DE2350176B2 - ELECTRONIC COMPUTER IN PRINTED CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY AND THE PROCESS FOR ITS PRODUCTION - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to an electronic computer in printed circuit technology, in which Semiconductor circuit blocks, a digital display device and connection lines on the major surfaces a common insulating plate are arranged and the keys of the keyboard each with a fixed pair of contacts have movable contact bridges that can be brought into contact.

The invention also relates to a method

for making such an electronic calculator.

An electronic computer of the type described above is available through an article in the magazine "Funkschau" 1972, p. 628 ff., Became known. In this known computer are on a substrate plate Line connections and a part of the semiconductor integrated circuit elements attached. The button's the keyboard act against corresponding switch contacts, which are in the form of wiring on an additional Board are arranged. To connect the keyboard board with the integrated semiconductor circuit blocks A flat cable is used to support the substrate plate. The playback device itself forms a special, soldered display unit.

The manufacture of such a computer is relatively difficult because of the separate support plates for the keyboard and the computing units are needed and a very

f> 5 exact dimensioning of the length of the substrate plate with The flat cable connecting the keyboard board is required. Furthermore, a precise fit of the substrate plate is essential and the keyboard board in the housing

necessary so that their exact relative position to each other is preserved

The invention is based on the object by suitable Assembling the key switches, the integrated semiconductor circuit blocks and the digital ones Display unit and its connecting line to simplify the manufacture of such a computer.

The electronic computer according to the invention is characterized by the features indicated in the main claim Features marked.

The electronic computer according to the invention is in view of the utilization of the top and bottom the provided insulating plate as a carrier for connecting lines extremely space-saving and stable, and furthermore, the U-connecting members encompassing the narrow edges of the insulating plate form means which ensure easy assembly.

Appropriate further developments of the electronic computer characterized in the main claim form the subject matter of subclaims 2 to 5. _M.

Claims 6 to 8 are useful for the production of the electronic computer according to the invention Procedural rules.

Preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings shows

F i g. 1 is a sectional view through an inventive electronic calculator,

Fig. 2 and 3 exploded perspective Views of the electronic calculator of FIG. 1,

F i g.4 a plan view of the electronic computer during a certain manufacturing process,

5 is a sectional view through one in the electronic Computer keyboard unit used and

Fig. 6 is a flow chart showing a sequence of Illustrates manufacturing processes in the manufacture of the electronic computer according to the invention.

According to FIG. 1, a substrate is formed from a continuation of an electrode support plate within a liquid crystal display unit 2 and is made of dielectric material such as e.g. B. glass, ceramic, plastic, etc. A semiconductor circuit unit 3, which has various circuit levels and connections between them, is mounted directly on one main surface, namely the back A of the substrate 1, while a keyboard unit 4 directly on the other main surface, namely the front Bues substrate 1 is attached. The liquid crystal display unit 2, the semiconductor circuit unit 3 and the keyboard unit 4, which are combined into a single component on the same plate 1, are housed in a housing 5 made of plastic or the like. The housing 5 consists of an upper housing part 6, a lower housing part 7 and a hood 8 with which a display surface of the reproduction unit 2 can be opened and closed if necessary. Several openings are formed in the upper housing part 6 in order to receive the keys therein.

The hood 8 can be rotated around the connection between the upper and lower housing parts 6 and 7, respectively are through a predetermined angular range (e.g. 45 °) and is in the embodiment shown provided with a window 9 in such a way that! 3 incident light rays from the surroundings have the f> 5 Can irradiate display surface of the playback unit 2 in the open state. The window 9 commits before-7nT Made of plastic material in the shape of a lens. Surrounded by the upper and lower housing parts 6 and 7, respectively there is a cavity 10 on one side of the calculator to accommodate a battery 11. Um To counteract waste of energy, provision is made that the semiconductor circuit unit 3 and the playback unit 2, electrical energy is automatically supplied when the hood 8 is in its open state, and the electrical energy is automatically switched off when required arithmetic operations are completed and the hood 8 is closed. This measure will realized by installing a switch (not shown) connected to the battery 11, which is activated by the opening and closing movements of the hood 8 is actuated.

Details of the liquid crystal display unit 2, the semiconductor circuit unit 3 and the keyboard unit 4, which are summarized in FIG. 1 were mentioned, will now be based on the F i g. 2 to 5 closer in order to facilitate the understanding of the basic computer structure.

The exploded perspective view of FIG. FIG. 2 shows the liquid crystal display unit 2 and the semiconductor circuit unit 3 which have been directly attached to the rear side A of the substrate 1. As already mentioned, the multi-digit display unit 2 contains a plurality of liquid crystal display elements of known design, such a display element z. B. has a layer of a storable liquid crystal compound which causes light scattering due to a turbulence generated in the layer by the application of a voltage applied to the layer. On the transparent substrate 1 made of glass or the like, individual segment electrodes 12 are formed, each of which consists of a transparent conductive layer, such as SnO2 or In2O3, together with electrode leads 13. In this way, the substrate 1 also constitutes the transparent electrode plate and the support plate for the liquid crystal display unit.

Line connections 14 between the liquid crystal display unit 2 and the semiconductor circuit unit 3 are in the desired connection pattern on the whole surface of the substrate 1 using the printed circuit board Applied ago known technique. Preferably, multilayer line connections made from two layers-made up, used with dielectric material between the layers, to increase the density of the line connections. These multilayer wire connections can can be recognized from the outside due to the interposed dielectric material, which z. B. off consists of semi-transparent low-melting glass. Connection holes 16 are used to connect between the upper and lower layers of the multilayer interconnection lines. It would be difficult to get the electrode leads 13 to the individual segment electrodes 12 arranged side by side according to dei The arrangement and number of segment electrodes 12 are only allowed to run in one direction. From these Reason is an inter mediate space 17 is provided above the display area in which the electrodes Leads 15 are formed and with the semiconductor circuit unit 3 via line connections 19 ver are bound that extend over both sides 18 of the playback area. Which is on both sides of him stretching line connections 19 are made of a

transparent conductive layer is formed.

After this formation of the individual segment electrodes 12 and line connections 14 on the substrate 1 - the line connections within the semiconductor circuit unit 3 will be described later - a glass plate 21 is mounted via a spacer 20 in a position which corresponds to the display surface. The substrate 1 with the segment electrodes 12 formed thereon serves as the first electrode support plate, while the glass plate 21 serves as a second electrode support plate. A common aluminum vapor deposition or other approaches can be used to provide a common reflective electrode 22 for each Apply display element to the glass plate 21. The first and second electrode support plates and the spacer 20 together form a cavity for the storable liquid crystal compound. To this Thus, the reflection type liquid crystal display unit 2 is assembled. The spacer 20 can be either a dielectric material such as mica, polyethylene telephtal film, or a binder such as glass frit. The common electrodes 22, which are located on the second plate 21, extend to predetermined connecting lines 15 on the substrate 1 via electrode leads 23 on the glass plate 21 and silver paste on connecting pins 24. In the embodiment shown the electrode leads for the liquid crystal display unit 2 are all on the same substrate 1 and are appropriately linked to the various other components or units tied together. The liquid crystal display unit effects e.g. B. an eight-digit display and the display the sign symbols + and - or constant arithmetic symbols K on the far right or gan? left lying Position. With such an arrangement, the display unit 2 provides a visible display of the Calculation results corresponding to the control signals coming from the semiconductor circuit unit 3.

The semiconductor circuit unit 3 consists of a plurality of large integrated circuits 25, 25 ′ and connecting lines 26 which are formed on the substrate 1 in the desired pattern using the printed circuit method. The circuit connections 26 can be realized by printing gold paste on the substrate 1. If necessary, multilayer line connections can also be used. The large integrated circuits 25 and 25 'are attached to the substrate 1 by soldering processes in such a way that the individual supply lines thereof are connected to the previously printed solder layers 27, which in turn are connected to the line connections 26. It should be pointed out in detail that, in contrast to conventional large-scale integrated circuits, the large-scale integrated circuit 25 in FIG. 2 has non-protruding leads 28 which were previously covered with solder. The large integrated circuit 25 is first attached to the substrate in such a way that the individual leads 28 come into contact with the solder layers 27. The connection points are coated with solder paste and heated with the soldering iron, so that the solder becomes well liquid approximately in the vicinity of the connection points in order to ensure a good electrical connection. This way of working requires less solder and enables the soldering processes to be carried out easily.
The connection operations with respect to the liquid crystal display unit 2 and the semiconductor circuit unit 3 are carried out simultaneously by means of the printed circuit technology and using gold piping or other materials.

It is therefore not necessary to form these line connections in separate operations. If that Printing the conductor layers after applying low-melting glass frit to the substrate 1 is carried out, a very strong mechanical connection results between the printed conductor layers and the substrate. Furthermore, the conductor layers can be sealed with low-melting glass to improve the properties in terms of electrical insulation and mechanical resistance to enhance. Test connection points 29 are provided in order to detect those occurring in the semiconductor circuit unit 3 To sample signals.

According to the exploded view of FIG. 3, the keyboard unit 4 is attached directly to the upper side B of the substrate 1. The keyboard unit 4 consists of comb-like electrodes 31 for key switches or contacts, these electrodes having been formed according to the technology of printed circuits using gold paste, silver paste or other suitable materials, several signal connection contacts 32 for coupling the keyboard to the semiconductor circuit unit 3, several energy supply contacts 33 and a ground contact 34 for a common spring plate to be described later. In the course of the conductor printing process, when applying the contact electrodes 31, guide lines can be applied in order to facilitate the assembly of rubber switch contacts to be described later on the substrate 1. The contact electrodes 31, the signal contacts 32 and the power supply contacts 33 are, of course, not shown in the drawing, connected to each other by the printed circuit method and are formed on the substrate together with the grounding contact 34 and the guide lines 35 at the same time after the printing process educated. One method of forming a connection between individual units mounted on both major surfaces A and B of the substrate 1 is to use a multiple connector consisting of a dielectric sheet 36 and a set of U-shaped contact elements 38, each of which has individual signal contacts 32 is in electrical contact. The use of such a multiple socket makes it possible to transfer arithmetic command signals, which were generated by pressing a key, into the semiconductor circuit unit 3, which is formed directly on the rear side A of the substrate 1, via individual connecting contact elements 38.

which in this case is a DC-DC converter acts, and which is realized by the circuit board 39 is close to a certain side of the substrate 1 in consideration of the need for miniaturization of

computers to be used privately. This circuit board 39. the different one of the battery 11 associated Schahung parts 42 carries is attached by means of a mounting arrangement having a dielectric Layer 40 and pin-like contact elements 41 contains.

which are inserted into holes 43 in the circuit board 39, so that certain circuit points of the energy supply stage with the energy supply contacts 33 on the front side B and certain Schahunes-

points on the back A are electrically connected. A soldering is carried out around the holes 43 in order to produce the electrical connection between the contact pins 41 and the Schahungsplatte 39. In the example shown, an end part of the circuit board 39 extends to the outside of the substrate 1, and the cavity 10 in which the battery 11 and the battery holder 44 are located is thereby formed, namely by the one created at the level of this extension of the circuit board 39 Space area. The relative positions of the battery 11 and the circuit board 39 with respect to the substrate 1 are best shown in FIG. 4, in which the key electrode areas are all covered with a single rubber sheet 45.

The rubber sheet 45 has a dielectric rubber base 46 which has a certain number of cap-shaped projections 46 'and conductive rubber contacts 47 which are fixedly attached to the inner wall of the projections 46'; the rubber plate 45 ao works together with the comb-shaped electrodes formed directly on the front side ö of the substrate 1 and thereby forms a certain number of key switches of the keyboard unit 4. The rubber plate 45 is precisely positioned by means of the guide line 35 »5 and directly to the front side B of the Substrate 1 attached, with the exception of the cap-shaped projections 46 '. In addition to these parts, the keyboard unit 4 has a common spring plate 48, a common reinforcing plate 49 and keys 50. The common spring plate 48 is a thin elastic steel plate, and the spring portions 51 thereof have a spiral structure with a pair of pivot axes to produce a snap action. Each button 50 has a downwardly directed leg 52 which is movably inserted into a central bore in the spring area, as shown in FIG. 5 is shown.

The individual spring areas 51 are held at locations that the cap-shaped projections 46 'of Rubber plate 45 correspond. With this arrangement, when a certain key 50 is manually operated, the corresponding cap-shaped projection 46 'is pressed down by the leg 52, namely with a resilient snap action so that the pair of comb-shaped electrodes 31 are electrically bridged is through the conductive rubber contact 47. When the button 50 is then released, it is under the resilient snap action returned to their original position, and the pair of key electrodes 31 returns to the disconnected state. The key springs are a single component combined instead of using separate spring elements; this is done to prevent that electrostatic charge stored in the human body is transferred and into the semiconductor circuit unit 3 is inserted via the keyboard. For this purpose there is an electrical connection between a grounding part 53 of the spring plate 48 and the grounding contact 34 are provided on the substrate 1. the Pivot axes within the spring areas 51 are oriented in different directions, so that the extreme thin spring plate 48 is not bent in one direction. The common spring plate 48 and the reinforcement plate 49 are fastened together to the upper housing part 6, namely by screws 55 or the like. which extend through holes 54.

As already mentioned, in the exemplary embodiment described, the reproduction unit 2 is the semiconductor circuit unit 3 and the keyboard unit 4 are arranged directly on one main surface of the substrate 1. After pressing a key 50, that generated by the associated pair of electrodes 31 is generated arithmetic instruction signal into the semiconductor circuit unit 3 on the back of the substrate 1 the connector 36 is inserted, whereupon the desired arithmetic operation is performed. The result The operation is visibly indicated by means of the turbulence in the storage liquid crystal is generated after applying a voltage to the electrodes of the liquid crystal display unit.

F i g. 6 illustrates the sequence of the various manufacturing steps in the manufacture of the one described above Calculator.

First, small and large glass gaps are prepared to form the glass plate 21 and the substrate 1. The segment electrodes 12 and electrode leads for the liquid crystal display unit 2 are simultaneously applied to the substrate 1 using the for the application of transparent conductive layers known technique (step I), and then different from thick layers existing line connections formed at the same time on both main surfaces by means of known printing processes for thick layers (step H). It should be noted that the pipe connections thus formed Contains connections within the semiconductor circuit unit 3 as well as the required number of key contact electrodes within the keyboard unit 4. In practice, when printing the thick layers e.g. B. proceed so that conductive pastes on both major surfaces of the substrate to different Times are printed and then the conductive pastes on both major surfaces at the same time in one Furnace to be sintered. Meanwhile, an aluminum vapor deposition process has been used to create the joint To form electrodes 22 on the glass plate 21 (step IH).

The thus processed glass plates 1 and 21 are coupled to each other and fixed to each other under Interposition of the spacer member 20 (step IV), and the storable liquid crystal compound is filled in between to form the reflection mode liquid crystal display cells of the to form a multi-digit display unit (step V). The liquid crystal cells are protected against external environmental influences sealed

After the liquid crystal display unit is formed, various electronic components such as ζ. Β the large integrated circuits 25 and 25 'are electrically connected to the rear side A of the substrate 1 in the desired line pattern (step VI). Further, the rubber plate 45 for the keyboard unit 4 is attached to the front surface B of the substrate 1 (step VIF, and the power supply circuit board 39 is attached to the side of the substrate (step VIII).

In order to encase these different units formed on the same substrate, a set of Keys placed on the upper housing part 6, and there substrate 1, which also provides the power supply: stage and the battery U carries, is brought into the upper and lower housing part 6 and 7 respectively. At this time the individual keys are attached so that their position corresponds to the key switch-electrode pairs.

As discussed above, computers according to the invention can be manufactured in a very shortened amount of time

609 515/2

because the components necessary for the functioning of the electronic computer are at the same time are formed in the same substrate using procedures such as those used for the manufacture of Semiconductor elements are used.

For this purpose 4 sheets of drawings

Claims (8)

Patent claims: 1. Electronic computer in printed circuit technology, in which semiconductor circuit blocks, a digital display device and connection lines on the main surfaces of a common Isolation plate are arranged and the keys of the keyboard are each in contact with a fixed pair of contacts have movable contact bridges that can be brought, characterized in that the keys (4) associated fixed contact pairs (31) and their connecting lines on the top of the insulating plate (1) are arranged that the semiconductor circuit blocks (25, 25 ') and the digital display device and their connecting lines (29) arranged on the underside of the insulating plate (1) are, and that the connection of the upper side connection lines with the lower side connection lines (29) through the narrow edges of the insulating plate (1) encompassing U-links (38,41) is effected. 2. Electronic computer according to claim 1, characterized in that the existing glass Insulating plate (1) is the carrier of a first system of metallized connecting lines (14) that these connecting lines (14) covered by a layer made of a lower melting glass are that this further glass layer is the carrier of a second system of metallized connecting lines (14), and that in this glass layer at suitable places connecting holes (16) for connecting the connecting line systems are provided. 3. Electronic computer according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the digital display device is a liquid crystal array that is trough-shaped on the underside of the insulating plate (1) is attached, and that the transparent separate electrodes or the reflective counter electrodes the liquid crystal arrangement in the form of deposits on the at least in this area transparent insulating plate (1) or the inner wall of the tub bottom (21) are arranged. 4. Electronic computer according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the Contact bridges (47) of the buttons (50) are carried by a flexible rubber plate (46) fastened on the insulating plate (1) and made of conductive Rubber (47). 5. Electronic computer according to claim 4, characterized in that the keys (50) each for are resiliently fastened in a metallic spring plate (48) fastened to the computer housing, and that the spring plate (48) is connected to the earth potential electrode of the computer. 6. A method of manufacturing an electronic computer according to claim 1, wherein line connections applied directly to the major surfaces of a continuous dielectric substrate sheet and then the semiconductor circuit unit, which contains at least one computer stage the substrate plate is attached, and wherein further on the substrate plate the reproduction unit is attached, the display elements of which have first and second electrodes, between which an electrical field relevant for the reproduction can be generated, characterized in that, that the first electrodes (12) of the playback unit (2) can be applied directly to a major surface of the dielectric substrate plate (1) (Step I) that at the same time with the application of the line connections the fixed contact electrodes (31) of the keyboard (4) are applied to the dielectric substrate plate (1) (step II), that then the part of the display unit (2) containing the second electrodes (22), the semiconductor circuit unit (3) and the part of the keyboard (4) containing the movable contacts (47) on the Main surfaces of the dielectric substrate plate (1) are attached (steps V, VIl, VIII), and that the playback unit (2), the semiconductor circuit unit (3) and said part of the keyboard (4) supporting dielectric substrate plate (1) is arranged in a housing (5). 7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that for producing the playback unit (2) a further plate (21) is coated with the second electrodes (22) and with the interposition a spacer (20) is arranged on the substrate plate (1) and then a Liquid crystal is filled in the cavity formed between the two plates (1,21). 8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the line connections and the fixed contact electrodes (31) of the keyboard (4) are applied in such a way that a conductive button is printed on the dielectric substrate plate (1).