The disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a conductive circuit board and a conductive circuit board made therefrom.
The demand for high power light emitting diode (LED) has multiplied in recent years, so that ceramic circuit boards with good heat dissipation have also attracted the attention of the lighting industry. In the related technology industry of ceramic circuit boards, direct plated copper (DPC) substrates are widely favored by the industry.
Referring to
In step (A), with reference to
In step (C), with reference to
In step (E), with reference to
Although the existing method for manufacturing a DPC substrate can achieve the purpose of forming the patterned metal circuit layer 14 and the metal protective layer 15 on the ceramic substrate 10, to complete the patterned metal circuit layer 14, apart from the need to perform the yellow light lithography process in step (C), there is still the need to strip the patterned dry film 12 in step (E) and to etch away the another portions 1112 of the metal base layer 111 in step (F), only then can the patterned metal base layer 11 and the patterned copper plating layer 13 together form the patterned metal circuit layer 14. It is well known to those skilled in the related technical field of DPC that the yellow light lithography process described in step (C) must go through the following three substeps: (C1) attaching a dry film; (C2) covering the dry film with a photomask to expose the dry film through an exposure machine; and (C3) developing the exposed dry film to obtain the patterned dry film 12. Through the aforesaid description, it is apparent that, in order to complete the patterned metal circuit layer 14, multiple steps must be performed, so that the manufacturing process of the existing method is very complicated.
Furthermore, it should be noted that a predetermined pattern defining the patterned metal circuit layer 14 is designed according to the application requirements of the downstream industry. However, the patterned metal circuit layer 14 can only expose partial areas of the upper and lower surfaces 101 and 102 of the ceramic substrate 10, but not the inner surfaces 1001. Therefore, the patterned metal circuit layer 14 cannot meet the requirements of circuit design for the relevant manufacturers who need to design circuit patterns in the via holes 100 of the ceramic substrate 10.
Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for manufacturing a conductive circuit board that can simplify the production process and meet the needs of the industry in circuit design.
According to this disclosure, the method for manufacturing a conductive circuit board comprises the steps of: preparing a substrate, the substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface opposite to each other, and at least one via hole extending through the upper surface and the lower surface and defined by an inner surface; forming a compound metal layer on at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate and on the inner surface of the substrate; etching the compound metal layer by a laser beam, so that the at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate and the inner surface are formed with a patterned metal circuit layer having a predetermined pattern for exposing a portion of the at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate and a portion of the inner surface; and forming a surface finish layer on a top surface of the patterned metal circuit layer, so as to form a conductive circuit layer.
Another object of this disclosure is to provide a conductive circuit board manufactured from the above method.
According to this disclosure, the conductive circuit board includes a substrate and a metal circuit layer. The substrate has opposite upper and lower surfaces, and at least one via hole extending through the upper and lower surfaces and defined by an inner surface. The metal circuit layer is formed on the at least one of the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate and on the inner surface. The metal circuit layer has a predetermined pattern for exposing a portion of the at least one of the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate and a portion of the inner surface.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
A method for manufacturing a conductive circuit board according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes steps (a) to (e), which will be described in detail below in combination with
In step (a), with reference to
In step (b), with reference to
In step (c), with reference to
The etching action performed by the laser beam 6 in step (c) is performed using a six-axis laser engraving machine (not shown). More specifically, the six-axis laser engraving machine can be used to adjust an angle between the optical axis of the laser beam 6 and each inner surface 201, so that the optical axis of the laser beam 6 can directly point to each inner surface 201 to partially etch away the metal base layer 301 formed thereon. When an aspect ratio of each via hole 20 is high, the substrate 2 can also be inclined at an angle so that the optical axis of the laser beam 6 can directly enter each via hole 20 to partially remove/etch away the metal base layer 301 formed on each inner surface 201.
In step (d), with reference to
In step (e), with reference to
Referring to
Specifically, the substrate 2 has the opposite upper and lower surfaces 21, 22, and the via holes 20 extending through the upper and lower surfaces 21, 22 and respectively defined by the inner surfaces 201. The patterned metal base layer 3 is obtained by implementing the aforesaid steps (b) and (c), and is formed on each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22, and the inner surface 201. The patterned metal base layer 3 has a predetermined pattern that exposes the portion 211 of each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22, and the inner surface 201. The metal circuit layer 4 is formed on the patterned metal base layer 3, has a predetermined pattern that is identical to and that overlaps the predetermined pattern of the patterned metal base layer 3, and can also expose the portion 211 of each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22, and the inner surface 201. The metal protective layer 5 is formed on the metal circuit layer 4, has a predetermined pattern that is identical to and that overlaps the predetermined pattern of the metal circuit layer 4, and can also expose the portion 211 of each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22, and the inner surface 201.
From the above detailed description of the method and the conductive circuit board made therefrom, it can be seen that, not only the metal base layer 301 formed on each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22 and the inner surface 201 of the substrate 20 can be directly etched away through the laser beam 6 in step (c) to expose the portion 211 of each of the upper surface 21, the lower surface 22 and the inner surface 201, but also the six-axis laser engraving machine (not shown) can be used to adjust the angle between the optical axis of the laser beam 6 and each inner surface 201 of the substrate 2. Further, by tilting the substrate 2 at an angle, the optical axis of the laser beam 6 can directly point to each inner surface 201 to partially etch away the metal base layer 301 formed thereon. The manufacturing method of this embodiment does not need to perform the substep (C1) of attaching the dry film, the substep (C2) of exposing the dry film and the substep (C3) of developing the exposed dry film to obtain the patterned dry film 12 as described in the existing method for manufacturing a DPC substrate. There is also no need to perform the step (E) of stripping the patterned strip film 12 and the step (F) of etching away the portions 1111 of the metal base layer 111 at positions corresponding to where the patterned strip films 12 are stripped in the existing method. Compared with the existing method of manufacturing the DPC substrate, the manufacturing method of this disclosure can omit many steps of the existing manufacturing method. Moreover, the manufacturing method of this disclosure can also partially expose each inner surface 201 of the substrate 2 which can satisfy the requirements of the related industry who needs to design circuit patterns at the via holes 20 of the substrate 2.
Referring to
In step (2a), with reference to
In step (2b), with reference to
In step (2c) of etching, with reference to
In step (2d) of a surface finish process, with reference to
A feature of this embodiment provides a method for manufacturing a conductive circuit board that can simplify the production process and meet the needs of the industry in circuit design. The manufacturing method of this embodiment can replace the conventional processes, such as dry film lamination, exposure, developing, etching and stripping.
Referring to
The difference between this embodiment and the above-mentioned embodiments is that, the compound metal layer is formed on a thick metal base layer and the method according to the present disclosure can only be applied on the compound metal layer.
In step (3a), with reference to
A metal base layer 301 is further provided on the substrate 2, and specifically, between the substrate 2 and the compound metal layer 4C. The metal base layer 301 is formed on the upper and lower surfaces 21, 22 of the substrate 2. The metal base layer 301 may be formed by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method along with an electroplating method. The PVD method may be selected from one of sputtering and evaporation. In this step, the metal base layer 301 includes a titanium/copper (Ti/Cu) layer film formed by sputtering and a plated copper layer formed by electroplating.
Specifically, the substrate 2 is processed with a DPC (Direct Plated Copper) process, that is by magnetron sputtering technology to deposit a metal layer (Ti/Cu seed layer) on the surface of the ceramic substrate 2 along with an electroplating method which result in plated copper deposited on the Ti/Cu seed layer. The thickness of the metal base layer 301 could range between 10 μm to 130 μm. In this embodiment, the thickness of the metal base layer 301 ranges between 50 μm to 60 μm.
In step (3a), a compound metal layer 4C is formed on the metal base layer 301. In this embodiment, the compound metal layer 4C is covered on the metal base layer 301 and has a pattern corresponding with that of the metal base layer 301. The compound metal layer 4C is a film layer structure that can be titanium/platinum/gold (Ti/Pt/Au), titanium/palladium/gold (Ti/Pd/Au), nickel/palladium/gold (Ni/Pd/Au), titanium/nickel/gold (Ti/Ni/Au), gold/palladium/gold (Au/Pd/Au), and nickel/gold (Ni/Au), but not limited thereto. The forming means suitable for this step may be selected from one of electroplating and chemical plating. In this embodiment, the forming means is electroplating. In this embodiment, the compound metal layer 4C includes titanium/platinum/gold (Ti/Pt/Au) film layers, that is a titanium (Ti) film layer 41, a platinum (Pt) film layer 42, and a gold (Au) film layer 43. The compound metal layer 4C in this embodiment is a surface treatment layer, and the total thickness of the compound metal layer 4C can be 1 μm.
In this embodiment, the metal base layer 301 and the compound metal layer 4C are further formed with a predetermined pattern, which may be formed by a photomasking process.
In step (3b) of etching, with reference to
A feature of this embodiment is to reduce the CTE mismatch so as to improve the quality of the conductive circuit layer. In a practical situation, the CTE mismatch between the compound metal layer 4C and the metal base layer 301 is lower than the CTE mismatch between the compound metal layer 4C and the substrate 2. The CTE mismatch may result in a crack problem at edges or corners of the conductive circuit layer. In this embodiment, the metal base layer 301 is arranged between the substrate 2 and the compound metal layer 4C, so that the CTE mismatch between the substrate 2 and the conductive circuit layer can be reduced.
In summary, the method of manufacturing the conductive circuit board not only has simple manufacturing steps, but also can meet the requirements of the downstream industry in circuit design. Therefore, the object of this disclosure can indeed be achieved.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the exemplary embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111127419 | Jul 2022 | TW | national |
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of the U.S. application Ser. No. 17/952,015, filed on Sep. 23, 2022, now is pending, which claims priority to Taiwanese Invention Patent Application No. 111127419, filed on Jul. 21, 2022. Some references, which may include patents, patent applications and various publications, may be cited and discussed in the description of this disclosure. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the disclosure described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17952015 | Sep 2022 | US |
Child | 18764342 | US |