This application claims the benefit of China Patent Application No. 201210016458.7, filed on Jan. 18, 2012, and No. 201220024346.1, filed on Jan. 18, 2012, in the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit substrate structure and its manufacturing method, and more particularly to a manufacturing method for forming circuit substrate structure on non-conductive carriers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In view of diversity of 3C products, people may tend to focus on the convenience and portability of 3C products such that electronic products are developed to be toward small sizes, light weight and multifunctional directions. Simultaneously, IC design and its circuit design are advanced toward a direction of three-dimensional design. With three-dimensional circuit components, complicated circuits can be formed on circuit components with limited volumes. The appearance and volumes of electronic products can be reduced under a condition of no influencing its functions so as to further shrink and reduce weights. In another word, complicated design in three-dimensional circuit components can be remained under the smaller volume of electronic products. Therefore, the three-dimensional design of circuit components exactly has multiple potentials to reduce sizes and weight of electronic products and have multifunction, thereby having higher product competitiveness and can be widely applied to different devices such as mobile phones, automobile circuits, automatic teller machines and hearing aids.
Currently, in different ways of producing three-dimensional circuit components, one is MID-LDS (molded interconnect device-laser direct structuring). The foregoing way is to inject-mold a non-conductive plastic material containing a catalyst to form a component carrier. The catalyst on the carrier is activated by laser to transform the catalyst into a catalyst core. A metal conductive circuit is formed since the catalyst core and pre-plated metal ions are performed with chemical plating reaction.
The design of conductive circuit structures in the foregoing three-dimensional circuit process is composed of many circuits that are not connected to each other. With the metal catalyst attached to a partial surface of the circuit components to be formed with conductive circuit patterns, the pre-plated metal ions existing in chemical plating solution is performed with a catalysis reaction to reduce pre-plated metal ions on the partial surface of the circuit component to be formed with circuit patterns. Therefore, chemical plating does not have non-uniformity in distributing power lines by comparing with electroplating and also obtains a plated layer having a uniform thickness with respect to plated members having complicated geometrical shapes. Currently, a conventional way usually adopts chemical plating to produce conductive circuits of three-dimensional circuit components.
Under a condition of no imposing power, chemical plating is to perform a catalysis reaction for pre-plated metal ions existing in chemical plating solution through the metal catalyst attached to a partial surface of the circuit components to be formed with circuit patterns so that pre-plated metal ions are reduced on the partial surface of the circuit components to be formed with circuit patterns. Accordingly, chemical plating can form the metal plated layer having uniform thickness on the partial surface of the circuit components to be formed with circuit patterns.
An objective of the conductive circuit structures in the three-dimensional circuit process is to achieve small sizes, light weight, multifunction and higher product competitiveness for electronic products, thereby having widely application potential to 3C electronic products. However, it may have the following restrictions and defects.
Therefore, the current process technique of the three-dimensional circuits is still restricted with high production costs to be short of a conductive circuit structure and its manufacturing method applied to 3C electronic products.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor(s) of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed a method for manufacturing circuit substrate structure as a principle objective that is suitable for circuit process of a non-conductive carrier. Firstly, a carrier is provided, and an attached enhancement portion having rough surfaces is formed on a surface of the carrier through roughing process. The characteristic of the attached enhancement portion is transformed into hydrophilicty from hydrophobicity. A catalyst is disposed on a surface of the attached enhancement portion of the carrier. Finally, a metal layer is formed to the attached enhancement portion by reacting with the catalyst through chemical plating reduction.
Preferably, the carrier can be a non-conductive carrier and is a material having heat conduction property, wherein the roughing process can be sand blasting or laser irradiation etching. Before performing the roughing process for the surface of the carrier, a catalyst insulation layer can be further disposed on the carrier, and the catalyst insulation layer is penetrated by using the roughing process manner to the surface of the carrier, and the attached enhancement portion is formed on the surface of the carrier.
Preferably, the material of the non-conductive carrier can be a ceramic material, a polymer plastic material, wherein the polymer plastic material can be a thermoplastic plastic material or a thermosetting plastic material. The ceramic material can be selected from a group consisting of oxide, nitride, carbide, and boride. Further, the ceramic material is selected from a group consisting of oxide, nitride, carbide, boride is combined with a binding agent to form a mixture capable of being injected and pressed. After forming the mixture, the binding agent is removed to sinter it.
Preferably, the catalyst can be selected from a group consisting of titanium, antimony, silver, palladium, iron, nickel, copper, vanadium, cobalt, zinc, platinum, iridium, osmium, rhodium, rhenium, ruthenium, tin, a mixture thereof and can also be a compound thereof.
Preferably, the polymer plastic material of the non-conductive carrier can be added with inorganic filler, wherein a constituent of the inorganic filler can be selected from a group consisting of silicic acid, silicic acid derivative, carbonic acid, carbonic acid derivative, phosphoric acid, phosphoric acid derivative, active carbon, porous carbon, carbon black, glass fabrics, carbon fabrics or mineral fabrics or a foregoing combination.
Preferably, the wavelength range of the foregoing laser irradiation can be between 248 nanometers and 10600 nanometers. The laser irradiation etching can be carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, yttrium orthovanadate (Nd:YVO4) laser, excimer laser or fiber laser.
Preferably, the non-conductive carrier having heat conduction property comprises a material having heat conduction property or a derivative thereof dispersed therein. Further, the material having heat conduction property can be a metal heat conduction material. The metal heat conduction material can be selected from a group consisting of lead, aluminum, gold, copper, tungsten, magnesium, molybdenum, zinc, silver or a forgoing combination. The non-metal heat conduction material can be selected from a group consisting of graphite, graphite alkene, diamond, carbon nano-tube, carbon nano-capsule, nano-bubble, carbon sixty, carbon nano-cone, carbon nano-horn, carbon nano-pipet, tree-like carbon micrometer structure, beryllium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, magnesium oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide or a foregoing combination.
Preferably, at least one heat conduction column is embedded in the non-conductive carrier to increase the heat transfer efficiency of the non-conductive carrier. The material of the heat conduction column can be selected from a group consisting of lead, aluminum, gold, copper, tungsten, magnesium, molybdenum, zinc, silver, graphite, graphite alkene, diamond, carbon nano-tube, carbon nano-capsule, nano-bubble, carbon sixty, carbon nano-cone, carbon nano-horn, carbon nano-pipet, tree-like carbon micrometer structure, beryllium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, magnesium oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide or a foregoing combination.
Further, the foregoing manufacturing method can be utilized to simultaneously dispose at least one conductive contact on the carrier, which is disposed at an outside of the attached enhancement portion, through the roughing process after providing the carrier. The conductive contact is connected to an edge of the carrier to form an interlinked circuit together with the attached enhancement portion. The metal layer is disposed on the attached enhancement portion and the conductive contact through chemical electroplating. An anti-plating insulation layer is disposed on the conductive contact. Further, the electroplating layer is disposed on the attached enhancement portion by utilizing the electrifying and electroplating so as to increase the thickness of the metal layer. Finally, the anti-plating insulation layer and the metal layer disposed on the conductive contact are removed to obtain independently circuit patterns.
Preferably, the manufacturing method is suitable for three-dimensional circuit process of a plastic film component having heat conduction property. The carrier has heat conduction property. During electroplating process, the metal layer having conductivity generated by electroplating and electrifying is taken as a cathode, and an anode of a power source is jointed to a preplated metal solid. When the carrier component is immersed into electroplating solution containing preplated metal ions, the preplated metal ions are reduced to precipitate preplated metal on the metal layer when the metal layer taken as the cathode receives electrons, thereby forming the required metal circuits. The preplated metal can be copper, nickel, chromium, tin, silver or gold or other alloy metal.
The method for manufacturing circuit substrate structure can be widely applied to the three-dimensional circuit process of the non-conductive carrier, the non-conductive carrier having heat conduction property or the plastic film component having heat conduction property.
According to an objective of the invention, a method for manufacturing circuit substrate structure is utilized to produce a circuit substrate structure. The structure comprises a carrier, at least one attached enhancement portion, wherein the attached enhancement portion is to form rough surfaces on a surface of the carrier by utilizing the roughing process manner, and the rough surfaces of the attached enhancement portion being exposed, and a metal layer disposed on the attached enhancement portion. The metal layer is formed by reacting a catalyst preset on the attached enhancement portion with chemical plating solution.
Preferably, the circuit substrate structure further includes at least one conductive contact. The conductive contact is also disposed on the carrier through the roughing process manner and disposed at an outside of the attached enhancement portion. The conductive contact is connected to an edge of the carrier to form an interlinked circuit together with the attached enhancement portion.
The circuit substrate structure further includes an electroplating layer. An anti-plating insulation layer is further disposed on the conductive contact. The electroplating layer is disposed on the attached enhancement portion by utilizing the electrifying and electroplating, thereby increasing the thickness of the metal layer of circuit patterns. Finally, the anti-plating insulation layer and the metal layer on the conductive contact are removed to obtain independently circuit patterns.
According to another objective of the invention, the method for manufacturing circuit substrate structure is utilized to produce a circuit substrate structure. The structure comprises a carrier, a catalyst insulation layer, at least one attached enhancement portion and a metal layer. The catalyst insulation layer is penetrated to form the attached enhancement portion on the surface of the carrier so as to form the rough surface. The rough surface of the attached enhancement portion be exposed, and a metal layer is disposed to the attached enhancement portion. The metal layer is formed by reacting the catalyst that is preset to the attached enhancement portion with chemical plating solution.
The circuit substrate structure further includes at least one conductive contact and an electroplating layer. The conductive contact is disposed on the surface of the carrier by penetrating through the catalyst insulation layer through the roughing process and arranged at an outside of the attached enhancement portion. The conductive contact is connected to an edge of the carrier to form an interlinked circuit together with the attached enhancement portion. The conductive contact is used for connecting an edge of the carrier and the attached enhancement portion to form the metal layer by performing chemical plating. An anti-plating insulation layer is disposed to the metal layer of the conductive contact to isolate the conductive contact so as to prevent metal from being precipitated. The electroplating layer is formed by utilizing the electrifying and electroplating to increase the thickness of the metal layer. Finally, the anti-plating insulation layer and the metal layer on the conductive contact are removed to obtain independently circuit patterns.
The circuit substrate structure and its manufacturing method provided by the invention have the following advantages:
The foregoing and other technical characteristics of the present invention will become apparent with the detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the illustration of the related drawings.
The invention provides a circuit substrate structure and its manufacturing method. With reference to
The steps of the manufacturing method for circuit substrate structure of the invention mainly comprise:
Step S1, firstly provide a carrier, wherein the carrier can be a non-conductive carrier.
Step S2, form an attached enhancement portion having a rough surface on a surface of the carrier through a roughing process manner.
Step S3, dispose a catalyst to the attached enhancement portion, wherein the manner of forming the catalyst is that the carrier is immersed into a catalyst solution tank to attach the catalyst on the attached enhancement portion.
Step S4, finally perform chemical plating metallization for the catalyst on the surface of the carrier to form a metal layer.
In
With reference to
Further, the image for dewdrops attached to the surface of the carrier can be captured by the SEM. As shown in
The catalyst adopted in the step S3 can be selected from a group consisting of titanium, antimony, silver, palladium, iron, nickel, copper, vanadium, cobalt, zinc, platinum, iridium, osmium, rhodium, rhenium, ruthenium, tin or the foregoing mixture and can, but not limited to, be a compound containing the foregoing elements such as palladous chloride (PdCl2), stannic chloride (SnCl2), palladium sulfate hydrate (II) and the like.
In the step S4, the catalyst on the surface of the carrier can be chemically plated with at least one layered of metal layer through chemical reduction reaction by adopting copper or nickel. The metal layer can also be taken as an initial conductive film prior to performing electroplating procedure for a non-conductive carrier so as to provide a normal electric electroplating procedure with respect to copper, nickel and chromium. In the invention, the metal layer can be any metal or alloy having excellent conductivity. The embodiment adopts copper to react with the catalyst to form the metal layer. The manufacturing method for circuit substrate structure depicted in the steps S1 to S4 can be widely applied to a three-dimensional or planar circuit process with non-conductive carriers.
With reference to
In the invention, the metal layer can be taken as the initially conductive film prior to performing electroplating on the non-conductive carrier. To further understand the technical means applied to electroplating treatment in the invention, the processing flow for performing electroplating on the metal layer is specifically depicted herein. With reference to
Step S1a, firstly provide a carrier, wherein the carrier can be a non-conductive carrier.
Step S2a, form an attached enhancement portion having circuit patterns of rough surface and conductive contacts on the surface of the carrier through roughness treatment.
Step S3a, dispose a catalyst on the attached enhancement portion, wherein a manner of forming the catalyst is that the carrier is immersed into a catalyst solution tank to attach the catalyst on the attached enhancement portion.
Step S4a, perform chemical plating metallization for the catalyst on the surface of the carrier to form a metal layer.
Step S5a, impose an anti-plating insulation layer on the conductive contacts.
Step S6a, dispose an electroplating layer on the metal layer by utilizing electroplating treatment.
Step S7a, finally remove the anti-plating insulation layer and the metal layer from the conductive contacts to form independently circuit pattern.
With reference to
During the electroplating, the metal layer 13 having conductivity generated by electroplating and electrifying is taken as a cathode, and an anode with power is jointed to a pre-plated metal solid. When the carrier 11 is immersed into electroplating solution containing pre-plated metal ions, the pre-plated metal ions are reduced to precipitate pre-plated metal on the metal layer 13 when the metal layer 13 taken as the cathode receives electrons, thereby forming the required metal circuits. The pre-plated metal can be copper, nickel, chromium, tin, silver or gold or other alloy metal.
Since the surface of the carrier does not have an active catalyzed layer, the surface may be easily reacted with the catalyst and the chemical plating solution due to its material property. With reference to
Step Sa1, firstly provide a carrier, wherein the carrier can be a non-conductive carrier.
Step Sa2, dispose a catalyst insulation layer on the surface of the carrier.
Step Sa3, penetrate through the catalyst insulation layer on the carrier through a roughing process manner and dispose it on the surface of the carrier to form an attached enhancement portion.
Step Sa4, dispose a catalyst on the attached enhancement portion, wherein a manner of forming the catalyst is to immerse the carrier into a catalyst solution tank to attach the catalyst on the attached enhancement portion.
Step Sa5, finally perform chemical plating metallization for the catalyst on the surface of the carrier to form the metal layer.
In another word, the circuit substrate structure in the third embodiment of the invention is identical the first embodiment. The difference between both is that the catalyst insulation layer 14 (as shown in
Further, with reference to
The catalyst insulation layer 15 can be formed by using a photoresist agent, ink or paints by means of printing and ink-printing or pasting insulated tapes or taking a dry film photoresist agent as the catalyst insulation layer 14, wherein the catalyst insulation layer 14 can be removed or not be removed.
In the foregoing embodiments, the carrier is immersed into the catalyst solution tank, and a main constituent of the catalyst solution can be palladous chloride, tin chloride and hydrochloric acid (PdCl2+SnCl2+HCl) to form an extra thin catalyst having catalysis on the attached enhancement portion. Since tin ions of the material surface of the carrier would become Sn(OH)4 without catalysis, the Sn(OH)4 would have the catalysis for colloid attenuated palladium (Pd) metal particles. By peeling off the “tin shell”, a metal state Pd reduced from the surface of the carrier is taken as a catalyst for subsequent chemical plating. The foregoing process is so called accelerator.
Moreover, to increase the heat transfer efficiency of the whole circuit substrate structure, a heat conduction column can be embedded in the carrier. With reference to
Moreover, the material of the heat conduction column can, but not limited to, be selected from a group consisting of lead, aluminum, gold, copper, tungsten, magnesium, molybdenum, zinc, silver, graphite, graphite alkene, diamond, carbon nano-tube, carbon nano-capsule, nano-bubble, carbon sixty, carbon nano-cone, carbon nano-horn, carbon nano-pipet, tree-like carbon micrometer structure, beryllium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, magnesium oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide or a foregoing combination.
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
With reference to
The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth embodiments of the invention are to add the heat conduction material 1111 in the carrier 11. The added quantity and types can be properly regulated according to product demands designed by producers. The purpose is to increase the heat transfer efficiency of the overall circuit substrate structure.
The material adopted in the non-conductive carrier of the invention can be a polymer plastic material or a ceramic material. The polymer plastic material can be a thermoplastic plastic material or thermosetting plastic material. The material of the non-conductive carrier has a thermal conduction property, and an inorganic filler can be added into the polymer plastic material of the non-conductive carrier, wherein the constituent of the inorganic filler can be selected from a group consisting of silicic acid, silicic acid derivative, carbonic acid, carbonic acid derivative, phosphoric acid, phosphoric acid derivative, active carbon, porous carbon, carbon black, glass fabrics, carbon fabrics or mineral fabrics or a foregoing combination. Further, the ceramic material can be selected from a group consisting of oxide, nitride, carbide, or boride. Moreover, the ceramic material is selected from a group consisting of oxide, nitride, carbide, and boride is combined with a binding agent to form a mixture capable of being injected and pressed. After forming the mixture, the binding agent is removed to sinter it.
The roughing process adopted in the invention can use manners, such as sandblasting or laser irradiation etching, to dispose the attached enhancement portion having roughness on the surface of the carrier. The wavelength range of the laser irradiation can be between 248 and 10600 nanometer, wherein the laser irradiation etching can, but not limited to, be carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, yttrium orthovanadate (Nd:YVO4) laser, excimer laser or fiber laser.
In the invention, material having thermal conduction property or its derivative materials is dispersedly added in the non-conductive carrier. The material having thermal conduction property can be a metal heat conduction material or a non-metal heat conduction material. The metal heat conduction material can be selected from a group consisting of lead, aluminum, gold, copper, tungsten, magnesium, molybdenum, zinc or silver or a foregoing combination. The non-metal heat conduction material can, but not limited to, be selected from a group consisting of graphite, graphite alkene, diamond, carbon nano-tube, carbon nano-capsule, nano-bubble, carbon sixty, carbon nano-cone, carbon nano-horn, carbon nano-pipet, tree-like carbon micrometer structure, beryllium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, magnesium oxide, silicon nitride or silicon carbide or a foregoing combination.
The catalyst adopted in the embodiments can be selected from a group consisting of titanium, antimony, silver, palladium, iron, nickel, copper, vanadium, cobalt, zinc, platinum, iridium, osmium, rhodium, rhenium, ruthenium, tin or its mixture and can, but not limited to, also be a compound containing the foregoing elements such as palladous chloride (PdCl2), tin chloride (SnCl2) and palladium sulfate hydrate.
The method for manufacturing a circuit substrate structure depicted in the first to the ninth embodiment can be widely applied to various non-conductive carriers and can be a three-dimensional circuit process of a plastic film component having heat conduction property or a material having heat conduction property.
With reference to
With reference to
The circuit substrate structure and its manufacturing method of the invention forms the attached enhancement portion on the non-conductive carrier through laser irradiation etching so that the catalyst can be effectively sucked and firmly disposed to the attached enhancement portion to facilitate forming subsequent metal layers to have the advantage of lower production cost, capable of greatly reducing the usage of the catalyst and the accelerator and the cost of using chemical plate solution. Further, the problems of consuming higher production costs caused by conventionally activating the metal oxide through laser or producing the metal core through the accelerator can be improved.
It should be noted that in each embodiment of the invention, the attached enhancement portion, the catalyst, the metal layer, the anti-plating insulation layer, the catalyst insulation layer and the electroplating layer are disposed on one of single planes of the non-conductive carrier. While actually implementing the invention, different planes of the non-conductive carrier can, but not limited to, also be disposed with the attached enhancement portion, the catalyst, the metal layer, the anti-plating insulation layer, the catalyst insulation layer and the electroplating layer. In another word, the circuit substrate structure and its manufacturing method of the invention can produce three-dimensional or planar circuits.
Moreover, in each embodiment of the invention, before performing next step from each step, a cleaning motion is executed to prevent the manufacture procedure of next steps from being polluted by former steps. The foregoing technical means in the ordinary field is not depicted in the invention. For example, the attached enhancement portion having rough surfaces is formed on the non-conductive carrier through roughing process to produce scraps remained on the non-conductive carrier. The scraps can be removed from the surface of the non-conductive carrier by using the cleaning motion. However, it should be noted that the non-conductive carrier is immersed into a catalyst solution tank to attach the catalyst on the attached enhancement portion. After cleaning, the catalyst can be attached to the attached enhancement portion because of the rough surface of the attached enhancement portion. The catalyst on a portion of the non-conductive carrier that does not have the attached enhancement portion is removed through cleaning motion. Alternatively, the residue of the catalyst may not easily react with chemical plating or its reaction does not influence the circuit quality of the circuit substrate structure.
The invention improves over the prior art and complies with patent application requirements, and thus is duly filed for patent application. While the invention has been described by device of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those generally skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201210016458.7 | Jan 2012 | CN | national |
201220024346.1 | Jan 2012 | CN | national |