Abstract:
This invention provides a novel application of a semiconductor light emitting element or light emitting chip preferably disposed on the underside surface of a clear or translucent substrate. In addition connecting wires leading from said element to the perimeter of the substrate connecting to contact pads leading to a circuit board. The conductors are deposited on the substrate using thin film technology. Preferably the light emitting element is packaged in a flip chip having connecting bumps only on one side.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    A. Field of Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates generally to electronic devices and specifically to a semiconductor light emitting element formed and positioned on the surface of a clear or translucent substrate providing a more efficient and even distribution of lighting and therefore improving the viewing of an item or object at night or in low light conditions. The substrate may form or be a part of protective shield, lens or cover of an object being illuminated.  
           [0003]    B. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0004]    Illumination is widely used in the electronic industry on products ranging from cellular telephones, calculators, watches, hand-held computers, global positioning units and gauges. Illuminating devices are also used in many other industries such as in automobiles, signs, advertising and ornamentation.  
           [0005]    Light emitting diodes have many advantages over competing lighting elements such as electroluminescent, phosphorescent, flourescent elements as well as LCD and incandescent elements in areas such as size, cost, color variables, reliability, and power consumption.  
           [0006]    Semiconductor light emitting diodes have been used in cellular phones, watches and other electronics but their illumination has been limited due to their positioning underneath, embedment inside a crystal or from the side of the light transmissive item receiving the illumination as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,127—Timex, U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,871—Seiko, U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,994—Tomlinson.  
           [0007]    Electroluminescent lighting, hereinafter referred to as EL, has been in widespread use in the electronic industry and is usually positioned underneath the item or object such as watch dials or other surfaces as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,977—Sliker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,964—Timex, U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,869—Hanaoka In these references the direct illumination is provided upward towards the viewer restricting any aesthetic aspects. Another disadvantage of EL&#39;s is that they require complicated auxiliary circuitry and limited colors to the consumer market.  
         OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved and efficient illumination apparatus for viewing an item or object by positioning an illumination device to direct light in a direction towards the subject to be illuminated making viewing easier, more efficient and less stressful to the viewer.  
           [0009]    A further objective of this invention is to remove the semiconductor light emitting diode packaging including the reflective directional cone and the surrounding glass or plastic protective barrier, therefore leaving the light emitting element in its raw form which when applied to the undersurface of the clear or translucent substrate radiates in a 180-degree angle and when in off mode leaves the lighting apparatus virtually invisible.  
           [0010]    It is another objective of the present invention to provide an illumination device for electronic devices such as: cellular phones, watches, hand-held computers, global positioning units, gauges, automobiles, signs, advertising and ornamental devices eliminating any EL as the primary illumination source and its associated circuitry.  
           [0011]    Another objective is to group semiconductor light emitting diode chips which could be red, green and blue configuration centrally or in selected areas of the substrate regulated independently by a circuit or ASICS chip with resistors limiting electrical current providing an unlimited spectrum of colors.  
           [0012]    Another objective is to allow constant or preprogrammed illumination variables, which could be activated from a power source with a preprogrammed electronic circuit or a programmable ASICS chip and is controlled by an actuator switch, which could be within close proximity of the item or object.  
           [0013]    These and other objects of the invention, together with features and advantages thereof will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, the appended claims and the accompanying drawings.  
           [0014]    An illuminating device is disclosed which is formed of a substrate made of a transparent, translucent or opaque. A plurality of conductors are formed on the substrate using thin film deposition techniques. The conductors may include several coextensive layers, including a layer of chromium, a layer of nicker and a layer of gold. A protective layer is then applied to cover and protect the conductors.  
           [0015]    The device further includes one or more light emitting elements, each element being formed of semiconductor materials forming a semiconductor junctions. Importantly, no lenses are provided to concentrate light from these elements thereby insuring the light is evenly distributed as it propagates away from the device. Preferrably the light emitting element or elements are packaged in a flip chip having connecting bumps on one side. Therefore the chip can be directly connected to the conductors.  
           [0016]    The device may be formed with several light emitting elements arranged into multicolored groups. Each group includes a red, a green and a blue element. The groups can then be activated to form a static or moving colored image. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 shows a plan view of an illumination device constructed in accordance with this invention;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the device of FIG. 1;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3 shows an enlarged sectional view of the illumination device with details of the conductors;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of a watch incorporating the subject illumination device;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the watch of FIG. 4; and  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 6 shows a substrate with multi-colored light emitting elements.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0023]    [0023]FIGS. 1 and 2 shows an illumination device constructed in accordance with this invention. The device  10  includes a substrate  12  which in one embodiment of the invention is made of a transparent or translucent material such as a glass, quartz or crystal. The substrate  12  can have a circular shape, as shown in FIG. 1, a rectangular, a square shape, or any other regular or irregular shape desired. Two conductors  14 ,  16  are formed on the substrate  12  using semiconductor techniques, as described in more detail below. The conductors  14 ,  16  extend from two connectors  18 A,  18 B preferably disposed near an edge of the substrate  12 . The other ends of the conductors  14 ,  16  consist of bonding pads  20 A,  20 B, respectively. A light emitting element  22  is secured to the pads  20 A,  20 B (in FIG. 1, element  22  is shown in phantom lines). Preferably the element  22  is provided in form of a flip chip which has connecting bumps (not shown) on only one surface  22 A. Flip chips and methods of attaching the same to a substrate are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,886 (incorporated herein by reference). Therefore the element  22  can be mounted on substrate  12  solidly and without any connectors or leads required from its top surface  22 A. The element  22  is oriented so when it is energized by current from conductors  14  and  16 , it generates light, as indicated symbolically in FIG. 2 by rays R. Alternatively, instead of a flip chip, element  22  may be a light emitting element with one connection on each of the surfaces  22 A and  22 B as shown in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.  6 , 106 , 127  incorporated herein by reference. Light emitting elements of these kinds are available in a variety of colors from Agilent Technologies, a subsidiary of the Hewlett Packard Company, and Sharp Corporation of Japan.  
         [0024]    Light emitting diodes are semiconductor devices that are readily available in a large variety of sizes, power output color, configuration, etc. A typical light emitting diode consists of a light emitting element and a lens. The light emitting element is made of two semiconductor materials forming a junction so that when a current flows across the junction, light is generated. This light is then intercepted by the lens and directed in a predetermined direction. To the inventor&#39;s knowledge, no illuminating devices are presently available which utilize only the light emitting element without a lens. However, the inventor has discovered that the light emitting element of diodes can be used effectively without any lens and in that how the element  22  is preferably used. An illuminating device, such as  10 , having this configuration, i.e., one that utilizes a light emitting element without a lens, has several advantages: first it can illuminate an object more evenly and across a greater surface area. Second, light emitting element and its conductors can be made so small that they will be substantially invisible and hence provide an interesting and attractive esthetic aspect to any object thus illuminated.  
         [0025]    The conductors  14  and  16  are formed on substrate  12  using standard thin film technology well known in the art. For example, the conductors may be formed by the following sequence:  
         [0026]    a. a photoresist material is applied to the substrate  12  using, for example, a spin coater;  
         [0027]    b. the substrate is baked for a duration sufficient to cure the photoresist (for example, 30 minutes);  
         [0028]    c. An aligner is used to place a negative mask on the photoresist, the mask forming a with a pattern corresponding to the shape of the conductors;  
         [0029]    d. the mask is exposed to UV light;  
         [0030]    e. The substrate is soaked in a photoresist developer to remove the exposed photoresist;  
         [0031]    f. The substrate is loaded in a plasma asher to be cleaned with oxygen;  
         [0032]    g. The substrate is placed in a vacuum chamber,  
         [0033]    h. Metal is deposited on the substrate using electrode beam evaporation;  
         [0034]    i. The substrate is allowed to cool and is removed from the vacuum chamber;  
         [0035]    j. The substrate is soaked in acetone to remove the residual photoresist.  
         [0036]    Preferably, this process is performed on a large sheet of substrate so that several illuminating devices are made at the same time, disposed for example in a two dimensional array. After step (j) the final product may be inspected and then cut to the desired size and shape.  
         [0037]    The conductors may be formed integrally on the substrate using the process outlined above or other similar processes and can be made from gold, silver, copper, nickel as well as various alloys having a relatively low electrical resistivity. Moreover, it has been found that instead of using a single metal layer for forming the conductors, multiple layers may be used. For example, in step (h) three different layers may be deposited, as shown in FIG. 3: a layer of chromium Cr which adheres well to the glass substrate  12 , a layer of nickel Ni which can be soldered easily; and a layer of gold Au which has a very small electrical resistance. Finally, a non-conductive resin may be added on top of the gold layer to protect the conductors during handling.  
         [0038]    The first, or adhesive layer may also be made of titanium or a titanium tungsten alloy. The second layer may also be made of platinum or paladium. The third layer may also be made of silver, copper and other alloys. The second and third layers may be interchanged.  
         [0039]    Alternatively, conductors  14 ,  16  may be made of a transparent or translucent material such as Iridium Tin Oxide (ITO).  
         [0040]    [0040]FIGS. 4 and 5 shows a cross-sectional view of a watch  30  and it illustrates how the subject invention may be used. The watch  30  includes a case  32 , a dial  34  with indicia  36 . A shaft  38  is used to turn two hands  40 ,  42  in the conventional manner. Disposed on top of the hands  40 ,  42  is the substrate  12  with the conductors  14 ,  16  and light emitting element  22  oriented downwardly so as to illuminate the dial  34  and the hands  40 ,  42 .  
         [0041]    As seen more clearly in FIG. 5, disposed under the dial  34  there is provided an IC chip  44  which provides the logic for the movement of the hands  40 ,  42  and/or the light emitting element  22 . The chip  44  is connected to conductors  14 ,  16  by a coupling  46 .  
         [0042]    It should be understood that substrate  12  may be too fragile to protect the watch  30  adequately and therefore additional protective crystals or other transparent sheets (not shown) may be used to reinforce the substrate  12  as well.  
         [0043]    In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the dial  34  can be illuminated from the bottom instead of, or as well as, the top. In this embodiment, the dial  34  may be made of a transparent or translucent material and an illuminating device  12 A is positioned under the dial  32 , essentially similar to the device  12 . In this configuration, the light emitting element of the device  12 A (not shown) is oriented upward so that its light penetrates through the dial  32 . Advantageously, device  12 A can be made as a discrete element, or it can be integral with the chip  44  or dial  34 .  
         [0044]    The subject device illustrated in FIGS.  1 - 3  has been described as being used to illuminate a watch. however, it may be used to illuminate many other apparatus as well, such as electronic devices, including cellular telephones, calculators, PDAs, and so on.  
         [0045]    Element  22  can be emitting light at a single wave length, or alternatively it may be adapted to emit at several wave lengths, for example by providing several semiconductor junctions on the same substrate. In this latter configuration, additional wires may be required to provide appropriate excitation for the device.  
         [0046]    [0046]FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the invention wherein a plurality of light emitting elements, such as  22 A,  22 B and  22 C are provided on a substrate  12 ′. Of course these elements may be distributed on the substrate  12 ′ in any desired pattern and may be used to produce static or moving images on the substrate. Each of the elements may be connected to conductors C which provide excitation to these elements. In the drawings, the conductors C are shown as being formed in a radial pattern. However, the conductors may be arranged in any pattern. Moreover, two conductors C may be provided for each element, or some of the conductors may be shared, especially if more than one element is excited at a time.  
         [0047]    The elements are energized by connecting the conductors associated therewith to appropriate mechanical and/or electronic switches well known in the art.  
         [0048]    The light emitting elements in the multi-colored configurations may be formed into groupings of a red, a blue and a green element so that when properly excited, the elements can be used to form colored images.  
         [0049]    Obviously, numerous other modifications may be made to the invention without departing from its scope as defined in the appended claims.