JP2001148547A - Cof substrate for use in connection of electrical apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems in prior art where the film did not easily bend at a desired portion, when a COF substrate connected and fixed to an electrical apparatus is bent 180 deg. to downsize, i.e., it was difficult to bend the insulative film at a short distance from the connection end of the electrical apparatus and the film. SOLUTION: A COF substrate is connected and fixed to an electrical apparatus in one body, electrical components are connected to and integrated with the COF substrate, the COF substrate has a connector projecting to the end of one side of an insulating film, the COF substrate has bend guide holes and bending guide notches at portions, where no conductive layer of the electric apparatus is provided, and the plurality of bend guide holes and/or the plurality of bend guide notches form one line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a chip-on-film (hereinafter referred to as COF) substrate used for connecting an electric device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a structure of a COF substrate suitable for use in adding an electrical function using face down bonding such as an LSI.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A COF substrate is used for a wide range of applications such as exchange of signals of a display device such as a liquid crystal, connection between printed circuit boards of a mobile phone, and display of a mobile computer.

[0003] The technology using a COF substrate is basically
An IC, a resistor, and a circuit component such as a capacitor are fixed on a suitably heat-resistant polyimide-based thin insulating film of about 50 μm or less to form an electric circuit.
It is connected to a display device such as a CD, an electrode terminal of a mobile phone, a computer, and the like. For any purpose, using a thin substrate has advantages and disadvantages because it is thin.

The advantage is that it bends freely as described above. However, it has a disadvantage that it is practically 100% when bending a COF substrate in which a conductive layer is selectively left in a production process or in actual use. Is not to bend where desired.

Referring to FIG. 3, an example of a COF substrate used by fixedly connecting an IC as a driver of a display device will be described. FIG. 3A shows a liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as L
(Referred to as CD), and FIG. 3 (B) shows a side view when it is bent and used. In this example, CO fixed to an LCD as the electric device 52 is fixed.
The F substrate 51 is shown. In addition, the COF substrate 51 includes
The electric component 53 is fixed. Further, the COF substrate 51
Is an insulating film 54, a conductive layer 55 formed by selectively leaving a copper foil formed integrally with the film, and a connector formed so as to be protruded at one end and easily inserted so as to be easily inserted. It is composed of a part 56.

[0006] CO used in an electric device having such a configuration is used.
The F board is used by attaching a female socket to the tip of the connector section 56. One of the uses is to use a smaller shape by bending it by about 180 degrees as shown in a side view in FIG.

[0007] Proposals for COF substrates similar to the present invention include:
There is JP-A-9-80406. This published patent publication contains:
Two substrates each provided with a transparent electrode on opposing surfaces are bonded together via a sealing material, and one end of at least one of the two substrates is protruded from the other substrate, and a protruding portion is formed. In the liquid crystal display device, wherein the connection terminals are arranged and formed on the protruding portions, cutout concave portions are formed on both outer portions of the arrangement of the connection terminals in the protruding portions. Have been. Further, a liquid crystal display device in which a hole is formed in a portion where the connection terminal is not formed between the cutout concave portions and a substrate made of a resin film is also shown.

[0008]

First, the problem in the example shown in FIG. 3 as the prior art will be described. As described above, when the COF substrate 51 connected and fixed to the electric device 52 is bent at 180 degrees to reduce the size, the film 54 does not easily bend at a desired place. That is, the connector section 56
Is bent by about 180 degrees, and the entirety of the conductive layer 55 formed of copper foil is hard, and it is difficult to bend at a short distance.

It is correct that it is impossible to bend uniformly with good reproducibility by hand without using a tool at least on a production line. Further, as shown in FIG.
If it is forcibly bent, it must be bent strongly, which causes the bent portion to bend too much. As a result, the same result as when the electric component 53 is fixed to a non-flat portion is obtained. In the worst case, the electric component 53 loses its adhesive strength due to an unreliable product or is not flat. Or

Conversely, if a bent portion is formed in a completely semicircular shape, such poor reliability does not occur. In order to bend a complete semicircle, it is necessary to increase the distance from the end of the electric device 52 to the electric component 53. This deviates from the purpose of reducing the overall size by bending by nearly 180 degrees.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-80406, as shown in the drawing, is composed of a film adhered to almost the entire main surface of the LCD, and the protruding portion protrudes from the LCD. Is not configured.
Further, a method is provided in which a circular arc is formed with the length of the width X of the cutout concave portion or the width Z of the hole and curved with an arc of at least 90 degrees or less. Not a way.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a conductive portion provided on an insulating film in an arbitrary shape, a connector portion provided with one of the film ends protruding, and the one film end portion. An electrical device connected to the conductive layer arranged at the opposite end of the film, and an electrical component installed in the middle of the electrical device on the opposite side from the connector portion, a COF substrate used integrally. It is another object of the present invention to provide a COF substrate used for connection of an electric device, characterized by having a bending guide hole provided in a portion where the conductive layer row arranged at the opposite side film end is not formed.

Further, a plurality of the bending guide holes are provided in a line, and a bending guide notch is provided at an end of the bending guide hole and / or the end of the bending guide hole row.
A plurality of the bending guide holes are provided in a row to form a row, and the bending guide holes are bent by about 180 degrees in parallel to the row. The plurality of bending guide holes are provided in a row, An electrical component is located at an intermediate position of the section and is bent by about 180 degrees in parallel with the row, thereby providing a COF substrate used for connection of an electrical device.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1A is a schematic plan view for explaining the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a schematic plan view after bending of FIG. 1A. In the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a COF substrate 1 and an electric device 2 are connected and fixed to be integrated, and an electric component 3 is electrically connected to and integrated with the COF substrate 1. Have been. COF substrate 1
Has a connector portion 6 provided to protrude from one end of the rectangular insulating film 4. Generally, the connector portion 6 is inserted into a socket (not shown) which is a female connector, so that the protruding width is formed as narrow as necessary.

On the film 4, there is provided a conductive layer 5 having an arbitrary shape so as to form a desired circuit. To facilitate understanding, the conductive layer disposed on the electric device 2 side is referred to as an electric device-side conductive layer 5a, and the conductive layer arranged on the connector 6 side is referred to as a connector-side conductive layer 5b. Shall be called.

The conductive layer 5 on the electric device side of the COF substrate of the present invention
The electric device 2 is fixed to one side of a. The electric component 3 is connected to the other side of the electric device side conductive layer 5a and the connector side conductive layer 5b on one side. The other side of the connector-side conductive layer 5b forms a connector section 6.

Further, the COF substrate according to the present invention has a bending guide hole 7 and a bending guide notch 8 in a portion of the electrical component side conductive layer 5a where the conductive layer is not provided. The bending guide hole 7 and the bending guide notch 8 are constituted by one or both of a plurality of them, and they constitute one row. It is necessary that the guide hole 7 and the guide notch 8 used in the present invention constitute one straight line. However, even if it is a hole for another purpose, if it substantially achieves the purpose of one of the holes. It is good, and if two or more points are present, the object is achieved.

There is no restriction on the shape of the hole, for example, a circle,
Ellipse, polygon and anything. There are no significant restrictions on the size. However, it is obvious that the use efficiency of the insulating film is reduced if the pores are too large, and there is an appropriate value naturally.

To describe a specific example, the length of the long side of the insulating film 4 shown in FIG.
Has a protruding length of 5 mm, a length of a short side including the connector portion is 23 mm, and an overlapping portion between the insulating film and the end of the electric device is 3 mm.
When the center of the electric component 3 is set and fixed at the position of 1 mm, the COF substrate is fixed to the end of the connection portion of the electric device 2 by 5 mm.
guide hole 7 having a diameter of 1.0 mm at a position of 2 mm from the end of the overlapping portion of the insulating film and the end of the electric device
Are provided, and two are provided as bending guide notches 8 of a semicircle having a diameter of 1.0 mm.

The COF substrate according to the present invention is finally used by forming a bent portion 9 by being bent substantially 180 degrees downward on the paper surface as shown in FIG. 1 (B). At this time, the electric component 3 is bent so as to exist on a so-called surface side.
This case is suitable for viewing the electric device 2 from the upper side of the paper.

In another embodiment, instead of the bending guide notch 8 provided on the periphery of the insulating film 4 shown in FIG. 1, a bending guide hole is provided slightly inside the notch. Things. The present invention may be configured with only the bending guide hole, or may be configured with the bending guide hole and the bent notch. However, it is an essential requirement that three or more holes or notches are arranged in a line. Furthermore, although the example in which the electric device 2 is arranged in a line in parallel with one side is illustrated, it is the same to arrange the bending guide holes and the bending guide notches in a line, but the angle with respect to one side of the electric device 2 is set. It is natural that they can be lined up.

Further, the COF used in the electric device according to the present invention
It is obvious that the substrate is not limited to the arrangement in which the electric component 3 is arranged on the outside as shown in FIG. 1 and may be arranged on the contrary inside as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to, for example, an LCD viewed from below the sheet. The ability to freely determine the relationship between the electrical components and the location of the electrical device is important in designing.

[0023]

According to the present invention, an electric component, that is, an IC,
It relates to a COF substrate on which a resistor, a capacitor, etc. are mounted and which connects an electric device.
The present invention provides a COF substrate suitable for use by being bent by about 0 degrees, and has a great effect on the art.

In the present invention, as described above, if the insulating film has a width (long side) of 44 mm and a thickness of about 50 μm, a bending guide hole or a cutout notch having a diameter of about 1 mm is provided. In this case, the bending can be easily performed by applying a slight force to the bending guide hole or the bending notch. In addition, it can be bent with a distance of only 2 mm between one edge of the electric device and the edge of the bent portion. That is, the lines arranged in a line can be easily bent at a position of 2 mm except for the overlapping portion of the electric device and the insulating film, which are not bent. Moreover, even if the line is only about 4 mm from the electric parts,
It is possible to draw a semicircle of about 80 degrees and make a turn.

Although the principle of operation of the present invention is generally easy to bend because the COF substrate is thin, a force must be applied in a controlled direction to bend precisely with a small curvature. Therefore, by providing the bending guide hole and / or the notch as described above, it is considered that this serves as a “trigger” for starting to bend and the bend is easily made.

Since the bend is correctly made at a predetermined position, an unexpected force acts on the connection and fixing portion of the electric component when the bending position is out of order, and it is possible to prevent an accident of peeling or in the worst case peeling. This means that the present invention
Since the reliability of a product using the substrate can be improved, and the substrate can be bent by about 180 degrees, the mechanical size can be reduced.

Although the present invention can be easily bent at an angle of about 180 degrees or less, the present invention is characterized by bending at an angle larger than that, so that a more compact shape can be obtained. Regardless of how easy the bendability of the COF substrate is used, since it is fixed to one end of an electric device and does not bend beyond 180 degrees, it is possible to obtain the minimum shape in the present invention. .

Usually, since the insulating substrate is formed by punching the COF substrate, the bending guide hole and the bending guide notch can be punched at the same time, so that the man-hour is not increased at all, and the shape may be anything. It is obvious. Further, the bending guide hole and the guide notch can be formed not only by punching but also by selective etching. In any case, it is obvious that no man-hour is required to obtain the hole array. When arranging a conductive layer on an insulating film, when arranging terminals for exchanging signals from or to an electric component, or when arranging a conductive layer only for connection, or for example, in a part of the conductive layer When a conductive layer used for plating that does not need to exist electrically is disposed, a vacant space is formed between the conductive layers in almost all cases. This is used to provide a bending guide hole and a bent notch, and in particular, there is almost no need to increase the area of the insulating film in order to provide them.

The use of a COF substrate may also take advantage of the property of freely bending. Since this is made possible, the effect of the present invention is large in the sense that the design is complicated due to the matching between the electric device and the electric component.

Further, since the size of the hole and the notch may be irregular, the hole used for any purpose may be used as the hole of the present invention. In this case, it is necessary only to arrange them in a line.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view for explaining the present invention,
(B) is a side view when the bent part is made.

FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining a bent portion in another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a plan view illustrating a conventional example,
(B) is a side view when the bent part is made.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A conductive part provided in an insulating film in an arbitrary shape, a connector part provided with one film end protruding, and a film part arranged on the opposite side to the one film end. An electric device connected to the conductive layer and an electric component installed in the middle of the electric device on the opposite side from the connector portion are used integrally with each other, and the COF substrate is arranged on the opposite end of the film. A COF substrate used for connection of an electric device, characterized by having a bending guide hole provided in a portion where the formed conductive layer row is not formed. 2. A COF used for connection of an electric device, wherein a plurality of the bending guide holes are provided in a line.
substrate. 3. A COF board used for connection of an electric device, wherein a bend guide notch is provided at an end of the bend guide hole and / or the end of the bend guide hole array. 4. The electric device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said bending guide holes and / or said guide notches are provided in a row to form a row, and are bent by about 180 degrees in parallel with said row. COF substrate used for connection. 5. A plurality of the bending guide holes and / or the guide notches are provided in a row to form a row, and an electric component is located at an intermediate position between the row and the socket section, and the row is provided in the row. A COF substrate used for connection of an electric device, wherein the COF substrate is bent by about 180 degrees in parallel.