This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 110212101, filed on Oct. 15, 2021. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The invention relates to a sensing module.
Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology is a design based on a miniaturized electromechanical integrated structure. At present, the MEMS technology is commonly and mainly used in three fields, such as micro sensors, micro actuators, micro structures, and the like. The micro sensors may convert an external environment change (such as a force, a pressure, a sound, a speed, and the like.) into an electrical signal (such as a voltage, a current, or the like) to achieve an environmental sensing function, like force sensing, pressure sensing, sound sensing, acceleration sensing, etc. Since the micro sensors may be manufactured by using a semiconductor process technology and may be integrated with integrated circuits, the micro sensors have better competitiveness. Therefore, the MEMS sensors and sensing devices using the MEMS sensors are actually a development trend of micro-electro-mechanical systems.
Regarding MEMS force sensors, a sensing element thereof is used to sense a pressing force applied by an entity, and if the sensing element is exposed and directly subjected to the pressing force, the sensing element is easily worn out. Therefore, a technology for adding colloid to the sensing element to enhance a withstand strength of a sensing film has been developed. However, the sensing elements in the prior art are all connected to the circuit board by means of protruding terminals. When an applied force is too large, or the force is obliquely applied, there is a possibility that the protruding terminals or solder pads fall off from the circuit board. In other words, the maximum load-bearing limit of the sensing element is limited by a bonding strength of the protruding terminals or the solder pads. On the other hand, as a general packaging technology of the MEMS sensors requires development of molds for demolding a packaging material in the MEMS sensors, and based on the design requirement of a demolding angle, a lower limit of a product packaging size is limited, so that the manufacturing cost and the size of the product cannot be further reduced.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Further, the information disclosed in the Background section does not mean that one or more problems to be resolved by one or more embodiments of the invention was acknowledged by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
The invention is directed to a sensing module with a small size, low cost and good reliability.
Other objects and advantages of the invention may be further illustrated by the technical features broadly embodied and described as follows.
In order to achieve one or a portion of or all of the objects or other objects, an embodiment of the invention provides a sensing module including a circuit substrate, a sensing element, a packaging material and a blocking structure. The sensing element is disposed on the circuit substrate, and the sensing element has a sensing portion. The packaging material is disposed on the circuit substrate. The blocking structure is disposed on the circuit substrate. The blocking structure has a first surface, a second surface, and an outer side surface. The first surface faces the circuit substrate, the second surface faces away from the circuit substrate, the outer side surface is connected to the first surface and the second surface, and the outer side surface of the blocking structure is in direct contact with the packaging material to define a boundary of the packaging material, the sensing portion is disposed in a region encircled by the boundary of the packaging material, and the maximum thickness of the packaging material from a surface facing away from the circuit substrate to the circuit substrate is less than or equal to a distance from the second surface of the blocking structure to the circuit substrate.
Based on the above description, the embodiments of the invention have at least one of following advantages or effects. In the embodiments of the invention, with the configuration of the blocking structure, the packaging material may completely wrap and package the sensing element, the circuit element, and the sensing signal line outside the region encircled by the boundary of the blocking structure, so that the sensing module has good reliability, and configuration of demolding mold that defines the boundary of the packaging material is omitted, so as to further reduce the production cost and size of the product. In addition, with the configuration of the blocking structure, a volume and shape of the colloid may be appropriately controlled, and the colloid may be precisely positioned, which contributes to a mass production and improves consistency and yield of the product.
Other objectives, features and advantages of the invention will be further understood from the further technological features disclosed by the embodiments of the invention wherein there are shown and described preferred embodiments of this invention, simply by way of illustration of modes best suited to carry out the invention.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In this regard, directional terminology, such as “top,” “bottom,” “front,” “back,” etc., is used with reference to the orientation of the Figure(s) being described. The components of the invention may be positioned in a number of different orientations. As such, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is in no way limiting. On the other hand, the drawings are only schematic and the sizes of components may be exaggerated for clarity. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” and “mounted” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect connections, couplings, and mountings. Similarly, the terms “facing,” “faces” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect facing, and “adjacent to” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass directly and indirectly “adjacent to”. Therefore, the description of “A” component facing “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component directly faces “B” component or one or more additional components are between “A” component and “B” component. Also, the description of “A” component “adjacent to” “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component is directly “adjacent to” “B” component or one or more additional components are between “A” component and “B” component. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
Further, as shown in
Thereafter, the sensing element 120 and the circuit element 112 may be adhered to the substrate 111 by using an adhesive layer GU. Then, the sensing signal line 122 and the substrate 111 are electrically connected by wire bonding. Thus, as shown in
Then, the packaging material 130 is filled to form a main body of the sensing module 100 by using a molding method. To be specific, as shown in
In addition, since the blocking structure 140 is used to prevent the packaging material 130 from overflowing into the sensing portion 121 during packaging, a distance from an upper surface (i.e., the second surface S142) of the blocking structure 140 to the circuit substrate 110 may be greater than or equal to a thickness of the packaging material 130 on the circuit substrate 110. Namely, the maximum thickness of the packaging material 130 from a surface 131 facing away from the circuit substrate 110 to the circuit substrate 110 is less than or equal to the distance from the second surface S142 of the blocking structure 140 to the circuit substrate 110. As shown in
Therefore, as shown in
In addition, since the outer side surface S144 of the blocking structure 140 may be used to define the boundary BS of the packaging material 130, configuration of a demolding mold used to define the boundary BS of the packaging material 130 in the general packaging technology of MEMS sensor may be omitted, so as to reduce mold development cost and shorten a development schedule. Moreover, due to the characteristic that an included angle between the outer side surface S144 of the blocking structure 140 formed by means of coating, exposing, or developing and the surface of the sensing element 120 contacting the blocking structure 140 is close to a right angle, compared with the sensing module 100 that is generally formed by using a demolding mold for demolding, a configuration requirement of a bevel forming area for forming a demolding angle may be omitted, and the product size may be further reduced.
On the other hand, in the embodiment, the sensing module 100 further includes a colloid 150 disposed on the sensing portion 121 of the sensing element 120 for transmitting external force to the sensing portion 121, so as to further enhance a withstand strength of the sensing portion 121. Moreover, in the embodiment, the inner side surface S143 of the blocking structure 140 may also be used to define a volume and a position of the colloid 150. In this way, by arranging the blocking structure 140, the volume and shape of the colloid 150 may be appropriately controlled, and the colloid 150 may be precisely positioned, which helps mass production and improves the consistency and yield of the product.
In this way, by arranging the blocking structure 140, the packaging material 130 may completely wrap and package the sensing element 120, the circuit element 112, and the sensing signal line 122 outside the region encircled by the boundary BS of the blocking structure 140, so that the sensing module 100 may have good reliability, and configuration of the demolding mold that defines the boundary BS of the packaging material 130 may be omitted, which may further reduce the manufacturing cost and the size of the product. Moreover, by arranging the blocking structure 140, the volume and shape of the colloid 150 may be appropriately controlled, and the colloid 150 may be precisely positioned, which helps mass production and improves the consistency and yield of the product.
In this way, through the arrangement of the first surface S241, the second surface S242 and the outer side surface S244 of the blocking structure 240, the boundary BS of the packaging material 130 may be defined, and the packaging material 130 may completely wrap and package the sensing element 120, the circuit element 112, and the sensing signal line 122 outside the region encircled by the boundary BS of the blocking structure 240, so that the sensing module 200 may have good reliability, and configuration of the demolding mold that defines the boundary BS of the packaging material 130 may be omitted, which further reduces the production cost and size of the product, so that the sensing module 200 may have similar advantages as that of the aforementioned sensing module 100, and details thereof are not repeated.
In addition, in other embodiments, the colloid 650 in
In addition, in the structure similar to the sensing modules 300 and 400 of
In summary, the embodiments of the invention have at least one of following advantages or effects. In the embodiments of the invention, through the arrangement of the blocking structure, the packaging material may completely wrap and package the sensing element, the circuit element, and the sensing signal line outside the region encircled by the boundary of the blocking structure, so that the sensing module has good reliability, and configuration of demolding mold that defines the boundary of the packaging material may be omitted, so as to further reduce the production cost and size of the product. In addition, through the configuration of the blocking structure, a volume and shape of the colloid may be appropriately controlled, and the colloid may be precisely positioned, which helps a mass production and improves consistency and yield of the product.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form or to exemplary embodiments disclosed. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. The embodiments are chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its best mode practical application, thereby to enable persons skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use or implementation contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated. Therefore, the term “the invention”, “the invention” or the like does not necessarily limit the claim scope to a specific embodiment, and the reference to particularly preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention does not imply a limitation on the invention, and no such limitation is to be inferred. The invention is limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The abstract of the disclosure is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, which will allow a searcher to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure of any patent issued from this disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Any advantages and benefits described may not apply to all embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated that variations may be made in the embodiments described by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Moreover, no element and component in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element or component is explicitly recited in the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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110212101 | Oct 2021 | TW | national |