Patent Application
20170301453
This application claims benefit of priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0046375 filed on Apr. 15, 2016 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a coil electronic component.
Inductors, including coil electronic components, are electronic circuit components that are commonly used together with resistors and condensers for the removal of noise or to configure LC resonant circuits, and the like. Various types of inductors, such as multilayer inductors, wound inductors, thin film inductors, and the like, may be used according to a coil type thereof.
In general, an inductor includes a coil that is embedded in a body formed of an insulating material. According to recent demand for miniaturized devices having a range of performance levels, attempts to form fine coil patterns have been undertaken. In the case of the insulating material, since the insulating material has a relatively low degree of rigidity, product reliability may be reduced in manufactured products.
An aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a coil electronic component having improved structural stability and reliability. The coil electronic component may have miniaturized components and a fine coil pattern, and may exhibit a relatively high degree of rigidity by employing a body portion having a protective layer.
A further aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a method of effectively manufacturing a coil electronic component having the structure described above using a batch lamination method.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a coil electronic component having a novel structure is provided. The coil electronic component may include a body portion including a coil layer and a reinforcing layer disposed on at least one of an upper portion and a lower portion of the coil layer, and an external electrode disposed on an outer surface of the body portion. The coil layer may include an insulating layer, a coil pattern, and a first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern, and the reinforcing layer may have a higher degree of rigidity than the insulating layer.
The insulating layer may include a photosensitive insulating material.
The coil layer may further include a connection pattern disposed in a corner of the insulating layer to be connected to the external electrode.
The body portion may include a plurality of coil layers laminated in a stacking direction, each of the plurality of coil layers may include an insulating layer, a coil pattern, a first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern, and a connection pattern disposed in a corner of the insulating layer, and each of the plurality of coil layers may further include a second conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the connection pattern.
The coil pattern and the connection pattern may be connected to each other in an uppermost coil layer and in a lowermost coil layer of the plurality of coil layers.
The coil pattern and the connection pattern may be disconnected from each other in each of the plurality of coil layers other than the uppermost coil layer and the lowermost coil layer.
The second conductivity type via may include a copper (Cu) layer and a tin (Sn) layer laminated together.
The second conductivity type via in each respective coil layer may be disposed in the respective coil layer in a position which does not overlap with a position of other second conductivity type vias included in coil layers adjacent to the respective coil layer in a lamination direction.
The second conductivity type via may have an integrated structure penetrating through all of the plurality of coil layers.
The connection pattern may have an ‘L’ shape when viewed from above.
The coil electronic component may further include a pad layer disposed between the coil layer and the reinforcing layer, the pad layer including a connection pattern connected to the external electrode and not including a coil pattern.
The coil pattern may be partially embedded in the insulating layer and a surface of the coil pattern may be exposed through a surface of the insulating layer.
A Young's modulus of the reinforcing layer may be 12 or more.
The first conductivity type via may include a Cu layer and a Sn layer laminated together.
The first conductivity type via may further include an intermetallic compound disposed at an interface between the Sn layer and the coil pattern.
The body portion may have a structure that is asymmetrical in a vertical direction around a central surface of the body portion.
The body portion may further include a plurality of coil layers laminated in a stacking direction, and a core portion disposed in a central portion of the laminated stack of coil layers, and the coil layers may be disposed on upper and lower portions of the core portion.
Among the coil layers, first conductivity type vias included in the coil layers disposed on upper and lower portions of the core portion may be disposed in surfaces of the coil layers facing the core portion.
The core portion may be a copper-clad laminate.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method of manufacturing a coil electronic component may include providing a plurality of coil layers each including an insulating layer, a coil pattern, and a first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern; providing a reinforcing layer having a higher degree of rigidity than the insulating layer; forming a body portion by batch laminating the plurality of coil layers and laminating the reinforcing layer on at least one of an upper portion and a lower portion of the plurality of coil layers; and forming an external electrode on an outer surface of the body portion.
The providing of the plurality of coil layers may include forming the coil pattern on a surface of a carrier layer, forming the insulating layer to cover the coil pattern, and forming the first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern.
The providing of the plurality of coil layers may further include separating the carrier layer from the coil layers.
The coil layers may be formed on both an upper surface and a lower surface of the carrier layer.
According to a further aspect of the disclosure, a coil electronic component may include a body portion including a coil layer and a reinforcing layer disposed on at least one of an upper portion and a lower portion of the coil layer. The coil layer may include an insulating layer and a coil pattern, and the reinforcing layer may have a higher content of a ceramic filler than the insulating layer.
The insulating layer may include a mixture of the ceramic filler and a photosensitive material, the reinforcing layer may include the ceramic filler and an insulating resin, and a content of the ceramic filler in the reinforcing layer may be higher than a content of the ceramic filler in the insulating layer.
The body portion may include a plurality of coil layers laminated in a stacking direction, and each of the plurality of coil layers may include an insulating layer, a coil pattern, and a first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern.
The first conductivity type via in each respective coil layer may be disposed in the respective coil layer in a position which does not overlap with a position of other first conductivity type vias included in coil layers adjacent to the respective coil layer in a lamination direction.
Each of the plurality of coil layers may further include a connection pattern disposed in a corner of the insulating layer, and a second conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the connection pattern.
The second conductivity type via in each respective coil layer may be disposed in the respective coil layer in a position which does not overlap with a position of other second conductivity type vias included in coil layers adjacent to the respective coil layer in a lamination direction.
The body portion may include a plurality of coil layers laminated in a stacking direction, and a core portion disposed in a central portion of the laminated stack of coil layers, wherein the coil layers are disposed on upper and lower portions of the core portion.
A Young's modulus of the reinforcing layer may be 12 or more.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, a coil electronic component may include a body portion including a plurality of coil layers laminated in a stacking direction, and a reinforcing layer disposed on at least one of an upper portion and a lower portion of the laminated stack of coil layer. Each respective coil layer may include an insulating layer, a coil pattern, and a first conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer and disposed in the respective coil layer in a position which does not overlap with a position of other first conductivity type vias included in coil layers adjacent to the respective coil layer in the stacking direction.
The reinforcing layer may have a higher degree of rigidity than the insulating layer.
Each of the plurality of coil layers may further include a connection pattern disposed in a corner of the insulating layer, and the first conductivity type via may penetrate through the insulating layer to be connected to the connection pattern.
Each first conductivity type via may penetrate through the insulating layer to be connected to the coil pattern. Further, each of the plurality of coil layers may further include a connection pattern disposed in a corner of the insulating layer, and a second conductivity type via penetrating through the insulating layer to be connected to the connection pattern. The second conductivity type via in each respective coil layer may be disposed in the respective coil layer in a position which does not overlap with a position of other second conductivity type vias included in coil layers adjacent to the respective coil layer in a lamination direction.
The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described as follows with reference to the attached drawings.
The present disclosure may, however, be exemplified in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the specific embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
Throughout the specification, it will be understood that when an element, such as a layer, region or wafer (substrate), is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element, it can be directly “on,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” the other element or other elements intervening therebetween may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element, there may be no elements or layers intervening therebetween. Like numerals refer to like elements throughout. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be apparent that though the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various members, components, regions, layers, and/or sections, these members, components, regions, layers, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one member, component, region, layer, or section from another member, component, region, layer, or section. Thus, a first member, component, region, layer, or section discussed below could be termed a second member, component, region, layer, or section without departing from the teachings of the embodiments.
Spatially relative terms, such as “above,” “upper,” “below,” “lower,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element's positional relationship relative to one or more other elements as shown in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “above” or “upper” relative to other elements would then be oriented “below” or “lower” relative to the other elements or features. Thus, the term “above” can encompass both the above and below orientations depending on a particular direction of the devices, elements, or figures. The device may be otherwise oriented (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein may be interpreted accordingly.
The terminology used herein describes particular illustrative embodiments only, and the present disclosure is not limited thereby. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, members, elements, and/or groups, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, members, elements, and/or groups.
Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to schematic views illustrating the embodiments. In the drawings, components having ideal shapes are shown. However, variations from these ideal shapes, for example due to variability in manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, also fall within the scope of the disclosure. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure should not be construed as being limited to the particular shapes of regions shown herein, but should more generally be understood to include changes in shape resulting from manufacturing methods and processes. The following embodiments may also be constituted by one or a combination thereof.
The present disclosure describes a variety of configurations, and only illustrative configurations are shown herein. However, the disclosure is not limited thereto, but extends to other similar/analogous configurations as well.
Coil Electronic Component
First, with reference to
The external electrodes 131 and 132 may be provided as a pair, and may be disposed in positions opposing each other in a length direction of the body portion 110. The external electrodes 131 and 132 may be connected to coil patterns 121 of the body portion 110, and connection patterns 122 may be provided therebetween as described below. As a detailed form of the external electrodes 131 and 132, for example, a structure may be used that includes an outermost layer that is a tin (Sn) plating layer, and a nickel (Ni) plating layer disposed below the outermost layer.
Hereinafter, a detailed structure of the body portion 110 will be described with reference to
The coil layer 101 may be provided as a plurality of coil layers laminated or stacked in a single direction. Each coil layer 101 may include an insulating layer 111, a coil pattern 121, and a first conductivity type via 123 penetrating the insulating layer 111 to be connected to the coil pattern 121. In such a form, the coil pattern 121 of the coil layer 101 may form a coil having an axis aligned with the lamination direction (e.g., such that a direction of a magnetic field resulting from current flow through the coil flows in parallel to the lamination direction).
As a material of the insulating layer 111, a material appropriately selected from among materials that may be used as a material of a body portion of an inductor may be used. For example, a resin, ceramic, ferrite, or the like may be used. In the case of the exemplary embodiment, as a material of the insulating layer 111, a photosensitive insulating material may be used, by which a fine pattern may be implemented through a photolithography process. In detail, as the insulating layer 111 is formed using a photosensitive insulating material, the first conductivity type via 123, the coil pattern 121, and the like may be formed finely, to thus contribute to miniaturization and functional improvement of the coil electronic component 100. To this end, for example, a photosensitive organic material or a photosensitive resin may be included in the insulating layer 111. In addition, an inorganic component such as SiO2/Al2O3/BaSO4/Talc, or the like may be further included as a filler component in the insulating layer 111.
The coil pattern 121 may be obtained by patterning a high conductive metal in the form of a coil, for example, through a tenting method using copper (Cu) foil etching, a semi-additive process (SAP) using Cu plating, a modified semi-additive process (MASP), or the like. In the case of a metal used for the formation of the coil pattern 121, copper (Cu), silver (Ag), paladium (Pd), aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), titanium (Ti), gold (Au), platinum (Pt), or the like, may be used alone or a mixture thereof may be used. On the other hand, as illustrated in
The first conductivity type via 123 may be provided to connect the coil patterns 121 disposed on different layers of the plurality of insulating layers 111 to each other, and may be formed to have a multilayer structure as illustrated in
As described above, the reinforcing layer 112 disposed outside of the coil layer 101 to form a cover of the body portion 110 may have a higher degree of rigidity than that of the insulating layer 111. In a case in which a photosensitive material is used to implement a fine pattern, the rigidity of the insulating layer 111 may be lowered, and the reinforcing layer 112 may prevent the reduction in the rigidity. The reinforcing layer 112 may include a filler formed of ceramic or the like. As a relatively large amount of the filler is included therein as compared to that in the insulating layer 111, a relatively high degree of rigidity may be obtained. In a case in which rigidity of the reinforcing layer 112 is higher than that of the insulating layer 111, the performance (such as the rigidity) of the reinforcing layer 112 may be implemented. As an example of detailed characteristics, a Young's modulus of the reinforcing layer 112 may be about 12 or more. In addition, although the exemplary embodiment illustrates that one reinforcing layer 112 is respectively laminated on each of the upper and lower portions (or surfaces) of the body portion 110, the number of reinforcing layers 112 laminated on the upper and lower portions may be increased as needed. For example, a plurality of reinforcing layers 112 may be disposed on the same position.
On the other hand, in the exemplary embodiment, the coil layer 101 may include the connection patterns 122 formed on corners of the insulating layer 111 to be connected to the external electrodes 131 and 132. The coil patterns 121 and the external electrodes 131 and 132 may be stably connected with each other by the connection patterns 122 while improving electrical characteristics thereof. As in the coil pattern 121, each connection pattern 122 may be formed using a material such as Cu or the like, and may have an ‘L’ shape disposed at a corner of the coil layer 101 when viewed from above as illustrated in
In addition, in order to connect the connection patterns 122 disposed on different layers to each other, the coil layer 101 may include second conductivity type vias 124 penetrating through the insulating layers 111 to be connected to the connection patterns 122. In this case, the second conductivity type via 124 may have a structure similar to or the same as that of the first conductivity type via 123. In detail, the second conductivity type via 124 may have a lamination structure in which a Cu layer 151 and an Sn layer 152 are laminated, and an intermetallic compound 153 may be formed at an interface thereof with the connection pattern 122 connected to the Cu layer and the Sn layer.
As illustrated in
On the other hand, although the exemplary embodiment of
In addition, the positions in which the connection patterns 122 are located as illustrated in
In the case of the zigzag arrangement, pressure applied by the second conductivity type vias 124′ and 124″ may be dispersed, and thus, a process variable, having a negative influence on the body portion, such as a thickness deviation or the like, occurring in the body portion 110, may be reduced. In detail, in the case of a multilayer inductor, a relatively large degree of change in inductor characteristics may occur according to a respective distance between the coil layers 101, a thickness of the coil patterns 121, and the like. For example, the insulating layer 111 and a conductive layer such as the coil pattern 121 and the like may have different hardnesses and modulus characteristics or the like. Thus, deviations in thickness of the body portion 110 may occur when the body portion is pressed using heat and pressure, but may be prevented by disposing the second conductivity type vias 124′ or 124″ in a zigzag arrangement.
On the other hand, the second conductivity type vias 124′ may have a cylindrical shape as illustrated in
Hereinafter, modified examples of the present disclosure will be described with reference to
Next, in the case of the exemplary embodiment shown in
Subsequently, in the exemplary embodiment shown in
In the case of the modified example using the core portion 201 as shown in
In the example of
In another exemplary embodiment shown in
Method of Manufacturing Coil Electronic Component
Hereinafter, an example of a method of manufacturing a coil electronic component having the structure described above will be described with reference to
As described above, a coil electronic component may be manufactured using a method in which coil layers 101 and reinforcing layers 112 are batch laminated. As an example thereof, an individual coil layer 101 including an insulating layer 111, a coil pattern 121, a first conductivity type via 123, and the like may be manufactured as illustrated in
The coil pattern 121 and the connection pattern 122 may be obtained by laminating a mask layer on the copper-clad layer 303 to be patterned and then be plated with Cu or the like. Then, the mask layer may be removed therefrom. The coil pattern 121 and the connection pattern 122 may be formed on both upper and lower surfaces of the carrier layer 301, so as to form two coil layers 101 through a single process.
Subsequently, as illustrated in
Then, as illustrated in
Next, as illustrated in
Through the processes described above, the individual coil layers 101 may be manufactured in a required number thereof. In this case, the shape of the coil pattern 121, the connection pattern 122, and the like included in the respective coil layers 101 may be different from each other. Separately from the manufacturing of the coil layers 101, a reinforcing layer 112 having greater rigidity than that of the insulating layer 111 may be manufactured. The reinforcing layer 112 may be formed by including a relatively large amount of ceramic filler in an insulating resin. The coil layer 101 and the reinforcing layer 112 obtained as above may be batch laminated in a form illustrated in
The body portion obtained as above may implement a stable interlayer combination such as that shown in
As in the exemplary embodiment, the coil layers 101 and the reinforcing layers 112, which have been manufactured in advance, may be batch laminated, to form a body portion. Thus, as compared to a method in which respective layers are sequentially laminated, the number of overall processes and a process time may be reduced, thereby leading to reduction in process costs. In addition, in the case of the manufacturing method according to the exemplary embodiment, the specifications of the coil electronic component 100 such as the size thereof, electrical characteristics thereof, and the like may be effectively implemented by properly controlling the number or thickness of the coil layers 101. However, although the exemplary embodiment illustrates that the coil layers 101 and the reinforcing layers 112 are batch laminated, the coil layers 101 and the reinforcing layers 112 may also be laminated through being divided twice or more, according to the numbers of the coil layers 101 and the reinforcing layers 112.
As set forth above, with a coil electronic component according to the exemplary embodiments presented in the present disclosure, structural stability and reliability may be improved. In addition, such coil electronic components may be effectively manufactured using a batch lamination method.
While example embodiments have been shown and described above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations could be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2016-0046375 | Apr 2016 | KR | national |
