CN117177460A

CN117177460A - Conformal circuit preparation method and system for surface of workpiece with step structure and conformal circuit

Info

Publication number: CN117177460A
Application number: CN202311380613.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 管楚云; 楼小洁; 吴琪; 蔡王灿
Original assignee: Corevoxel Hangzhou Technology Development Co ltd
Current assignee: Corevoxel Hangzhou Technology Development Co ltd
Priority date: 2023-10-24
Filing date: 2023-10-24
Publication date: 2023-12-05

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of conformal circuit additive manufacturing, in particular to a method and a system for preparing a conformal circuit on the surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a conformal circuit. The method comprises the steps of obtaining design data of a conformal circuit, wherein the design data at least comprises a design circuit of a circuit to be prepared on the surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece; comparing the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the printing line width, and generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the printing line width and the design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the printing path comprises a positive clamping bit printing path and a back clamping bit printing path; executing a print job on the workpiece surface based on the positive nip print path; the workpiece is inverted and a print job is performed on the workpiece surface based on the back nip print path. The method aims to simplify the preparation process flow of the conformal circuit while improving the preparation reliability of the conformal circuit.

Description

Conformal circuit preparation method and system for surface of workpiece with step structure and conformal circuit

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of conformal circuit additive manufacturing, in particular to a method and a system for preparing a conformal circuit on the surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a conformal circuit.

Background

With the continuous development of electronic products, the market has put a higher demand on miniaturization of electronic products, and for this reason, conformal circuit preparation technology has been developed. The conformal circuit is designed and manufactured by integrating the conductive circuit with the surface of the workpiece, so that the conductive circuit is seamlessly combined with the surface of the workpiece, thereby effectively utilizing the surface space of the workpiece, and simultaneously, the conformal circuit can add functions of electric connection, signal transmission and the like for the workpiece, thereby improving the versatility and the application range of the workpiece. Cameras, such as those used in mobile devices, surveillance systems, etc., may require conformal circuitry to enable circuit connections and signal transmission within the camera, as well as laser elements and various sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, etc., that typically require circuit connections to a power source to enable control and actuation of the laser elements and various sensors. While cameras, laser elements and various sensors are often of stepped construction.

Taking a lens product as an example, a plurality of lens surfaces in a lens barrel are usually designed into a plurality of step-shaped layers, and the lens surfaces have different heights to form a step structure of an external lens barrel of the lens product, so as to realize various optical effects and functions, such as focusing, scattering, refraction and the like. In order to achieve miniaturization of the lens and increase adjustability of the lens, a new generation of lens design is to arrange the conductive optical element in the lens barrel, design the circuit structure along the wall of the lens barrel, and make the circuit structure conformal with the lens barrel structure and connected with a bottom power supply at the bottom of the lens barrel so as to realize electrical interconnection from the conductive optical element to the bottom power supply.

Currently, among 3D printing technologies that are one of the routes of the conformal circuit preparation technology, the prior art mostly uses a laser direct structuring process (Laser Direct structuring, LDS) to achieve printing of the conformal circuit, and researches on other ways to achieve printing of the conformal circuit are less. The LDS process mainly comprises three steps: 1. injection molding, wherein a workpiece using an LDS process is molded by special thermoplastic plastics containing special chemical additives (laser powder); 2. activating laser, and irradiating the part needing to process the circuit with laser; 3. electroplating, wherein the surface after laser activation is rough and has metal nuclei, and a metal circuit is formed on the irradiated surface by an electroplating mode. However, the overall process flow of the prior art is complex and has certain limitations, specifically, firstly, the prior art needs to use materials mixed with special additives to form workpieces, and the materials are limited in selection and high in cost; secondly, the surface of the circuit manufactured in the prior art needs to be irradiated by laser, the step causes certain limitation on the workpiece with the step structure, and in order to ensure that the surfaces of all the workpieces with the circuits distributed thereon can be sufficiently irradiated by the laser, the side walls of the workpieces need to have certain inclination angles, and extra equipment is needed to process the side walls of the workpieces in an increasing/decreasing way, so that the situation of right angles is avoided; finally, the LDS process is used for manufacturing the conformal circuit, and an electroplating process is needed, so that the treatment process is complex and the environmental pollution is high.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the technical problems, the invention provides a conformal circuit preparation method and system for the surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a conformal circuit, and aims to improve the reliability of conformal circuit preparation and simplify the preparation process flow of the conformal circuit.

Therefore, the invention adopts the following technical scheme: the preparation method of the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure comprises the following steps:

obtaining design data of a conformal circuit, wherein the design data at least comprises a design circuit of a circuit to be prepared on the surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece;

comparing the circuit line width required by the workpiece surface with a printing line width, and generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit line width required by the workpiece surface with the step structure and the printing line width and the design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the printing path comprises a positive clamping bit printing path and a back clamping bit printing path;

executing a print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive grip position print path;

and inverting the workpiece and executing a print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the back clamping position printing path.

In the conformal circuit on the surface of the 3D printed workpiece, the circuit line width refers to the width of the wire in the circuit to be printed. In the 3D printing process, the printing head moves along the surface of the workpiece, and paste is extruded and piled on the surface of the workpiece to form a wire, and the printing line width refers to the width of the paste piled by the printing head in one movement.

The circuit linewidth and the printing linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece are compared, and the corresponding printing path is generated by combining design data of the conformal circuit, and the printing operation is executed by adopting an additive extrusion molding process based on the generated printing path, so that the accurate control of the printing path of the conductive paste is realized, the accurate circuit linewidth of the conductive paste on the surface of the workpiece is ensured, and the reliability of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved to a certain extent while the circuit design requirement is met. In consideration of the step structure of the workpiece, the method and the device perform two-clamping-position printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the generated positive-clamping-position printing path and the generated back-clamping-position printing path, so that the condition that circuit printing is incomplete or limited in preparation of a conformal circuit is avoided, and the flexibility of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved. Compared with the prior art that the conformal circuit is prepared by adopting a laser direct forming process, the technical scheme provided by the invention does not need to carry out laser activation and electroplating processes, greatly simplifies the preparation process flow of the conformal circuit, simultaneously directly avoids the limitation of laser activation on a step structure workpiece and pollution generated by the electroplating process, and has higher industrial utilization value.

Preferably, a first step close to the bottom of the step structure workpiece is marked as a first step, the rest steps above the first step are marked as second steps, and then the design circuit of the circuit to be prepared on the surface of the step structure workpiece comprises a bottom bonding pad circuit, a first step circuit, a second step circuit and a top bonding pad circuit, wherein the bottom bonding pad circuit represents a part of the design circuit which is positioned at the bottom of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a bottom power supply, the first step circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned on the first step, the second step circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned on the second step, and the top bonding pad circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned at the top of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a top conductive element.

Preferably, the generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the printing line width and the design data of the conformal circuit includes:

if the circuit line width required by the surface of the step structure workpiece is equal to the printing line width, then:

connecting paths from the top bonding pad line to the second step line and then to part of the first step line positioned on the top surface of the first step, or connecting paths from part of the first step line positioned on the top surface of the first step to the second step line and then to the top bonding pad line are used as positive clamping position printing paths;

Taking a connection path from the bottom bonding pad line to a part of the first step line positioned on the side wall of the first step as a back clamping position printing path;

and the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path form a printing path of the conductive paste under the condition that the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing linewidth.

if the circuit width required by the surface of the step structure workpiece is larger than the printing line width, then:

a connection path from the top pad line to the second step line and then to a part of the first step line located on the top surface of the first step, or a connection path from a part of the first step line located on the top surface of the first step to the second step line and then to the top pad line is recorded as a first positive clamping position printing path;

the x-axis-z-axis plane where the first printing path is located is recorded as a first xz-plane, and the y-axis direction is determined based on the first xz-plane;

Moving the printing head along the y-axis direction by a distance of printing line width to obtain a second xz plane, and reversely repeating the first positive clamping position printing path in the second xz plane to generate a second positive clamping position printing path;

repeating the previous step until the sum of the printing line widths of all the positive clamping position printing paths is equal to the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure, wherein all the positive clamping position printing paths obtained at the moment form a final positive clamping position printing path;

a connection path from the bottom pad line to a part of the first step line located at the side wall of the first step is recorded as a first back clamping position printing path;

moving the printing head along the y-axis direction by a distance of printing line width, and reversely repeating the first back clamping position printing path in the current xz plane to generate a second back clamping position printing path;

repeatedly executing the previous step until the repeated execution times of the back clamping positions are consistent with the repeated execution times of the positive clamping positions, wherein all obtained back clamping position printing paths form a final back clamping position printing path;

and the final positive clamping position printing path and the final back clamping position printing path form a printing path of the conductive paste under the condition that the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is larger than the printing line width.

Preferably, the process of executing the print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive nip print path includes:

and compensating and printing the boundary points of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path.

Preferably, the method for performing compensation printing on the boundary points of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path comprises the following steps:

when the printing head moves to the junction point of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path, the printing head moves a compensation distance s along the x axis where the current printing path is positioned and towards a direction away from the workpiece, and the compensation distance s is smaller than the diameter of the printing head;

the printing head moves a compensation distance h along the z axis where the current printing path is located and towards the direction close to the bottom of the workpiece, and the compensation distance h is larger than the printing line thickness;

and taking the position after the movement compensation distance as a starting position for executing the printing job, extruding conductive paste at the starting position and staying for a preset time, printing the compensation distance h along the reverse direction of the second compensation path, printing the compensation distance s along the reverse direction of the first compensation path, and then continuously executing the printing job based on the junction point of the positive clamping position printing path and the negative clamping position printing path.

Preferably, the process of executing the print job includes:

and fixing the step structure workpiece, and adjusting the relative angle between the plane of the design circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece to be prepared and the printing head, so that the relative angle is within a preset angle range.

Preferably, during or after the execution of the print job, the method further comprises:

and curing the conductive paste extruded and formed on the surface of the step structure workpiece.

Preferably, the generating a print path of the conductive paste in the corresponding case includes:

generating a printing instruction at least indicating a printing path of the conductive paste on the surface of the step structure workpiece under corresponding conditions.

Conformal circuit preparation system on step structure work piece surface includes:

the data acquisition module is used for acquiring design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the design data at least comprises a design circuit of a circuit to be prepared on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and a circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece;

the printing path generation module is used for comparing the circuit line width required by the workpiece surface with the printing line width, and generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit line width required by the workpiece surface with the step structure and the printing line width and the design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the printing path comprises a positive clamping position printing path and a back clamping position printing path;

And the printing job module is used for executing a printing job on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive clamping position printing path, inverting the workpiece and executing the printing job on the surface of the workpiece based on the back clamping position printing path.

The conformal circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece is obtained through the conformal circuit preparation method of the surface of the step structure workpiece or the conformal circuit preparation system of the surface of the step structure workpiece.

The beneficial technical effects of the invention at least comprise: the method, the system and the conformal circuit for preparing the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure are adopted, the circuit linewidth and the printing linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece are compared, the design data of the conformal circuit are combined to generate corresponding printing paths, and the printing operation is executed by adopting an additive extrusion molding process based on the generated printing paths, so that the accurate control of the printing paths of the conductive paste is realized, the accurate circuit linewidth of the conductive paste on the surface of the workpiece is ensured, and the reliability of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved to a certain extent while the circuit design requirement is met. In consideration of the step structure of the workpiece, the method and the device perform two-clamping-position printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the generated positive-clamping-position printing path and the generated back-clamping-position printing path, so that the condition that circuit printing is incomplete or limited in preparation of a conformal circuit is avoided, and the flexibility of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved. Compared with the prior art that the conformal circuit is prepared by adopting a laser direct forming process, the technical scheme provided by the invention does not need to carry out laser activation and electroplating processes, greatly simplifies the preparation process flow of the conformal circuit, simultaneously directly avoids the limitation of laser activation on a step structure workpiece and pollution generated by the electroplating process, and has higher industrial utilization value.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be disclosed in the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

The invention is further described with reference to the accompanying drawings:

fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for preparing a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece with a step structure according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a design circuit of a circuit to be fabricated according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a printing path generating method of conductive paste in the case that the circuit line width is equal to the printing line width in the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a print path of a positive clamp bit in the case that the circuit line width is equal to the print line width in the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a print path of a back clamping bit in the case that the circuit line width is equal to the print line width in the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a printing path generating method of conductive paste in the case that the circuit line width is larger than the printing line width according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a print path with a positive clamp bit for a circuit with a line width greater than a print line width according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a schematic top view of a print path with a positive clamp bit in the case where the circuit linewidth is larger than the print linewidth in an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a circuit line width required for a circuit to be prepared on a surface of a workpiece with a step structure in the case that the circuit line width is not a single line width according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a print path for performing compensation printing on the boundary points of the front clamping position print path and the back clamping position print path according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application will be explained and illustrated below with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present application, but the following embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present application, and not all embodiments. Based on the examples in the implementation manner, other examples obtained by a person skilled in the art without making creative efforts fall within the protection scope of the present application.

In the following description, directional or positional relationships such as the terms "inner", "outer", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc., are presented for convenience in describing the embodiments and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the application.

The embodiment of the application provides a method for preparing a conformal circuit on the surface of a workpiece with a step structure, referring to fig. 1, comprising the following steps:

Step 102, obtaining design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the design data at least comprises a design circuit of a circuit to be prepared on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and a circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece.

The design line of the circuit to be prepared on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure refers to a preset forming track of the conductive paste on a target line on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure, and the preset forming track is directly related to the outline characteristics of the surface of the workpiece with the step structure. Alternatively, the design line of the circuit to be prepared on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure may be obtained according to an actual data model of the workpiece with the step structure, or may be obtained according to an actual measurement parameter of the workpiece with the step structure, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the conformal circuit on the surface of the 3D printed workpiece, the circuit line width refers to the width of the wire in the circuit to be printed. The desired circuit linewidth of the workpiece surface is determined based on the circuit design requirements of the workpiece.

And 104, comparing the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the printing linewidth, and generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the printing linewidth and the design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the printing path comprises a positive clamping bit printing path and a back clamping bit printing path.

It will be appreciated that in the 3D printing process, the print head will move along the surface of the workpiece, and in this embodiment, the additive extrusion molding process is adopted to extrude and stack the paste on the surface of the workpiece to form the conductive wire, so that the printing line width refers to the width of the paste that the print head can stack in one movement.

Alternatively, the conductive paste in the present embodiment includes, but is not limited to, conductive silver paste, conductive copper paste, conductive aluminum paste, liquid metal paste, conductive carbon paste, silver nanowires, etc., and may be determined according to actual circuit design requirements.

The comparison condition between the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the printing line width is that the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing line width, or the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is larger than the printing line width, and the condition that the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is smaller than the printing line width is not considered. Due to the principle limitation of 3D printing, the printing line width is a fixed value, cannot be changed in the printing process, and if a circuit line width thinner than the printing line width needs to be manufactured on a 3D printing workpiece, a printing head can be replaced or a more advanced 3D printing technology is used to provide a smaller printing line width. Therefore, the present embodiment does not consider the case where the circuit line width required for the workpiece surface is smaller than the print line width.

It will be appreciated that the positive clamping position of the workpiece refers to the position where the workpiece is clamped on the printing table for printing, typically with the bottom of the workpiece in contact with the printing table and the print head printing over the workpiece. The back clamping position of the workpiece refers to a position where the workpiece is inverted and the bottom surface of the workpiece is clamped upwards on the printing platform for printing, generally refers to a position where the top of the workpiece is contacted with the printing platform, and the printing head prints on the bottom surface of the workpiece, so that the conductive paste can form a required conductive path on the bottom surface of the workpiece, and more complete circuit preparation is realized.

Step 106, executing the print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive grip position print path.

Step 108, inverting the workpiece and executing the print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the back clamping position print path.

The circuit linewidth and the printing linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece are compared, and the corresponding printing path is generated by combining design data of the conformal circuit, and the printing operation is executed by adopting an additive extrusion molding process based on the generated printing path, so that the accurate control of the printing path of the conductive paste is realized, the accurate circuit linewidth of the conductive paste on the surface of the workpiece is ensured, and the reliability of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved to a certain extent while the circuit design requirement is met. Considering the step structure of the workpiece, the embodiment performs two-clamping-position printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the generated positive clamping-position printing path and the generated back clamping-position printing path, so that the situation that circuit printing is incomplete or limited is avoided when the conformal circuit is prepared, and the flexibility of the preparation of the conformal circuit is improved. Moreover, compared with the preparation of the conformal circuit by adopting a laser direct forming process in the prior art, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment does not need to carry out laser activation and electroplating processes, and the limitation of laser activation on the step structure workpiece is directly avoided while the preparation process flow of the conformal circuit is greatly simplified, so that the right angle condition of the step structure workpiece design can exist without additional equipment for carrying out material increasing/reducing processing on the side wall of the workpiece, the design freedom degree of the workpiece is larger, the pollution generated by the electroplating process is also directly avoided, and the method has higher industrial utilization value.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 2, a first step near the bottom of the step structure workpiece is denoted as a first step 3, and the remaining steps above the first step 3 are denoted as a second step 2, so that the design line of the circuit to be prepared on the surface of the step structure workpiece includes a bottom pad line 4, the first step line, the second step line, and a top pad line 1, the bottom pad line 4 represents a portion of the design line that is located at the bottom of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a bottom power supply, the first step line represents a portion of the line located at the first step 3, the second step line represents a portion of the line located at the second step 2, and the top pad line 1 represents a portion of the line located at the top of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a top conductive element 5.

It will be appreciated that the first step typically includes a step top surface and a step side wall, e.g., the first step 3 may include a first step top surface 301 and a first step side wall 302. Even though the top conductive element 5 is eventually located inside the electronic product as a whole, the top conductive element 5 is still located on top of the step structure workpiece when the conformal circuitry of the step structure electronic product is 3D printed. Taking a lens product as an example, even if the conductive optical element is located in the middle of the whole lens, the conductive optical element is assembled after the conformal circuit is printed on the surface of the lens barrel, and then other components are assembled on the lens barrel to form the whole lens product, so that for the workpiece (i.e. the lens barrel with a step structure containing a plurality of lens surfaces) to be printed with the conformal circuit, the top pad line 1 is a part of the line located on the top of the step structure workpiece and electrically interconnected with the top conductive element 5.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 3 and fig. 4, according to a comparison between a circuit line width required for a surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a printed line width and design data of the conformal circuit, generating a print path of conductive paste under corresponding conditions includes:

if the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing line width, then:

step 302, connecting paths from the top pad line 1 to the second step line to a part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301, or connecting paths from a part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301 to the second step line to the top pad line 1, as positive clamping position printing paths;

step 304, taking a connection path from the bottom pad line 4 to a part of the first step line located on the first step side wall 302 as a back clamping position printing path;

step 306, the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path form a printing path of the conductive paste under the condition that the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing line width.

As can be appreciated, referring to fig. 5, in this embodiment, the end of the bottom pad circuit 4 far away from the first step side wall 302 is used as the starting point of the back clamping print path, and two types of alternative paths are not available like the front clamping print path, so that the starting points of the front clamping print path and the back clamping print path all fall on the plane parallel to the print platform to execute the print job, the starting point of the print path is prevented from falling on the plane perpendicular to the print platform, so that the contact between the conductive paste and the print surface is more compact, the adhesiveness between the conductive paste and the print surface is ensured, and the reliability of the conformal circuit preparation is further improved.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 6 to 9, according to a comparison between a circuit line width required for a surface of a workpiece with a step structure and a printed line width and design data of the conformal circuit, generating a print path of conductive paste under corresponding conditions includes:

step 601, recording a connection path from the top pad line 1 to the second step line to a part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301, or a connection path from a part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301 to the second step line to the top pad line 1, as a first positive clamp position printing path;

in step 602, the x-axis and z-axis planes in which the first print path is located are denoted as first xz-planes, and the y-axis direction is determined based on the first xz-planes.

Step 603, moving the print head along the y-axis direction by a distance of one printing line width to obtain a second xz plane, and reversely repeating the first positive clamping position printing path in the second xz plane to generate a second positive clamping position printing path.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the print head may be moved along the y-axis direction, and the print head may be moved along the combined direction of the y-axis and the x-axis, where the specific moving direction is determined by the contour features of the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the circuit design requirements. The y-axis and x-axis combined directions refer to a combination of y-axis and x-axis directions as a final moving direction in a coordinate system, which can be understood as a movement direction obliquely upward or downward, not just along a horizontal or vertical direction, and the concept of such combined directions has application in many fields, such as engineering, physics, mathematics, etc.

It will be appreciated that the distance of moving one printed line width may be such that the second xz-plane extruded conductive paste is closely adhered to the second xz-plane extruded conductive paste after moving along the y-axis direction or the combined direction of the y-axis and the x-axis, thereby achieving a widening operation of the total printed line width finally printed.

Step 604, repeating the previous step 603 until the sum of the printing line widths of all the positive clamping position printing paths is equal to the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure, and forming the final positive clamping position printing path by all the obtained positive clamping position printing paths.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the termination condition for repeatedly performing the widening operation of the total print line width includes that the difference between the sum of the print line widths of all the positive clamp print paths and the circuit line width required for the surface of the step structure workpiece is within a certain error range, in addition to the sum of the print line widths of all the positive clamp print paths being equal to the circuit line width required for the surface of the step structure workpiece.

Step 605, the connection path from the bottom pad line 4 to the part of the first step line located at the first step side wall 302 is recorded as a first back clamping position printing path;

Step 606, moving the print head along the y-axis direction by a distance of one printing line width, and reversely repeating the first back clamping position printing path in the current xz plane to generate a second back clamping position printing path;

step 607, repeating the previous step 606 until the number of times of repeated execution of the back clamping bits is consistent with the number of times of repeated execution of the positive clamping bits, and forming a final back clamping bit printing path by all obtained back clamping bit printing paths;

in step 608, the final positive clamp print path and the final negative clamp print path form a print path for the conductive paste where the circuit linewidth required for the surface of the step structure workpiece is greater than the print linewidth.

For example, referring to fig. 7 and 8, taking the final positive nip print path as an example, first, a connection path from the top pad line 1 to the second step line to the part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301, or a connection path from the part of the first step line located on the first step top surface 301 to the second step line to the top pad line 1 is denoted as a first positive nip print path (i.e., (1) path in fig. 7 and 8); secondly, marking an x-axis and z-axis plane where the first printing path is located as a first xz-plane, and determining a y-axis direction based on the first xz-plane; and then, moving the printing head along the y-axis direction by a distance of a printing line width to obtain a second xz plane, reversely repeating the first positive clamping position printing path in the second xz plane to generate a second positive clamping position printing path (namely a path (2) in the figures 7 and 8) so as to realize one-time widening operation of the printed total printing line width, then comparing the required circuit line width with the printing line width of the surface of the step structure workpiece, and if the required circuit line width of the surface of the step structure workpiece is still larger than the sum of the printing line widths or the difference between the sum of the printing line widths and the circuit line width required by the surface of the step structure workpiece still exceeds a certain error range, repeating the widening operation of the printing line width until the sum of the printing line widths of all positive clamping position printing paths is equal to the circuit line width required by the surface of the step structure workpiece or the difference between the sum of the printing line widths of all positive clamping position printing paths and the circuit line width required by the surface of the step structure workpiece is within a certain error range, and the obtained all positive clamping position printing paths form the final positive clamping position printing path.

The embodiment has the following technical effects:

1. the printing paths are segmented on different xz planes, so that the curved surface shape change of the surface of the workpiece with the step structure can be well adapted, the higher fitting degree of the printing paths and the surface of the workpiece is ensured, and the problems of mismatching or excessive printing caused by the curved surface change are reduced.

2. The printing path is moved by a distance of printing line width along the y-axis direction on each xz plane, and then the first positive clamping position printing path is repeated in an inverted mode so as to compensate the curvature of the surface of the workpiece with the step structure, ensure that the printing path of the conductive paste keeps consistent with the required circuit line width, and meet the requirement of the circuit line width.

3. In the widening operation process of the total printing line width, the printing path is better matched with the surface of the workpiece through piecewise fitting curved surface and curvature compensation, so that a more accurate printing result of conductive paste is obtained, and the precision of the preparation of the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is improved to a certain extent.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 9, if the circuit line width required for the surface of the workpiece with a step structure is a non-uniform line width, for example, in fig. 9, the circuit line width required for the first step line on the surface of the workpiece with a step structure is different from the circuit line width required for the second step line (2, for the case that the circuit line width required for the surface of the workpiece with a step structure is a non-uniform line width, the circuit line widths required for each circuit line may be segmented, and the circuit line widths required for each circuit line are compared with the printing line widths, and according to the comparison, the printing paths of the conductive paste under the corresponding conditions are generated according to the corresponding embodiment of fig. 3 or fig. 6, which will not be repeated herein.

In one embodiment of the present specification, in executing a print job on a workpiece surface based on a positive nip print path, includes:

In this embodiment, the boundary points of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path are the boundary points of the first step top surface 301 and the first step side wall 302.

It can be appreciated that the case of performing compensation printing on the boundary points of the front nip print path and the back nip print path in the process of executing a print job on the surface of a workpiece based on the front nip print path includes the following:

1. when the printing starting point of the positive clamping position is a positive and negative clamping boundary point under the condition that the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing linewidth, performing compensation printing at the starting point and then executing printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the printing path of the positive clamping position from the starting point;

2. when the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is equal to the printing line width, when the printing end point of the positive clamping position is a positive and negative clamping boundary point, printing operation is firstly executed on the surface of the workpiece based on the printing path of the positive clamping position, and compensation printing is then executed at the end point after the printing end point of the positive clamping position is reached;

3. When the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is larger than the printing line width, if the positive clamping position printing path starts from the top pad line 1, in the process of executing the printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive clamping position printing path, when the printing head moves to the junction point of the positive clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path, compensation printing is carried out, and after the compensation printing is finished, the printing operation is continuously executed.

4. When the circuit line width required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is larger than the printing line width, if the positive clamping position printing path starts from a part of the first step line, which is positioned on the top surface 301 of the first step, compensation printing is performed at the starting point, then printing operation is performed on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive clamping position printing path from the starting point, compensation printing is performed when the printing head moves to the junction point of the positive clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path in the process of performing the printing operation on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive clamping position printing path, and the printing operation is continuously performed after the compensation printing is finished.

Because the situation that the connection of the printing circuit is poor is easy to exist at the junction of the front clamping position and the back clamping position on the surface of the workpiece in the process of performing the printing operation of the two clamping positions on the surface of the workpiece, the prepared conformal circuit has the technical problem of electrical abnormality.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, referring to fig. 10, a method for performing offset printing on an interface point between a front nip print path and a back nip print path includes:

and taking the position after the movement compensation distance as a starting position for executing the printing operation, extruding the conductive paste at the starting position and staying for a preset time, printing the compensation distance h along the opposite direction of the second compensation path, printing the compensation distance s along the opposite direction of the first compensation path, returning to the junction point of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path, and continuously executing the printing operation on the basis of the junction point of the front clamping position printing path and the back clamping position printing path.

The printing line thickness refers to the height of slurry which can be accumulated by the printing head in one movement.

It can be understood that, in the process of executing the printing operation, the conductive paste is concentrated on the printing head when the discharge is just started, and a certain time is required for the conductive paste to contact the surface of the workpiece, so that the embodiment stays for a preset time after the conductive paste is extruded at the starting position, so that the paste fully contacts the surface of the workpiece and then starts to compensate, thereby being beneficial to improving the adhesion stability of the conductive paste on the surface of the workpiece, avoiding the phenomenon that the conductive paste falls off or shifts in the printing process, being beneficial to eliminating errors caused by instability when the paste just starts to discharge and improving the consistency of a printing path. In this embodiment, a specific compensation printing method is designed for the front and back clamping boundary points.

In one embodiment of the present description, a process of executing a print job includes:

fixing the step structure workpiece, and adjusting the relative angle between the plane of the design circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece to be prepared and the printing head, so that the relative angle is within a preset angle range.

It will be appreciated that the case of executing a print job includes both executing a print job on a workpiece surface based on a front clamp position print path and executing a print job on a workpiece surface based on a back clamp position print path.

In one embodiment of the present specification, during or after executing the print job, further comprising:

The curing process includes, but is not limited to, natural curing, ultraviolet curing, thermal curing, etc., and the specific curing process mode depends on the curing form of the selected conductive paste, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It will be understood that performing the curing process on the conductive paste extruded on the surface of the step-structured workpiece after the execution of the print job means performing an integral curing process or a sectional curing process after the completion of the fabrication of the conformal circuit, and performing the curing process on the conductive paste extruded on the surface of the step-structured workpiece in the course of the execution of the print job means performing the curing process on the printed conductive paste in real time following the movement trace of the print head in the course of the execution of the print job.

In one embodiment of the present specification, generating a print path for the conductive paste in the corresponding case includes:

a print instruction indicating at least a print path of the conductive paste on the surface of the step structure workpiece in a corresponding case is generated.

On the other hand, the method for preparing the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure provided by the embodiments of the specification can also be applied to the preparation of non-conductive circuits, and only the conductive paste is changed into the non-conductive paste to adapt to the adjustment of the printing line width/line thickness of the printing head and the material filling, for example, the method for preparing the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure provided by the embodiments of the specification adopts an insulating material to prepare the protective layer of the electric wire in the conformal circuit.

In one embodiment of the present specification, there is provided a conformal circuit preparation system for a surface of a step structure workpiece, which has the same technical concept as the aforementioned method for preparing a conformal circuit for a surface of a step structure workpiece, comprising:

the printing path generation module is used for comparing the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the printing linewidth, and generating a printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit linewidth required by the surface of the workpiece with the step structure and the printing linewidth and the design data of the conformal circuit, wherein the printing path comprises a positive clamping bit printing path and a back clamping bit printing path;

And the printing job module is used for executing a printing job on the surface of the workpiece based on the front clamping position printing path, inverting the workpiece and executing the printing job on the surface of the workpiece based on the back clamping position printing path.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a conformal circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece is further provided, which is obtained by the foregoing method for preparing a conformal circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece, or the foregoing system for preparing a conformal circuit of the surface of the step structure workpiece.

In the foregoing, the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and the description of the technical principles applied thereto are only preferred embodiments, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of protection in the present disclosure is not limited to the specific combination of the technical features described above, but other technical solutions formed by any combination of the technical features described above or the equivalent thereof are also contemplated without departing from the concept disclosed above. Such as those described above, are mutually substituted with the technical features having similar functions disclosed in the present disclosure (but not limited thereto).

Moreover, although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

Claims

1. The preparation method of the conformal circuit on the surface of the workpiece with the step structure is characterized by comprising the following steps of:

2. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 1,

and marking a first step close to the bottom of the step structure workpiece as a first step, marking the rest steps above the first step as a second step, wherein the design circuit of the circuit to be prepared on the surface of the step structure workpiece comprises a bottom bonding pad circuit, a first step circuit, a second step circuit and a top bonding pad circuit, the bottom bonding pad circuit represents a part of the design circuit which is positioned at the bottom of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a bottom power supply, the first step circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned on the first step, the second step circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned on the second step, and the top bonding pad circuit represents a part of the circuit which is positioned at the top of the step structure workpiece and is electrically interconnected with a top conductive element.

3. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 2,

the step structure workpiece surface is used for generating a printing path of conductive paste under the corresponding condition according to the comparison condition between the circuit linewidth and the printing linewidth required by the step structure workpiece surface and the design data of the conformal circuit, and the step structure workpiece surface comprises the following steps:

4. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 2,

5. A method of fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4,

the process of executing the print job on the surface of the workpiece based on the positive clamping position print path comprises the following steps:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step-structured workpiece comprises a plurality of patterned electrodes,

The method for compensating printing the boundary point of the printing path of the right clamping position and the printing path of the back clamping position comprises the following steps:

7. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 1,

The process of executing the print job includes:

8. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 1,

during or after the execution of the print job, the method further comprises:

9. The method for fabricating a conformal circuit on a surface of a workpiece having a step structure as claimed in claim 1,

the generation of the printing path of the conductive paste under the corresponding condition comprises the following steps:

10. Conformal circuit preparation system on step structure work piece surface, its characterized in that includes:

11. A conformal circuit of a step structure workpiece surface, characterized by being obtained by the method for preparing a conformal circuit of a step structure workpiece surface according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or the system for preparing a conformal circuit of a step structure workpiece surface according to claim 10.