CN117427317A - Ball and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a ball, wherein a wireless communication terminal is arranged in or on the ball; the wireless communication terminal comprises an elastic substrate made of elastic materials and an elastic covering layer, wherein the elastic covering layer is covered on the elastic substrate; a functional module is arranged between the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer, and a circuit of the functional module is a winding circuit; at least one wireless communication terminal is arranged inside or on the surface of the ball. The wireless communication terminal of the ball is prepared by adopting the material with flexibility and elasticity, so that the wireless communication terminal can adapt to the non-two-dimensional curved surface of the ball without additionally designing a complex structure or an in-ball support, thereby improving the adaptability and stability of the communication terminal and the ball.

Description

Ball and manufacturing method thereof

The present application claims priority from the chinese patent application filed at 2023, 9 and 18, with application number 202311198416.4, entitled "ball and method for manufacturing same", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of sports goods, in particular to a ball with a wireless communication function and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

In sports games and entertainment activities, wireless communication terminals are increasingly used for realizing functions such as real-time data transmission, position tracking, interactive experience, etc. Some scientific institutions and companies at home and abroad have related patents and products focused on installing electronic systems inside and outside the sphere. As early as 1998, there were cases in which an LED lamp was mounted inside a sphere by hanging an LED circuit board inside the sphere, and placing the LED circuit board in the center of the sphere by hooking and stretching a string (Kennedy M, matsumoto S.Flash light pneumatic playball: U.S. patent 5,725,445[ P ], 1998-3-10). In recent years, the reports on the same are more intensive. In 2013, adidas proposed a way to preset a bladder space outside the bladder of a ball bladder for placing electronic device modules (Steidle V P.blade for a ball: U.S. patent 8,517,869[ P ], 2013-8-27). In 2015, NIKE corporation devised a way to place "pockets" in the bladder for placement of electronic devices (Berygren S R.Sport ball bladder with a pocket: U.S. patent 9,211,446[ P ], 2015-12-15), similar to the thinking also in 2022 (Hall J, white R.Basketball with component holder: U.S. patent Application 17/836,574[ P ], 2022-9-22). In 2020, adadas designed a sphere motion detection system, in which a concept of fixing four support columns for an electronic device to the center of a sphere was proposed, and the vertices of the four support columns formed a stable tetrahedron structure, which ensured the stability of the electronic device (Aurel C, dibidetto c.sport ball motion monitoring methods and systems: U.s.patent Application 17/010,226[ p ], 2020-12-24). In 2021, a concept of securing a GPS chip on the outside of a sphere with a strap is proposed for monitoring position information of golf balls, softballs, etc. (Hill e.gps-locating sports ball: U.S. patent 11,040,254[ p ], 2021-6-22). One patent in 2022 processes the communication system into a matchbox for outdoor communication of ice hockey (Holzner S, bohn B j. Method for embedding electronics into a puck and puck having embedded electronics: U.S. patent 11,458,370[ p ], 2022-10-4).

In view of the above, research and development work on intelligent balls is widely focused in various countries, and researchers have proposed many constructive methods to solve the problem of integration of communication terminals and balls. However, these approaches also have the following drawbacks: first, from the perspective of the communication terminal, the conventional ball communication terminal is still based on the conventional PCB technology, and the prepared circuit module is thick and heavy and cannot be matched with the shape of the ball, so that an additional design of a complex internal structure is required to maintain a relatively stable positional relationship between the terminal and the ball. Meanwhile, the hard communication terminal is heavy in mass, and when placed at the position of attaching the surface of the sphere, balance weight unbalance is easy to cause, and the movement track of the sphere is influenced. In addition, when the sphere is placed in the center of the sphere by adopting the supporting structure, communication and charging efficiency of the communication terminal is reduced, and manufacturing complexity, time and money cost are increased.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to: the invention aims to provide a ball and a manufacturing method thereof, which are used for solving the problems existing in the prior art.

The invention comprises the following steps: a ball, the ball being provided with a wireless communication terminal inside or on the surface; the wireless communication terminal comprises an elastic substrate made of elastic materials and an elastic covering layer, wherein the elastic covering layer is covered on the elastic substrate; a functional module is arranged between the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer, and a circuit of the functional module is a winding circuit; at least one wireless communication terminal is arranged inside or on the surface of the ball.

Preferably, a wireless communication terminal is provided in the interior or the surface of the ball, and a weight is provided for counteracting the shift of the center of gravity of the ball caused by the wireless communication terminal.

Preferably, the weight is located at a position symmetrical to the wireless communication terminal on the inner or surface of the ball.

Preferably, a plurality of wireless communication terminals are arranged in the ball, and the plurality of wireless communication terminals are uniformly or unevenly arranged in the ball or on the surface, and if the wireless communication terminals are unevenly arranged, weights are arranged in the ball or on the surface.

Preferably, the functional module comprises a positioning module, an inertia module, a wireless communication module and a power module, and the positioning module, the inertia module, the wireless communication module and the power module are connected through a winding line circuit.

Preferably, the power module comprises a battery and a wireless charging coil, wherein the wireless charging coil is made of stretchable conductive silver paste, or is formed by winding wires.

Preferably, the battery is an aqueous zinc ion battery of neutral electrolyte.

Preferably, the wireless communication terminal is connected with the ball through the organic silica gel.

Preferably, the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer are made of PDMS.

The invention also provides a manufacturing method of the ball, comprising the following steps:

(1) Spin coating PDMS on a quartz plate to form an elastic substrate;

(2) Providing a meander line circuit on an elastic substrate;

(3) Connecting elements in the functional module through a meander line circuit;

(4) Spin coating PDMS on the functional module to form an elastic covering layer, and stripping the elastic substrate from the quartz plate after the elastic covering layer is solidified to obtain the wireless communication terminal;

(5) And (3) attaching at least one wireless communication terminal prepared in the steps (1) - (4) to the inner wall of the ball or between the bladder and the ball shell.

Preferably, the charging coil is arranged on the elastic substrate in a screen printing or spray printing mode.

Preferably, the meander line circuit is made by one or more of photoetching, ink-jet printing, magnetron sputtering and laser cutting.

The beneficial effects are that: the ball has the following beneficial effects:

1. according to the invention, the wireless communication terminal of the ball is prepared from the flexible and elastic material, so that the wireless communication terminal can adapt to the non-two-dimensional curved surface of the ball, and no additional complicated structure or support in the ball is required, thereby improving the adaptability and stability of the communication terminal and the ball.

2. The invention reduces the manufacturing complexity and time cost of the ball with wireless communication function, reduces the required materials and assembly steps, and is beneficial to reducing the manufacturing cost;

3. compared with the scheme of adopting a hard communication terminal in the prior art, the invention has the advantages that the elastic base and the elastic covering layer encapsulate the functional module, the soft and elastic wireless communication terminal is integrally formed and can be attached to the inner wall of the ball, so that the ball can keep stable electric performance and communication connection under the conditions of movement and deformation, and the reliability and consistency of data transmission are ensured;

4. the wireless communication terminal is directly attached to the inner wall of the ball, so that signal loss and interference can be reduced, and communication quality can be improved. The system is beneficial to realizing functions of real-time data transmission, position tracking, interactive experience and the like, and improving user experience of players, coaches and audiences;

5. the circuit structure of the wireless communication terminal adopts the winding wire, and has the advantages of being stretchable, not easy to break, high in circuit stability and the like compared with a hard connection circuit scheme of a hard communication terminal in the prior art;

6. the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer are combined with the serpentine circuit structure, so that the whole wireless communication terminal has the characteristics of light weight, thinness, softness and stretchability;

7. the scheme of combining the elastic substrate and the elastic cover layer with the winding wire can obviously reduce the overall quality of the wireless communication terminal compared with the scheme of a hard communication terminal in the prior art, and can ensure that the overall quality of the ball is not obviously changed;

8. the scheme that the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer are combined with the meander line ensures that the wireless communication terminal has the advantages of better matching the shape with the ball and better adapting to the shape of the ball compared with the scheme of the hard communication terminal in the prior art;

9. the wireless communication terminal has the advantages of light weight, good shape adaptability, better maintenance of the motion characteristics of the ball and ensured balance and stability of the ball.

10. The wireless communication terminals are matched with each other, and each terminal can be selected to work independently or cooperatively according to the needs, so that the stability of communication between the ball and the outside is ensured.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of spin coating PDMS on a quartz plate to form an elastomeric substrate, laminating copper foil and spin coating photoresist;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a serpentine circuit after exposure and development;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a etched serpentine circuit;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a die, peripheral components, and an aqueous zinc ion battery after soldering on a serpentine circuit;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram after silk screening of a wireless charging coil;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a packaged wireless communication terminal;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication terminal with laser cut suitable for ball inner and outer bonding;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure in which a wireless communication terminal is attached;

fig. 9 is a schematic view of a structure in which the inner wall of the ball is attached to the wireless communication terminal and the weight;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a structure in which a wireless communication terminal and a counterweight are attached between a bladder and a ball housing;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a structure in which a plurality of wireless communication terminals are provided on a ball.

In the figure: 1-a quartz plate; 2-elastic substrate, 3-copper foil, 4-photoresist, 5-patterned photoresist, 6-meander line circuit, 7-chip, 8-peripheral element, 9-aqueous zinc ion battery, 10-wireless charging coil, 11-elastic cover layer, 12-organic silica gel, 13-counterweight, 100-wireless communication terminal.

Detailed Description

The invention is further described below with reference to the drawings and specific examples.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, the present invention provides a ball having a wireless communication terminal 100 provided inside or on the surface thereof; the wireless communication terminal 100 includes an elastic substrate 2 made of elastic materials, and a functional module is attached to the elastic substrate 2, where the functional module is used to implement functions required by the present invention, specifically, the functional module may include a UWB positioning module, an IMU inertial module, a wireless communication module, a power module, etc., where the positioning module is used to determine a position of a football, the inertial module is used to obtain motion data of the football, and the wireless communication module is used to receive or/and transmit the position, motion and other status data of the football, and the power module is used to supply power to other modules.

The circuit adopted by the functional module is a serpentine circuit 6, and as shown in fig. 2-8, the serpentine circuit 6 takes a serpentine shape; the meander line circuit 6 electrically connects the elements of the positioning module, the inertia module, the wireless communication module and the power module, and the specific circuit structure is designed according to the required functions; the functional module is covered by an elastic covering layer 11 made of elastic materials; the wireless communication terminal 100 is disposed inside or on the surface of a ball, the inside of the ball including the inner wall of the ball or between the bladder and the ball shell, and the wireless communication terminal 100 is disposed at least one.

As shown in fig. 9 and 10, when the wireless communication terminal 100 is provided with only one, it may be provided on the inner wall of the ball or between the ball case and the bladder or on the surface of the ball, and at this time, a weight 13 may be provided in the ball, and the weight 13 is used to offset the shift of the center of gravity of the ball caused by the wireless communication terminal 100.

The weight 13 is located at a symmetrical position with the wireless communication terminal 100 in the ball, and the weight of the weight 13 is the same as the weight of the wireless communication terminal 100. The purpose of the counterweight 13 is to counteract the center offset problem caused by the wireless communication terminal 100, and the counterweight is made of PDMS, and may be a thin film made of PDMS. Of course, the weight 13 is not limited to the material shown in fig. 9, but is not limited to the PDMS material, and may be any material that is provided at other positions in the ball, so as to counteract the problem caused by the wireless communication terminal 100.

As shown in fig. 11, when a plurality of wireless communication terminals 100 are provided, the plurality of wireless communication terminals 100 can be uniformly distributed in the ball or on the sphere, and no counterweight is required at this time; when a plurality of wireless communication terminals 100 are not uniformly distributed in the ball or on the sphere, a counterweight is required to offset the imbalance of the center of gravity caused by the non-uniform distribution. The specific weighting method may be the same as that when only one wireless communication terminal 100 is provided. The plurality of wireless communication terminals 100 are mutually matched, and each terminal can be selected to work independently or work cooperatively according to the requirement, so that the stability of communication between the ball and the outside is ensured.

The power module includes a battery and a wireless charging coil, as shown in fig. 5 and 7, the wireless charging coil 10 is a coil made of stretchable conductive silver paste, or the wireless charging coil 10 is a coil formed by winding wires, so as to ensure the functional stability of the charging coil when the wireless communication terminal 100 is deformed.

The water-based zinc ion battery 9 with the neutral electrolyte does not contain toxic or inflammable components, and can improve the safety performance of the battery.

The wireless communication terminal 100 is connected to a ball through a silicone 12. The silicone gel 12 has good flexibility, elasticity and adhesiveness, and can be effectively attached to the inside or surface of the ball, ensuring the adhesion and stability between the wireless communication terminal 100 and the ball, thereby reducing signal loss and interference.

The elastic substrate 2 and the elastic cover layer 11 are PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane, also called dimethicone), which has good flexibility, tensile property, wear resistance and environmental impact resistance, and can protect the wireless communication terminal 100 from physical and environmental damage that may be encountered during the movement of the ball.

Example 2

As shown in fig. 1 to 7, on the basis of embodiment 1, a wireless communication terminal 100 can be prepared by:

(1) Spin-coating PDMS on a quartz plate 1 to form an elastic substrate 2;

(2) A meander line circuit 6 is provided on the elastic substrate 2;

(3) Connecting the elements in the functional module through a meander line circuit 6;

(4) PDMS is spin-coated on the functional module to form an elastic cover layer 11, and after the elastic cover layer 11 is cured, the elastic substrate 2 is peeled off from the quartz plate 1 to obtain the wireless communication terminal 100.

Example 3

On the basis of example 2, in step (1), an elastic substrate 2 was spin-coated with PDMS on a quartz plate 1, after which a meander line circuit 6 was provided in the following manner:

laminating a double-layer copper foil to the elastic substrate 2, peeling the upper-layer copper foil after lamination, taking the lower-layer copper foil 3 as a conductor material of the meander line circuit 6, and then spin-coating the photoresist 4 on the copper foil 3; as a specific embodiment, the double layer copper foil thickness was 18/5 microns, respectively, wherein the 18 micron copper foil was manually peeled off after lamination, leaving a 5 micron thick copper foil 3. When the photoresist is spin-coated, the rotation speed is 3000-4000rpm, and the spin-coating time is 30 seconds. As shown in fig. 2, the photoresist is exposed, the exposed pattern is a designed meander line circuit 6, and the photoresist after exposure is denatured. The exposed areas are washed away with a developing operation, leaving the denatured patterned photoresist 5. The exposure power density is 400-600mJ/cm ² The developing solution is prepared from AZ-400K type developing solution raw materials and deionized water according to a ratio of 1:3 by volume ratio. As shown in fig. 3, the denatured patterned photoresist 5 plays a role in protecting the lower copper foil 3, etching is performed using an etching liquid, and the photoresist-protected copper foil is left. After etching, the denatured patterned photoresist 5 is removed, resulting in a meander line circuit 6. The etching liquid is CE-100 of Transense company, the etching time is about 2 minutes, and deionized water is used for cleaning for multiple times. The photoresist uses acetone,Isopropanol and deionized water are sequentially washed and removed.

As shown in fig. 4: the elements of the circuits such as the chip 7 and the peripheral element 8 in the respective modules constituting the functional module and the aqueous zinc ion battery 9 are welded and fixed to the meander line circuit 6 in this order. The material used in the welding step is low-temperature solder paste, and the blowing welding temperature is 120-150 ℃ to prevent damage to the elastic substrate made of PDMS.

As shown in fig. 5, the wireless charging coil 10 is prepared by screen printing or spray printing and interconnected with a corresponding meander line circuit. The wireless charging coil 10 is made of stretchable conductive silver paste JY10, so that the functional stability of the charging coil of the wireless terminal in the stretching process is ensured. Likewise, wireless charging coil 10 may also be formed into a coil using a serpentine wire.

As shown in fig. 6, a PDMS layer is spin-coated on the functional module as an elastic cover layer 11, and the elastic cover layer 11 may be combined with the elastic substrate 2 to protect the functional module. After curing at room temperature for 20 to 30 hours, the wireless communication terminal 100 may be peeled from the quartz plate 1.

As shown in fig. 8, the unnecessary PDMS around the wireless communication terminal 100 is removed by laser cutting, and a stretchable communication terminal of a suitable size is formed as needed to facilitate bonding with the ball. In the laser cutting process, the cutting path can be designed at will by utilizing software such as CAD and the like according to the requirements of different spheres, and only redundant PDMS is cut off, so that the functions and the stretchability of the communication terminal are not affected.

When one wireless communication terminal is provided, as shown in fig. 9, PDMS films having the same mass and size as those of the wireless communication terminal 100 are attached as the weights 13 at symmetrical positions in the sphere to ensure the balance of the weights of the sphere. Fig. 9 shows the wireless communication terminal 100 between the ball's ball shell and bladder, and fig. 10 shows the wireless communication terminal 100 inside the bladder, and correspondingly, the weight 13 also between the ball shell and bladder, or inside the bladder, respectively. If the wireless communication terminal 100 is located on the surface of the ball, weights may be provided at symmetrical positions on the surface of the ball. As shown in fig. 11, when a plurality of wireless communication terminals are provided, the wireless communication terminals uniformly distributed in the ball or on the surface can play a role in balancing each other, so that the wireless communication terminals which are not uniformly distributed do not need to be weighted, and the weighting mode is the same as that of one wireless communication terminal.

Example 4

On the basis of example 2, the silicone gel 12 was coated under the elastic substrate 2, and the surface coated with the silicone gel 12 was adhered to the ball and cured at normal temperature, and then the weight 13 was set in the ball as needed to offset the shift of the center of gravity of the ball caused by the wireless communication terminal 100, thereby completing the preparation of the ball of the present invention.

Example 5

As shown in fig. 2 to 8, the meander line circuit 6 is a circuit formed by connecting a plurality of meanders (S-shape) end to end in the extending direction thereof, but the meander line circuit 6 is not limited to this structure. The meander line circuit 6 functions in that when the wireless communication terminal 100 is deformed by an external force, the circuit itself can be stretched or compressed like a spring, so that it is not easily broken and damaged as if the linear circuit is subjected to an external force. Any circuit that can achieve this object can be considered as a circuit having a structure similar to the serpentine circuit of the present invention.

Example 6

The circuit principle of the invention can be the same as the circuit principle of the existing hard wireless communication key point, and can realize the functions of motion state sensing, wireless communication, positioning, signal receiving and transmitting, wireless charging and the like of the ball, or other circuit principles in the prior art which can realize the functions. Wireless communication and signal receiving and transmitting can adopt communication technologies such as WiFi, bluetooth, zigbee, 5G and the like, and positioning can use positioning functions such as GPS, beidou and the like.

Example 7

The invention relates to a ball, including but not limited to football, basketball, volleyball, football and the like, and the invention can be considered to be adopted for the ball needing to realize the wireless communication function.

Claims (12)

1. A ball, characterized in that: a wireless communication terminal is arranged in or on the ball; the wireless communication terminal comprises an elastic substrate made of elastic materials and an elastic covering layer, wherein the elastic covering layer is covered on the elastic substrate; a functional module is arranged between the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer, and a circuit of the functional module is a winding circuit; at least one wireless communication terminal is arranged inside or on the surface of the ball.

2. A ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the inside or the surface of the ball is provided with a wireless communication terminal and a counterweight for counteracting the shift of the center of gravity of the ball caused by the wireless communication terminal.

3. A ball as claimed in claim 2, wherein: the weight is located at a position where the inner or surface of the ball is symmetrical to the wireless communication terminal.

4. A ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the ball is internally provided with a plurality of wireless communication terminals which are uniformly or unevenly arranged in the ball or on the surface, and if the wireless communication terminals are unevenly arranged, the ball is internally or on the surface provided with a counterweight.

5. A ball according to claim 1, wherein: the functional module comprises a positioning module, an inertia module, a wireless communication module and a power module, wherein the positioning module, the inertia module, the wireless communication module and the power module are connected through a winding line circuit.

6. A ball as defined in claim 5, wherein: the power module comprises a battery and a wireless charging coil, wherein the wireless charging coil is made of stretchable conductive silver paste, or is formed by winding wires.

7. A ball as defined in claim 6, wherein: the battery is a water-based zinc ion battery with neutral electrolyte.

8. A ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the wireless communication terminal is connected with the ball through the organic silica gel.

9. A ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the elastic substrate and the elastic covering layer are made of PDMS.

10. A method of manufacturing a ball, comprising the steps of:

(1) Spin coating PDMS on a quartz plate to form an elastic substrate;

(2) Providing a meander line circuit on an elastic substrate;

(3) Connecting elements in the functional module through a meander line circuit;

(4) Spin coating PDMS on the functional module to form an elastic covering layer, and stripping the elastic substrate from the quartz plate after the elastic covering layer is solidified to obtain the wireless communication terminal;

(5) Attaching at least one of the wireless communication terminals prepared in steps (1) - (4) to the inside or surface of the ball.

11. A method of manufacturing a ball as claimed in claim 10, wherein: the charging coil is arranged on the elastic substrate in a screen printing or spray printing mode.

12. A method of manufacturing a ball as claimed in claim 10, wherein: the winding line circuit is made by one or more modes of photoetching, ink-jet printing, magnetron sputtering and laser cutting.