Abstract:
An Occam process (solderless manufacturing) that employs a component support fixture that provides permanent or temporary support for components during subsequent processing in a solderless process for electrically connecting the components to circuits. The component support fixture provides oversized compartments for housing the components which may have varying sizes. The compartments are provided with vent holes or apertures for venting air or excess glue as the component support is pressed against the components during manufacture.

Description:
[0001]    This application is a non provisional of and claims the benefit of provisional application No. 61/381,399 filed Sep. 09,2010; and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/081,384, filed Apr. 06,2011, which is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 12/163,870, filed Jun. 27,2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,173,which is a continuation-in-part and claims the benefit of PCT Application No. PCT/US08/63123 filed on May 8, 2008 which claimed priority to: “ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY WITHOUT SOLDER,” U.S. Application No. 60/928,467, filed on May 8, 2007; “ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY WITHOUT SOLDER AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE,” U.S. Application No. 60/932,200, filed on May 29, 2007;“SOLDERLESS FLEXIBLE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE,” U.S. Application No. 60/958,385, filed on Jul. 5, 2007;“ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES WITHOUT SOLDER AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE,” U.S. Application No. 60/959,148, filed on Jul. 10, 2007; “MASS ASSEMBLY OF ENCAPULSATED ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS TO A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD BY MEANS OF AN ADHESIVE LAYER HAVING EMBEDDED CONDUCTIVE JOINING MATERIALS,” U.S. Application No. 60/962,626, filed on Jul. 31, 2007; “SYSTEM FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES WITHOUT SOLDER,” U.S. Application No. 60/963,822, filed on Aug. 6, 2007; “ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES WITHOUT SOLDER AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE,” U.S. Application No. 60/966,643, filed on Aug.  28 ,  2007 ; “MONOLITHIC MOLDED SOLDERLESS FLEXIBLE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE,” U.S. Application No. 61/038,564, filed on Mar. 21, 2008; and “THE OCCAM PROCESS SOLDERLESS ASSEMBLY AND INTERCONNECTION OF ELECTRONIC PACKAGES,” U.S. Application No. 61/039,059, filed on Mar. 24, 2008; all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
         [0002]    This application further is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/170,426 filed Jul. 09,2008; which application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/959,148 filed Jul. 10,2007 and U.S. provisional application No. 60/962,627, filed Jul. 31,2007; all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    The present invention relates to the field of solderless assembly of packaged components, sometimes known as an Occam process. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    The present invention is an improvement on an Occam process generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,173, a grandparent of the present application, which is expressly incorporated by reference. That patent describes the process of placing components on a flexible substrate, adhering the components to the substrate with an insulating material, placing a component support fixture over the components to support them while processing the flexible substrate to provide electrical connections to the components. The components support may be temporary or it may be removed. 
         [0005]    While the component support fixture described in the aforementioned patent contains “compartments” of various sizes for different size components, there is no consideration of how to accommodate particular components that have ranges of sizes. If a component is too large in the vertical direction, for example, the component support fixture will not entirely fit over the component such that the support itself will not contact the flexible substrate it is intended to support during subsequent processing of the flexible substrate. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The invention comprises providing component-receiving compartments in the component support fixture of slightly larger dimensions than the largest dimension of the particular type of component. Invention further provides adhesively bonding the component support fixture to the components using an applied adhesive. The invention further provides a vent hole or aperture into the compartment whereby excess adhesive may be extruded through the vent hole or aperture in the case of oversized components. The invention further provides that components be placed on an adhesive substrate, rather than being adhered to an otherwise non-adhesive substrate via a post-placement adhesive (insulating material). Suitable tooling holes may be employed in the adhesive substrate to better locate the placement of the components. 
         [0007]    Another feature of the present invention is that the component support fixture comprises a machined or molded lid for both housing in compartments the components and for adhesively supporting the adhesive layer on a machined surface for subsequent processing of the adhesive layer in an Occam process. 
         [0008]    Additionally, the substrate adhesive itself may be anisotropically conductive, such that a foil, adhered to the adhesive, may be patterned into conductive traces as provided by co-pending parent U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/170,426 filed Jul. 09,2008,which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  illustrates a first step in the process showing to components of two different vertical dimensions before their placement on an adhesive substrate. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  illustrates a further step in the process wherein adhesive is placed on top of the components after they have been placed on the adhesive substrate. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  illustrates a further step in the process wherein a component fixture having aligned compartments is arranged above the components with adhesive already placed on their top surfaces. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  illustrates a further step in the process where the component fixture has been pressed against the adhesive substrate and wherein excess adhesive has been extruded through a vent hole or aperture from the compartments. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  illustrates a further step of the process showing the removal of the adhesive substrate. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  illustrates a completed part after the removal of the adhesive substrate. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0015]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , a pair of components  20  and  30  of different vertical heights are shown floating above and adhesive substrate  10  prior to being placed upon the adhesive substrate  10 . The adhesive substrate may be supported on a flat surface as is conventional, and may itself be a laminate of one or more layers of, for example metal foil  12 , see  FIG. 2 , and an adhesive layer  10 . The adhesive itself is preferably selected from a group consisting of low tack, pressure sensitive acrylic and thermal release films or tapes for hard substrate such as Nitto Denko material NWS-Y5V/NWS-TS322F 
         [0016]    Each of the components, which may have different vertical heights (and lengths and widths), are package integrated circuits having formed thereon electrical contacts  22  and  32  that will physically contact the adhesive substrate  10 . While illustrated in the figure as contacts spaced about the bottom surfaces of the components  20  and  30 , the contacts could be of the gullwing, J-leaded or other lead shape variety as illustrated in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,173. See e.g.  FIGS. 8 and 9  of U.S.  &#39;173, and the gullwing components  802 . 
         [0017]    The adhesive may be provided with tooling holes  14  that may be used to provide apertures for tools to better align the adhesive substrate and the tooling, not shown, that physically places the components  20  and  30  on the adhesive substrate  10 . 
         [0018]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , the figure illustrates the components  20  and  30  after they are accurately placed on the adhesive substrate  10 . In this step, a metal layer  12  may be applied to the adhesive substrate  10 . In subsequent processing, provided the surfaces of the carrier  70  are non conductive this metal layer  12  may be patterned the form electrical traces to the contacts  22  and  32  of the components  20  and  30  as illustrated either in U.S. &#39;173, which shows connections through vias through the adhesive substrate or in co-pending application Ser. No.  12 / 170 , 426  wherein the electrical connection is due to the adhesive itself being anisotropically conductive such as 3M 5363 an anisotropic conductive film which is comprised of a mixture of epoxy and acrylic resins and a curative in combination with conductive particles dispersed within the mixture so as to be conductive in the Z or vertical axis and insulating in the X and Y directions 
         [0019]    Alternatively to applying the metal foil layer  12  in step two ( FIG. 2 ), the adhesive substrate  10  may itself comprise a laminate structure consisting of the adhesive substrate  10  and the metal foil  12 . 
         [0020]    Again referring to  FIG. 2 , an adhesive is applied to the top surfaces of components  20  and  30 , resulting in a piled layer of adhesive  42  and  40  respectively. While the amount of the adhesive in a pile might be within defined ranges, as known in the art, the amount can vary from sample to sample. For this reason, both the vertical height of the components  20  and  30  and the amount of adhesive in piles  42  and  40  may vary within tolerance ranges. 
         [0021]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , a component support fixture  70  having compartments  50  and  52  is shown arranged above components  30  and  20  prior to the fixture being lowered into place. As illustrated in the figure, each of the compartments  50  and  52  additionally has a vent hole or aperture  60  and  62 . The purpose of a vent hole or aperture is to allow venting both of air and of excess adhesive from the respective compartments  50  and  52  as the component support fixture  70  is lowered into place about components  30  and  20  and is pressed into abutment (not shown) with the adhesive substrate  10  as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0022]    As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the size of the compartments  50  and  52  is chosen such that they can accommodate components of all sizes in the both the vertical and horizontal ranges and allow space both above and to the sides of the components  30  and  20  within the compartment  50  and  52 . The size is further chosen such that the pile of adhesive  40  or  42  is squeezed about the components  30  and  20  within the compartments  50  and  52 . When the size of the components versus the size of the compartments is such that there is insufficient space remaining within the compartments for the excess adhesive, the vent hole or aperture provides for the extrusion of adhesive  40  and  42  through vent holes or apertures  60  and  62 , as the component support fixture  70  is pressed down until its bottom surface  72  is pressed into contact with the adhesive substrate  10 . 
         [0023]    Referring to  FIG. 4 , the figure shows the component support fixture  70  in place, contacting the adhesive layer  10  via its lower surface  72 . As well, the piles of adhesive  40  and  42  have been squeezed into the spaces  54  and  56  between the components  30  and  20  and the compartments  50  and  52 . At this point, the adhesive could be allowed to be cured, at which time electrical contacts could be made according to the aforementioned co-pending applications to provide via connections to the contacts  32 ,  22 , or traces by etching the metal foil  12  as provided in Ser. No. 12/170,426. 
         [0024]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , in an alternative embodiment, the adhesive  10  could be removed by for example chemical stripping or peeling it from the completed component support fixture/component, as shown in the figure. To facilitate removal the material could be a heat releasable material as mentioned earlier. This is preferentially accomplished by providing the adhesive with a layer  12 , which could be the metal foil layer  12  as described above, but it also could be any other suitable layer that would support the adhesive layer during the previous processing steps. Such a suitable layer could be any of various stable polymer films which could serve as a carrier for the adhesive including polyester, polyethelyne napthalate or polyimide. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 6 , the completed part is shown after the adhesive layer  10  has been removed. This part may be used in subsequent manufacturing steps where the components  30  and  20  could be further processed using an Occam process or otherwise to provide electrical connections to other elements on a circuit board. Also, it is intended that the adhesive  40  or  42  be chosen such that the component support fixture  70  might be removed entirely after such subsequent processing. 
         [0026]    For this purpose, it is understood that the component support fixture  70  can be made of any material for the purpose sense if invites only temporary manufacturing support for the components  30  and  20 . If however component support fixture  70  is intended to be permanent, it could be made of a material that is insulating or conductive depending on the purpose for the support, and it further could be made out of a material having a high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum. Examples of materials in the latter category include epoxy glass laminates or molded thermoplastic materials such as PEEK. 
         [0027]    The description of the various embodiments above are not to be taken as a limitation on the scope of the invention. Variations of materials and structures and sequence of steps to achieve the overall objective of providing a component support fixture with vent holes or apertures either as a partial step in an Occam process, or as a completed structure in an Occam process, or other process, is within the scope of the present invention.