The present application is based on, and claims priority from, JP Application Serial Number 2018-146090, filed on Aug. 2, 2018, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to a watch component, a movement, a watch, and a method for manufacturing a watch component.
Mechanical watches include a number of watch components mounted therein, with these watch components being typified by gears or the like. Traditionally, watch components have been formed by machining a metal material. In recent years, however, a base material containing silicon is used as a material for watch components. In particular, it has been known that a watch component having a complex structure, in which the front and back have different shapes, is manufactured from a base material containing silicon (see, for example, JP-T-2010-509076).
In JP-T-2010-509076, a first silicon wafer and a second silicon wafer are each subjected to etching, and a first element that forms a first surface side of the silicon component and a second element that forms a second surface side are separately manufactured. Then, by adhering the first element and the second element together, a silicon component having the front and back of different shapes is manufactured.
However, the silicon component described in JP-T-2010-509076 needs to be subjected to a heating oxidation treatment for two to four hours in a high temperature furnace at the time of adhering together the first element and the second element that have been manufactured separately. In other words, in JP-T-2010-509076, in order to manufacture the silicon component, it is necessary to implement a heating oxidation treatment, which requires a long time for processing, in addition to implementing the etching process. This leads to a problem of a decrease in manufacturing efficiency.
A watch component according to the present disclosure provides a watch component made of silicon and including a front surface, a back surface, and a side surface intersecting with the front surface and the back surface, the watch component including a first recessed portion formed at the front surface side, a second recessed portion formed at the back surface side, and a communicating groove causing one of the first recessed portion and the second recessed portion to communicate with the side surface.
In the watch component according to the present disclosure, a through hole extending from the front surface side to the back surface side may be formed at a position where the first recessed portion and the second recessed portion overlap in plan view.
In the watch component according to the present disclosure, the first recessed portion may have a shape different from that of the second recessed portion.
The watch component according to the present disclosure may be a pallet fork.
A movement according to the present disclosure includes the watch component described above.
A watch according to the present disclosure includes the movement described above.
A method for manufacturing a watch component according to the present disclosure includes a first resist pattern forming step for forming a first surface portion of a silicon substrate, a first etching step for performing etching at the first surface portion side formed with the first resist pattern, a dry film affixing step for affixing a dry film at the first surface portion side, a second resist pattern forming step for forming a second resist pattern surface portion of the silicon substrate on an opposite side from the first surface portion, and a second etching step performing etching at the second surface portion side formed with the second resist pattern.
Below, exemplary embodiments according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.
The watch 1 is a wrist watch worn on the wrist of the user, and includes an exterior case 2, a dial 3 provided in the exterior case 2, an hour hand 4A, a minute hand 4B, a second hand 4C, a date indicator 6, and a crown 7 provided on a side surface of the exterior case 2.
The watch 1 includes the movement 100 accommodated within the exterior case 2 as illustrated in
In addition, the movement 100 includes a winding stem 91, a clutch wheel 92, a winding pinion 93, a crown wheel 94, a first intermediate wheel 95, and a second intermediate wheel 96, which serve as a winding mechanism 90 that winds the mainspring. With this configuration, rotation of the rotary operation of the crown 7 is transmitted to a ratchet wheel (not illustrated) to rotate a barrel arbor (not illustrated), and the mainspring can be wound up. Since these are identical to typical mechanical movements, descriptions thereof will be omitted.
The configuration of the pallet fork 10 will be described with reference to
As illustrated in
The pallet fork 10 includes three pallet fork beams 11: pallet fork arms 11A and 11B and a pallet fork shaft 11C.
Pallet stones 12A and 12B are formed integrally on the tip ends of two pallet fork arms 11A and 11B of the three pallet fork beams 11. In addition, a guard pin 13 is integrally formed on the tip end of the pallet fork shaft 11C, which is the remaining one.
In the pallet fork 10, a first recessed portion 141 is formed on the first surface 14 side, and a second recessed portion 151 is formed on the second surface 15 side. Furthermore, a step 142 is formed on the tip end of the pallet fork shaft 11C on the first surface 14 side.
The first recessed portion 141 is shaped such that a semicircle is joined to the bottom face of the triangle in plan view, and is formed at a location where the three pallet fork beams 11 meet.
The second recessed portion 151 is shaped such that a trapezoid is coupled to each of two sides of a pentagon in plan view. In this manner, in the present exemplary embodiment, the first recessed portion 141 has a shape differing from the second recessed portion 151.
In addition, the second recessed portion 151 is formed at the bottom surface portion of the first recessed portion 141 in plan view. In other words, in plan view, a through hole 17 that extends from the first surface 14 side to the second surface 15 side of the pallet fork 10 is formed at a position where the first recessed portion 141 and the second recessed portion 151 overlap. A pallet fork arbor 19, which is an axis arbor, is inserted through the through hole 17.
When the pallet fork 10 configured in this manner rotates about the pallet fork arbor 19, the pallet stone 12A or the pallet stone 12B comes into contact with the tip end of the tooth part of the escape wheel 85 as illustrated in
In addition, the first recessed portion 141 includes a communicating groove 18 that communicates the first recess portion with the side surface 16. The communicating groove 18 is used as a passage configured to evacuate air in the first recess 141 in the manufacturing process for the pallet fork 10 described below. Thus, the communicating groove 18 has a dimension suitable to evacuate air. For example, the width W of the communicating groove 18 is approximately 50 μm. However, the width W of the communicating groove 18 is not limited to this, and it is only necessary that the dimension of the communicating groove 18 is set to be able to discharge air in a short period of time in the manufacturing process for the pallet fork 10 described below. For example, it is only necessary that the width W may be equal to or more than 3 μm.
A method for manufacturing the pallet fork as described above will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the pallet fork 10 is manufactured by using a silicon substrate 20 having a thickness t1 as illustrated in
More specifically, a first resist pattern R1 is first formed on the first surface portion 21 of the silicon substrate 20 illustrated in
Next, as illustrated in
The etching device 200 illustrated in
The vacuum chamber 201 is a reaction chamber in which etching is performed, and accommodates the stage 202 and the coil 203 therein.
The silicon substrate 20 illustrated in
Subsequently, for example, an etching gas such as SF6 is introduced into the vacuum chamber 201, and by flowing a high-frequency high current through the coil 203, plasma of etching gas is generated. After this, by biasing the stage 202, particles of the plasma of the etching gas are drawn from the opening portion R1A of the first resist pattern R1 to the first surface portion 21 of the silicon substrate 20. Through these steps, the silicon substrate 20 is etched substantially perpendicularly in the thickness direction along the first resist pattern R1 from the first surface portion 21 side, and a recessed portion is formed.
Next, for example, a deposition gas such as C4F8 is introduced into the vacuum chamber 201, and by flowing a high-frequency high current through the coil 203, plasma of the deposition gas is generated. Then, by biasing the stage 202, particles of the plasma of the deposition gas are drawn from the opening portion R1A of the first resist pattern R1 to the first surface portion 21 of the silicon substrate 20. As a result, a protective film is formed on the side wall of the recessed portion formed through etching. In other words, deposition is applied to the side wall of the recessed portion.
Then, by performing a cycle etching process referred as a so-called Bosch process in which etching and deposition as described above are repeatedly performed, a recessed portion having a depth t2 is formed in the first surface portion 21 of the silicon substrate 20 (first etching step). In the present exemplary embodiment, the recessed portion having the depth t2 of, for example, approximately 260 μm is formed. Note that the depth of the recessed portion formed in the first etching step is not limited to this, and may be changed as appropriate depending on the shape of the manufactured watch component.
Furthermore, in this case, the second surface portion 22 side of the silicon substrate 20, namely, the surface side of the silicon substrate 20 placed on the stage 202 is cooled using a cooling gas such as helium gas. Through this step, in the first etching step, the silicon substrate 20 is maintained at a temperature of approximately 10° C. This suppresses the increase in temperature of the silicon substrate 20, and hence, it is possible to prevent excessive reaction between the plasma of the etching gas and the silicon substrate 20 due to the increase in temperature. Thus, it is possible to prevent the perpendicularity of the etching from being impaired, and the machining accuracy of etching on the first surface portion 21 side can be enhanced.
Next, the silicon substrate 20 is removed from the inside of the vacuum chamber 201, and the first resist pattern R1 is removed to bring the silicon substrate 20 in the state illustrated in
As illustrated in
Furthermore, an outer circumferential recessed portion 23 configured to cut the side surface 16 of the pallet fork 10 is formed, and the outer circumferential recessed portion 23 communicates with the side surface portion 25 of the silicon substrate 20 through a groove portion 24.
Note that the step 142 is formed continuously with the outer circumferential recessed portion 23.
Next, as illustrated in
A second resist pattern R2 is formed on the second surface portion 22 of the silicon substrate 20 using, for example, a photolithography method (second-resist-pattern forming step). The second resist pattern R2 includes an opening portion R2A. In the second etching step described below, etching is performed to a position corresponding to the opening portion R2A of the second surface portion 22. Note that
Next, the silicon substrate 20 in the state illustrated in
Subsequently, etching is performed to the silicon substrate 20 in the state illustrated in
In addition, a through hole that passes through the silicon substrate 20 from the first surface portion 21 side to the second surface portion 22 side is formed at a portion where the etched portion of the first surface portion 21 side and the etched portion of the second surface portion 22 overlap with each other. In other words, the through hole 17 illustrated in
At this time, similar to the first etching step, the first surface portion 21 side is cooled using the cooling gas. The dry film F, however, is affixed to the first surface portion 21 side, and hence, the cooling gas does not escape from the first surface portion 21 side to the second surface portion 22 side through the through hole 17. Thus, even in the second etching step, the silicon substrate 20 can be efficiently cooled, and hence, it is possible to suppress excessive reaction between the plasma of the etching gas and the silicon substrate 20 due to the increase in temperature. Thus, it is possible to prevent the perpendicularity of etching from being impaired, and the machining accuracy of etching on the second surface portion 22 side can be increased.
Then, the silicon substrate 20 is removed from the inside of the vacuum chamber, and the second resist pattern R2 and the dry film F are removed to make the silicon substrate 20 in the state illustrated in
Finally, the portion that constitutes the pallet fork 10 is removed from the silicon substrate 20 to manufacture the pallet fork 10.
According to the present exemplary embodiment described above, the following effects can be obtained.
The pallet fork 10 is a watch component made of single crystal silicon and including a first surface 14 that is a front surface, a second surface 15 that is a back surface, and a side surface 16 that intersects with the first surface 14 and the second surface 15. The pallet fork 10 includes a first recessed portion 141 formed on the first surface 14 side, a second recessed portion 151 formed on the second surface 15 side, and a communicating groove 18 that communicates the first recessed portion 141 with the side surface 16.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the pallet fork 10 as described above is manufactured by performing etching to the first surface portion 21 side of the silicon substrate 20 serving as a base material, and then performing etching to the second surface portion 22 side. At this time, the dry film F is affixed to the first surface portion 21 side after the first surface portion 21 side is performed machining and before the second surface portion 22 side is performed machining. Through these steps, when the second surface portion 22 side is performed machining, the first surface portion 21 side can be cooled with cooling gas, and it is possible to prevent excessive reaction between the plasma and the silicon substrate 20 due to the increase in the temperature of the silicon substrate 20.
Here, when the communicating groove 18 is not formed in the first recessed portion 141, the first recessed portion 141 becomes a sealed space once the dry film F is affixed to the first surface portion 21. Thus, even when the air pressure in the vacuum chamber is reduced to the vacuum pressure when the second surface portion 22 side is performed machining, the interior of the first recessed portion 141 is maintained at an atmospheric pressure. This causes a difference in air pressure to be generated between the inside and the outside of the first recessed portion 141, which may damage the dry film F.
On the other hand, in the present exemplary embodiment, air in the first recessed portion 141 is evacuated through the communicating groove 18, the outer circumferential recessed portion 23, and the groove portion 24. In other words, as the interior of the first recessed portion 141 is at a vacuum pressure, no air pressure difference is generated between the inside and the outside of the first recessed portion 141. Thus, the dry film F is not damaged due to the difference in air pressure.
In this manner, in the present exemplary embodiment, by providing the communicating groove 18 that communicates the first recessed portion 141 with the side surface 16, it is possible to perform etching to both sides of the silicon substrate 20 while cooling with the cooling gas. In other words, it is possible to perform etching to both sides of a single silicon substrate 20 with high machining accuracy. Thus, in the manufacturing process for the pallet fork 10, it is not necessary to manufacture the pallet fork 10 by manufacturing the first surface 14 side and the second surface 15 side from separate silicon substrates and adhering them together. This makes it possible to increase the manufacturing efficiency of the pallet fork 10.
In addition, in the present exemplary embodiment, it is possible to manufacture the pallet fork 10 from a single silicon substrate 20. This eliminates an adhering portion or the like formed where manufacturing is performed such that the first surface 14 side and the second surface 15 side are manufactured separately, and are adhered to each other. Thus, there is no risk of the adhering portion being peeled off, and hence, it is possible to enhance the strength of components.
In the present embodiment, the through hole 17 that extends from the first surface 14 side to the second surface 15 side is formed at a position where the first recessed portion 141 and the second recessed portion 151 overlap with each other in plan view. This allows the pallet fork arbor 19 to be inserted through the through hole 17, thus the pallet fork 10 can be configured to be able to rotate with the pallet fork arbor 19 being the axis arbor. In other words, it is possible to apply the watch component according to the present exemplary embodiment to a rotatable component.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the first recessed portion 141 has a shape differing from the shape of the second recessed portion 151. Thus, as with the pallet fork 10, the watch component according to the present exemplary embodiment can be applied to a component having a complex structure in which the front and back sides have different shapes.
Note that the present disclosure is not limited to the exemplary embodiment described above, and variations, modifications, and the like within the scope in which the object of the present disclosure can be achieved are included in the present disclosure.
The exemplary embodiment has described, as an example, a case where one pallet fork 10 is manufactured from a silicon substrate 20. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this, and it may be possible to manufacture a plurality of pallet forks from one silicon substrate.
In addition, in this case, it may be possible to employ a configuration in which outer circumferential recessed portions 23A, 23B, 23C configured to cut out side surfaces 16A, 16B, 16C of the pallet forks 10A, 10B and 10C are caused to be communicated with each other, and the outer circumferential recessed portions 23A, 23B and 23C are caused to communicate with the side surface portions 25A and 25B of the silicon substrate 20A through groove portions 24A and 24B, as illustrated in
In the exemplary embodiment described above, the communicating groove 18 that communicates the first recessed portion 141 with the side surface 16 is formed. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this. For example, it may be possible to form a communicating groove 18 that communicates the second recessed portion 151 with the side surface 16. In this case, in the manufacturing process for the pallet fork 10, etching is performed from the second surface 15 side on which the second recessed portion 151 is formed. With this configuration, when etching is performed to the first surface 14 side after etching is performed to the second surface 15 side, the second recessed portion 151 is not a sealed space even when the dry film F is affixed to the second surface 15 side. Thus, it is possible to prevent the dry film F from being damaged due to the difference in air pressure.
In addition, it may be possible to form the communicating groove 18 in both the first recessed portion 141 and the second recessed portion 151. In this case, regardless of whether etching is performed to the first surface 14 side on which the first recessed portion 141 is formed or the second surface 15 side on which the second recessed portion 151 is formed, it is possible to prevent the dry film F from being damaged as described above. Thus, it is possible to increase the degree of freedom in the manufacturing process.
In the exemplary embodiment described above, the through hole 17 that extends from the first surface 14 side to the second face 15 side is formed. However, the present exemplary embodiment is not limited to this configuration. For example, the watch component according to the present exemplary embodiment may be applied to a component in which the through hole 17 is not formed.
In this case, a dry film is affixed with the aim of preventing the cooling gas from leaking out through the through hole configured to cut the outer periphery of the watch component.
In the exemplary embodiment described above, the first recessed portion 141 and the second recessed portion 151 differ in shape. However, the first recessed portion 141 formed on the first surface 14 side and the second recessed portion 151 formed on the second surface 15 side may have the same shape, for example. In other words, the watch component according to the present exemplary embodiment may be applied to a component in which the first surface 14 side and the second surface 15 side have the same shape.
In the exemplary embodiment described above, the pallet fork 10 is given as an example of a watch component. However, the watch component is not limited to this. The watch component may be, for example, a crown wheel or the like. Furthermore, these watch components may be mounted on a movement alone or in combination of two or more types.
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