Electroluminescent element

Abstract: An electroluminescent element is provided that is easy to be mounted on a circuit board. A transperet film 1 is provided of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or the like at an extreme front surface, on a rear surface of which indium tin oxide (ITO) is vapor deposited to form a transparent electrode 2, on a rear surface of which an electroluminescent layer 3 is formed, on a rear surface of which an insulating layer 4 is formed, and on a rear surface of which a rear electrode 5 is formed. On a rear surface of the rear electrode 5, a connection electrode portion 6 for an electroluminescent element is formed in an exposed state and a protecting layer 7 is formed at the other entire rear surface. The transparent electrode 2 at one part is projected to provide a connection electrode portion 8 for the electroluminescent element wherein a conductive layer 9 is formed on a rear surface thereof. Projections 10 and 11 are formed projecting of an elastic conductive resin on rear surfaces of the connection electrode portions 6 and 8. When mounting the electroluminescent element on a circuit board 13, joining to electrode portions on a circuit board side is made by compressing these projections in a compressed state.

Description: 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electroluminescent element. Description of the Prior Art There is a structure of an electroluminescent element having a combination of various constituent elements. Basically, it has a basic principle that alternating current is applied between electrodes provided by interposing an insulating layer and a luminescent layer between the electrodes, to cause electroluminescence. To mount such an electroluminescent element on a circuit board, mounting is ordinarily made through metal leads by soldering between electrode connecting portions on an electroluminescent side and electrodes on a circuit board side. Or these portions are connected by pressure contact through the use of a spring, rubber contact, or the like, or by soldering or connectors through a flexible printed circuit (FPC), flexible film circuit (FFC). It is however troublesome in manufacture operation to perform soldering or the like using metal leads or the like, as stated above, when mounting an electroluminescent element on a circuit board. There has been a problem of disadvantage in respect of reduction in process time because it is impossible to implement so-called surface mounting that includes processes of placing an element directly on a circuit board to apply solder paste and heat for reflow soldering as performed for other circuit elements, for example, of a bare chip capacitor or the like. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above stated problem, an electroluminescent element of the present invention is provided, at connection electrode portions, with elastic conductive protrusions formed by projecting an elastic conductive resin used upon being mounted on a circuit board. These protrusions can be formed by a subsequent and common process to a process of laminate-forming, in order, layers for an electroluminescent element by a process of screen printing or the like. When the electroluminescent element is mounted on a circuit board, it can be placed directly on the circuit board and joined thereto in a compressed state, thereby obtaining connection in a favorable conductive state. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a sectional view of an electroluminescent element according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In an electroluminescent element having an insulating layer and an electroluminescent layer formed between a transparent electrode and a rear electrode so that electroluminescence of the electroluminescent layer is caused by applying an alternating current to between the respective electrodes, the electroluminescent element of the present invention is characterized in that: the respective electrodes have connection electrode portions provided with protrusions formed by projecting an elastic conductive resin. The provision of the protrusions projecting at the connection electrode portions provides positive conduction by only connecting the protrusions of the connection electrode portions on an electroluminescent element side in a compressed state to electrode portions on a circuit board side, when this electroluminescent element is mounted on the circuit board. Embodiment Now an embodiment will be explained with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 illustrates a sectional view of an electroluminescent element having constituent layers which will be explained in order from a front side. On an extreme front (on an upper side in Fig. 1), there is provided a transparent film 1 such as of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), while on a rear side thereof a transparent electrode 2 is formed by vapor-depositing indium tin oxide (ITO). The transparent electrode 2 has a luminescent layer 3 formed on a rear surface thereof. An insulating layer 4 is formed on a rear surface of the luminescent layer 3. Further, a rear electrode 5 is formed on a rear surface of the insulating layer 4. The luminescent layer 3 is formed by screen-printing a paste of using powders of zinc sulfide (ZnS) and copper (Cu) as luminescent materials kneaded with a binder. Also, the insulating layer 4 is formed similarly by screen-printing using a paste of barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) and the like kneaded with a binder. The rear electrode 5 is formed by two layers of a layer 5a formed similarly by screen-printing using a paste of a carbon powder kneaded with a binder and a layer 5b using a silver paste. This is to prevent electrical charges from concentrating at a connection electrode portion 6 of the electroluminescent element when electrical voltage is applied to the electroluminescent layer 3. The presence of the silver layer 5b with low electrical resistance relative to comparatively high electrical resistance of the carbon layer 5a eliminates deviated distribution of electrical charges, thus enabling application of electrical voltage evenly throughout an entire luminescent layer. The rear electrode 5 has an area of a connecting electrode portion 6 for the electroluminescent element at which the layer 5b is left exposed. A protecting layer 7 is formed over the entire rear surface of the electroluminescent element excepting the area of the connection electrode portion 6 in order to prevent moisture from intruding to the luminescent layer 3. Also, a connection electrode portion 8 is provided by projecting a part of the transparent electrode 2. At the connecting electrode portion 8 on a rear surface of the transparent electrode, a conductive layer 9 is formed by two layers of a layer 9a by screen-printing using a paste of a carbon powder kneaded with a binder and a layer 9b using a silver paste. At the connection electrode portions 6 and 8, protrusions 10 and 11 are respectively formed projecting in bump forms of an elastic conductive resin on the rear surfaces of the exposed layers 5b and 9b. These protrusions are formed projecting in a semicircular or semielliptical form by screen-printing using an elastic conductive resin ink dispersed with conductive particles 12b of such as silver or carbon in an elastic material 12a of rubber, vinyl resin or the like. The protrusions 10, 11 require to have such heights that they project from the rear surface of the protecting layer 7. As will be explained later, when the electroluminescent element is mounted on a circuit board 13, these protrusions are properly compressed to enable stable voltage supply to the luminescent layer 3. It is preferred that the protrusions are in a height compressed by, for example, approximately 0.2 - 0.3 mm. If the height in a compressed state is low, conduction will be unstable. On the other hand, if the height in compression is too high, the protrusion 10 is excessively compressed during mounting the electroluminescent element to thereby exert pressure to the luminescent layer 3 and the insulating layer 4, resulting in a trouble of crushing these layers. This might cause a fear of occurring a failure to lighting or shortcircuit. The electroluminescent element of the present invention is structured as explained above. When manufacturing it, a transparent electrode 2, a luminescent layer 3 and an insulating layer 4 are formed by screen printing in order on a transparent film 1. Then, a layer 5a of the rear electrode 5 and a layer 9a of a conductive layer 9 are simultaneously formed by screen printing, and subsequently a layer 5b of the rear electrode 5 and a layer 9b of the conductive layer 9 are simultaneously formed by screen printing. A protecting layer 7 is then formed by screen printing on an entire rear surface of the electroluminescent element excepting the areas of connection electrode portions 6, 8. Finally, projections 10, 11 are simultaneously formed by screen printing, thus completing the manufacture. To mount the electroluminescent element thus manufactured onto a circuit board 13, the protrusions 10, 11 are positioned facing to the corresponding electrode portions 13a, 13b on the circuit board, and then the electroluminescent element is joined to the circuit board by depressing it onto the circuit board to compress the protrusions 10, 11 into a compression state for subsequent heating. In this manner, the electroluminescent element of the present invention can be surface-mounted on a circuit board 13 in a manner similar to surface-mounting of not-shown other circuit elements. Because the present invention is provided with protrusions formed by projecting at connection electrode portions, when mounting an electroluminescent element on a circuit board, positive conduction is obtained only by connecting, in a depression state, the protrusions at the connection electrode portions on an electroluminescent element side to electrode portions on a circuit board side, enabling connecting operation simple and in a brief time. Also, since separate parts such as a spring are not required, the number of parts is reduced with reduced cost. Also, because the formation of the protrusion can be formed subsequent to a series of processes for manufacturing the electroluminescent element, the manufacture is easy to perform.

Claims: In an electroluminescent element having an insulating layer (4) and a luminescent layer (3) formed between a transparent electrode (2) and a rear electrode (5) so that electroluminescence of the luminescent layer (3) is caused by applying an alternating current to between the respective electrodes (2, 5), the electroluminescent element is characterized in that the respective electrodes (2, 5) have connection electrode portions (6, 8) provided with protrusions (10, 11) formed by projecting an elastic conductive resin.

Inventors: YONEDA KOJI, YONEDA, KOJI, Yoneda, Koji c/o Seiko Precision Inc.
Applicants: SEIKO PRECISION KK, SEIKO PRECISION INC.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: H05B33
IPC codes: H05B33