1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device and a method for manufacturing the same, and in particular to a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device formed without using through holes and electroplating process and having five-conducting surface terminal electrodes, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
To prevent electronic systems from over-current damages caused by an abnormal condition, more and more electronic systems are provided with over-current protection devices. With such an provision, damages can be confined to the over-current protection devices when an over-current problem occurs in the electronic systems. A further concept is that costs for after-sale services and maintenance are greatly reduced if the protection devices can perform protection functions once over-current occurs and then they return to the normal condition. For these reasons, a fusible over-current protection device is gradually replaced with a polymer positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) material-based resettable over-current protection device which is widely used in various electronic systems. For high-density integration applications of the electronic systems, a resettable over-current protection device can be divided into a DIP type and a surface mounted type. Both types are used in packaging, wherein the growth rate of the need for the surface mounted type prevails over that of the DIP type.
A feature of a resettable over-current protection device is that when a current flowing through a polymer positive temperature coefficient material is over an upper limit, the temperature of the device rises to cause the original lowest resistance to increase rapidly so as to limit the current flow. A simplest polymer positive temperature coefficient material structure utilizes a polymer positive temperature coefficient material, and like a conventional two-sided printed circuit board (PCB), each of the two opposite sides of which is provided with a conducting metal foil. Therefore, the development of a prior surface mounted resettable over-current protection device is based on a printed circuit board process, wherein electrodes are formed by electroplating through holes of a substrate.
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The terminal electrodes of the conventional surface mounted resettable over-current protection devices are mainly formed by through holes and electroplating processes. Basically, the conducting metal foils on the two sides of the substrate are connected to each other via the conducting layers formed on the inner walls of the through holes. Due to the limitation on the sizes of the electrodes, the diameters of the though holes are limited, resulting in an effect on the performance of the resistance of the terminal electrodes.
In a process for forming conventional surface mounted resettable over-current protection devices, the area of a polymer positive temperature coefficient raw material substrate can only be enlarged to a certain level, and there still is a great difference in area as compared with a substrate used in a real printed circuit board process. Therefore, completely using a printed circuit board process to manufacture a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device should take adjustments in process and economics into consideration.
Furthermore, since automatic drilling and through holes electroplating apparatuses are required to form the terminal electrodes of the surface mounted resettable over-current protection devices, it incurs more costs spent therefor. Meanwhile, for a new process, re-learning is necessary.
In view of the above, an object of the invention is to provide a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device and a method for manufacturing the same. The terminal electrodes of the device can be formed without using through holes and electroplating processes. The device can be efficiently and economically manufactured by a process for manufacturing a passive resistor terminal electrodes structure which is already used for mass production.
To attain the above-stated object, in a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device and a method for manufacturing the same, a raw material substrate is provided. On each of the two sides of the raw material substrate, a patterned conducting metal foil is formed. Then, the raw material substrate is cut to form a grid-shaped substrate having a plurality of strip-shaped structural parts. An insulating layer is formed to enclose the whole grid-shaped substrate, allowing parts of the patterned metal foil layers on the terminals of the strip-shaped structural parts to be exposed. Next, the strip-shaped structural parts of the grid-shaped substrate are cut into a plurality of chips, each chip having two cut sections. Finally, two terminal electrodes are formed on the both cut sections of each chip. Each terminal electrode includes a conducting paste and a soldering layer. The soldering layer includes a nickel layer and a tin/lead alloy layer. The conducting paste is electrically connected to one cut section which exposes part of the conducting metal foil. The soldering layer is then electrically connected to the conducting paste. Each terminal electrode has five conducting surfaces.
In the present invention, a number of variations can be made on the two cut sections of each chip. For example, parts of the insulating layer on the edges of the chip adjacent to the cut sections are removed to expose parts of the patterned conducting metal foils. For subsequently-formed terminal electrodes, it increases the contact areas between the exposed conducting metal foils and the terminal electrodes. As a result, the performances of the device in resistance and adherence are greatly improved.
Furthermore, the terminal electrodes each having five contact surfaces of the present invention is completely different from that of the prior art. Since the structure of the terminal electrodes of the present invention greatly increases the contact areas of the terminal electrodes, the performances of the device in electricity and adherence are efficiently improved.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings, which are provided to illustrate preferred embodiments only and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention.
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Each chip 216 has two cut ends. As shown in
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The raw material substrate constructed by multiple polymer positive temperature coefficient material layers 200 and multiple conducting metal foils 202 are formed by pressing. Moreover, the complexity of the process is reduced thereby, meeting economical requirements.
In summary, a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device and a method of manufacturing the same according to the present invention have the following advantages:
1. In a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device of the present invention, terminal electrodes are formed on the both ends of the device while conductors formed in through holes are used to serve as terminal electrodes in the conventional device. Furthermore, the device of the present invention is provided with an insulating layer surrounding the device to increase the reliability of the device. Meanwhile, in the present invention, since terminal electrodes each having a structure of five conducting surfaces are formed on the both ends of the device, the resistance of the terminal electrodes is reduced and the adherence of the terminal electrodes is increased by greatly increasing effective the contact area.
2. In a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device of the present invention, the terminal electrodes are formed by a mass production passive resistor terminal electrode structure process instead of conventional through hole and eletroplating processes. Therefore, the conventional process is appropriately and economically improved.
3. In a structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device of the present invention, since a raw material substrate can be formed by two or three polymer positive temperature coefficient material layers and three or four conducting metal foil layers which are alternately stacked on each other, the formed device has a better performance.
4. A structure of a surface mounted resettable over-current protection device of the present invention is different from that of the conventional device. Due to the different structures between the present invention and the prior art, the present invention and the prior art are greatly different in process. In other words, the process of the present invention is simple and feasible.
Although the invention has been disclosed in terms of preferred embodiments, the disclosure is not intended to limit the invention. Those knowledgeable in the art can make modifications within the scope and spirit of the invention which is determined by the claims below.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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90110654 | May 2001 | CN | national |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09991846 | Nov 2001 | US |
Child | 11106074 | Apr 2005 | US |