CN209488941U

CN209488941U - A kind of liquid metal printer

Info

Publication number: CN209488941U
Application number: CN201821552662.XU
Authority: CN
Inventors: 严启臻
Original assignee: Beijing Dream Ink Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Dream Ink Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-09-21
Filing date: 2018-09-21
Publication date: 2019-10-11
Anticipated expiration: 2028-09-21

Abstract

The utility model discloses a kind of liquid metal printer, printer includes: continuous first working face and the second working face；Printing mechanism, repair mechanism, plaster mechanism and the welding mechanism of independently working are carried out in the first working face upper area, and carries out the packaging mechanism of operation in the second working face upper area；Further include: substrate mobile mechanism and image acquisition mechanism.The liquid metal printer of the utility model not only solves the problem of liquid metal line defct automation repairing, and the integration for also achieving the printed circuit from the printing substrate of blank to after being packaged to surface mount elements and liquid metal route is prepared automatically.

Description

Liquid metal printer

Technical Field

The utility model belongs to the technical field of liquid metal printing, especially, relate to a liquid metal printer.

Background

The liquid metal printer provides a novel electronic circuit additive manufacturing method, but liquid metal is not high in maturity of hardware equipment and equipment software at present due to characteristics of materials of the liquid metal, so that various circuit defects can occur on a formed liquid metal circuit more or less, for example, circuit defects such as circuit hollowness, narrow edges, interruption and liquid metal overflow caused by shrinkage of the liquid metal are caused, in the prior art, after the printer finishes printing, the quality of the liquid metal circuit is judged in a manual inspection mode, if the defects exist, manual repair is carried out, and the automatic integrated forming of a printed circuit is not facilitated.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

In view of this, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid metal printer to solve the problem that the printed circuit cannot be integrally prepared in the prior art.

In some illustrative embodiments, the liquid metal printer includes: a continuous first working surface and a second working surface; the printing mechanism, the repairing mechanism, the chip mounting mechanism and the welding mechanism are used for independently operating in the area above the first working surface, and the packaging mechanism is used for operating in the area above the second working surface; and a substrate moving mechanism and an image acquisition mechanism.

In some optional embodiments, the liquid metal printer, further comprising: a first guide rail cross beam and a second guide rail cross beam which cross over the first working surface and move along the Y-axis direction, and a third guide rail cross beam which cross over the second working surface and move along the Y-axis direction; the printing mechanism and the repairing mechanism are assembled on the first guide rail beam and move along the first guide rail beam in the X-axis direction; the chip mounting mechanism and the welding mechanism are assembled on the second guide rail beam and move along the second guide rail beam in the X-axis direction; the substrate moving mechanism includes: and the rotating wheels are arranged below the first guide rail cross beam and the second guide rail cross beam and used for contacting the printing base material to prevent the printing base material from deviating and driving the printing base material to move along the Y-axis direction through rotation.

In some optional embodiments, the liquid metal printer, further comprising: and the first guide rail cross beam, the second guide rail cross beam and the third guide rail cross beam are assembled on the frame.

In some optional embodiments, the first working surface is a light transmissive hard material; the image acquisition mechanism includes: a strip-shaped lamp strip is arranged below the first working surface and used for providing a light source upwards; and the projection pattern recognition system is arranged above the first guide rail cross beam and the second guide rail cross beam, is opposite to the first working surface in the vertical direction, and is used for recognizing the actual printing image through the projection formed by irradiating the printing base material by the light source.

In some optional embodiments, the printing mechanism employs a liquid metal direct-write printhead for drawing liquid metal lines and filling line defects due to a lack of liquid metal.

In some optional embodiments, the liquid metal line may be drawn by a patterning method, including: sequentially drawing at least 2 liquid metal lines on a working surface to form a molten metal pattern; wherein, at least 2 liquid metal lines lap each other along the line width direction when drawing.

In some optional embodiments, the at least 2 liquid metal wires overlap each other in a line width direction when drawn, and specifically include: and according to the drawing sequence, the liquid metal wires are sequentially lapped one by one along the line width direction.

In some optional embodiments, the overlap range along the line width direction is more than 20% of the line width of the single pen, and/or the overlap range along the line width direction is not more than 80% of the line width of the single pen, and/or the overlap range along the line width direction is 45% -60% of the line width of the single pen.

In some optional embodiments, the liquid metal line may be drawn by a printing method, including: generating a direct-writing printing track to be executed according to the target pattern; executing the direct-writing printing track to form a molten metal pattern; the direct-writing printing track comprises at least one filling track which indicates that a unit graph is formed by drawing a plurality of liquid metal lines, and the offset step length in the filling track does not exceed the line width of a single pen.

In some optional embodiments, the offset step size in the filled trace is 40% -55% of the line width of the single pen.

In some optional embodiments, the target pattern comprises at least 2 consecutive unit figures; the process of generating the direct-writing printing track to be executed according to the target pattern comprises the following steps: and adjusting the offset step length within the range of 40% -55% of the line width of the single pen to ensure that the direct writing ending point of the unit graph drawn in advance is continuous with the direct writing starting point of the unit graph drawn in the later.

In some optional embodiments, the direct-write printing trace indicates one-shot forming or multiple-shot forming of the metal pattern.

In some optional embodiments, the filling of the line defect specifically includes: scanning a target pattern to obtain a line defect of a liquid metal line in the target pattern; and judging the defect type of the line defect, and selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect.

In some optional embodiments, the line defect comprises: line breakpoints and/or incomplete lines; selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect, specifically comprising: determining a liquid metal line section where the line defect is located, and a starting point and an end point of the line defect, and adding liquid metal to an area between the starting point and the end point on the liquid metal line section.

In some optional embodiments, before the scanning the target pattern, further comprising: preparing the target circuit by using a liquid metal direct-writing printing technology, wherein the process comprises the following steps: drawing a liquid metal line segment in a mode of multiple reciprocating roundabouts, wherein the printing head deviates a certain offset step length towards a specified direction before each roundabout printing, and the offset step length is smaller than the single line width of the printing head; the adding liquid metal to the area between the start point and the end point on the liquid metal line segment specifically includes: and adding liquid metal into an area between the starting point and the tail point on the liquid metal line segment by adopting the liquid metal direct writing printing technology.

In some optional embodiments, the repair mechanism employs a fiber wiping head in communication with alcohol for wiping line overflow defects that occur in liquid metal lines.

In some optional embodiments, the repair mechanism comprises: the device comprises a fiber wiping head, a container filled with a wiping agent and an electric control lifting mechanism; the bottom of the fiber wiping head is used for wiping the target liquid metal on the surface of the substrate, and the other part of the fiber wiping head is in contact with the wiping agent in the container, so that the fiber wiping head is kept with the wiping agent through osmosis; the electric control lifting mechanism is connected with the fiber wiping head in a matching way and is used for driving the bottom of the fiber wiping head to contact/leave the surface of the base material.

In some optional embodiments, the patch mechanism adsorbs the patch element in a negative pressure manner, performs dispensing at the center of the bottom of the patch element, and attaches the patch element to a designated position on the printed substrate.

In some optional embodiments, the patch mechanism, comprises: the tubular patch gun is linked with the first movable mechanism and is used for adsorbing a patch element through a bottom suction nozzle and moving the patch element to working surfaces with different heights through the first movable mechanism; the element box is linked with the second movable mechanism, one or more patch elements are placed in the element box, and the patch elements in the element box are moved to the position right below the suction nozzle of the tubular patch gun through the second movable mechanism; the glue dispensing head is linked with the third movable mechanism, a glue outlet of the glue dispensing head faces upwards, and the glue dispensing head is used for moving to the position under the patch element through the third movable mechanism and dispensing glue on the bottom surface of the patch element through the glue outlet of the glue dispensing head.

In some optional embodiments, the soldering mechanism is used for extruding the solder on the surface of the printed substrate, and the solder is extruded and molded into a slope shape to cover the contact position of the pins of the patch element and the liquid metal circuit; the solder is a viscous metal mixture at normal temperature.

In some optional embodiments, the welding mechanism comprises: an extrusion mechanism moving in a vertical direction for extruding solder of a unit mass onto a surface of the substrate located immediately therebelow; wherein the solder is a viscous metal mixture at normal temperature; and the molding pen moves along the vertical direction and the horizontal direction and is used for pushing the solder extruded on the surface of the substrate and enabling the solder to wrap the connecting point between the pin of the chip element and the liquid metal circuit on the surface of the substrate in a certain shape.

In some optional embodiments, the second working surface is a groove-shaped structure with a certain depth and corresponding to the shape of the printing substrate; the packaging mechanism adopts bi-component flexible or hard colloid.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a printed circuit, which is applied to any one of the above liquid metal printers, comprising: step a, feeding a blank printed substrate into a first working surface; b, printing liquid metal on the printed substrate to form a liquid metal printed circuit; c, performing quality inspection on the liquid metal printed circuit formed on the printed substrate; if the quality is qualified, entering the step e, otherwise, entering the step d; d, correspondingly repairing the circuit defects existing in the liquid metal printed circuit; entering the step c; step e, taking an electronic element to be attached to the printed base material and be connected with a specified position in the liquid metal printed circuit; f, coating the viscous solder at normal temperature on the joint of the liquid metal printed circuit and the electronic element, and fixing the solder by wrapping the pins; g, transferring the printed substrate from the first working surface to a second working surface; and h, dripping packaging glue on the printed base material, packaging the liquid metal printed circuit and the electronic element on the printed base material, and obtaining the printed circuit after the packaging glue is leveled and cured.

Compared with the prior art, the utility model has the advantages of as follows:

the utility model discloses a liquid metal printer has not only solved the automatic problem of repairing of liquid metal circuit defect, has still realized from the blank printing substrate to the integrated automatic preparation of the printed circuit after paster component and liquid metal circuit encapsulate.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a printing mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a printing state of the liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3a is a schematic diagram illustrating the overlapping effect of liquid metal lines when the offset step is a single line width;

FIG. 3b is a schematic diagram illustrating the overlapping effect of the liquid metal lines when the offset step is less than 20% of the line width of a single line;

FIG. 3c is a schematic diagram illustrating the overlapping effect of the liquid metal lines when the offset step is greater than 80% of the line width of a single line;

FIG. 3d is a schematic diagram showing the overlapping effect of the liquid metal lines when the offset step is between 20% and 80% of the line width of a single line;

fig. 4 is a control flow chart of a printing mechanism of the printing mechanism in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic printing diagram of a printing mechanism in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6a is a schematic diagram of the effect of a normal liquid metal line;

FIG. 6b is a schematic diagram illustrating the effect of a liquid metal line with a breakpoint defect;

FIG. 6c is a schematic diagram of the effect of a liquid metal line with hollow defects;

FIG. 6d is a schematic diagram showing the effect of liquid metal with shrink line defects;

FIG. 7 is a repair flow diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a repair flow diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a repairing mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a repairing mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a repairing mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a wiping pen of a repair mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a wiping pen of a repair mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a sheet attaching mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17a is a schematic operation diagram of a closed state of an element box of the patch mechanism in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17b is a schematic view of the operation of the component box of the attaching mechanism in the embodiment of the present invention in an opened state;

fig. 17c is a schematic diagram of the operation of the pasting state of the pasting mechanism in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of an element box of a patch mechanism in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a sheet attaching mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 20 is a schematic structural view of a dispensing head of a patch mechanism in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of a welding mechanism of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 22 is a partial schematic view of a welding mechanism in an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 23 is a schematic view of the operation of the welding mechanism in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 24 is a partial schematic view of a welding mechanism in an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 26 is a schematic partial structural view of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments of the invention to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. The examples merely typify possible variations. Individual components and functions are optional unless explicitly required, and the sequence of operations may vary. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of others. The scope of embodiments of the invention encompasses the full ambit of the claims, as well as all available equivalents of the claims. In this context, these embodiments of the invention may be referred to, individually or collectively, by the term "utility model" merely for convenience and without automatically limiting the scope of this application to any single utility model or utility model concept if more than one is in fact disclosed.

Referring now to fig. 1, fig. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in the schematic structural diagram, a liquid metal printer 100 includes: a working surface (table) 10, and a printing mechanism 20 for performing a printing operation on the working surface 10, the printing mechanism 20 being configured to print a liquid metal in a fluid state onto a printing substrate 201 placed on the working surface 10 in a predetermined pattern to form a liquid metal printing pattern, thereby serving as a printed circuit or as a decorative liquid metal drawing pattern.

The embodiment of the utility model provides a liquid metal can adopt mercury, gallium, indium, tin simple substance, gallium indium alloy, gallium indium tin alloy, gallium zinc alloy, gallium indium zinc alloy, gallium tin zinc alloy, gallium indium tin zinc alloy, gallium tin cadmium alloy, gallium zinc cadmium alloy, bismuth indium alloy, bismuth tin alloy, bismuth indium tin zinc alloy, bismuth indium tin zinc alloy, tin lead alloy, tin copper alloy, tin zinc copper alloy, tin silver copper alloy, bismuth lead tin alloy in one kind or several kinds. The low-melting-point metal has excellent conductivity and liquid phase fluidity, so the low-melting-point metal has unique application value in the field of manufacturing novel electronic structures. The liquid metal on the printing mechanism 20 and the printing substrate 201 is in a fluid state, and the melting point of the liquid metal is below 100 degrees celsius (for the above alloys, the alloy proportion is selected by the melting point curve in the phase diagram of the alloy), and in some embodiments, the liquid metal is in a fluid molten state by heating.

In some preferred embodiments, the liquid metal may be a low melting point metal that is liquid at room temperature (35 degrees celsius), such as a gallium indium alloy with a specific gallium indium ratio of 75.5% gallium and 24.5% indium, the alloy melting point being 15.5 degrees, which is substantially liquid at room temperature.

In some embodiments, the printing mechanism 20 moves the job in one or more directions above the work surface by a robotic arm or single/multi-axis linkage assembly.

The printing mechanism 20 uses a liquid metal direct-writing type printing head 21, similar to a direct-writing pen/writing pen, and takes out the liquid metal in the pen tube by the movement of the pen ball on the printing substrate, and forms a track circuit consistent with the movement track on the printing substrate, thereby forming a target pattern and a figure. The print head 21 and the ink cartridge 22 communicate with each other through a pipe 23.

Compared with the ink-jet printing mode, the liquid metal direct-writing type printing head has the advantages that although the ink output of the liquid metal is more easily controlled, the printed liquid metal patterns and patterns still have the problems of influencing the printing quality, such as line shrinkage, line interruption, line overflow and the like.

One important reason for affecting the printing quality is the surface tension of the liquid metal fluid state, so that the liquid metal line just printed on the surface of the printing substrate drives the liquid metal in a certain area to converge towards the center of the area under the action of the surface tension until the gravity and the surface tension of the liquid metal in the area reach equilibrium stability, which is similar to the convergence phenomenon of liquid drops.

In order to solve the problem, the utility model discloses still directly write the formula to liquid metal and beat printer head, printing mechanism 20 has proposed an image forming method promptly to avoid the phenomenon of shrinkage, broken string even as far as, promote the stability and the reliability of liquid metal printing process, guarantee the quality of liquid metal printing article.

As shown in fig. 2, the pattern forming method includes: sequentially drawing at least 2 liquid metal lines on a working surface to form a molten metal pattern; wherein, at least 2 liquid metal lines lap each other along the line width direction when drawing.

The two liquid metal wires are overlapped in a certain range in the line width direction, and the overlapping range is uniform and consistent in the extending direction (perpendicular to the line width direction) of the liquid metal wires.

In some embodiments, the two overlapping liquid metal wires are identical in size and shape and parallel to each other, and the liquid metal wires are completely overlapped; in other embodiments, the two liquid metal wires which are overlapped with each other are inconsistent in size and shape on the whole, wherein one liquid metal wire is consistent with the local shape of the other liquid metal wire and is parallel to the other liquid metal wire, the overlapping is realized at the position, and the liquid metal wires are overlapped locally; in other embodiments, the two liquid metal wires which are overlapped with each other are inconsistent in size and shape on the whole, and the two liquid metal wires are locally corresponding to each other respectively, so that the local overlapping of the liquid metal wires is realized;

in some embodiments, the at least 2 liquid metal wires overlap each other in a line width direction when drawn, and specifically include: and according to the drawing sequence, the liquid metal wires are sequentially lapped one by one along the line width direction. Namely, the liquid metal line 1020 formed by drawing later is lapped on the liquid metal line 1010 formed by drawing earlier, and the pattern is filled by lapping one by one.

The embodiment of the utility model provides an in the figure can include multiple standard polygons such as line segment, circular arc, square (including positive, rectangle), circular (including oval), and triangle-shaped, five deformations, also can be the polygon figure of non-standard. The pattern is composed of one or more patterns, and the patterns can be continuous or separated. The pattern may, for example, be a printed circuit comprising: a plurality of conductive lines (for electrically connecting two places, such as component pins-component pins, component pins-power lines), bonding pads, via holes, and the like; the conductive line may be a line segment of any line shape.

The liquid metal direct-writing printing method disclosed in this embodiment mainly uses a step-by-step drawing/filling manner to make one liquid metal line form a target pattern.

First, the utility model discloses a liquid metal line with current drawing is taken (the part overlaps) and is drawn on another liquid metal line that has drawn the formation, and a mode of taking one is drawn liquid metal circuit promptly, compares and adopts the liquid metal circuit (can obtain the target line width promptly) that the printing head that single line width is wideer (or control single line width widen) beats a pen shaping, and the linewidth of the liquid metal line of monocycle is thinner, and the shrinkage line scope has obtained the reduction.

In addition, from the contact surface of the liquid metal and the surface of the base material, the pen beads of the printing head in the scheme form uniformly distributed extrusion surfaces in the area of the liquid metal circuit, the liquid metal at the position improves the infiltration effect with the printed base material due to the pressure applied by the pen beads, the liquid metal is stably attached to the surface of the base material, and the extrusion surfaces formed by uniformly distributed extrusion lines can limit the size and the shape of the whole liquid metal circuit from the bottom to limit the size and the shape of the whole liquid metal circuit to a certain degree.

Furthermore, from the surface of the liquid metal, the overlapping drawing in the scheme can enable the liquid metals to be mutually fused, and the influence of the surface tension cannot be completely avoided, but the convergence of the liquid metal lines from the edge bottom to the center can be greatly reduced due to the stable structure (stable adhesion) uniformly distributed on the bottom position of the liquid metal.

Therefore, the utility model discloses a mode that many single lines overlap fuses and constitutes complete liquid metal figure/pattern, has reduced to a certain extent because the contraction line influence that liquid metal surface tension caused, has improved the stability and the reliability of liquid metal direct-write printer, has guaranteed the printing quality of the liquid metal pattern of formation.

Referring now to fig. 3, fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the effect of different overlapping ranges between single lines.

In fig. 3a, a single line width is adopted between the liquid metal lines as the offset step design of the print head, that is, the overlap range between the liquid metal single lines is 0, and ideally the liquid metal single lines should be just connected, but in practice, due to the surface tension of the liquid metal, the liquid metal single lines are separated from each other.

The liquid metal single lines in fig. 3b are designed to have offset step length smaller than the line width of a single line, but the single line overlapping range is small, and the overlapping part is not enough to overcome the surface tension (stress point) of each single line, so that the phenomenon of tensile fracture due to the surface tension still can exist.

The liquid metal single lines in fig. 3c are designed to have a smaller offset step than the line width of a single line, but the overlapping range of the single lines is large, and the surface area of the line group reconstructed by two single lines in contact with the printing substrate is not enough to bind the liquid metal in the area, that is, the gravity of the liquid metal is greater than the surface tension of the liquid metal in the area, so that the problem of non-directional overflow of the liquid metal in the area may be caused.

The liquid metal single lines in fig. 3d are designed to have offset step length smaller than the line width of a single line, and the overlapping range of the single lines is not too small or too large, so that the stable existence of the liquid metal lines is ensured.

Further, when the overlapping range between the liquid metal single lines is not less than 20% of the line width of the single line, the problem shown in fig. 3b can be significantly improved. The problem shown in fig. 3c can be avoided when the overlap range between the liquid metal single lines does not exceed 80% of the line width of the single line. That is, when the overlapping range is in the area between 20% and 80% of the line width of the single line, the defect problem generated by printing the liquid metal line can be effectively improved, and the printing effect of fig. 3d is achieved.

In some preferred embodiments, when the overlapping range is set to 45% -60% of the line width of a single line, the reliability and stability of printing the liquid metal line can be greatly improved, the structure of the fused liquid metal is stable, and the problems of deformation and overflow are not easy to occur.

Preferably, the embodiment of the present invention further discloses a pattern forming apparatus having one or more components for performing the above pattern forming method.

Referring now to fig. 4, the utility model discloses still to liquid metal direct-write printing technique has provided a liquid metal direct-write printing method, is applied to liquid metal direct-write printer, include:

step S21, generating a direct-writing printing track to be executed according to the target pattern;

the target pattern may be a combination of one or more target patterns, and the target patterns include regular or irregular patterns such as linear (line), rectangular, circular, and circular arc.

Step S22, executing the direct-writing printing track to form a molten metal pattern;

the direct-writing printing track comprises at least one filling track which indicates that a unit graph is formed by drawing a plurality of liquid metal lines, and the offset step length in the filling track does not exceed the line width of a single pen.

Wherein, the embodiment of the utility model provides an in to the collection of target pattern, discernment, location etc. can adopt the technique among the prior art, like collection, coordinate setting etc. of pixel to and current electronic circuit's preparation software and/or processing software.

In some embodiments, the offset step size in the filled trace is 40% -55% of the linewidth of a single pen. The printing effect of fig. 3d described above can be achieved.

Taking the rectangle shown in fig. 5 as an example of the target pattern, a direct-write type print head is adopted, a pen point adopts a ball with the diameter of 0.5mm, the ink output amount is controlled to be constant, the corresponding average line width of a single pen is 0.15mm, and the offset step length of the direct-write type print head is set to be 0.6-0.8 mm. The direct writing track adopts a step-by-step circuitous drawing mode, the leftmost side above is set as a starting point, and then the liquid metal wire is circuitously printed from left to right and from top to bottom in sequence, and the liquid metal wire moves downwards by 0.6-0.8 mm each time. Until the complete drawing of the target graph is completed. In other embodiments, after the printing of the line of liquid metal lines is completed, the printing head is lifted to move down (shift), and then the printing head is pressed down to continuously print the line of liquid metal lines horizontally, so as to avoid the large amount of liquid metal at the position caused by the shift position printing.

In some embodiments, the target pattern comprises at least 2 consecutive unit figures; the process of generating the direct-writing printing track to be executed according to the target pattern comprises the following steps: and adjusting the offset step length within the range of 40% -55% of the line width of the single pen to ensure that the direct writing ending point of the unit graph drawn in advance is continuous with the direct writing starting point of the unit graph drawn in the later.

In some embodiments, the direct-write printing trace indicates one shot or multiple shots of the metal pattern.

The printing method can be used for drawing any figure and pattern by liquid metal, such as a planar printed product with aesthetic feeling, such as a planar drawing; and intelligent drawing with conductive property while being rich in aesthetic feeling, such as touch LED lamp decoration liquid metal drawing; and printed wiring in a standard Printed Circuit Board (PCB), comprising: the lines themselves, the patch contact lines, the pad locations, the via locations, etc.

Preferably, the embodiment of the present invention further discloses a liquid metal printer, which has one or more components for executing the above printing method.

In summary, line defects such as line breakpoints, irregular/incomplete lines (i.e. the lines are still connected but do not satisfy the standard line width/line type, such as hollow, shrink side), line overflow, etc. are easily generated in the liquid metal printed pattern, and for the above defects, different methods should be adopted to repair the defects, for example, for the line breakpoints and the incomplete line defects, the liquid metal can be supplemented through the position of the breakpoints or the position lacking, and for the line overflow problem, the overflowing liquid metal should be removed. Fig. 6 shows various printing effects of liquid metal, in which fig. 6(a) shows a normal liquid metal line, fig. 6(b) shows a line break point, fig. 6(c) shows a hollow line, and fig. 6(d) shows a line break point caused by a significant shrinkage.

Referring now to fig. 7, fig. 7 shows a repair flowchart when the above defects (shrink edges, break points, overflow, incomplete) exist due to the liquid metal pattern/figure, and as shown in the flowchart, the repair method includes:

step S31, scanning a target graph/pattern to obtain the line defects of the liquid metal in the target graph/pattern;

the mode of scanning the target pattern in the step can obtain the actual situation of the actual target pattern through the light and shade of the projection generated after the light is applied through a snapshot mode, such as shooting and photographing, or a projection identification mode (such as a CCD photosensitive image sensor), and then the difference between the actual target pattern and the actual target pattern is found through comparing the original pattern and the original pattern, so that the line defect in the actual target pattern is analyzed;

the comparison method can adopt the pixel point technology in the prior art, firstly, an original circuit diagram is divided into a plurality of pixel points, each pixel point corresponds to one coordinate point, the area occupied by liquid metal in the original circuit diagram can be marked as 1, the rest areas can be marked as 0, when the actual circuit diagram of a target circuit is obtained, the circuit diagram is divided into the pixel points and correspondingly marked according to the mode, and then, the two pixel diagrams are compared, so that the pixel points and the position coordinates which are different from each other are found.

And step S32, judging the defect type of the line defect, and selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect.

The utility model discloses an adopt different repair methods, solved different defects and drawn the quality problems who brings for liquid metal.

In particular, as described above,

a line defect, comprising: line breakpoints and/or incomplete lines; in step S32, the selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect may specifically include: determining a liquid metal line section where the line defect is located, and a starting point and an end point of the line defect, and adding liquid metal to an area between the starting point and the end point on the liquid metal line section.

The line defect can also include: line overflow; in step S32, the selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect may specifically include: acquiring an overflow area; and controlling the wiping head dipped with the alcohol to wipe the overflow area with certain force.

As shown in fig. 8, in some optional embodiments, before the scanning the target pattern/design, the method further includes:

s30, preparing the target circuit by using a liquid metal direct writing printing technology;

the process comprises the following steps: the liquid metal line segment is drawn in a mode of reciprocating and circuitous for a plurality of times, the printing head deviates a certain offset step length towards the specified direction before circuitous printing each time, and the offset step length is smaller than the single line width of the printing head. The selection of the offset step size can be selected from the range of offset step sizes described above.

In some embodiments, the adding liquid metal to the area of the liquid metal line segment between the start point and the end point includes: and adding liquid metal into the area between the starting point and the tail point on the liquid metal line segment by adopting the liquid metal direct writing printing technology.

As described above in the working description of the liquid metal printer, before controlling the printing head to form the liquid metal line segment, the printer needs to calculate a working trajectory of the printing head when drawing the liquid metal line segment.

In some embodiments, when the line defect is the line break point, the adding liquid metal to the area between the start point and the end point on the liquid metal line segment specifically includes: and calling a printing instruction of the liquid metal line section where the line defect is located, replacing head and tail coordinates of the liquid metal line in the printing instruction with the starting point and the tail point, and executing the replaced printing instruction to supplement the line breakpoint on the liquid metal line section.

The repair strategy in the embodiment does not need to be regenerated, the original printing instruction is used for replacing the designated parameters, the calculation amount of the liquid metal printer is reduced, and the whole printing efficiency of the liquid metal printer is improved.

In some embodiments, when the line defect is an incomplete line, the adding liquid metal to the area between the start point and the end point on the liquid metal line segment specifically includes: obtaining the line width of a missing area of a line, and recalculating the offset step length of the printing head according to the line width; and calling a printing instruction of a liquid metal line section where the line defect is located, replacing head and tail coordinates of the liquid metal line in the printing instruction with the start point and the tail point, replacing the original roundabout offset in the printing instruction with the roundabout offset obtained by recalculation, and executing the replaced printing instruction to supplement the area with the incomplete line.

Due to the fact that the line is incomplete, the line width is changed, the repairing effect is possibly influenced when the line is printed according to the offset step length in the original printing instruction, the problem is avoided by recalculating the offset step length, and the quality of the liquid metal line is guaranteed.

Specifically, the obtaining of the line width of the area where the line is missing and recalculating the offset step length of the print head according to the line width specifically include: recalculating the offset step length of the printing head according to the following formula; s ═ X-D/N; n ═ ((X-D)/D) + 1; wherein S is the recalculated offset step length, X is the line width of the area where the line is missing, D is the initial offset step length, and N is the number of roundabouts required for filling the area where the line is missing. Wherein the roundabout times are rounded up.

Specifically, before the recalculating the offset step of the print head according to the line width, the method further includes: judging the size relation between the line width X of the area where the line is missing and the initial offset step length D; if X is larger than or equal to D, recalculating the offset step length of the printing head according to the line width; if X is less than D, filling a piece of liquid metal by the middle line of the area where the circuit is lost.

In some embodiments, before the determining the defect type of the line defect, the method further includes: judging the proportion of the line defects in the whole liquid metal line in the target graph/pattern; if the ratio exceeds the threshold value, abandoning the current target graph/pattern and reprinting; otherwise, judging the defect type of the line defect, and selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect.

This embodiment is used to avoid the problem of patching inefficiency due to complex causes, thereby avoiding entering repetitive dead cycles. In some embodiments, the threshold includes a proportion of a liquid metal line segment in which the line defect is located in the whole liquid metal line, and a proportion of an area affected by the line defect in the whole liquid metal line; preferably, the threshold is specifically 60% of the liquid metal line segment where the line defect is located in the whole liquid metal line, and 30% of the area affected by the line defect in the whole liquid metal line. One or two of the thresholds can be used, and the actual finding shows that if the actual defect condition in the printed circuit exceeds the threshold, the repairing time will exceed the first preparation time, resulting in the overlong whole preparation time.

Preferably, the embodiment of the present invention further discloses a liquid metal printer, which has one or more components for performing the above repairing method, such as a first component, for scanning a target pattern and acquiring a line defect of liquid metal in the target pattern; the second component is used for judging the defect type of the line defect and selecting a corresponding repair strategy according to the defect type to perform liquid metal repair or erasure on the line defect; and a third component for preparing the target circuit by using a liquid metal direct-write printing technology.

Referring now to fig. 9, fig. 9 shows another schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer in an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in this schematic structural diagram, the present invention discloses a liquid metal printer 100, and this liquid metal printer 100 further includes on the basis of fig. 1: the figure collection system comprises a strip-shaped lamp strip 91 positioned below the working surface 10 and a CCD system 92 positioned above the working surface 10, and the two are vertically opposite. The working face is made of transparent materials, the strip-shaped lamp strip is used for providing a light source to the position right above the strip-shaped lamp strip, and the CCD system above the strip-shaped lamp strip is used for obtaining an image formed by the light source penetrating through the printing substrate, so that an actual printing pattern is obtained. The obtained actual pattern can be applied to the scanning target pattern in the repairing method, so that the line defect is obtained through analysis, and then the printing head is driven to complete the repairing of the target pattern. The repair is mainly directed to line breakpoints and line incompleteness of liquid metal lines/patterns.

In a preferred embodiment, the CCD system above the working surface 10 and the strip-shaped light bar below the working surface are the same in size and vertically opposite, and cover the printed substrate 201 on the working surface 10, and when capturing an image, the printing mechanism 20 is controlled to return to its initial position (position where image capturing is not affected), and the actual printed pattern is captured at one time by the strip-shaped light bar and the CCD system.

In another preferred embodiment, the strip-shaped light strip located below the working surface 10 can reciprocate along one direction, the moving direction is the width of the strip-shaped light strip, the other direction is the length of the strip-shaped light strip, the CCD system covers the printed substrate 201 on the whole working surface 10, the length of the strip-shaped light strip corresponds to the CCD system, the width of the strip-shaped light strip is smaller than that of the CCD system, and the CCD system obtains an actual printed pattern through the movement of the strip-shaped light strip.

In another preferred embodiment, the CCD system above the working surface 10 and the strip-shaped light strip below the working surface are of the same size and vertically opposite to each other, and do not cover the whole printed substrate 201, and the printed substrate 201 is moved by the driving assembly, so that the CCD system obtains the actual printed pattern. In this embodiment, the position of bar lamp area and CCD system can be fixed and set up, and the size is little, and the whole printer miniaturization and simple and convenient design of being convenient for. The transmission assembly can adopt a pinch roller, and the horizontal movement of the printing substrate 201 is driven by the rotation of the pinch roller.

Referring now to fig. 10, fig. 10 shows a schematic structural diagram of a repair mechanism 30 for wiping repair of line overflow defects in liquid metal lines/patterns, comprising: the cleaning device comprises a wiping head 31 soaked with a wiping agent and a motion component 32 for driving the wiping head 31 to move in the horizontal and/or vertical direction, wherein the motion component can adopt a mechanical arm, a single-shaft/multi-shaft linkage component, an electromagnetic drive motion component and the like.

When the wiping operation is performed, the wiping head 31 is attached to the printing substrate 201, and the liquid metal overflowing from the printing substrate 201 is wiped off along a predetermined path.

Further, the repair mechanism 30 includes: a fiber wiping head 31, a container 34 filled with wiping agent and an electric control lifting mechanism 32; the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 is used for wiping a target liquid metal on the surface of a substrate in a horizontal moving mode, the fiber wiping head 31 is in contact connection with a wiping agent in a container 34, the wiping agent is kept to be soaked in the fiber wiping head 31 all the time through the penetration effect, the fiber wiping head 31 is in matched connection with an electric control lifting mechanism 32, and the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 is driven by the electric control lifting mechanism 32 to be in contact with or separated from the surface 201 of the substrate; when the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 contacts the substrate surface 201, the wiping operation of the target liquid metal on the substrate surface is realized by the horizontal movement of the fiber wiping head 31 or the horizontal movement of the substrate. In fig. 9, the wiping agent in the container 34 is in contact connection with the fiber wiping head through the liquid guiding fiber in the conduit 33, preferably, the liquid guiding fiber can be cotton fiber, and good penetration effect can be maintained.

The electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 can be controlled by two gears (or multiple gears with more than two gears), that is, the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 controls the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 to contact with the surface of the substrate according to a preset degree (which can be set by selecting the installation position of the fiber wiping head 31) in the operating gear, and the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 controls the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 to lift away from the surface of the substrate in the non-operating gear. In other embodiments, the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 can freely drive the fiber wiping head 31 to move any position in the vertical direction, and the precise displacement of the fiber wiping head 31 in the vertical direction can be realized through a motor or electromagnetic traction and a corresponding matching structure.

The fiber wiping head 31 can be made of cotton fiber, glass fiber or polymer fiber, such as plastic fiber and high-strength sponge; for glass fibers and polymer fibers, one or more fine channels are provided therein for holding the fiber wiping head 31 with a small amount of wiping agent for wiping the liquid metal. The diameter length of the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 is between 0.25mm and 5 mm; preferably, the repairing mechanism 30 can adopt fiber wiping heads 31 with different materials and different diameters, which are used for wiping overflowing liquid metal in different ranges/positions; the diameter of the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 adopting cotton fibers can be 2 mm-5 mm, and the fiber wiping head is used for wiping overflowing liquid metal in a large range; the bottom diameter of the fiber wiping head 31 adopting the polymer fiber or the glass fiber can be 0.25 mm-2 mm, and is used for accurately wiping overflowing liquid metal.

The tail end of the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 is of a flat structure, so that the phenomenon that the contact of the cambered surface structure to the surface of the base material is inconsistent and the liquid metal circuit connected with overflowing liquid metal is damaged is avoided. The end of the device can adopt a round or square plane.

The utility model provides a repair mechanism 30 can be in printed circuit's preparation process, and the realization spills over the defect to printed circuit in and carries out automatic repair, has guaranteed liquid metal printed circuit's finished product quality, has improved liquid metal printed circuit's preparation stability and reliability.

The wiping agent can be ethanol or a solution with ethanol as a main component, such as absolute ethanol, alcohol, a liquid mixture doped with (easily) volatile grease and with the alcohol content of 75% -99%, and the liquid mixture can be used for wiping overflowing liquid metal on one hand, and on the other hand, the grease can form an overflow-preventing path at an overflow edge line of the liquid metal line to play a role in isolation and protection of the liquid metal line. Alcohol itself may also form the above-mentioned spill path, while grease is more desirable for insulation.

As shown in fig. 11, the repairing mechanism 30 may further include: a horizontal movement mechanism 35 that moves in one or more directions of a horizontal plane; the fiber wiping head 31 and the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 are assembled on the horizontal moving mechanism 35, that is, for example, the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 is fixed on the horizontal moving mechanism 35, and following the movement of the horizontal moving mechanism 35 in the horizontal direction, the fiber wiping head 31 is fixed on the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 35, thereby realizing the movement in the horizontal (x and y) direction and the vertical (z) direction.

As shown in fig. 12, the container 34 is a pen tube 36 filled with the wiping agent, the bottom of the container is open and is sealed by the fiber wiping head 31, and the bottom of the fiber wiping head 31 is exposed outside the pen tube 36 and constitutes the nib of the pen tube 36. In contrast, the electrically controlled lifting mechanism 32 may employ a suction electromagnet; the magnetizer 37 on the attracting electromagnet 32 is connected with the pen tube 36 through a beam bracket 38; the pen tube 36 moves along with the attraction of the magnetizer 37 through the beam bracket 37.

As shown in fig. 12 and 13, the repair mechanism 30 may further include: a barrel holder 39 fixed to the horizontal movement mechanism 35; the pen tube holder 39 has a vertical through hole, the shape of which corresponds to the diameter surface of the pen tube 36, the pen tube 36 is located in the through hole, and the pen tube holder 39 is supported by the first retaining structure 361 and the elastic member 362; when the attracting electromagnet 32 is powered on, the upper magnetizer 37 drives the pen tube 36 to move downwards to the working position, and at the moment, the elastic part 362 is compressed and deformed; when the attracting electromagnet 32 is powered off, the elastic member 362 relaxes to release and drive the pen tube 36 to move upward to its initial position. In some embodiments, the upward vertical restoring force of the pen barrel 36 may be provided by a side of the attracting electromagnet 32, such as a spring between the magnetizer 37 and the electromagnet 32 in fig. 11.

As shown in fig. 14, the pen holder 39 can be a cylindrical structure for preventing the pen tube 36 from shifting in the horizontal direction when moving in the vertical direction, a first locking platform 363 is disposed above the pen tube 36, a second locking structure 364 cooperating with the first locking platform 363 is disposed above the pen tube 36 for limiting the maximum rising height of the fiber wiping head 31 (e.g. the length extending from the pen holder 39 at the minimum), a second locking platform 365 is disposed below the pen tube 36, and a third locking structure 366 cooperating with the second locking platform 365 is disposed below the pen tube 36 for limiting the maximum falling height of the fiber wiping head 31 (e.g. the length extending from the pen holder 39 at the maximum)

Referring now to fig. 15, fig. 15 shows another schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in this schematic structural diagram, the present invention discloses a liquid metal printer 100, including: the above-described repair mechanism 30.

In some preferred embodiments, the liquid metal printer 100, further comprises: work surface 10, printing mechanism 20, image acquisition system. The printing mechanism 20 is used for performing liquid metal printing operation on the printing substrate 201 on the working surface 10 and repairing defects such as breakpoints, incompleteness, and edge shrinkage of the liquid metal; the repair mechanism 30 is used for repairing defects such as liquid metal overflow.

The printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 may adopt the structure in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the image capturing system may adopt image technology such as photography, video shooting, projection, and the like.

When the printing mechanism 20 is performing a printing/repairing operation, the repairing mechanism 30 can be in an initial position, i.e., without affecting the moving operation of the printing mechanism 20; when the repairing mechanism 30 performs the repairing operation, the printing mechanism 20 can be in its initial position, i.e. the moving operation of the repairing mechanism 30 is not affected; when the image acquisition system works, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 can be both in the initial positions, so that the image acquisition of the image acquisition system is prevented from being influenced.

The liquid metal printer in this embodiment can realize the preparation of the integration of liquid metal printing article (such as liquid metal printed circuit), need not the manual work and mends the liquid metal pattern that the liquid metal printer printed, has improved the reliability of liquid metal printer.

With continued reference to fig. 15, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 are both mounted on the same rail beam, the rail beam moves along the Y-axis direction, the rail beam crosses the printed substrate 201 from above the working surface 10, the rail beam has a sliding rail along the length direction thereof, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 are mounted on the sliding rail and move along the X-axis direction, in the initial state, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 are located at both ends of the rail beam and are located outside the printed substrate 201, when the printing mechanism 20/the repairing mechanism 30 move inward through the sliding rail movement so as to be located right above the printed substrate 201, and the printed substrate 201 is moved on the working surface 10 through the sliding rail and the rail beam.

In some embodiments, the liquid metal printer 100, further comprises: one or more rollers that frictionally move the printed substrate 201 into the work surface 10 and over the work surface 10 in the Y-axis direction. In this embodiment, the printing mechanism 20 and/or the repairing mechanism 30 of the liquid metal printer 100 may cooperate with the pressing roller to drive the printing substrate 201 to move relative to the printing substrate 201.

In this embodiment, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 are located on the same rail beam, so that the equipment space of the liquid metal printer is saved, and the excessive moving mechanisms inside the liquid metal printer are avoided, thereby simplifying the hardware equipment of the liquid metal printer.

Referring now to fig. 16 and 17, the present invention discloses a patch mechanism 40, comprising: the device comprises a tubular patch gun 41, an element box 42, a dispensing head 43, a first movable assembly, a second movable assembly, a third movable assembly and an air pressure system. Wherein,

the tubular patch gun 41 is linked with a first movable mechanism and is used for adsorbing the patch element 203 through a bottom suction nozzle 411 and moving the patch element 203 to operation surfaces with different heights through the first movable mechanism; the top of the tubular patch gun 411 is communicated with a first air duct 44 of an air pressure system, and the suction and the release of the suction nozzle 411 are controlled through the start/stop of negative pressure. Preferably, a flexible gasket is arranged outside the suction nozzle 411 to prevent the suction nozzle 411 from being in direct rigid contact with the chip component 203, reduce a gap possibly generated between the suction nozzle 411 and the chip component 203, and solve the problem that the suction nozzle 411 adsorbs the chip component 203 unstably and is easy to loosen.

The utility model discloses a to glue the head and invert, glue in the bottom surface of paster component, avoided going out the point that glues from the below and glued the head and easily receive the influence of gravity, lead to multiple problems such as colloid seepage, play gum volume wayward.

The first movable mechanism can adopt a lifting mechanism, and different gears are arranged aiming at the working surfaces with different heights, so that the tubular patch gun 41 is controlled to stay on the working surfaces with different heights; the working surface comprises a chip mounting working surface, a dispensing working surface and a chip mounting working surface, and is used for adsorbing the chip mounting element 203 under the suction nozzle 411 when the chip mounting working surface is positioned; the bottom surface of the chip component 203 which is positioned on the dispensing operation surface and is used for being adsorbed under the suction nozzle 411 is subjected to dispensing treatment; in the sheet working face, the sheet member 203 for dispensing the underside is placed on the printed substrate 201 at a prescribed position of the liquid metal pattern 202, and a certain degree (slight) pressing is generated.

In another embodiment, the lifting mechanism can also move in a unit distance at any height in the vertical direction, preferably in millimeters. The first movable mechanism can be driven by adopting a motor, electromagnetism, pressure (such as air pressure/hydraulic pressure) and the like.

The element box 42 is linked with a second movable mechanism, and can be a groove structure with a sealed upper part, or a box structure with a window arranged at a specific position, and a space for placing one or more patch elements 203 is arranged in the element box, so that the patch elements 203 in the element box can be moved to the position right below the suction nozzle 411 of the tubular patch gun 41 through the second movable mechanism at a certain moment (when the patch loading work is required); preferably, the component box 42 has a structure for bundling the chip components 203 to ensure that the chip components 203 sucked under the suction nozzle 411 can be attached to the designated positions of the printed circuit 202 at a predetermined angle.

Preferably, the second moving mechanism may adopt a horizontal moving mechanism (such as a sliding rail 421 and a matching electromagnetic member 422) for driving or driving the element box 42 to perform horizontal movement in a horizontal direction at a certain height, so that the patch element 203 reaches below the working position of the tubular patch gun 41 and leaves the falling range of the tubular patch gun 41; preferably, the second moving mechanism may adopt a two-stage control, that is, an initial stage in which the position of the element box 42 does not block the falling of the tube type patch gun 41, and a working stage in which a designated area of the element box 42 is located directly below the tube type patch gun 41. The second movable mechanism can be driven by adopting a motor, electromagnetism, pressure (such as air pressure/hydraulic pressure) and the like.

Preferably, the second movable mechanism includes: a slide rail 421 that fits with the housing of the element cartridge; the component cassette is ejected or retracted in the horizontal direction along the slide rail by the electromagnetic member 422.

In some alternative embodiments, as shown in fig. 18, the component case is a multi-layered structure 423 stacked in a vertical direction, and each layered structure 423 is moved in a horizontal direction by a separate slide rail 421 and an electromagnetic member 422. The element box is of an L-shaped groove body structure, and the widths of the groove bodies are consistent; one or more distribution units 424 which are consistent in shape and are arranged in sequence are accommodated in the groove body, the groove body forms a sliding groove 425 of the distribution units, and the distribution units 424 move from one end to the other end of the groove body through electromagnetic pieces 426 and 427; wherein, the upper surface of the dispensing unit 424 is provided with a placing groove 428 corresponding to the shape of the patch element; the component box is used for moving the patch components 203 in the component box to the position right below the suction nozzle of the tubular patch gun 41 through the second movable mechanism at a certain moment, and specifically comprises: the component box 42 is driven by one or more electromagnetic members to move the chip component 201 at the position where the component box 42 is bent to a position right below the suction nozzle 411 of the tube-type chip gun 41.

As shown in fig. 19, the dispensing head 43 is linked with the third movable mechanism, and is in an inverted structure, and the dispensing nozzle 431 is vertically upward, so that the dispensing head can be moved to a position right below the chip component 203 adsorbed under the suction nozzle 411 by the third movable mechanism at a certain time (when dispensing work is required), and can perform dispensing operation on the bottom surface of the chip component 203 by the dispensing nozzle 431.

In some embodiments, the bottom of the dispensing head 43 is communicated with a glue storage tank 433 through a pipeline 432, the glue storage tank 433 is used for storing a certain amount of glue, the pipeline 432 is a hard pipeline, and the dispensing head 43 is communicated with the glue storage tank 433 through the hard pipeline 432 and is fixed relatively. The third movable mechanism can adopt a rotating mechanism, which indirectly drives the dispensing head 43 linked with the glue storage tank 433 to move by taking the glue storage tank 433 as the center of a circle by driving the glue storage tank 433 to rotate. The dispensing head 43 is moved by the rotating mechanism to the position right under the chip component 203 sucked under the suction nozzle 411 and away from the falling range of the tubular chip gun 41.

As shown in fig. 20, in some embodiments, a magnetic thimble 435 moving up and down is disposed in the glue outlet 431 of the glue dispensing head 43 through a bracket 434, an end surface of the magnetic thimble 435 is a planar structure, and when the magnetic thimble 435 is at its lowest position, its top end is located below the glue level; the tubular patch gun 41 is provided with an electromagnet 412 matched with the magnetic thimble 435, and is used for sucking the magnetic thimble 435 out of the glue outlet 431 in a power-on state, so that glue carried out from the end part of the magnetic thimble 435 is dotted on the bottom surface of the patch element 203. In some optional embodiments, the top end of the magnetic thimble 435 is provided with a flexible fiber for attaching glue, and the fiber may be a cotton fiber or a plastic fiber, and is easily extruded and deformed when being stressed, so that the direct stress of the patch element 203 can be reduced, and the offset/drop caused by impact can be avoided. Preferably, the flexible fiber is cotton fiber with fine gaps, and a small amount of colloid can be adhered to the cotton fiber.

The colloid is photo-curing glue or heat-curing glue, and preferably, the heat-curing glue can be colloid with the curing temperature of more than 60 ℃.

In some embodiments, the patch mechanism 40 further comprises: and meanwhile, the fourth moving mechanism drives the tubular patch gun 41, the element box 42 and the dispensing head 43 to move in a consistent manner in the vertical direction and/or the horizontal direction. Preferably, the fourth movable mechanism can be an x-axis, y-axis and z-axis movable support of the liquid metal printer.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a pasting method for the pasting mechanism 40 to solve the problems in the prior art.

The paster method is applied to the paster mechanism and comprises the following steps:

step S41, initializing equipment to enable the tubular patch gun to be positioned on an initial working surface;

step S42, driving a second movable mechanism to drive an element box to move a target patch element to be under a suction nozzle of the tube-shaped patch gun;

step S43, driving a first movable mechanism to drive the tubular patch gun to move downwards to a patch loading working surface, and adsorbing a target patch element under a suction nozzle;

step S44, driving a second movable mechanism to drive the element box to move out of the falling range of the tubular patch gun;

step S45, driving a third movable mechanism to drive the dispensing head to move to a position right below the target element adsorbed under the suction nozzle;

step S46, driving a first movable mechanism to drive the tubular patch gun to move downwards to a dispensing working surface, and completing dispensing of the bottom surface of the target patch element by matching with the dispensing head;

step S47, driving a third movable mechanism to drive the dispensing head to move out of the falling range of the tubular patch gun;

and step S48, driving the first movable mechanism to drive the tubular patch gun to move downwards to the patch working surface, and stopping the adsorption operation to place the target patch element at the designated position of the base material with the liquid metal circuit on the surface.

The utility model also provides a liquid metal printer 100, including above-mentioned paster mechanism 40 in the subassembly. In this embodiment, the liquid metal printer 100 may be used to manufacture liquid metal printed patterns/printed circuits, and may also be used to mount components to realize integrated manufacturing of printed circuits.

Referring now to fig. 21, fig. 21 illustrates a welding mechanism 50 according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is used to seal and fix a metal mixture (conductive mixture) in a viscous state at normal temperature at a joint between a liquid metal printed circuit 202 and a pin of a chip component 203. A welding mechanism 50 comprising: the device comprises a horizontal moving mechanism 51, a first lifting mechanism 52, a second lifting mechanism 53, an extrusion molding mechanism 54 and a molding pen 55, wherein the first lifting mechanism 52 and the second lifting mechanism 53 are fixed on the horizontal moving mechanism 51 and are linked with the horizontal moving mechanism 51 in the horizontal direction, the extrusion molding mechanism 54 is arranged on the first lifting mechanism 52 and moves in the vertical direction along with the first lifting mechanism 52, the molding pen 55 is arranged on the second lifting mechanism 53 and moves in the vertical direction along with the second lifting mechanism 53, and the first lifting mechanism 52 and the second lifting mechanism 53 move in the vertical direction independently.

The extrusion molding mechanism 54 has a discharge port facing downward vertically, and is configured to extrude a unit mass (or a unit volume) of solder onto a surface of a substrate located directly below the extrusion molding mechanism, where the solder is a viscous metal mixture at room temperature, and the metal mixture has good conductivity, and in some preferred embodiments, the metal mixture is a solid-liquid mixture formed by uniformly mixing metal particles (such as silver-coated copper powder and copper powder) with good conductivity and liquid metal, and the liquid metal is selected to have a component ratio consistent with that of the liquid metal printed on the surface of the substrate, so as to improve wettability and fusibility between the solder and a liquid metal circuit, and ensure stable connection between the solder and the liquid metal circuit.

As shown in fig. 22, the extrusion molding mechanism 54 includes a tube body 541 for containing the solder, the bottom of the tube body 541 is a tapered necking structure for converging the solder, a discharge pipe 542 is vertically fixed at the opening, and the discharge pipe 542 is a hollow tube structure and is communicated with the inside of the tube body 541; and the pressure component 543 is located in the tube body 541 and used for driving the solder to move towards the discharging tube 542, and the pressure component 543 can adopt a mechanical extrusion mode, for example, an extrusion molding screw is adopted, and the solder is driven to move towards the discharging tube 542 through the rotation mode of the extrusion molding screw.

Pressure assembly 543 may also be configured as shown in fig. 23 to force solder through tap 544 and into a tapping tube. Wherein, the upper end of discharging pipe 542 is located the inside of body 541, pressure head 544 moves in the vertical direction through electromagnetic drive, the tip of pressure head 544 is the notch structure, the shape corresponds with the mouth of pipe of discharging pipe 542, and can wrap up the mouth of pipe of discharging pipe 542, when pressure head 544 moves down the extrusion solder, the notch of pressure head 544 will hold some solder, when pressure head 544 moves the mouth of pipe department of discharging pipe 542, notch and the mutual extrusion fit of mouth of pipe, extrude the intraoral solder in the mouth of pipe from the mouth of pipe department extrusion business turn over in discharging pipe 542 with the notch. The unit extrusion amount of the solder can be controlled by this structure.

As shown in fig. 24, in some embodiments, the molding pen 55 includes: a pen holder 551 and a hemispherical pen point 552 at the bottom end of the pen holder 551; wherein, the cambered surface of the pen point 552 faces downwards; the pen point 552 is wound with a layer of wool fibers, on one hand, the contact area between the wool fibers and the liquid metal can be reduced due to fine gaps existing in the wool fibers, on the other hand, the wool fibers are not easy to adhere to the liquid metal due to surface properties of the wool fibers, and the wool fibers are selected to avoid the pen point from carrying away solder in the pushing process. The molding pen pushes the solder to move to a connecting point between the chip element and the liquid metal circuit through a pen point at the lower end of the molding pen; in the process of horizontal pushing, the pen point moves at a constant speed from bottom to top in the vertical direction, so that the solder forms a slope attached to the side face of the chip element. The slope-shaped surface-sealing glue enters the joint between the liquid metal circuit and the pin of the patch element, so that the flow can be guided along the slope.

The utility model discloses a be thick conductive paste of consistency at normal temperature as the solder, utilize the solder to carry out the shutoff to the junction of liquid metal circuit and component pin, can regard as conductive connecting agent auxiliary connection liquid metal circuit and component pin on the one hand, colloid infiltration junction when on the other hand can avoid follow-up gluing, the physics separation problem that leads to.

The embodiment of the utility model provides an in printed circuit's welding mechanism's work flow, the example:

step 1, moving the base material in the y direction and driving the extrusion molding mechanism to move in the x direction through the horizontal moving mechanism, so that a discharge pipe of the extrusion molding mechanism is opposite to a preset solder extrusion point, and preferably, the distance between the solder extrusion point and a pin of the chip element is set to be 0.2 mm.

Step 2, driving the extrusion molding mechanism to move along the vertical direction through the first lifting mechanism, so that the extrusion molding mechanism is positioned at a position 5mm away from the surface of the printing substrate;

step 3, driving a pressure mechanism in the extrusion molding mechanism to extrude the solder in unit volume on the surface of the base material, wherein the solder can fall through the cooperation of a conventional vibration or shaking component;

step 4, lifting the extrusion molding mechanism, moving the molding pen to one side of the solder far away from the pins of the chip component, wherein the pen point of the molding pen is lower than the height of the solder (namely the pen point and the solder are partially overlapped in the vertical direction);

and 5, controlling the pen point of the molding pen to drive the solder to move towards the pin direction of the chip component, and gradually lifting the pen point in the process to enable the solder to form a slope with gradually increased height along the movement direction of the solder and be attached to the side wall of the chip component.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid metal printer, which includes the welding mechanism as described above.

The utility model discloses a liquid metal printer 100, include: the working surface 10, the chip mounting mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50; the paster mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50 are both assembled on the same guide rail cross beam, the guide rail cross beam moves along the Y-axis direction, the guide rail cross beam stretches across the printed substrate 201 from the upper side of the working face 10, a slide rail along the length direction of the guide rail cross beam is arranged on the guide rail cross beam, the paster mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50 are assembled on the slide rail and move along the X-axis direction, in an initial state, the paster mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50 are located at two ends of the guide rail cross beam and are located on the outer side of the printed substrate 201, when the paster mechanism 40/the welding mechanism 50 move inwards through the slide rail movement, the paster mechanism 40/the welding mechanism 50 are located right above the printed substrate 201, and the printed substrate 201 is moved on the working face 10 through the slide rail and.

In some embodiments, the liquid metal printer 100, further comprises: one or more rollers that frictionally move the printed substrate 201 into the work surface 10 and over the work surface 10 in the Y-axis direction. In this embodiment, the pasting mechanism 40 and/or the soldering mechanism 50 of the liquid metal printer 100 may cooperate with the pressing roller to drive the printed substrate 201 to move relative to the printed substrate 201.

In this embodiment, the sheet attaching mechanism 40 and/or the welding mechanism 50 are located on the same rail beam, so that the equipment space of the liquid metal printer is saved, and excessive moving mechanisms inside the liquid metal printer are avoided, thereby simplifying the hardware equipment of the liquid metal printer.

Referring now to fig. 25, fig. 25 shows a schematic structural diagram of a liquid metal printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in the schematic structural diagram, the liquid metal printer 100 includes: the device comprises a working surface (working table) 10, and a printing mechanism 20, a repairing mechanism 30, a chip mounting mechanism 40, a welding mechanism 50 and a packaging mechanism 60 which perform corresponding operations on the working surface, wherein the printing mechanism 20, the repairing mechanism 30, the chip mounting mechanism 40, the welding mechanism 50 and the packaging mechanism 60 are driven by one or more moving mechanisms to move above the working surface 10 for operation. Wherein, the working surface 10 is used for bearing the printing substrate 200; the printing mechanism 20 is used for drawing a liquid metal pattern 202 on the printing substrate 201; the repair mechanism 30 is used for repairing defects existing in the liquid metal pattern 202 formed on the printed substrate 201; the chip mounting mechanism 40 is configured to place a chip component 203 at a specified position on a liquid metal pattern 202 (at this time, the liquid metal pattern serves as a printed circuit for forming a printed circuit) formed on a printed substrate 201, so that pins of the chip component 203 are in contact connection with the liquid metal printed circuit reserved at the position; the welding mechanism 50 is used for dripping solder at the pins of the patch elements attached to the printed substrate 20 and realizing the pin wrapping of the pins and the liquid metal printed circuit, wherein the solder is a viscous liquid metal mixture at normal temperature; the packaging mechanism 60 is used for coating packaging glue on the surface of the formed printed circuit to realize airtight packaging.

The working surface 10 comprises a first working surface 11 and a second working surface 12 connected to each other, the connection comprising a direct connection and an indirect connection, both of which allow the transfer of the printed substrate 201 from the first working surface 11 to the second working surface 12; specifically, the first work surface 11 is used for the working operations of the printing mechanism 20, the repairing mechanism 30, the die attaching mechanism 40, and the welding mechanism 50, and the second work surface 12 is used for the working operations of the packaging mechanism 60. Namely, the liquid metal printer 100 performs liquid metal printing, repairing, pasting and foot wrapping operations on the printing substrate 201 on the first working surface 11, and after the above operations are completed, the printing substrate is transferred from the first working surface 11 to the second working surface 12, at this time, the liquid metal printer 100 performs packaging operation on the printing substrate on the second working surface 12, and a completed liquid metal printed circuit or liquid metal printed pattern is obtained after the packaging adhesive is cured. Preferably, the liquid metal printer 100 further comprises a transfer mechanism 70, the transfer mechanism 70 being configured to transfer the printed substrate from the first work surface 11 to the second work surface 12.

The liquid metal printer 100 further includes a main control board for receiving user instructions and driving the various mechanisms in the liquid metal printer 100 to perform corresponding movements and operations.

The embodiment of the utility model provides an in liquid metal printer has not only solved the automatic of liquid metal circuit/pattern defect and has repaired to improve the reliability of the integration preparation of printing, repairing, paster, welding (package foot), encapsulation based on this, guaranteed the printing quality.

Specifically, the first working surface 11 and the second working surface 12 are continuous and bent in a zigzag shape to form a high working surface and a low working surface, the high working surface is used as the first working surface 11, and the low working surface is used as the second working surface 12. Preferably, the second working surface 12 is provided with one or more packaging grooves for placing one or more printed substrates and performing packaging operation respectively. The packaging mechanism adopts bi-component flexible colloid or bi-component hard colloid, such as AB glue.

The respective working mechanisms in the liquid metal printer 100 in this embodiment may adopt the structure disclosed in any one of the working mechanisms described above, and the moving parts for driving the working mechanisms in the horizontal and vertical directions may be shared with each other.

With continued reference to fig. 25, a preferred structure of the liquid metal printer proposed by the present invention is disclosed in this embodiment, which includes: a frame 80, a first rail cross member 81 and a second rail cross member 82 which move in the Y-axis direction across the first work surface 11, and a third rail cross member 83 which moves in the Y-axis direction across the second work surface 12; the first guide rail cross beam 81, the second guide rail cross beam 82 and the third guide rail cross beam 83 are erected on the rack 80, Y-axis direction slide rails are arranged at corresponding positions on the rack 80, and the first guide rail cross beam 81, the second guide rail cross beam 82 and the third guide rail cross beam 83 move along the Y-axis direction through the Y-axis direction slide rails. The movement ranges of the first rail cross member 81 and the second rail cross member 82 are limited to the area of the first working surface 11, and the movement range of the third rail cross member 83 is limited to the area of the second working surface 12.

The printing mechanism 20 and the repair mechanism 30 are directed to the operation of the liquid metal line, and therefore both mechanisms are provided on the first rail beam 81, thereby moving the printing mechanism 20 and the repair mechanism 30 in the Y-axis direction via the first rail beam 81. An X-axis direction slide rail is arranged on the first guide rail cross beam 81 along the extending direction of the first guide rail cross beam, the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 are connected with the first guide rail cross beam 81 through the X-axis direction slide rail, and the X-axis direction movement along the first guide rail cross beam 81 is realized, preferably, the initial positions of the printing mechanism 20 and the repairing mechanism 30 on the first guide rail cross beam 81 are two ends of the cross beam, the operation of any mechanism on a printing substrate is not influenced, the width of the printing substrate is the middle section between the two ends of the cross beam 81, and when one of the two mechanisms is in an operating state, the other mechanism is located at the initial position to be ready.

The mounting mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50 are directed to the operation of the mounting element, and therefore both mechanisms are disposed on the second rail beam 82, thereby driving the mounting mechanism 40 and the welding mechanism 50 to move in the Y-axis direction through the second rail beam 82. The second rail beam 82 is provided with an X-axis sliding rail along the extending direction thereof, the assembly, movement, position, and cooperative working state of the pasting device 40 and the welding device 50 on the second rail beam 82 are the same as those of the printing device 20 and the repairing device 30 on the first rail beam 81, and details thereof are omitted.

As shown in fig. 26, the transfer mechanism 70 includes: and the pinch rollers are arranged below the first guide rail cross beam 81 and the second guide rail cross beam 82 and are used for contacting the printed base material to prevent the printed base material from deviating and driving the printed base material to move along the Y-axis direction through friction force. The substrate displacement mechanism 70 serves on the one hand to adjust the position of the print substrate in the region of the first work surface 11 in accordance with the first guide rail cross member 81 and the second guide rail cross member 82, so that the target mechanism is brought into a position opposite the specified position of the print substrate. On the other hand, the transfer mechanism transfers the printed substrate from the first work surface 11 to a second work surface 12 that is continuous with the first work surface 11.

In some embodiments, the first work surface 11 is directly in front of the second work surface 12, and the opposing first 81, second 82 and third 83 rail beams are arranged in sequence from proximal to distal. According to the arrangement, the utility model provides a demand of the preparation process of liquid metal printer.

The image acquisition mechanism 90 may employ an image acquisition system such as photography or video camera; preferably, the first work surface 11 is a light-transmissive hard material; the image acquisition mechanism is provided with a strip-shaped lamp strip below the first working surface 11 and used for providing a light source upwards; and a projection pattern recognition system disposed above the first rail beam 81 and the second rail beam 82, vertically opposite to the first working surface 11, for recognizing an actual print image by a projection formed by irradiating a print substrate with a light source. Such as a charge coupled device image sensor CCD system. Specifically, the strip-shaped lamp strip is opposite to the projection pattern recognition system in the fixed position and the vertical direction, and the substrate moving mechanism drives the printing substrate to move along the Y-axis direction, so that the surface image of the whole printing substrate is recognized.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a printed circuit, which is applied to the liquid metal printer 100, including:

step a, feeding a blank printed substrate into a first working surface;

b, printing liquid metal on the printed substrate to form a liquid metal printed circuit;

c, performing quality inspection on the liquid metal printed circuit formed on the printed substrate; if the quality is qualified, entering the step e, otherwise, entering the step d;

d, correspondingly repairing the circuit defects existing in the liquid metal printed circuit; entering the step c;

step e, taking an electronic element to be attached to the printed base material and be connected with a specified position in the liquid metal printed circuit;

f, coating the viscous solder at normal temperature on the joint of the liquid metal printed circuit and the electronic element, and fixing the solder by wrapping the pins;

g, transferring the printed substrate from the first working surface to a second working surface;

and h, dripping packaging glue on the printed base material, packaging the liquid metal printed circuit and the electronic element on the printed base material, and obtaining the printed circuit after the packaging glue is leveled and cured.

In some illustrative embodiments, after one or more of steps e and f are performed, the liquid metal printed circuit formed on the printed substrate may be inspected again (as in step c), and if the quality is not qualified, the process may proceed to a moving-down step, otherwise, a repairing operation is started.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A liquid metal printer, comprising: a continuous first working surface and a second working surface; the printing mechanism, the repairing mechanism, the chip mounting mechanism and the welding mechanism are used for independently operating in the area above the first working surface, and the packaging mechanism is used for operating in the area above the second working surface; and a substrate moving mechanism and an image acquisition mechanism.

2. The liquid metal printer of claim 1, further comprising: a first guide rail cross beam and a second guide rail cross beam which cross over the first working surface and move along the Y-axis direction, and a third guide rail cross beam which cross over the second working surface and move along the Y-axis direction;

the printing mechanism and the repairing mechanism are assembled on the first guide rail beam and move along the first guide rail beam in the X-axis direction;

the chip mounting mechanism and the welding mechanism are assembled on the second guide rail beam and move along the second guide rail beam in the X-axis direction;

the substrate moving mechanism includes: and the rotating wheels are arranged below the first guide rail cross beam and the second guide rail cross beam and used for contacting the printing base material to prevent the printing base material from deviating and driving the printing base material to move along the Y-axis direction through rotation.

3. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, further comprising: and the first guide rail cross beam, the second guide rail cross beam and the third guide rail cross beam are assembled on the frame.

4. A liquid metal printer according to claim 3, wherein the first working surface is a light-transmissive hard material;

the image acquisition mechanism includes: a strip-shaped lamp strip is arranged below the first working surface and used for providing a light source upwards; and the projection pattern recognition system is arranged above the first guide rail cross beam and the second guide rail cross beam, is opposite to the first working surface in the vertical direction, and is used for recognizing the actual printing image through the projection formed by irradiating the printing base material by the light source.

5. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, wherein the printing mechanism employs a liquid metal direct write printhead for drawing liquid metal lines and filling line defects due to a lack of liquid metal.

6. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, wherein the repair mechanism employs a fiber wiper head in alcohol communication for wiping line overflow defects that occur in the liquid metal lines.

7. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, wherein the placement mechanism adsorbs the placement element in a negative pressure manner, performs dispensing in the center of the bottom of the placement element, and attaches the placement element to a designated position on the printed substrate.

8. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, wherein the soldering mechanism is configured to extrude solder onto the surface of the printed substrate, and to shape the solder into a ramp-like shape to cover the contact positions of the leads of the chip component and the liquid metal traces; the solder is a viscous metal mixture at normal temperature.

9. The liquid metal printer of claim 2, wherein the second working surface is a trough-like structure having a depth corresponding to the shape of the printing substrate;

the packaging mechanism adopts bi-component flexible or hard colloid.