Abstract:
An alignment structure of individual printed circuit board and method thereof are disclosed. The alignment structure of individual printed circuit board includes a panel body and an assembling part. An aligned part having a geometric feature is disposed on an inner side of the panel body. The assembling part coupled with an individual printed circuit board is similar to the geometric feature of the aligned part so that the individual printed circuit board is combined with the panel body.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 94143187, filed Dec. 7, 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0002]     1. Field of Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to an alignment structure and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an alignment structure and a method thereof for an individual printed circuit board to be assembled in a panel in place.  
         [0004]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0005]     A printed circuit board (PCB) is obtained by patterning a copper layer on a substrate to form a transmission path between devices according to a predefined layout. PCBs support electronic components for installation and interconnection, which is applied in electronic products for information, communication and consumer electronic industries.  
         [0006]     For mass production, PCB manufacturers combine several individual boards into a single panel.  FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional PCB panel structure. Each individual board  100   a  is connected with a PCB panel  100  by a bonding structure  102  which takes the form of V-cut or V-notch.  
         [0007]     However, when one or more individual boards fail due to a circuit defect such as an incorrect circuit pattern during the process, the whole panel has to be discarded, which wastes other functional boards and creates pollution.  
         [0008]     For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved design capable of fully utilizing remaining functional boards in a panel when a defective board is caused in the panel, so that the problems of resource waste and pollution can be avoided.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0009]     It is therefore an aspect of the present invention to provide an alignment structure for replacing a defective individual board in a panel.  
         [0010]     It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an alignment structure for accurately positioning a replaced individual board in a panel.  
         [0011]     In accordance with the foregoing and other aspects of the present invention, an alignment structure of an individual printed circuit board is provided which includes a panel body and an assembling part. The panel body has an aligned part on its panel inner edge and the aligned part has a geometric feature. The assembling part is coupled with an individual printed circuit board whose profile is similar to the geometric feature of the aligned part so that the individual printed circuit board is able to be fitted into the panel body correctly.  
         [0012]     According to a preferred embodiment, a panel for PCBs includes a plurality of individual printed circuit boards. The assembling part on a board edge of the individual printed circuit boards has several concaves and convexes while the aligned part on the panel inner edge has corresponding structures which are fitted for the assembling parts. The profile match between the assembling part and the aligned part allows the individual board to be combined with the panel body so that the individual board is accurately positioned and constrained in the panel body.  
         [0013]     Another aspect of the present invention is a method for replacing and aligning an individual board in a panel. The method for replacing an individual board in a panel includes a step of separating a defective individual board from a first panel and a step of engaging an assembling part of the functional individual board with an aligned part of the first panel.  
         [0014]     Specifically, a defective individual board is first separated from a first panel and a functional individual board is separated from a second panel. The functional individual board is then engaged with an aligned part of the first panel by its assembling part. Furthermore, glue may be applied to bond the functional individual board to the first panel.  
         [0015]     In conclusion, the alignment structure allows a replacement of a defective individual board in a panel with a functional individual board of another panel and also allows the complete panel to correctly place a component during the component placement process. The present invention saves remaining functional individual boards in a panel and hence reduces cost, and also avoids the pollution incurred due to discarding the whole panel.  
         [0016]     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]     These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention are better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0018]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a conventional PCB panel structure;  
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of a panel structure in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0020]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of replacement of defective individual boards in a panel in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart of replacing and aligning individual boards in a panel in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0022]     The present invention discloses a panel structure with a geometric feature by which an individual board fits into a panel body. Convenient replacement of individual printed circuit boards in a PCB panel is available and an accurate positioning is also provided. Reference is now made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic view of a panel structure in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The alignment structure includes a panel body  210  and an assembling part  206 . The panel body  210  is a frame for integrating several individual printed circuit boards  200   a  into a single entity, and an aligned part  208  is part of an inner edge  204  of the panel. The aligned part  208  includes a geometric feature  212 .  
         [0024]     The assembling part  206  is coupled to a board edge  202  of the individual printed circuit board  200   a  and takes the form similar to the geometric feature  212  of the aligned part  208 . That is, the assembling part  206  can be fitted into the aligned part  208  through a complementary profile, so that the individual printed circuit board  200   a  is accurately positioned in the panel body  210 .  
         [0025]     In a preferred embodiment, the alignment structure of the present invention is applied to a PCB panel  200  which has four individual printed circuit boards  200   a . Preferably, the individual board  200   a  can be removed from the PCB panel  200  by punching. Specifically, the assembling part  206  is separated from the aligned part  208 .  
         [0026]     As shown in the figure, the PCB panel  200  includes a panel body  210  and a plurality of individual printed circuit boards  200   a  connected thereto. The figure also emphasizes the aligned part  208  on the panel inner edge  204  when the individual printed circuit board  200   a  is separated from the panel body  210 . The aligned part  208  has a geometric feature  212 , a concave or a convex with a saw-toothed, triangular, wave or irregular profile, showing a curvature variation with respect to the panel inner edge  204  at the border.  
         [0027]     A board edge  202  of the individual printed circuit board  200   a  has an assembling part  206  which renders a curvature variation with respect to the board edge  202  at the border. The assembling part  206  may be a concave or a convex, depending upon the geometric feature  212  of the aligned part  208  subject to the requirement that the aligned part  208  is capable of engagingly matching the profile of the assembling part  206 .  
         [0028]     For example, when the aligned part  208  is a concave, the assembling part  206  is a convex which fits into the aligned part  208 . In the embodiment, both of the aligned part  208  and the assembling part  206  have a plurality of concaves and convexes.  
         [0029]     Reference now is made to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates a schematic view of replacement of defective individual boards in a panel in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention. Individual boards with a symbol ‘X’ are defective. An example for describing the implementation of replacing individual boards is as follows. A first panel  300  has four individual boards  300   a ˜ 300   d , two of which are defective individual boards  300   c  and  300   d  caused by an error in the process, and the other two are functional individual boards  300   a  and  300   b . A second panel  310  includes defective individual boards  310   b  and  310   d  and functional individual boards  310   a  and  310   c.    
         [0030]     Before a component placement process, the defective individual boards  300   c  and  300   d  of the first panel  300  can be removed by punching, as well as done for functional individual boards  310   a  and  310   c  of the second panel  310 . The functional individual boards  310   a  and  310   c  then are put into the spaces which were occupied by the defective individual boards  300   c  and  300   d  previously. All assembling parts are correspondingly engaged with the alignment parts.  
         [0031]     The functional individual boards  310   a  and  310   c  can be firmly bonded to or fixed on the first panel  300  by glue to achieve the replacement of the defective individual boards  300   c  and  300   d . When the replacement is finished, a new complete panel  320  with four functional individual boards  300   a ,  300   b ,  310   a  and  310   c  is obtained. By the engagement between the alignment part and assembling part, accurate and precise positioning is available, which helps avoid inaccurate placement of components in subsequent process.  
         [0032]     It should be noted that profiles of the aligned part and the assembling part are not limited to the embodiment above. Various kinds of shapes are within the scope of the present invention as long as profiles of two parts are capable of being fitted with each other. Generally, a more complicated profile leads to a more accurate fit. Moreover, the number of the assembling part and alignment part can be increased according to needs for a greater precision.  
         [0033]     Reference is now made to  FIG. 4 , which is a flow chart of replacing and aligning individual boards in a panel in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Another aspect of the present invention is a method for placing and aligning an individual board in a panel which is capable of replacing the individual board in the panel by accurate positioning. In a preferred embodiment, the method for replacing an individual board in a panel includes the following steps. In step  402 , a defective individual board is separated from a first panel.  
         [0034]     In step  404 , a functional individual board is separated from a second panel. Each of the individual boards includes an assembling part and each of the panels includes an aligned part for the assembling part to fit into. The individual boards above may be separated from the panel by punching. In step  406 , the assembling part of the functional individual board is engaged with the alignment part of the first panel so that the individual board is replaced and positioned in a correct way. The method for replacing further includes a step  408  in which the functional individual board is bonded to the first panel by glue so that the functional individual board can be held firmly.  
         [0035]     The present invention has the following advantage. With an aligned part and an assembling part, individual boards in a panel are replaceable in an easier way to fully utilize the whole panel, and accurate positioning of the individual boards is also achieved which avoids inaccuracy in the component placement process due to an inaccurate positioning of the individual board. Therefore, the resource waste in the whole process is lowered significantly for the reasons above and pollution caused from discarding the whole panel is also reduced. The present invention is greatly advantageous to manufacturers in the field.  
         [0036]     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.