This invention relates to a method and apparatus for through-contacting flexible substrates, in particular circuit boards, having electrically conductive contact zones disposed on two opposing surfaces of the substrate, whereby a cut is produced by means of a cutting tool through the substrate obliquely to the surfaces of the substrate in the area of the contact zones, and the two substrate areas adjoining the oblique cut are moved past each other until they lock behind each other. This achieves the result that they touch the contact zones disposed on the opposite surfaces of the substrate, that is, the contact zone on the upper side of the substrate touches the contact zone on the underside of the substrate.
Such a method is described in the unpublished patent application DE 101 22 414.1. Compared to conventional through-contacting methods by which through-contacting is effected by punching or drilling a through hole and inserting a conductive contact sleeve or pouring in a conductive paste (EP-A-0 884 973), this method is fundamentally simpler. The surfaces of the substrate can be leveled again by subsequent lamination, which at the same time stabilizes the electrical connection between the two contact zones. No additional conductive material is required for producing the contact since the contact zones press firmly against each other due to the internal stress of the flexible substrate.
Such a substrate or such circuit boards are normally integrated as a card inlay into IC cards or chip cards (identity cards, credit cards, cash cards, etc.) and frequently form a separate layer of the card body. On one side of the circuit board there can be for example an integrated circuit formed by the conductive layer and having further electronic devices, while the conductive layer on the opposite side of the circuit board is formed for example as an antenna coil for noncontacting data interchange and energy transfer with external devices, which is electrically connected with the integrated circuit through the circuit board. This electrical connection through the circuit board is generally designated “through-contacting.”
Instead of IC cards, the substrate can also be used in the context of the present invention for tags, stickers and similar security elements with antenna coil technology and/or electronic inlays.
It proves to be problematic in this method that the two working steps to be performed in succession, namely the oblique cut and the urging through of the two substrate areas adjoining the cut (hereinafter also designated “contact tabs” or “through-contacting tabs”), are imprecise and lead to high reject rates. Internal tests with the method therefore required a high expenditure of manual work.
It is the problem of the present invention to specify a concrete and reliable, simplified method for through-contacting circuit boards and the like as well as an apparatus for carrying out the method.
Therefore, the through-contacting tabs produced by the oblique cut are not pushed past each other manually; this is done mechanically by means of a separate ram or by means of compressed air or by applying a vacuum or automatically during production of the oblique cut by a driving hook fixed to the cutting tool. Single or several of these measures can also be combined with each other. The use of said mechanical aids permits the method to be automated and the reject rate to be reduced.
A special advantage is to be seen in the fact that the mechanical aids for urging through the through-contacting tabs can be combined with the cutting tool for producing the oblique cut in a common processing station. This makes it in particular possible to perform both processing steps with the substrate position unchanged, so that the mechanical aids for urging through the through-contacting tabs always act on the substrate at an exactly predetermined position relative to the previously provided cut.
It is particularly advantageous if the two steps required for through-contacting are effected in a common operation. This goal can be attained for example by the cutting tool with a driving hook fixed thereto by the cutting tool first being pushed through the substrate obliquely to the substrate plane, and one of the two thereby produced through-contacting tabs being urged behind the other through-contacting tab for example by a driving hook fixed to the cutting tool upon further advancing of the cutting tool.
The two steps of producing the cut and urging through the tab can also be integrated into one operation when applying compressed air and/or a vacuum.
Even the use of a separate ram for urging one contacting tab through behind the other contacting tab can be integrated into the working step of producing the oblique cut. In this case the contacting tabs are urged past each other by the ram before the cutting tool is withdrawn from the oblique cut. The cutting tool is preferably realized as a knife blade which is resilient perpendicular to the knife blade plane.
In accordance with a special embodiment of the invention, the cutting edge of the cutting tool is serrated and has at least one tooth. This prevents the knife from slipping after being placed on the flexible substrate and accordingly improves the precision of through-contacting.
The invention will hereinafter be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
a and 1b show the front and back of a flexible substrate,
a and 3b show a substrate through-contacted by means of the apparatus according to
a and 5b show a substrate through-contacted by means of the apparatus according to
a shows the front of a substrate 1 suitable for incorporation into a card body. On this side of the substrate a conductive layer 2 is shown in the form of a coil for noncontacting data and energy exchange with an external device. The coil 2 disposed on this side of the substrate 1 has the contact zones 4 and 5, the contact zone 5 being provided for contacting with an IC module. A further contacting of the coil with the IC module is effected via the contact zone 6 which is connected by a through-contacting at the site 8 with a second electrically conductive layer 3 in the form of a second coil on the back of the substrate 1 (
The cut 11 in the substrate 1 is preferably produced at a 45° angle relative to the substrate surfaces 1a, 1b.
The step of moving the two through-contacting tabs 20, 30 past each other is effected by means of a driving hook 15 on the knife 9 in accordance with the first embodiment shown in
In accordance with the second embodiment shown in
In a plan view, both embodiments result in a through-contacted configuration as shown in
After through-contacting is completed in the processing station, the substrate 1 can be removed from the processing station and for example be completed to form a plastic card in a laminating process with further plastic layers and optionally further electronic devices.
Instead of the ram with a comparatively small cross section as shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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101 56 395.7 | Nov 2001 | DE | national |
This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP02/12774, filed Nov. 14, 2002.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP02/12774 | 11/14/2002 | WO |