements of existing chip-scale packaging technology, which provides a new technical path for chip-scale packaging processes that can only be prepared by wafer-level processes. Some embodiments of the present application are expected to be applied to technical fields such as high-density interconnect boards, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), power device packaging, IC packaging substrates, 2.5D / 3D packaging of chiplets, glass substrates, etc.

[0034] 8. The embodiments of this application utilize a novel near-net-shape casting process to remove the surface of the casting that needs to be removed in traditional casting processes. By focusing on the casting process of the casting surface, precise patterns can be produced. In the field of precision micromachining technology, it can produce precise patterns and parts of materials such as metal, glass, and ceramics, with production accuracy reaching the micron level, providing support for industries such as micro-electromechanical systems and precision instruments. In the field of electronics technology, it can bring breakthroughs to the circuit board industry at the micron scale, and no physical law will limit its application to the nanometer and angstrom scales, where there are even greater gold mines: nanoimprinting, chips, and other fields.

[0035] The embodiments of the present application have the advantages of simple principles, high manufacturing precision, easy implementation of solutions, and a wide range of product applications. They are not only applicable to the field of precision micromachining technology, but also to the field of precision electronics technology. They can be widely used in consumer electronics, industrial equipment, robots, automotive, aviation, aerospace, military and other fields. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on the provided drawings without any creative work.

[0037] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to the present application.

[0038] FIG1a is a schematic structural diagram of a device in which no semi-hardened layer is added to the template in FIG1 of the present application.

[0039] FIG1 b is a schematic diagram of the three-dimensional structure of a pattern cavity having multiple cavities formed on the template of the present application.

[0040] FIG1c is a schematic diagram of the present application using a graphic laying mode to lay casting materials.

[0041] FIG1d is a schematic structural diagram of the casting core of the present application placed on a heating device.

[0042] FIG1e is an enlarged view of the state in which the pressure-conducting layer of the present application is deformed and forces the casting material to fill the mold cavity.

[0043] FIG. 1 f is a schematic diagram of the curable material covered on the casting pattern of the present application being cured on a heating platform.

[0044] FIG1g is an enlarged structural diagram of the casting pattern mosaic plate of the present application.

[0045] FIG1h is a schematic structural diagram of the reverse casting core of the present application.

[0046] FIG1i is a schematic diagram of the horizontal arrangement of the heating device of the present application with the casting core at the bottom.

[0047] FIG1j is a schematic diagram of the vertical arrangement structure of the present application, in which the heating device is on the left and the casting core is on the right.

[0048] FIG2 a is a schematic diagram of the present application of laying casting materials using a template laying method.

[0049] FIG. 2 b is a schematic diagram of a solid sheet of casting material with a casting pattern according to the present application.

[0050] FIG2 c is a schematic diagram of a solid sheet of casting material covering a curable material and curing on a platform according to the present application.

[0051] FIG2 d is a diagram showing the effect of the solidified material on the solid thin plate of the casting material of the present application.

[0052] FIG. 2e is a schematic diagram of the insulating cast pattern mosaic panel of the present application.

[0053] FIG3 is a schematic structural diagram of the casting material applied in the present application when liquid metal is used.

[0054] FIG4 is a schematic structural diagram of a case where the casting material applied in the present application is a metal plate.

[0055] FIG. 5 a is a schematic diagram of the step of forming a pattern cavity on a template according to the present application.

[0056] FIG. 5 b is a schematic diagram of the step of making a release layer on the template and the pattern cavity of the present application.

[0057] FIG5 c is a schematic diagram of the steps of laying casting materials using a template laying method in the present application.

[0058] FIG5 d is a schematic diagram of the step of adding an intermediate body to the casting material in the present application.

[0059] FIG5e is a schematic diagram of the step of adding a pressure generator to the intermediate body of the present application.

[0060] FIG5 f is a schematic diagram of the step of heating the casting core on the heating device of the present application.

[0061] Figure 5g is a schematic structural diagram of a solid thin plate of casting material with a casting pattern on it in the present application.

[0062] FIG5h is a schematic diagram of the solid thin plate of casting material covering the curable material for the curing step of the present application.

[0063] FIG5i is a schematic diagram of the step of obtaining a transition plate after curing the curable material of the present application.

[0064] FIG5j is a schematic diagram of the steps for obtaining an insulating cast pattern mosaic plate according to the present application.

[0065] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the combination of the device of the present application and a sealed heating furnace.

[0066] FIG. 7 a is a schematic structural diagram of a pattern cavity with cavities of different shapes and depths on a template of the present application.

[0067] FIG. 7 b is a schematic diagram of a casting pattern panel with molds of different shapes and thicknesses according to the present invention.

[0068] FIG8 a is a side view of FIG7 b of the present application when used as a single-layer circuit board.

[0069] FIG8 b is a schematic diagram of two single-layer circuit boards to be stacked and laminated according to the present application.

[0070] FIG8 c is a schematic diagram of a double-layer circuit board of the present application.

[0071] FIG8 d is a schematic diagram of two double-layer circuit boards and an intermediate connecting plate to be stacked and pressed together according to the present application.

[0072] FIG8e is a schematic diagram of a four-layer circuit board of the present application.

[0073] FIG. 9 a is a schematic diagram of a template of the present application in which a pattern cavity having a gear pattern has been formed.

[0074] FIG. 9 b is a schematic diagram of a gear pattern mosaic plate of the present application.

[0075] FIG9c is a schematic diagram of the finished gear part of the present application.

[0076] Reference numerals:

[0077] Casting core 1; template 11; semi-hardened layer 111; pressure body 12; intermediate body 121; pressure transmission layer 1211; thermal insulation layer 1212; pressure generator 122; desired pattern 13; pattern cavity 14; linear groove 141; curved groove 142; circular pit 143; annular pit 144; polygonal pool 145; casting material 15; casting material in pattern cavity 151; multiple layers of casting material 152; release layer 16; pressure transmission layer deformation region 17; casting pattern 18; metal linear segment 181; metal curved segment 182; metal column 183; hollow metal column 184; polygonal metal block 185; bondable or weldable layer 186 ; Insulating adhesive curing layer 187; Curing connecting layer 188; Curable material 19; Cured material 191; Cured material in the deformation area 192; Casting pattern mosaic plate 193; Heating device 2; Platform with heating function 20; Casting material solid sheet 21; Transition plate 22; Insulating casting pattern mosaic plate 23; Liquid metal 24; Metal plate 25; Single-layer circuit board 26; Double-layer circuit board 27; Intermediate connecting plate 28; Four-layer circuit board 29; Sealed heating furnace 3; Furnace body 31; Heater 32; Temperature sensor 33; Vacuum tube 34; Protective gas inlet 35; Gear pattern mosaic plate 40; Gear part 41. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0078] The following specific embodiments illustrate the embodiments of the present application. Those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the embodiments of the present application from the contents disclosed in the specification. The present application can also be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and the details in this specification can also be modified and changed based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the embodiments of the present application.

[0079] Please refer to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the illustrations provided in the embodiments of the present application are merely schematic illustrations of the components related to the embodiments of the present application and are not drawn according to the number, shape, and size of the components in actual implementation. In actual implementation, the form, quantity, and proportion of the components may be changed arbitrarily, and the component layout may also be more complex.

[0080] Existing technology reveals that: wet-process circuit manufacturing involves converting copper into copper ions / atoms, then forming copper foil / film through electroplating / deposition, and then etching to create the circuit. Conductive pastes utilize interlaced connections between copper / silver powder particles to achieve circuit conductivity. High- and low-temperature co-fired ceramics utilize a sintering process to create sintered necks between metal powder particles, achieving electrical connections. Of these primary methods for creating circuits from copper, no single method can achieve a direct connection from copper. From first principles, circuits are essentially patterns made of metal, and the most direct way to create these patterns from metal is through casting. We can learn from the ancients: directly cast the circuit pattern from copper, then solidify the insulating material on top to create a circuit board!

[0081] Let's take a look at the physical limitations of existing casting processes that are primarily based on pouring at the microscale. From the moment the casting liquid leaves the molten pool, its surface is in a strongly supercooled state. After being poured into the mold, the supercooling becomes even more severe due to contact and collision with the inner wall of the mold. These supercooling processes cause a large number of broken or fractured crystalline grains and dendrites, among other solid particles, to continuously form near the surface of the casting liquid. These solid particles of varying sizes and shapes serve as the core for the solidification of the casting liquid, significantly increasing the viscosity of the casting liquid surface and reducing its flow rate. They also significantly accelerate the solidification rate of the casting liquid, hindering the casting liquid from filling the tiny cavity within the mold, making it difficult to obtain precision casting patterns at the microscale. This determines that traditional casting processes are primarily used to produce larger and heavier mechanical parts.

[0082] How can we cast materials like metal, glass, and ceramics into microscopically accurate casting patterns, with a molding area as large as a drawing board (circuit board format)? This requires discarding the irrelevant steps in traditional casting technology!

[0083] The breakthrough point of the embodiment of the present application is: directly melting the casting material in the mold, and forcing the high-temperature casting liquid with low viscosity and good fluidity with no or very few crystalline grains or dendrites to fully fill the cavity of the pattern in the mold through pressure, and allowing the casting liquid to cool and form as the mold is cooled while maintaining pressure. Only by making breakthroughs at these casting process nodes can we get rid of the physical limitations of traditional casting processes and develop a casting process that can produce large-area ultra-thin casting patterns - a new type of near-net shape casting process. This new type of near-net shape casting process is not widely used in the traditional mechanical field, but it can be used in the field of precision micromachining technology, and in the field of electronic technology it can produce extremely precise circuit patterns.

[0084] The embodiment of the present application provides a method and apparatus for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits, and a method and apparatus thereof, wherein a casting pattern with high precision is produced by a novel near-net-shape casting process developed. Furthermore, a curable material is covered on the obtained casting pattern, and after curing through a curing process, a casting pattern mosaic plate can be obtained in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the solidified material. Furthermore, the curable material is selected from a metal material having a lower melting point than the applied casting material, and after curing, a metal casting pattern mosaic plate can be obtained in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the solidified metal material with a low melting point. Furthermore, the curable material is selected from a curable insulating material, and after curing, an insulating casting pattern mosaic plate can be obtained in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the solidified insulating material. Furthermore, when the casting pattern on the insulating casting pattern mosaic plate is a metal pattern, and the metal pattern is a circuit pattern, a circuit board can be obtained.

[0085] Utilizing a novel near-net-shape casting process, embodiments of the present application provide a method and apparatus for producing casting patterns, which can be widely applied to the production of precision patterns and parts made of various materials, such as metals, glass, and ceramics. Furthermore, the casting pattern inlays provided in some embodiments of the present application can be used to produce products such as printing plates. Furthermore, the insulating casting pattern inlays provided in some embodiments of the present application can be used to produce precision circuit boards, addressing the challenge of improving circuit accuracy, avoiding contamination during circuit board production, and significantly reducing circuit board manufacturing costs.

[0086] The principle provided by the embodiments of the present application is to heat the template so that the casting material in the template is partially or completely melted into casting liquid, and use pressure to force the casting material containing the casting liquid to flow and fill the pattern cavity. The key points are: by making pattern cavities of the same or different shapes and depths on the template, the required casting patterns of the same or different shapes and thicknesses can be obtained; the higher the precision of the required casting pattern, the higher the degree to which the casting material needs to be melted into the casting liquid, and the casting material can achieve extremely high precision when it is completely melted into the casting liquid; by setting the pressure applied to the casting material, the magnitude of the pressure is determined according to the degree of droplet agglomeration caused by the surface tension of the casting liquid as needed to achieve sufficient filling of the pattern cavity with the casting material containing the casting liquid.

[0087] The present application is described in detail below with reference to the embodiments and drawings.

[0088] Example 1

[0089] This embodiment provides a device and a manufacturing method for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits.

[0090] As shown in FIG1 , the device includes: a casting core 1 and a heating device 2 .

[0091] The casting core 1 is composed of a template 11 and a pressure body 12.

[0092] The template 11 is composed of a hard plate and a soft plate. The hard plate is selected from a high-temperature resistant material such as, but not limited to, a carbon plate, a graphite plate, a silicon plate, a quartz plate, a ceramic plate, a glass plate, and a high-temperature resistant metal plate. The soft plate is selected from a plate made by bonding or pressing high-temperature resistant powders, such as, but not limited to, carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, ceramic powder, and casting sand. The template 11 can include one or more layers of the same or different materials. The material of the template 11 is selected based on its melting point being higher than the melting point of the casting material to be laid.

[0093] A semi-hardened layer 111 can be added to the template 11 to support the pattern cavity 14. The semi-hardened layer 111 can include one or more layers of materials, including but not limited to carbonizable paper, carbonizable ink, carbonizable organic film, graphite, foundry sand, carbon slurry, glass or ceramic powder, glass or ceramic slurry, or raw ceramic sheets. The semi-hardened layer reduces the difficulty of creating the pattern cavity on the template. When heated, readily evaporative and decomposable substances in the semi-hardened layer evaporate, leaving the remaining high-temperature-resistant substances to continue serving as the pattern cavity's support structure. When the template is made of easily processable materials such as graphite sheet, the semi-hardened layer can be omitted.

[0094] A pattern cavity 14 corresponding to the desired pattern 13 is formed on the semi-hardened layer 111. The pattern cavity 14 has one or more cavities, and the multiple cavities can have the same or different shapes and depths. The pattern cavity 14 can be produced by methods including but not limited to mechanical engraving, laser engraving, electric spark engraving, photolithography, chemical etching, plasma etching, electron beam etching, printing with high-temperature resistant ink, printing with high-temperature resistant materials, pasting a high-temperature resistant pattern layer, and mechanical pressing using a template. On the semi-hardened layer, a pattern can be directly printed from the powder or slurry casting material using printing methods including but not limited to offset plates, rubber rollers, printing plates, screens, stencils, spraying, and deposition. This eliminates the need to first form a pattern cavity. The pattern cavity is achieved by forming a reverse structure of the pattern cavity by the pattern formed by the casting material printed on the semi-hardened layer. After a pressure body is added to form a casting core and heating begins, the pressure generated by the pressure body presses the pattern formed by the casting material into the semi-hardened layer, where easily evaporable and decomposable components continuously evaporate and sintered components continuously shrink. The space occupied by the casting material pressed into the semi-hardened layer corresponds to the pattern cavity. This printing method for laying casting material is equivalent to the pattern laying method described below.

[0095] The casting material 15 is applied in a patterned manner, i.e., only within the pattern cavity 14, and not elsewhere on the semi-hardened layer. The volume of the casting material 15 to be applied is approximately equal to the sum of the volumes of the individual cavities within the pattern cavity 14. Methods for applying the patterned material 15 include, but are not limited to, stacking and filling the pattern cavity, grouting and filling the pattern cavity, and the reverse structure of the pattern cavity, where powder or slurry containing the casting material is printed on the semi-hardened layer using offset printing or screen printing to form a casting material pattern.

[0096] The casting material 15 may be made of one or more of a metal material, a semi-metal material, an alloy material, an inorganic non-metal material that can be alloyed or reinforced with a metal material, or a combination of more than one of the following: a glass material or a ceramic material powder, plate material, or composition. Examples of metal materials include, but are not limited to, copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead, bismuth, zinc, magnesium, gold, silver, iron, titanium, zirconium, molybdenum, and tungsten. Examples of semi-metal materials include, but are not limited to, silicon and germanium. Examples of alloy materials include, but are not limited to, metal alloys (such as copper-iron alloys), metal-semi-metal alloys (such as aluminum-silicon alloys), semi-metal alloys (such as silicon-germanium alloys), alloys of fusible and refractory metals (such as copper-tungsten alloys), and alloys of metals and inorganic non-metals (such as high-carbon steel). Examples of inorganic non-metal materials that can be alloyed or reinforced with a metal material include, but are not limited to, carbon, oxides, nitrides, carbides, borides, glass powder, and ceramic powder. Examples of glass material powders include, but are not limited to, glass powder. Examples of ceramic material powders include, but are not limited to, ceramic powder. Examples of glass material plates include, but are not limited to, alkali-free glass plates and alkali-containing glass plates. The ceramic material plates include, but are not limited to, oxide and nitride ceramic plates. The glass material or ceramic material components include, but are not limited to, oxides, nitrides, carbides, sulfides, borides, and halides.

[0097] The casting material 15 may be in the form of powder, granules, blocks, plates, melt, slurry, or a combination of more than one of these, including but not limited to a combination of powder and melt, and a combination of powder and plate.

[0098] The pressure body 12 is placed on the casting material 15 and, together with the template 11, forms the casting core 1. The pressure body 12 is composed of an intermediate body 121 and a pressure generator 122. The lower side of the intermediate body 121 contacts the casting material 15, and the pressure generator 122 is placed above the intermediate body 121. The pressure generator 122 can set the pressure value it generates and transmits the pressure to the casting material 15 through the intermediate body 121.

[0099] The intermediate body 121 includes a pressure-conducting layer 1211 and a heat-insulating layer 1212. The pressure-conducting layer 1211 contacts the casting material 15 below, and the heat-insulating layer 1212 is placed above the pressure-conducting layer 1211. The heat-insulating layer 1212 contacts the pressure generator 122 above, and the heat-insulating layer 1212 forms a thermal barrier between the pressure-conducting layer 1211 and the pressure generator 122.

[0100] The pressure-conducting layer 1211 can be composed of one or more layers of the same or different high-temperature resistant materials with a melting point exceeding that of the casting material 15. Materials include: rigid plates such as, but not limited to, carbon plates, graphite plates, quartz plates, ceramic plates, glass plates, and high-temperature resistant metal plates; powdered materials such as, but not limited to, carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, ceramic powder, and foundry sand; and soft materials such as, but not limited to, carbonizable paper, carbonizable organic film, graphite paper, carbon felt, graphite felt, quartz felt, ceramic felt, and glass felt. The pressure-conducting layer 1211 can also be made of the same material as the template 11. Its surface in contact with the casting material can be a flat surface or, in combination with the template 11, a concave-convex surface in the shape of a three-dimensional casting pattern. In this embodiment, the pressure-conducting layer 1211 comprises a combination of a powdered material and a rigid plate, such as a graphite powder and a graphite plate.

[0101] The thermal insulation layer 1212 is made of a high-temperature resistant material. The thermal insulation layer 1212 can be composed of one or more layers of the same or different materials. The material selection range includes: powder materials such as, but not limited to, carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, and ceramic powder; soft materials such as, but not limited to, carbonizable paper, carbonizable organic film, graphite paper, carbon felt, graphite felt, quartz felt, ceramic felt, and glass felt; and thermal insulation panels such as, but not limited to, ceramic porous panels, high-temperature resistant hollow panels, and high-temperature resistant foam panels. The thermal insulation layer in this embodiment is made of a soft material such as graphite felt.

[0102] The pressure generator 122 may be a counterweight such as, but not limited to, a stone, graphite, ceramic, or metal block, or a pressure device regulated by a screw, or a hydraulic system, or a pressure combination device such as, but not limited to, a combination of a counterweight and a pressure device regulated by a screw. The pressure generator described in this embodiment is a counterweight composed of a plurality of appropriately weighted ceramic and metal blocks.

[0103] The heating device 2 heats the template 11 in the casting core 1, and can adopt heating devices including but not limited to combustion type, resistance type, induction type, microwave type, and electrode energization type. The heating device 2 heats the template 11, conducts heat to the casting material 15 and melts it partially or completely. At the same time, the heat is also transferred to the pressure conduction layer 1211, but after the thermal isolation of the heat insulation layer 1212, only a small amount of heat is transferred to the pressure generator 122. The main function of the heat insulation layer is to concentrate the heating area of ​​the device of the present application on the template area. Since the heat is mainly retained in the template area, it not only improves the heating efficiency, but also reduces the heat resistance requirements for the pressure generator. In this embodiment, the heating device 2 is an induction heating device.

[0104] The heating device 2 controls the heating temperature to achieve different heating effects on the casting material, which can be divided into partial or full melting heating methods. Generally, the differences are as follows: metals (including semi-metals) and alloys (including semi-metal alloys) select partial or full melting heating methods. The heating temperature during partial melting is close to or higher than the melting point of the component with the lower melting point in the metal or alloy, and the heating temperature during full melting is higher than the melting point of the component with the higher melting point in the metal or alloy; a mixture of fusible metal and refractory metal selects a partial melting heating method, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the fusible metal but lower than the melting point of the refractory metal; a mixture of metal and inorganic non-metal powder adopts a partial melting heating method, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the metal but lower than the melting point of the inorganic non-metal; a composition of glass / ceramic selects a full melting heating method. The heating method of partial melting is used, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the eutectic compound in the composition in the molten state; the heating method of full melting is used for glass powder, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the glass; the heating method of partial or full melting can be used for glass plates. When partially melting, the heating temperature is lower than the melting point of the glass plate but higher than the glass transition temperature of the glass plate, and when fully melting, the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the glass; the heating method of partial melting is used for ceramic powder and plate, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the fusible components in the ceramic material, but lower than the melting point of the components in the ceramic material that undergo solid phase sintering; when the casting material only needs to complete sintering and forming, the heating method of partial melting is selected, and the heating temperature is higher than the melting point of the components in the casting material that are converted into liquid phase, but lower than the melting point of the components in the casting material that undergo solid phase sintering.

[0105] Depending on the heating method, the pressure value generated by the pressure generator 122 is set as follows: when the applied casting material needs to be partially or completely melted, the pressure should be greater than or equal to the surface tension of the casting liquid formed by the material in the casting material that has transformed into the liquid phase; when the applied casting material is sintered, because the components of the casting material that transform into the liquid phase are relatively small, the liquid phase material only flows in a small area, and most of the material undergoes solid phase sintering, the pressure can be less than the surface tension of the casting liquid formed by the liquid phase material. The surface tension value of the casting liquid can be found in the material manual, or the optimal pressure value can be determined through multiple trial production processes. In this embodiment, because the heating method of complete melting is used, the pressure value generated by the pressure generator is set to be greater than the surface tension of the casting liquid.

[0106] The working process of the device for making casting patterns described in this embodiment is shown in Figures 1a-1g:

[0107] The device shown in FIG1a differs from the device in FIG1 in that the template 11 is not provided with a semi-hardened layer 111. Instead, the pattern cavity 14 is formed directly on the template 11 using the same methods used to form the pattern cavity on the semi-hardened layer, such as mechanical engraving or laser engraving. Because there is no semi-hardened layer, a release layer 16 is required on the upper surface of the template 11 and the inner surface of the pattern cavity 14. The materials for the release layer 16 primarily include, but are not limited to, graphite emulsion, diamond powder slurry, and ceramic slurry. The choice of release layer material can be found in the material manual based on the material of the casting material to be applied. When the template is made of a material that is difficult to react with or wet the casting liquid formed by the melt of the casting material to be applied, such as when using a graphite plate as the template when casting materials such as copper and aluminum are selected, a release layer is not required. The release layer can be made using methods including, but not limited to, spraying, painting, dipping, deposition, and coating.

[0108] As shown in Figure 1b, a pattern cavity 14 having a plurality of cavities and a desired pattern 13 is formed on the template 11. The template 11 here is made of a graphite plate without a release layer.

[0109] As shown in Figure 1c, the casting material 15 is made of metal powder such as copper and aluminum, and is applied in a pattern-based manner, that is, the applied casting material 15 is only applied in and filled in each cavity within the pattern cavity 14, and no casting material is applied to other parts of the template 11. The volume of the casting material 15 to be applied is approximately equal to the sum of the volumes of each cavity in the pattern cavity 14. The application method is to first pile up the casting material on the template to fill the pattern cavity, and then clean up the excess casting material.

[0110] As shown in FIG1 d , the pressure body 12 is placed on the casting material 15 to form a casting core 1 , and the heating device 2 heats the template 11 in the casting core 1 , and the heat is also transferred to the casting material 15 at the same time.

[0111] As shown in Figure 1e, during the heating process, as the powdered casting material 15 gradually melts into casting liquid and shrinks in volume, the pressure conduction layer 1211 composed of soft or powdered material produces a local deformation area 17 under the action of pressure and is pressed into the interior of the pattern cavity 14, continuing to force the molten casting liquid to fully fill the bottom of each cavity in the pattern cavity 14. After the flow of the casting liquid ends, the casting core 1 is cooled, and after the casting liquid solidifies, the various components of the pressure body 12 are removed to obtain the casting pattern 18 in the pattern cavity 14 on the template 11.

[0112] As shown in Figure 1f, the template 11 and casting pattern 18 are covered with a curable material 19 and then placed on a heating platform 20 for heating. The heating temperature of the platform 20 is higher than the melting point of the curable material 19 but lower than the melting point of the casting material 15. The curable material 19 melts on the template, then flows through the casting pattern 18 and covers it. After cooling, the material solidifies on the casting pattern 18, forming a hard or soft sheet with a certain strength and thickness. The curable material 19 can be in the form of, but not limited to, powder, granules, blocks, sheets, liquid, or a powder / liquid mixture. By controlling the area covered by the curable material, a cured sheet with the same or different shapes and thicknesses can be obtained. By controlling the amount and type of curable material covered, and by using multiple coverings and subsequent curing, a cured sheet with various forms, including but not limited to hard, soft, or a combination of hard and soft, can be obtained. In this embodiment, the curable material is a powder material, and the curing process adopts a thermal curing method. In actual implementation, according to the characteristics of the selected curable material, a method including but not limited to thermal curing, light curing, chemical curing agent curing, and air drying curing should be adopted.

[0113] As shown in Figure 1g, after the curing process, the curable material 19 is transformed into a solidified material 191, forming a hard or soft sheet material with a certain strength and thickness. Arrow 192 in the figure indicates that the melted curable material flows into the pattern cavity 14 into the blank area above the casting pattern 18 due to the volume shrinkage of the melted casting material. The solidified material then solidifies with the casting pattern 18. After separating the hard or soft sheet material from the template 11, a casting pattern inlay 193 is obtained, which includes the solidified material 191 and the casting pattern 18.

[0114] Furthermore, when the solidifiable material is a metal material with a lower melting point than the laid casting material, the metal material with a low melting point is first melted and cast to cover the obtained casting pattern, and then the melt of the metal material with a low melting point is cooled and solidified to obtain a metal mold casting pattern mosaic plate.

[0115] Furthermore, when the curable material is a curable insulating material, the curable insulating material is first melted and cast to cover the resulting casting pattern, and then cured to obtain an insulating casting pattern mosaic. When the casting pattern is a circuit pattern, a circuit board can be obtained. The curable insulating material can be an organic material such as, but not limited to, phenolic (PF) resin, epoxy (Epoxy) resin, bismaleimide (BMI) resin, polyimide (PI) resin, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin, and beta-triazine (BT) resin; an inorganic material such as, but not limited to, glass and ceramic powder and fiber; or a mixture of organic and inorganic materials such as, but not limited to, a mixture of resin and glass fiber, or a mixture of resin and ceramic powder.

[0116] Optionally, the casting material is laid in a pattern-laying manner, and the casting material is only laid in the pattern cavity on the template, and then the casting pattern is made step by step. Since the multiple cavities of the pattern cavity may not be connected to each other, the multiple casting molds in the corresponding casting pattern can also maintain an independent separation state from each other.

[0117] Optionally, in the device of the present embodiment in which a semi-hardened layer has been added, the semi-hardened layer and the casting material can be directly melted together and solidified as a mosaic plate with a casting pattern. The semi-hardened layer here is a semi-hardened layer of glass material or ceramic material powder, a raw porcelain sheet or other meltable or sinterable material, and the casting material is a fusible metal, which is laid using a pattern laying method including a printing method, and then pressed with a pressure body to form a casting core. Then, heating is started, and the casting material is pressed into the semi-hardened layer by the pressure body and partially or completely melted into a casting liquid. At the same time, during the heating process, the easily evaporable and decomposable substances in the meltable or sinterable semi-hardened layer material continue to volatilize, and the remaining material also melts or sinters and shrinks in volume in the vertical direction. Because the viscosity of the molten or sintered semi-hardened layer material is much greater than the surface tension of the casting liquid, the casting liquid is squeezed under pressure to fill the pattern cavity. After the contraction is complete, the casting core is cooled. After the casting liquid and the molten or sintered semi-hardened layer material solidify, the various components of the pressure body are removed. From the template, a casting pattern mosaic is obtained, which is a mosaic of the casting pattern and the solid plate formed by the solidified molten or sintered semi-hardened layer material. When the casting pattern here is a circuit pattern, a circuit board with a glass or ceramic substrate can be obtained.

[0118] Alternatively, in the apparatus of this embodiment without the semi-hardened layer, a pattern cavity is formed directly on the template. A fusible metal is used as the casting material, and a pattern-based coating method is employed. One or more layers of semi-hardened material, such as green porcelain sheets or a semi-hardened layer of glass / ceramic powder or slurry, are then applied, and a pressure body is added to form the casting core. Repeating the process described in the previous paragraph yields a casting pattern mosaic panel incorporating the casting pattern and a hard plate material formed by solidifying molten or sintered glass or ceramic material. If the casting pattern is a circuit pattern, the panel can serve as a circuit board with a glass or ceramic substrate.

[0119] Optionally, the template comprises a glass / ceramic plate, on which a pattern cavity of the desired pattern is formed, without a mold release layer. The casting material is a metal material with a lower melting point than that of the glass / ceramic plate, applied using a pattern-laying method. A pressure body is then added to form a casting core, which is then heated. The metal material on the template is partially or completely melted into liquid metal, which then fills the pattern cavity under the pressure of the pressure body. After the liquid metal flow ends, the casting core is cooled. The resulting metal pattern, after solidification, can be solidified and integrated with the glass / ceramic plate. The glass / ceramic plate can directly serve as a substrate for the metal pattern, resulting in an insulating casting pattern-inlaid plate with the metal pattern embedded in the glass / ceramic plate. When the metal pattern in the plate is a circuit pattern, a circuit board with a glass / ceramic substrate can be directly obtained.

[0120] Alternatively, the size of the template area can determine the number and size of the resulting casting patterns, and also the size of the resulting casting pattern mosaic. Using a larger template area and a matching heating device can yield a larger casting pattern mosaic. When the resulting insulating casting pattern mosaic includes a circuit pattern, a larger circuit board can be obtained.

[0121] Alternatively, the casting core may be constructed in a variety of ways. As shown in Figure 1h, after the mold is coated with the casting material and covered with a pressure-conducting layer, the assembled structure is flipped, with the pressure-conducting layer at the bottom and the mold at the top. A heat-insulating layer is then added to the mold, and a pressure generator is then added to create an inverted casting core that can also achieve the effects of this embodiment. This inverted casting core is also applicable to subsequent embodiments of this application.

[0122] Optionally, the heating device and the casting core may be arranged horizontally, such as in the aforementioned arrangement of the heating device at the bottom and the casting core at the top, or in the combination of the casting core at the bottom and the heating device at the top (as shown in FIG1i , in which case the pressure generator should use a hydraulic device or the like to apply pressure from the bottom upward). Furthermore, the heating device and the casting core may be arranged vertically, such as in the combination of the heating device at the left and the casting core at the right (as shown in FIG1j , in which case the pressure generator should use a hydraulic device or the like to apply pressure from right to left). Similarly, the casting core may be placed at the left and the heating device at the right.

[0123] Optionally, the combination of the heating device and the casting core provided above is merely a planar layout in which they are arranged parallel to each other. In actual implementation, the shapes of the casting core and the heating device should be designed according to the different shapes of the desired casting mold (such as curved, spherical, annular, etc.), so that the shape of the casting core is proportional to the shape of the desired casting mold, and the shape of the heating device is proportional to the shape of the casting core. This combination of the heating device and the casting core is a closely arranged, conformal layout. This conformal layout allows the heating device to closely follow the template within the casting core, thereby providing more energy to the template, thereby heating the casting material to a higher temperature, and also allowing the energy efficiency of the entire device to reach a higher level.

[0124] Optionally, the heating device can directly use an existing heating furnace such as a muffle furnace, a vacuum sintering furnace, etc. At this time, the pressure generator in the casting core also needs to be made of high-temperature resistant materials such as ceramic blocks, graphite blocks, etc., which can also achieve the effect of this embodiment.

[0125] The novel near-net-shape casting process provided in this embodiment can realize not only casting patterns with planar surfaces, but also casting patterns with curved surfaces, spherical surfaces, etc., as well as casting patterns with three-dimensional geometric shapes such as pointed, triangular, square, ring, convex and concave, and hollow shapes, such as but not limited to high-temperature resistant blades and high-temperature resistant nozzles.

[0126] Example 2

[0127] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits. The difference between this method and the first embodiment is that the casting material is laid using a template.

[0128] The working process of this embodiment is shown in Figures 2a-2e:

[0129] As shown in Figure 2a, a pattern cavity 14 is formed on the template 11 according to the method of Example 1. Metal powder, serving as the casting material 15, is applied to the template 11 and its pattern cavity 14. This application method employs a template-based application method: the casting material 15 not only fills each cavity within the pattern cavity 14 but also covers a greater area on the template 11 than the area occupied by the pattern cavity 14. The volume of the casting material 15 to be applied is greater than the sum of the volumes of the individual cavities within the pattern cavity 14. The casting material 15 is applied to the template by first piling it up, then flattening it, and finally covering it. Arrow 151 in the figure indicates the casting material applied within the pattern cavity 14, while arrow 152 indicates the additional casting material applied to the template 11. The pressure-conducting layer 1211 in the intermediate body 121 is made of a hard plate material, and then a heat-insulating layer 1212 and a pressure generator 122 capable of generating an appropriate pressure are applied to form the casting core 1. A heating device 2 heats the casting material 15 on the template 11 within the casting core 1, melting it. After the casting material 15 is melted into casting liquid, it can not only fill the pattern cavity 14 under the action of pressure, but also the excess casting liquid forms a thin layer of casting liquid on the pattern cavity 14. After the casting core is cooled to solidify the casting liquid, a casting pattern 18 corresponding to the pattern cavity 14 on the template 11 is obtained, and an integrated solid plate of casting material inlaid with the casting pattern 18 is obtained. The solid plate is separated from the template 11 to obtain the casting pattern 18 and the solid thin plate 21 of casting material thereon, as shown in Figure 2b.

[0130] As shown in FIG2c , a solid sheet 21 of casting material is placed with the casting pattern 18 facing upward, and a sufficient amount of insulating curable material 19 is covered on its surface. The sheet is then placed together on a platform 20 with a heating function. The insulating curable material 19 is melted by the heat, then cast and covers the casting pattern 18. The sheet is then cooled and solidified to form a hard or soft transition plate 22 with a certain strength and thickness, as shown in FIG2d .

[0131] As shown in FIG2e , the solid sheet 21 of casting material on the transition plate 22 is removed by methods including but not limited to machining and chemical etching, thereby obtaining an insulating casting pattern mosaic plate 23 in which the casting pattern 18 is wrapped with insulating solidified material 191. When the casting pattern 18 is a circuit pattern, the insulating casting pattern mosaic plate 23 can serve as a circuit board.

[0132] Alternatively, when the template is a glass / ceramic plate, a pattern cavity with the desired pattern is formed thereon without a release layer, and the casting material is a metal material with a lower melting point than the glass / ceramic plate, the template is laid, and a pressure body is added to form a casting core, which is then heated. The metal material melts into liquid metal, which, under pressure, fills the pattern cavity while also forming a thin layer of liquid metal on the glass / ceramic plate. After the liquid metal flow ends, the casting core is cooled. The liquid metal solidifies, solidifying with the glass / ceramic plate and forming a solid metal sheet on the template. This solid metal sheet is removed, resulting in an insulating cast pattern panel inlaid with the metal pattern on the glass / ceramic plate. When the metal pattern is a circuit pattern, a circuit board with a glass / ceramic substrate can be obtained.

[0133] Example 3

[0134] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits. This method differs from Embodiments 1 and 2 in that the casting material applied to the template is liquid metal, suitable for producing casting patterns using fusible metals. The liquid metal includes: molten fusible metals, such as but not limited to gallium, bismuth, tin, lead, aluminum, and copper; molten fusible alloys, such as but not limited to tin-lead alloys and aluminum-silicon alloys; slurries made from molten metal coated with high-melting-point metal powders, such as but not limited to liquid aluminum coated with titanium and nickel powders for producing master alloy parts; and slurries made from molten metal coated with inorganic non-metallic powders, such as but not limited to liquid aluminum coated with alumina powder for producing reinforced alloy parts.

[0135] As shown in FIG3 , the casting material 15 to be laid is melted to form liquid metal 24. Then, the template 11 having the pattern cavity 14 corresponding to the desired pattern 13 is heated by the heating device 2 to a temperature higher than the melting point of the liquid metal 24. The liquid metal 24 is then dripped onto the pattern cavity 14. The volume of the dripped liquid metal 24 is greater than the volume of the pattern cavity 14. This is a template laying method. Alternatively, the metal material can be heated and melted directly on the template 11 to form the liquid metal 24, eliminating the need for equipment for melting the liquid metal material outside the device.

[0136] After liquid metal 24 is applied to the template 11, the pressure body 12 is stacked and placed onto the liquid metal 24. The process is as follows: A pressure-conducting layer 1211 composed of a hard plate material is first pressed onto the liquid metal 24, followed by a heat-insulating layer 1212, and finally a pressure generator 122 capable of generating appropriate pressure, thereby forming the casting core 1. Under continuous heating, the liquid metal 24 flows under pressure into the pattern cavity 14 and fills it. Excess liquid metal forms a thin layer of liquid metal on top of the pattern cavity 14. After the liquid metal 24 has finished flowing, the casting core 1 is cooled until the liquid metal 24 solidifies. The integrated solid metal plate formed by the solidified liquid metal is then separated from the template 11, resulting in a solid thin plate 21 of casting material inlaid with the metal pattern formed by the pattern cavity 14 (i.e., the casting pattern 18).

[0137] Alternatively, if an insulating cast pattern mosaic panel is desired, the method of Example 2 can be used to solidify the insulating material on the resulting solid sheet of cast material bearing the cast pattern, and then further produced in separate steps. If the cast pattern in the resulting insulating cast pattern mosaic panel is a circuit pattern, the panel can be used as a circuit board.

[0138] Example 4

[0139] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits. This method differs from Embodiments 1 to 3 in that the casting material applied to the template is a metal plate, which is suitable for producing high-precision casting patterns. The metal plate can be made of metal, semi-metal, or alloy.

[0140] As shown in Figure 4, a metal plate 25, serving as the casting material to be laid, is placed on the template 11, which has been formed with a pattern cavity 14 corresponding to the desired pattern 13. The volume of the metal plate 25 is greater than the volume of the pattern cavity 14, thus employing a template laying method. The various components of the pressure body 12, namely, the pressure-conducting layer 1211 serving as the intermediate body 121, the heat-insulating layer 1212, and the pressure generator 122 capable of generating appropriate pressure, are then pressed onto the metal plate 25 to form a casting core 1. This casting core 1 is then heated by a heating device 2. Once the metal plate 25 on the template 11 gradually melts into liquid metal and, under pressure, flows into and fills the pattern cavity 14, the excess liquid metal forms a thin layer above the pattern cavity 14. After the metal liquid flows, the casting core 1 is cooled until the metal liquid solidifies, the various components of the pressure body 12 are removed, and the integrated metal solid plate formed by the solidified metal liquid is separated from the template 11 to obtain a solid thin plate 21 of casting material inlaid with the metal pattern (i.e., the casting pattern 18) formed corresponding to the pattern cavity 14.

[0141] Alternatively, if an insulating cast pattern mosaic plate is required, the method of Example 2 can be used to prepare it in steps after curing the insulating material. When the cast pattern is a circuit pattern, a circuit board can be obtained.

[0142] Alternatively, metal powder may be first applied to the pattern cavity, and then casting materials such as plates, blocks, particles of the same or different metal materials to be applied may be added to the metal powder, and then the cast pattern mosaic plate may be prepared in steps.

[0143] Example 5

[0144] This embodiment provides a method for manufacturing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits, and describes in detail each step of the manufacturing method of this application.

[0145] The method for implementing this embodiment involves first forming a pattern cavity of the desired pattern on a template, then applying an appropriate amount of casting material to the pattern cavity, then setting a desired pressure on the casting material, then heating the template so that the casting material within the template partially or completely melts into a casting liquid that fills the pattern cavity under pressure, and then cooling the casting material containing the casting liquid under pressure to obtain the desired casting pattern. The key principles of this embodiment are: by forming pattern cavities of the same or different shapes and depths on the template, a casting pattern of the same or different shapes and thicknesses can be obtained; the higher the precision of the desired casting pattern, the higher the degree to which the casting material must be melted into the casting liquid, and when the casting material is completely melted into the casting liquid, extremely high precision can be achieved; and by setting an appropriate pressure on the casting material, the value of which is determined by the degree to which the droplet agglomeration caused by the surface tension of the casting liquid needs to be overcome, so that the casting material containing the casting liquid can fully fill the pattern cavity.

[0146] The specific preparation process of this embodiment is shown in Figures 5a-5j:

[0147] As shown in Figure 5a, a common processing method, such as mechanical engraving or laser engraving, is used on template 11 to form a corresponding pattern cavity 14 according to the desired pattern 13. Template 11 is made of a high-temperature-resistant hard plate material with a melting point higher than that of the applied casting material 15. The material of the plate is determined by the casting material 15 to be applied. For example, graphite plate can be used for copper, and cast iron plate or stainless steel plate can be used for aluminum. Specific material selection can be found in common material manuals.

[0148] As shown in Figure 5b, a release material is applied to the upper surface of the template 11 and the inner surface of the pattern cavity 14 to form a release layer 16. When a graphite plate is used as the template, a release layer is not required for casting materials such as copper and aluminum.

[0149] As shown in Figure 5c, the casting material 15 is applied to the template 11 on which the pattern cavity 14 has been formed. The casting material 15 is applied in a template-based manner, that is, the volume of the applied casting material 15 is greater than the sum of the volumes of the various cavities in the pattern cavity 14, and the coverage area is greater than the area occupied by the pattern cavity 14 on the template 11.

[0150] As shown in Figure 5d, a pressure-conducting layer 1211 and a thermal insulation layer 1212, which form the intermediate body 121, are applied to the deposited casting material 15. The pressure-conducting layer 1211 can be made of a material with a melting point exceeding that of the casting material 15, such as a graphite plate in a hard plate material, graphite powder in a powder material, or graphite felt in a soft material. The thermal insulation layer 1212 can be made of a material with a melting point exceeding that of the casting material 15, such as graphite powder in a powder material, or graphite felt in a soft material. If the pressure-conducting layer 1211 is made of a hard plate material, the thermal insulation layer 1212 can also be made of a high-temperature-resistant insulation board, such as a porous ceramic board.

[0151] As shown in Figure 5e, a pressure generator 122 is attached to the intermediate body 121. The pressure generated by the pressure generator 122 is transmitted through the intermediate body 121 to the applied casting material 15, thereby forming the casting core 1. The pressure generator 122 can be composed of a counterweight such as a ceramic block or a metal block, or a screw pressure regulating device. The pressure generated by the pressure generator 122 is determined by the degree to which the droplet agglomeration caused by the surface tension of the casting liquid is overcome. The appropriate pressure value can be determined through multiple trial production processes.

[0152] As shown in Figure 5f, the assembled casting core 1 is heated by the heating device 2. The casting material 15 within the casting core 1 is heated until it partially or completely melts into a casting liquid. Under the pressure generated by the pressure generator 122, the casting material flows into the pattern cavity 14 and fills the pattern cavity 14. The excess partially or completely melted casting material forms a thin layer of casting material containing the casting liquid above the pattern cavity 14. After the flow of the casting material containing the casting liquid is completed, the casting core 1 is cooled until the casting liquid completely solidifies under pressure.

[0153] As shown in FIG5g , the template 11 and the solidified casting material sheet formed after the casting material containing the casting liquid solidifies are separated to obtain a solid casting material sheet 21 with the casting pattern 18 formed corresponding to the pattern cavity 14 embedded therein. The solid casting material sheet is then subjected to shaping processes such as, but not limited to, cleaning, polishing, and chemical treatment to remove any excess material resulting from the shedding of the release layer and pressure-conducting layer during the casting process, as well as any imperfections such as oxide films on the metal casting pattern surface, in preparation for the next step.

[0154] As shown in Figure 5h, a solidifying material 19 is covered on the plane of the solid casting material sheet 21 with the casting pattern 18, and the solidifying material 19 is placed on a platform 20 with a heating function to be heated and solidified. The melting point of the solidifying material should be lower than the melting point of the applied casting material. The material and curing process of the solidifying material can be found in a general material manual as needed. When the solidifying material is a metal material with a lower melting point than the applied casting material, a transition plate can be obtained in which the solidified low-melting-point metal material wraps around the solid casting material sheet and the casting pattern thereon. When the solidifying material is a solidifying insulating material, a transition plate can be obtained in which the solidified insulating material wraps around the solid casting material sheet and the casting pattern thereon. In this embodiment, the solidifying material is an insulating type of thermosetting resin powder.

[0155] As shown in FIG. 5 i , after the insulating curable material 19 is cured through a curing process, a transition plate 22 is obtained in which the solidified material 191 wraps the solid thin plate 21 of the casting material with the casting pattern 18 .

[0156] As shown in FIG5j, the transition plate 22 in FIG5i is subjected to a shaping process including but not limited to mechanical processing, laser processing, chemical treatment, etc. to remove the solid thin plate 21 of the casting material thereon, leaving only the insulating substrate and the casting pattern 18, thereby obtaining an insulating casting pattern mosaic plate 23 in which the casting pattern 18 is wrapped with a substrate formed by an insulating solidified material 191. When the casting pattern 18 is a circuit pattern, the plate can be used as a circuit board.

[0157] Example 6

[0158] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern suitable for precision circuits. The difference between this embodiment and embodiments one to five is that the heating device is a sealed heating furnace, and the heating process of the casting core is placed in a sealed heating furnace for execution. Vacuuming, temperature control, atmosphere protection and other operations can be performed manually or by computer control to protect the laid casting material from or reduce chemical reactions including oxidation at high temperatures, so that the obtained casting pattern can maintain the original appearance of its material as much as possible, reducing the difficulty of subsequent processing.

[0159] As shown in Figure 6, the sealed heating furnace 3 consists of a furnace body 31, a heater 32, a temperature sensor 33 of the temperature control system, a vacuum tube 34 and a protective gas inlet 35. The casting core 1 is placed in the furnace body 31 of the sealed heating furnace 3. The heater 32 can complete the heating work of the template 11 in the casting core 1 and the casting material 15 filled thereon, and then the sealed heating furnace 3 is closed to perform the heating process.

[0160] The parameters of the sealed heating furnace should be set according to the melting point of the casting material applied to the template. The vacuum level should be determined based on the degree of oxidation reactions to be prevented. The protective gas composition should be determined based on the material's activity at high temperatures. For example, if copper is to be cast, the furnace temperature should be such that the copper on the template is heated to a temperature close to or exceeding the melting point. The appropriate temperature can also be determined through multiple trial production processes. To prevent oxidation of the copper, a vacuum level of 0.1 atmosphere or higher is generally required. Nitrogen, argon, or other protective atmospheres can also be used throughout the entire process. Protective gas is not required when precise patterns are not required.

[0161] In this embodiment, a resistive heating furnace is used to perform the heating work. In actual implementation, heating can also be performed using heating furnaces including but not limited to combustion, induction, microwave, and electrode energization types.

[0162] Example 7

[0163] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern suitable for precision circuits. This method differs from Embodiments 1 to 6 in that the casting pattern can be produced not only with uniform thickness across all sections, but also with varying thicknesses across all sections. By forming pattern cavities with the same or varying depths and shapes for the desired circuit pattern on a template and then using a metal material to produce the casting pattern, metal molds of the same or varying thicknesses and shapes suitable for forming the circuit pattern can be obtained.

[0164] The manufacturing process of this embodiment is shown in Figures 7a-7b:

[0165] As shown in Figure 7a, a template 11 forms a pattern cavity 14 with multiple cavities of equal or varying depths and shapes. These cavities include a linear groove 141, a curved groove 142, a circular pit 143, an annular pit 144, and a polygonal pool 145. In these cavities, the grooves have a depth of h1, the pools have a depth of h2, and the pits have a depth of h3, satisfying the relationship h1 < h2 < h3. The volume of the metal material applied to the template is greater than the volume of the pattern cavity, indicating that a template-based application method is employed. The remaining steps are performed as in Example 5, resulting in an insulating cast pattern mosaic panel 23, which can be used as a circuit board, as shown in Figure 7b.

[0166] Comparing Figure 7b with Figure 7a , a substrate comprising a cast pattern mosaic 23 formed of an insulating solidified material 191 (e.g., an insulating substrate with a circuit pattern wrapped around multiple sides, similar to a cloisonné or damask mosaic structure) has a metal straight segment 181 (e.g., a copper circuit) corresponding to a straight groove 141, a metal curved segment 182 (e.g., a copper circuit) corresponding to a curved groove 142, a metal pillar 183 (e.g., a solid via for connecting the upper and lower surfaces of the circuit board) corresponding to a circular pit 143, a hollow metal pillar 184 (e.g., a hollow through-hole for inserting component pins on the circuit board) corresponding to an annular pit 144, and a polygonal metal block 185 (e.g., a copper heat sink) corresponding to a polygonal pool 145. In Figure 7b , the thickness of the metal segment is H1, the thickness of the metal block is H2, and the thickness of the metal pillar is H3. Since the depth of each cavity in the pattern cavity in FIG7a is h1<h2<h3, the thickness of the casting mold of the metal of different shapes in the casting pattern formed by the different shapes of the cavity corresponding to FIG7b is H1<H2<H3.

[0167] Optionally, the pattern cavity on the template includes cavities with the same or different shapes and depths, and the cross-sectional geometry of the cavity includes at least but is not limited to one or more combinations of circular, semicircular, triangular, rectangular, trapezoidal, curved, and stepped shapes, and the three-dimensional geometry of the cavity includes at least but is not limited to one or more combinations of the shapes of grooves, troughs, circular pits, semicircular pits, annular pits, conical pits, stepped pits, triangular pools, flat or curved polygonal pools, and pools surrounded by polygonal grooves. The castings formed corresponding to the cavities have the same or different shapes and thicknesses, and the castings include at least but are not limited to one or more combinations of the shapes of straight segments, curved segments, convex points, columns, hollow columns, conical columns, stepped columns, circular blocks, semicircular blocks, triangular blocks, straight or curved polygonal blocks, and hollow polygonal blocks.

[0168] Optionally, in the cavity of the pattern cavity, grooves and trenches with a depth of 0.1 to 100 μm correspond to the formation of conductive line segments and patterns in the circuit pattern, pits, annular pits, polygonal pool bodies, etc. with a depth of 100 to 1600 μm correspond to the formation of conductive columns, hollow conductive columns, conductive blocks, radiators, etc. in the circuit pattern, trough bodies and polygonal pool bodies with a depth of 1600 to 3200 μm correspond to the formation of high-current circuits or radiators in the circuit pattern, and trough bodies with a depth of more than 3200 μm correspond to the formation of conductive bars, radiators, trusses, shells, etc.

[0169] Example 8

[0170] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern suitable for precision circuits. The difference between this embodiment and embodiments one to seven is that the insulating casting pattern mosaic obtained by the previous embodiments can only realize a single-layer circuit board, while this embodiment can realize a multi-layer circuit board.

[0171] The following uses a circuit board formed from an insulating copper cast pattern mosaic as an example, and illustrates the manufacturing process of a two-layer or multi-layer circuit board using components such as copper pillars, copper through-holes, and copper bumps on a single-layer circuit board that can be used to achieve electrical connections between multiple layers of the circuit board, as shown in Figures 8a-8e.

[0172] FIG8 a shows a side view of the insulating cast pattern mosaic panel 23 shown in FIG7 b as a single-layer circuit board. For clarity, in this embodiment, the term "single-layer circuit board 26" is used. Arrow 181 in the figure indicates the copper circuitry on the surface of single-layer circuit board 26. Arrow 183 indicates the through-hole copper pillars that penetrate the substrate of single-layer circuit board 26, exposing the upper and lower metal surfaces. Arrow 184 indicates the through-hole hollow copper pillars.

[0173] As shown in FIG8b , a single-layer circuit board 26 to be stacked and interconnected is obtained by forming a bonding or soldering layer 186 on the exposed metal surface of the substrate of each copper pillar or other component on the connection surface to be stacked and interconnected with other circuit boards, and forming an insulating adhesive curing layer 187 on the other parts of the connection surface. In this way, two single-layer circuit boards 26 to be stacked and interconnected are produced, and their connection surfaces are aligned and stacked together.

[0174] As shown in Figure 8c, the two stacked single-layer circuit boards 26 in Figure 8b are bonded by hot pressing or other methods to achieve electrical connection of the bondable or welded layer 186 between the board layers, and insulating and curing connection of the insulating adhesive curing layer 187 to form a newly cured connection layer 188, so that the two single-layer circuit boards 26 can be merged into a double-layer circuit board 27.

[0175] As shown in Figure 8d, a bondable or solderable layer 186 is formed on the exposed metal surfaces of each copper post on the connecting surface of the two double-layer circuit boards 27 to be thermocompression bonded, while an insulating adhesive curable layer 187 is formed on the remaining areas of the connecting surface. An intermediate connecting plate 28 is then fabricated for docking, using the same manufacturing method as the single-layer circuit boards 26. Corresponding copper posts and other components are fabricated at locations where electrical connections are to be made with the upper and lower double-layer circuit boards, and a base plate is formed of a curable insulating material. Bondable or solderable layers 186 are formed on the upper and lower metal surfaces of the electrically connected copper posts and other components on the intermediate connecting plate 28, while insulating adhesive curable layers 187 are formed on the remaining areas of the upper and lower surfaces.

[0176] As shown in FIG8e , two double-layer circuit boards 27, each having a bondable or solderable layer 186 and an insulating adhesive curable layer 187, are aligned and stacked together via an intermediate connecting plate 28. The two double-layer circuit boards 27 and the intermediate connecting plate 28 are then cured and connected by methods such as thermocompression bonding. The two double-layer circuit boards 27 and the intermediate connecting plate 28 are each connected together via the newly cured connecting layer 188, forming a four-layer circuit board 29. The intermediate connecting plate 28 serves to connect the two double-layer circuit boards.

[0177] Optionally, by using the method for manufacturing a double-layer and four-layer circuit board provided in this embodiment, circuit boards with more layers as required can be manufactured by repeating and combining the above steps multiple times.

[0178] The multilayer circuit board manufacturing method provided in this embodiment not only replaces traditional wet-process circuit board production processes such as deposition, sputtering, etching, drilling, chemical plating, and electroplating, but also avoids pollution generated during the production process and significantly reduces circuit board production costs. This method is suitable for the production of circuit substrates such as precision circuit boards, high-density interconnect boards, power device packaging substrates, IC packaging substrates, and glass substrates.

[0179] Example 9

[0180] This embodiment provides a method for making a casting pattern, which differs from embodiments one to eight in that the casting pattern can be used not only to make circuit patterns, but also to make shapes of various mechanical parts, patterns of various templates, and other casting patterns.

[0181] The following uses the processing of gear parts as an example to illustrate the manufacturing process of mechanical parts, as shown in Figures 9a-9c.

[0182] As shown in Figure 9a, a pattern cavity 14 having a gear pattern is formed on a template 11. The same manufacturing process as in Example 2 is then followed to produce a gear pattern inlay plate 40 as shown in Figure 9b. To isolate a separate gear component 41 corresponding to the casting pattern, as shown in Figure 9c, the process can be followed by selecting an appropriate curable material and curing it to form the casting pattern inlay plate in Example 2. After the inlay plate is formed through shaping (e.g., grinding, polishing, etc.) to remove any imperfections in the casting pattern, the inlay plate formed by the cured material is then removed. The inlay plate removal method includes: The curable material can be a metal material with a lower melting point than the applied casting material, and the cured metal material is then melted by heating to obtain the gear component; the curable material can be a material that is easily soluble in certain solutions, such as casting wax, and then the cured material is dissolved in a solvent such as gasoline to obtain the gear component; the curable material can be a material that undergoes thermal decomposition and vaporization when heated to a certain temperature, such as a cellulose-based material, and then the cured material is pyrolyzed at temperatures exceeding 300 degrees Celsius to obtain the gear component.

[0183] The novel near-net-shape casting process provided by this embodiment can replace electroforming technologies such as silicon-based micromachining, LIGA (lithography-electroforming-injection molding), and micro-electroforming to produce micron-level precision patterns and parts. It has applications in precision instruments, micro-electromechanical systems, and other fields. It offers high processing efficiency, with cycle times measured in minutes for the primary steps, from heating and melting the casting material to solidification and setting. It can process most types of metals, glass, and ceramics, without the material limitations of electroforming technologies, which limit them to copper, nickel, iron, and a few alloys.

[0184] The method for producing the casting pattern provided in this embodiment can also be expanded to produce a variety of casting patterns, and is suitable for producing various other shapes including but not limited to parts, models, cavities / shells, dentures and implants, medical implants, microfluidic chips, microfluidic heat sinks, coins, and patterns on logos, signs, printing plates, mold templates, embossing templates, metamaterial array plates, etc.

[0185] Example 10

[0186] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern, which differs from embodiments one to nine in that the casting material applied on the template is a mixture of fusible metal and refractory metal.

[0187] Refractory metals are difficult to process and shape because they don't easily form alloys with fusible metals. Generally, a powder metallurgy process combining powder molding and sintering is used to produce alloy parts containing refractory metals. Powder-molded parts don't achieve complete density after sintering, which affects their strength. Furthermore, the dimensional changes of the parts after sintering make it difficult to improve their manufacturing accuracy. This embodiment utilizes molten fusible metal to encapsulate refractory metal powder particles. This is then filled into a mold cavity with the desired part pattern under pressure. After cooling, a near-net-shape, dense, and dimensionally precise alloy part is obtained, achieving machining accuracy down to the micron level.

[0188] This embodiment is described by processing and molding a mixture of copper powder and tungsten powder. The production process is as follows:

[0189] Copper powder and tungsten powder of similar particle size are thoroughly mixed in a mass ratio of 1:1. The particle size and morphology of the powders can be determined through multiple trials to determine the optimal ratio. The mixed powder is applied to a mold core having a pattern cavity formed according to the desired part pattern using a template-based application method. The powder material is heated to initiate the melting process. The heating temperature is then appropriately increased to above 1500°C to fully melt the copper powder and increase the fluidity of the liquid copper. A pressure greater than 10 times the surface tension of the liquid copper is then applied to cause the liquid copper, encapsulating the tungsten powder particles, to flow into the pattern cavity via viscous flow and fully fill the cavity. After the liquid copper and the encapsulated tungsten powder have completed their flow, the casting core is cooled under pressure. After the liquid copper solidifies, a solid metal sheet with the desired casting pattern is obtained. The transition plate of the casting pattern is then obtained through the steps of Example 9. The solid metal sheet and the inlay material substrate are then removed to obtain a dense, nearly net-shape metal part of the WCu50 alloy corresponding to the casting pattern.

[0190] This embodiment is also applicable to the production of casting patterns and parts for alloys of other refractory metals, including but not limited to molybdenum and niobium, and fusible metals, including but not limited to aluminum and copper. It can also be applied to the processing of other alloys that are difficult to form, including but not limited to titanium and zirconium alloys. This embodiment can also be applied to the production of casting patterns and parts for composite materials made from mixtures of metals and inorganic non-metallic materials, including but not limited to carbon, oxides, carbides, and nitrides, such as the production of reinforced aluminum alloy parts from aluminum and aluminum oxide. Utilizing the extremely high temperature-generating heating device and casting pattern production method provided by this embodiment, it is also possible to directly melt refractory metal materials, such as but not limited to tungsten and molybdenum, as well as high-temperature resistant alloy materials, such as nickel-based, niobium-based, and tungsten-based materials, under ultra-high temperature processes and then cast them under pressure.

[0191] The method for producing casting patterns provided in this embodiment is a near-net-shape processing technology that can replace powder metallurgy processes and powder injection molding (PIM) processes that involve injection molding and sintering of a mixture of metal, ceramic, or other powders and slurry to produce miniature patterns and parts, and can significantly improve the precision and strength of the products.

[0192] The device provided in this embodiment can be widely used in the processing and production of near-net-shape patterns and parts of materials such as metals, semi-metals, alloys, single crystal alloys, amorphous alloys, high entropy alloys, glass, and ceramics.

[0193] Example 11

[0194] This embodiment provides a method for producing a casting pattern, which differs from embodiments 1 to 10 in that the casting material applied on the template is glass / ceramic powder, plate, or composition.

[0195] Advanced electronic functional glass and ceramic materials are playing an increasingly important role in advanced packaging, micro-electromechanical systems, and other fields, but their production methods still rely primarily on wafer-level processes. The method provided in this embodiment, which utilizes a novel near-net-shape casting process to produce casting patterns and parts made of glass and ceramic materials, can provide a new technical path for the production of advanced electronic functional glass and ceramic materials.

[0196] This embodiment uses silicate glass composition powders to produce silicate glass casting patterns or parts as an example. The production process is as follows: Powders of silicate (e.g., silicon oxide SiO2), alkali metal oxides (e.g., sodium oxides such as Na2O, potassium oxides such as K2O), alkaline earth metal oxides (e.g., calcium oxide CaO, magnesium oxide MgO), and other metal oxides (e.g., aluminum oxide Al2O3) are combined according to the desired glass raw material ratio and thoroughly mixed. The resulting glass composition powder is then applied to a mold cavity formed with the desired pattern on a template using a template-based application method. The pressure-conducting layer and heat-insulating layer of the intermediate body are then sequentially pressed onto the glass composition powder. The pressure generator is then pressed onto the intermediate body to form a casting core, which is then heated by a heating device. After the glass component powder is melted and mixed at high temperature, a glass eutectic is formed, which generates viscous flow under pressure to fill the pattern cavity. After the pattern cavity is filled, a thin layer of glass eutectic is formed on it. After the glass eutectic flows, the casting core is cooled until the glass eutectic solidifies and turns into glass, thereby obtaining an integrated glass solid plate consisting of a glass pattern (i.e., a casting pattern) corresponding to the pattern cavity formed by the glass eutectic and a thin glass solid layer thereon. After the plate is separated from the template, the obtained glass solid plate with the glass pattern can be used as a glass pattern plate.

[0197] Optionally, the obtained glass pattern plate can be made into a transition plate of a mosaic plate with a glass pattern using the method of Example 9, and then the solid glass layer and the mosaic material substrate on it can be removed to obtain the required glass parts, which can be used in electronics, optics, micro-electromechanical systems and other fields.

[0198] Alternatively, the glass / ceramic components used as the casting material may include, but are not limited to, oxides, nitrides, carbides, sulfides, borides, and halides, to produce other types of glass / ceramic casting patterns and parts. Furthermore, the casting material may be glass / ceramic powder, allowing direct production of glass / ceramic casting patterns and parts. Alternatively, the casting material may be existing glass / ceramic sheets, which are heated to a partially molten state under controlled temperature and then filled into the pattern cavity under pressure. After cooling, solidification, and subsequent processing, the glass / ceramic casting pattern and parts can be obtained.

[0199] Optionally, the obtained glass pattern plate can also be used as the template described in Examples 1 and 2. For example, if the newly formed pattern cavity corresponding to the glass pattern on the glass pattern plate is a circuit pattern, when metal material is laid on these pattern cavities, a portion of the cavity is left unlaid, and then the steps in Examples 1 and 2 are repeated to directly produce a circuit board with a glass substrate having a hollow pattern.

[0200] The method for manufacturing casting patterns and parts of glass and ceramic materials provided in this embodiment has the advantages of high precision, simple process, low cost, and no pollution. Combined with the casting molding process of the circuit pattern provided in the previous embodiments of this application, circuit substrates and parts made of glass or ceramic materials can be manufactured, which are expected to be applied in fields such as high-density interconnect boards, IC packaging substrates, 2.5D / 3D packaging of chiplets, glass substrates, and micro-electromechanical systems.

[0201] The method provided in this embodiment for producing patterns and parts of glass and ceramic materials using a novel near-net-shape casting process greatly expands the application areas of inexpensive materials such as glass and ceramics. It can also greatly reduce the difficulty of producing patterns and parts of advanced electronic functional glass and ceramic materials that originally required chip-level manufacturing processes, and can achieve low-cost production processes while maintaining high precision.

[0202] The implementation of a method for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits described in the embodiments of the present application includes but is not limited to the implementation methods described in the embodiments of the present application.

[0203] The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and effects of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. Anyone familiar with the technology may modify and alter the above embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or changes made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical concepts disclosed in the embodiments of the present application shall still be covered by the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. A device for producing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits, characterized in that: It includes a casting core and a heating device, wherein the casting core includes a template and a pressure body, a pattern cavity corresponding to the required pattern is formed on the template, a casting material is laid on the pattern cavity, the pressure body is placed on the casting material and applies pressure to it, and the heating device heats the template and the casting material in the casting core.

2. The device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: The pressure body includes an intermediate body and a pressure generator. The intermediate body is placed on the casting material, and the pressure generator is placed on the intermediate body. The pressure generated by the pressure generator is transmitted to the casting material through the intermediate body.

3. The device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 2, characterized in that: The intermediate body comprises a pressure conduction layer and a heat insulation layer, wherein the pressure conduction layer is placed on the casting material, the heat insulation layer is placed on the pressure conduction layer, the pressure generator is placed on the heat insulation layer, and the heat insulation layer forms thermal isolation between the pressure generator and the pressure conduction layer.

4. A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The template includes one or more layers of high temperature resistant plate materials whose melting point exceeds the melting point of the casting material, and the material of the template is a hard plate material or a soft plate material; The hard plate material includes, but is not limited to, carbon plate, graphite plate, silicon plate, quartz plate, ceramic plate, glass plate, and high temperature resistant metal plate; The soft board material includes boards made of high temperature resistant powders through bonding or pressing. The high temperature resistant powders include but are not limited to carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, ceramic powder, and foundry sand.

5. A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: A semi-hardened layer carrying the pattern cavity is added to the template, and the material of the semi-hardened layer includes but is not limited to carbonizable paper, carbonizable ink layer, carbonizable organic film layer, graphite material layer, casting sand layer, carbon slurry semi-cured layer, semi-cured layer of glass or ceramic powder or slurry, and raw porcelain sheet.

6. The device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The pressure conduction layer comprises one or more layers of high temperature resistant material having a melting point exceeding that of the casting material, and the material of the pressure conduction layer is a hard plate, a powder material, or a soft material; The hard plate includes but is not limited to carbon plate, graphite plate, quartz plate, ceramic plate, glass plate, and high temperature resistant metal plate; The powder materials include but are not limited to carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, ceramic powder, and foundry sand; The soft material includes, but is not limited to, carbonizable paper, carbonizable organic film, graphite paper, carbon felt, graphite felt, quartz felt, ceramic felt, and glass felt.

7. The device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The heat insulation layer comprises one or more layers of high temperature resistant materials, and the material of the heat insulation layer is powder material, soft material and heat insulation board; The powder materials include but are not limited to carbon powder, graphite powder, silicon powder, quartz powder, glass powder, and ceramic powder; The soft material includes but is not limited to carbonizable paper, carbonizable organic film, graphite paper, carbon felt, graphite felt, quartz felt, ceramic felt, and glass felt; The heat insulation board includes but is not limited to a ceramic porous board, a high temperature resistant hollow board, and a high temperature resistant foam board.

8. A device for casting patterns applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1-2, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The pressure generator includes a counterweight, which includes but is not limited to stone, graphite block, ceramic block, metal block; the pressure generator may include a pressure device adjusted by a screw rod; the pressure generator may include a hydraulic system; the pressure generator may include a pressure combination device such as a combination including but not limited to a counterweight and a pressure device adjusted by a screw rod; When the casting material needs to be partially or completely melted, the pressure generated by the pressure generator should be greater than or equal to the surface tension of the casting liquid formed by the material that is transformed into the liquid phase in the casting material; when the casting material is sintered and formed, the pressure generated by the pressure generator may be less than the surface tension of the casting liquid formed by the liquid phase material.

9. A device for casting patterns applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The casting material is made of one or more of metal materials, semi-metal materials, alloy materials, inorganic non-metal materials that can be alloyed or strengthened with metal materials, or powder, plate, or composition of glass materials or ceramic materials; The metal materials include but are not limited to copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead, bismuth, zinc, magnesium, gold, silver, iron, titanium, zirconium, molybdenum, and tungsten; The semi-metallic materials include but are not limited to silicon and germanium; The alloy materials include but are not limited to metal alloys such as copper-iron alloys, metal semi-metal alloys such as aluminum-silicon alloys, semi-metal alloys such as silicon-germanium alloys, alloys of fusible and refractory metals such as copper-tungsten alloys, and alloys of metals and inorganic non-metals such as high carbon steel; The inorganic non-metallic materials that can be alloyed or strengthened with metal materials include, but are not limited to, carbon, oxides, nitrides, carbides, borides, glass powders, and ceramic powders; The powder of the glass material includes but is not limited to glass powder; The powder of the ceramic material includes but is not limited to ceramic powder; The glass material plates include but are not limited to alkali-free glass plates and alkali glass plates; The ceramic material plates include but are not limited to oxide and nitride ceramic plates; The components of the glass or ceramic material include, but are not limited to, oxides, nitrides, carbides, sulfides, borides, and halides; The material form of the casting material includes one or a combination of powder, particles, blocks, plates, melt, and slurry, and the combination includes but is not limited to powder and melt, powder and plate.

10. A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The pattern cavity has one or more cavities, and the multiple cavities have the same or different shapes and depths; The pattern cavity is formed by, but is not limited to, mechanical engraving, laser engraving, electric spark engraving, photolithography, chemical etching, It is made by plasma etching, electron beam etching, printing high temperature resistant ink, printing high temperature resistant material, pasting high temperature resistant pattern layer, and mechanical pressing of template; The pattern cavity can also be directly printed into a pattern by using printing methods including but not limited to offset plate, rubber roller, printing plate, screen, stencil, spraying, and deposition to form a reverse structure of the pattern cavity; The cross-sectional geometric shape of the cavity includes but is not limited to one or more combinations of circle, semicircle, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, curved edge, and step shape; the three-dimensional geometric shape of the cavity includes but is not limited to one or more combinations of the shapes of grooves, slots, circular pits, semicircular pits, annular pits, conical pits, stepped pits, triangular pool bodies, flat or curved polygonal pool bodies, and pool bodies surrounded by polygonal grooves.

11. A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The casting material laying method includes a pattern laying method and a template laying method; The pattern laying method is that the casting material is laid only in the pattern cavity, and is not laid in other positions on the template, and the volume of the casting material to be laid is equal to the sum of the volumes of the various cavities in the pattern cavity; The template laying method is that the casting material not only fills the pattern cavity, but also covers an area on the template that is larger than the area occupied by the pattern cavity, and the volume of the casting material to be laid is larger than the sum of the volumes of each cavity in the pattern cavity.

12. A device for realizing a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The heating device is a sealed heating furnace, the casting core is placed in the sealed heating furnace, the sealed heating furnace includes a furnace body, a heater, a temperature sensor, a vacuum tube and a protective gas inlet; the casting core is placed in the sealed heating furnace, the heater heats the template in the casting core and the casting material thereon, the heating temperature is controlled by the temperature sensor, the vacuum is pumped through the vacuum tube, and the protective gas is filled through the protective gas inlet; the heating device adopts heating methods including but not limited to combustion, resistance, induction, microwave, and electrode energization.

13. A method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits, characterized in that: Step 1: forming a pattern cavity corresponding to the desired pattern on the template; Step 2: Laying casting material on the pattern cavity; Step 3: The pressure body is placed on the casting material to generate pressure thereon, and forms a casting core with the template; Step 4: A heating device heats the template and casting material in the casting core. After the casting material is partially or completely melted into casting liquid, it flows under the pressure of the pressure body and fills the pattern cavity. After the flow ends, the casting core is cooled. After the casting liquid solidifies, the pressure body is removed to obtain the casting pattern on the template.

14. A method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 13, characterized in that: The casting pattern includes one or more casting molds, and the multiple casting molds have the same or different shapes and thicknesses; the three-dimensional geometric shapes of the casting molds include but are not limited to straight line segments, curved line segments, convex points, columns, hollow columns, conical columns, stepped columns, circular blocks, semicircular blocks, triangular blocks, straight or curved polygonal blocks, and hollow polygonal blocks, or a combination of more than one of the shapes.

15. The method for making a casting pattern applicable to a precision circuit according to claim 13, characterized in that: A curable material is laid on the casting pattern, and the curable material is cured on the casting pattern through a curing process to obtain a casting pattern mosaic plate in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the cured material.

16. A method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 15, characterized in that: The solidifiable material is a metal material with a lower melting point than the casting material, so that the metal material with a low melting point can be solidified to form a metal mold casting pattern inlay plate that wraps the casting pattern.

17. The method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 15, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The curable material is a curable insulating material, so as to obtain an insulating casting pattern mosaic plate in which the casting pattern is wrapped by the cured insulating material; The curable insulating material includes but is not limited to organic material, inorganic material, and a mixture of organic material and inorganic material; The organic material includes but is not limited to phenolic (PF) resin, epoxy (Epoxy) resin, bismaleimide (BMI) resin, polyimide (PI) resin, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin, B-triazine (BT) resin; The inorganic materials include but are not limited to powder or fiber of glass material and ceramic material; The mixture of organic material and inorganic material includes but is not limited to a mixture of resin and glass fiber, and a mixture of resin and ceramic powder.

18. A method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to claim 17, characterized in that: At least one of the following conditions is met: The casting pattern in the insulating casting pattern mosaic plate is a metal pattern, and the metal pattern is a circuit pattern, so as to obtain a single-layer circuit board in which the circuit pattern is wrapped by an insulating material, and the substrate of the circuit board includes but is not limited to a resin substrate, a glass substrate, and a ceramic substrate; The bumps, columns, hollow columns and blocks in the metal pattern can be used as connecting elements between different single-layer circuit boards, and multiple single-layer circuit boards can be combined into a multi-layer circuit board by methods including but not limited to hot pressing bonding.

19. A method for making a casting pattern applicable to precision circuits according to any one of claims 14 to 18, characterized in that: The casting patterns include but are not limited to parts, models, cavities / shells, dentures and implants, microfluidic chips, microchannel heat sinks, coins, and logos; the surface morphology of the casting patterns includes but is not limited to plane shapes and curved shapes; the three-dimensional shapes of the casting patterns include but are not limited to pointed shapes, triangular shapes, square shapes, spherical shapes, ring shapes, convex and concave shapes, and hollow shapes.

20. The method for making a casting pattern applicable to a precision circuit according to claim 15, characterized in that: The casting pattern mosaic plate includes but is not limited to a sign, a printing base, a mold template, an imprint template, and a metamaterial array plate; the material form of the substrate of the casting pattern mosaic plate includes but is not limited to soft, hard, and a combination of soft and hard plates; various parts of the substrate of the casting pattern mosaic plate have the same or different thicknesses and shapes.

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