Wire Bonding for Miniaturized PCB Interconnection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for connecting printed circuit modules in electronic devices, such as board-to-board connectors and anisotropic conductive film, are bulky and have a pitch greater than 150 microns, limiting the miniaturization of electronic devices like wearable devices.
Innovation Solution
The use of wire bonding techniques with alignment methods, reinforcement plates, and protective structures to electrically connect printed circuit modules, allowing for pitches less than 150 microns and enabling smaller form factors in electronic devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional connectors (board-to-board connectors, gold fingers, anisotropic conductive film) are used to connect printed circuit modules, then electrical connection between modules is achieved, but the pitch is greater than 150 microns and the device size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical connectors (board-to-board connectors, gold fingers) and anisotropic conductive film with wire bonding technology. Wire bonding uses fine wires (typically gold or copper) to create electrical connections between bonding pads on different printed circuit modules, achieving pitches less than 150 microns and enabling device miniaturization while maintaining reliable electrical connectivity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the connection parameter from conventional connector pitch (>150 microns) to wire bonding pitch (<150 microns). This parameter change enables higher density interconnections and smaller device form factors, particularly benefiting wearable devices where space is constrained
2Volume of moving object
If wire bonding is used to connect printed circuit modules, then pitch is reduced to less than 150 microns and device miniaturization is enabled, but the wire bonds require protective structures and alignment techniques
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs preliminary alignment techniques where alignment marks or fiducials are placed on the printed circuit modules before wire bonding. This preliminary positioning ensures accurate alignment of bonding pads, enabling precise wire bond placement with pitches less than 150 microns while simplifying the overall bonding process
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces protective structures (such as encapsulants, conformal coatings, or protective films) as intermediaries that cover and protect the fine wire bonds. These protective layers prevent mechanical damage, oxidation, and environmental degradation of the delicate wire bonds, enabling reliable operation without increasing the pitch or device size
3Adaptability or versatility
If printed circuit modules are split into separate modules for flexibility, then different modules can be located in different parts of the device, but conventional connectors increase the overall device size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the electronic system into separate printed circuit modules that can be independently designed, manufactured, and positioned. Wire bonding provides the interconnection method that links these segmented modules with fine-pitch connections (<150 microns), enabling both module flexibility for different device layouts and compact overall device size
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables three-dimensional module arrangement by using wire bonding to connect modules positioned at different locations and orientations. The fine-pitch wire bonds can span varying distances and angles, allowing modules to be distributed in three-dimensional space rather than constrained to a single plane, thus achieving both flexibility and miniaturization
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for electrically connecting printed circuit modules using wire bonding. A first printed circuit module may have one or more bonding pads electrically coupled with one or more electrical components of the first printed circuit module, and a second printed circuit module may have one or more bonding pads electrically coupled with one or more electrical components of the second printed circuit module. One or more wire bonds may be used to electrically connect the one or more bonding pads of the first printed circuit module to the one or more bonding pads of the second printed circuit module. A protective structure may be used to cover at least a portion of the one or more wire bonds.