Flowable Adhesive Component Placement on Carrier Substrate
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge in manufacturing circuit boards is accurately placing electronic components with multiple contacts or connections, especially as components and boards miniaturize, leading to difficulties in mounting and detachment due to the need for precise alignment and high pressure, which can damage the adhesive foils used in conventional methods.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a carrier structure coated with a low-viscosity flowable adhesive, allowing electronic components to be immersed and accurately positioned within the adhesive layer, reducing alignment inaccuracies and enabling easy detachment of the carrier structure after solidification, thus ensuring precise placement and exposure of contact pads or sensor surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If temporary adhesive foils are used for mounting electronic components, then components can be temporarily fixed during manufacturing, but detachment becomes difficult after interference fit assembly
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive layer is separated from the carrier foil, allowing the adhesive to remain on the circuit board while the carrier foil is completely removed. This extraction of the adhesive from its original carrier enables easy detachment after assembly, as the adhesive bond remains but the difficult-to-remove carrier foil is gone.
Solution Approach 2:
A release layer is introduced as an intermediary between the adhesive layer and the carrier foil. This release layer prevents the adhesive from bonding to the carrier foil, allowing the carrier to be easily removed while the adhesive remains bonded to the circuit board, thus solving the detachment problem.
2Strength
If high pressure is applied during interference fit assembly, then components are securely fixed, but adhesive foil detachment becomes even more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
By removing the carrier foil entirely from the final assembly, the source of detachment difficulty is eliminated. The adhesive remains to provide fixation strength, but without the carrier foil that becomes difficult to remove under pressure, detachment is no longer problematic.
Solution Approach 2:
The release layer acts as a mediator that prevents adhesive-carrier bonding while allowing adhesive-circuit board bonding. This enables strong component fixation through the adhesive without the carrier foil interfering with detachment, even under high assembly pressure.
3Adaptability or versatility
If electronic components with multiple contacts are mounted on miniaturized circuit boards, then product functionality increases, but placement accuracy becomes more difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive layer is applied with locally optimized properties - a thicker layer in the mounting area where precision is needed, and a larger overall surface area to provide a generous target zone for component placement, thereby improving placement accuracy despite miniaturization.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive layer is pre-applied to the carrier structure before component mounting, creating a ready-to-receive surface that simplifies and improves placement accuracy. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for precise alignment during the actual mounting process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances the precision and ease of mounting electronic components on circuit boards, allowing for accurate placement and exposure of contact pads or sensor surfaces, facilitating better electrical connections and sensing capabilities while minimizing damage to the adhesive and carrier structure.
Implementation Method 1
applying a layer of flowable adhesive (in particular a low-viscosity resin in a liquid state) on the carrier structure
Data Source
AI summary
A method of manufacturing a circuit board or a circuit board intermediate product, wherein the method comprises providing a carrier structure, applying a layer of flowable low-viscosity adhesive on the carrier structure over a surface area of the carrier structure which is larger than a mounting area in which an electronic component is to be mounted on the carrier structure, and pressing the electronic component into a subsection of the layer of adhesive in the mounting area so that at least part of the electronic component is immersed within the adhesive.