Flexible Substrate Metal Wiring Projections for Bending Breakage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible substrate members with metal wirings face breakage issues due to external bending forces, particularly during assembly and product handling, as they lack sufficient reinforcement to enhance mechanical strength and handling capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The flexible substrate member incorporates a configuration with metal wirings demarcated by intersecting groove portions, featuring projections on the extension lines of these grooves to act as auxiliary wiring areas, which increase the wiring area and provide resistance against bending forces, thereby preventing breakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a flexible substrate member with metal wirings is used, then electrical connectivity is achieved, but the metal wirings are prone to breakage under external bending forces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by forming projections at groove portions before the substrate undergoes bending during assembly or use. These projections are pre-positioned to intersect with groove portions, creating auxiliary wiring areas that will bear the bending stress when it occurs. The projections are formed in advance through a metal wiring formation process that includes patterning and deposition steps prior to final assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dimensionality change by transitioning from a two-dimensional metal wiring pattern to a three-dimensional structure with projections extending vertically from the substrate surface. These projections add a vertical dimension to the wiring architecture, creating overlapping wiring layers that provide redundant mechanical support and electrical pathways, thereby enhancing both strength and reliability.
2Ease of manufacture
If groove portions are created to demarcate metal wirings, then wiring separation is achieved, but structural weakness increases at intersection regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating projections specifically at groove portion intersection regions where structural weakness occurs, rather than uniformly across the entire substrate. This localized approach reinforces only the critical areas that experience concentrated bending stress, maintaining wiring separation benefits while selectively enhancing strength where most needed for manufacturing and assembly durability.
3Strength
If projections are added to reinforce metal wirings, then bending resistance improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies merging by integrating the projection formation process into the existing metal wiring formation process. The same patterning and deposition steps used to create metal wirings are also used to form the projections, combining two functions (wiring creation and reinforcement structure formation) into a single manufacturing sequence. This reduces the need for separate processing steps and minimizes manufacturing complexity despite the enhanced structural capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible substrate member which can prevent breakage due to bending, regardless of a shape of a metal pattern, and a light emitting device which employs the flexible substrate. The flexible substrate member includes a plurality of metal wirings disposed on an insulating substrate which are spaced apart from each other via a groove portion. The groove portion includes an intersection region where a first groove portion and a second groove portion are intersected. The metal wirings includes a first metal wiring and a second metal wiring which are demarcated via the first groove portion in the intersection region, and a third metal wiring which is demarcated via the second groove portion with respect to the first metal wiring and the second metal wiring. The third metal wiring includes a projection which projects on an extension line of the first groove portion.