JP2003043699A - Drawing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drawing device which draws a wiring pattern by irradiating a printed board with a laser light beam, etc., and can prolong the life of the laser light source to make long the replacement span of the laser light source. SOLUTION: The quantity of the light beam irradiating the printed board is varied according to which of the external-layer substrate and internal-layer substrate of a laminated substrate the printed board is. For example, the quantity of the light beam is made less when the printed board is the internal-layer substrate than when the external-layer substrate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drawing apparatus for drawing a wiring pattern by irradiating a printed circuit board with a light beam such as a laser beam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a drawing device for drawing a wiring pattern on a printed circuit board has been used. This drawing apparatus draws a circuit pattern by irradiating a printed board having a photosensitive resist formed on its surface with a light beam such as a laser beam that can be focused on a minute area. A conductive coating of copper or the like is previously formed on this printed board, and the resist is formed on this conductive coating.

When this substrate is irradiated with a light beam having a wavelength and intensity capable of exposing the resist, the exposed part of the resist is exposed to light and cannot be dissolved by the developing solution (drawing step). Therefore, by applying a developing solution after drawing the circuit pattern, the portion of the resist which is not irradiated with light rays is removed, and the conductive coating film of this portion is exposed (developing step). Then, an etching solution capable of dissolving the conductive film is applied to this substrate to remove the conductive film in the portion not protected by the resist (etching step). further,
The remaining resist is removed to expose the conductive film (resist removing step). A wiring pattern of a conductive film is formed on the surface of the substrate through the above procedure.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the printed circuit board after the developing process.
Shown in. The printed circuit board 101 has through holes 104.
Are formed. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, all of the resist 103 a covering the periphery of the through hole 104 of the printed circuit board 101 is in close contact with the conductive film 102. On the other hand, the through hole 104 of the printed circuit board 101
In the case of the resist 103b that covers the periphery, the area of the portion in close contact with the conductive film 102 is smaller than the area of the resist 103b itself. Therefore, the resist 103b covering the periphery of the through hole 104 has a smaller adhesive force per unit area than the other resist 103a. As a result, the resist 103b covering the periphery of the through hole 104 is easily peeled off during the developing process. Therefore, the printed circuit board with a large number of through holes is formed in order to prevent a decrease in yield.
It is necessary to improve the adhesion of the resist. Therefore, when drawing such a printed circuit board, it is necessary to increase the amount of light rays during the drawing process.

Due to the complexity of wiring accompanying the high integration of ICs in recent years, it is difficult to form all wiring only on the front and back surfaces of one substrate. Therefore, more complicated wiring is possible by stacking a plurality of substrates with an insulating plate in between. Particularly in a highly integrated printed circuit board, four or more boards are stacked.

Of the stacked substrates, many through holes are formed in the uppermost and lowermost substrates (hereinafter referred to as "outer layer substrates"). On the other hand, through holes are not usually formed in the inner layer substrate. Therefore, the outer layer substrate requires a higher amount of light than the inner layer substrate. For this reason, in the conventional drawing apparatus, the amount of light rays is set to a high level at which the outer layer substrate can be drawn sufficiently.

The life of the laser light source is generally about several thousand hours, and the higher the light intensity of the laser, the shorter the life. Here, particularly when the drawing device is used for mass production of printed circuit boards, the drawing device operates continuously. In such a case, replacement of the laser light source causes the entire production line to stop for a long time. Since a very large amount of cost is required for restarting a continuously operating manufacturing line, a drawing apparatus capable of extending the life of the laser light source and extending the replacement span of the laser light source has been desired.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a drawing device which can extend the life of a laser light source.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the drawing apparatus of the present invention uses a light amount of a light beam irradiated to a printed circuit board depending on whether the printed circuit board is an outer layer substrate or an inner layer substrate. Change. Therefore, when a wiring pattern is drawn on a printed circuit board that can be drawn without a problem even with a low light amount, the drawing is performed with a low light amount, so that the life of the laser light source can be extended. For example, the inner layer substrate having no through holes does not require as much light as the outer layer substrate having many through holes, so the amount of light is set to be weak when drawing the inner layer substrate.

Further, the drawing device may have a detecting means for detecting the light quantity, and the history information of the light quantity value detected by the detecting means may be created. With such a configuration, the operator of the drawing apparatus can check the history information and determine the replacement time of the drawing light source.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an overall view of the drawing apparatus of this embodiment. The drawing device includes an editing machine 10, a controller 20, and a drawing machine 30. The editing machine 10, the controller 20, and the drawing machine 30 can exchange data with each other via the communication network 40.

The editing machine 10 includes a CPU 11 and a storage means 12 capable of storing a plurality of drawing data of a laminated printed circuit board.
And a network interface 13. The storage unit 12 and the network interface 13 are connected to the CPU 11, respectively. Further, the network interface 13 is connected to the communication network 40. In the present embodiment, the storage unit 12 and the CPU 11 are both incorporated in one editing machine 10, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned configuration, and drawing data is stored in an external file server. The configuration may be stored.

The storage means 12 of the editing machine 10 in this embodiment stores drawing data and hierarchical data indicating which of the outer layer board / inner layer board the drawing data is drawn. The CPU 11 of the editing machine 10 can control the storage unit 12 and the network interface 13 in response to a request from the controller 20 to transmit hierarchical data and drawing data regarding an arbitrary printed circuit board to the controller 20 via the communication network 40. .

The controller 20 has a CPU 21, a storage means 22, and a network interface 23. The storage means 22 and the network interface 23 are connected to the CPU 21, respectively. Further, the network interface 23 is connected to the communication network 40. The operator of the drawing apparatus can specify which drawing data, out of the drawing data stored in the storage means 12 of the editing machine 10, is used to draw the printed circuit board using a keyboard (not shown). The CPU 21 of the controller 20 controls the network interface 23 to generate drawing data designated by the operator and hierarchical data indicating whether the drawing data is drawn on the outer layer board or the inner layer board.
Can be imported from.

The CPU 21 of the controller 20 can control the network interface 23 to send a drawing start command to the drawing machine 30 to instruct the drawing machine 30 to start drawing. Further, after the drawing start command, the drawing data and the hierarchical data fetched from the editing machine 10 are transmitted to the editing machine 30.

The drawing machine 30 includes a laser light source 31 for generating a laser beam for drawing on a printed circuit board, and a laser light source 31.
Light amount sensor 32 for detecting the light amount of the laser beam, a table 33 on which the printed circuit board is mounted, and a laser deflecting means 3 for deflecting the laser beam to irradiate it at a predetermined position on the printed circuit board.
4, CPU 35, and network interface 36
And a memory 37.

The laser light source 31, the light amount sensor 32, the laser deflection means 34, the network interface 36, and the memory 37 are connected to the CPU 35, respectively.
Further, the network interface 36 is connected to the communication network 40. The CPU 35 of the drawing machine can send and receive data to and from the controller 20 by controlling the network interface 36.

When the drawing machine 30 receives drawing data and hierarchical data from the controller 20, the CPU 3 of the drawing machine 30
5 determines the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 from the hierarchical data. Here, in the present embodiment, the drive voltage value of the laser light source 31 is set to be weaker when the printed board on which the drawing is performed is the inner layer board than when it is the outer layer board. The higher the driving voltage of the laser light source, the higher the light intensity of the laser beam emitted from the laser light source 31. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the printed board on which the drawing is performed is the inner layer board, the laser beam is more than the outer layer board. The light intensity of is low.

That is, according to the drawing apparatus of the present embodiment, the light quantity of the laser beam can be changed depending on whether the printed circuit board on which the drawing is performed is the outer layer or the inner layer. When drawing on the printed circuit board of the inner layer, the light amount of the laser beam can be suppressed low. Therefore, the life of the laser light source can be extended.

Next, the CPU 35 controls the laser light source 31 and the laser deflecting means 34 based on the drawing data received from the controller 20, and draws a circuit pattern on the printed circuit board placed on the table 33.

In the present embodiment, the laser deflection means 34 alone determines which position on the printed circuit board is irradiated with the laser beam, but the present invention is not limited to the above configuration. For example, instead of using the laser deflecting means 34, the table 33 is horizontally moved to determine which position on the printed circuit board is irradiated with the laser beam, or the laser deflecting means 34.
The printed circuit board may be sub-scanned by swinging the irradiation position of the laser beam to the left or right, and the main scanning may be performed by moving the table 33 in the front-back direction.

Further, the CPU 35 radiates a laser beam on a trial basis before the drawing operation, and measures the light amount of the laser beam at that time by using the light amount sensor 32. The CPU 35 compares the detected value of the light amount of the laser beam with the driving voltage of the laser light source 31, and when it is determined that the decrease of the light amount with respect to the driving voltage occurs, the drawing machine 30 emits a warning sound and starts the drawing operation. Stop.

The CPU 35 controls the light quantity of the laser beam at this time,
The drive voltage of the laser light source 31 is transmitted to the controller 20 as history information. In addition, when the amount of light with respect to the drive voltage has not decreased and drawing is performed on the printed circuit board, the drawing start date and time is transmitted to the controller 20 as history information in addition to the amount of laser light and the drive voltage of the laser light source 31. To do. This history information is recorded in the storage means 22. Since the light amount of the laser with respect to the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 gradually decreases due to the deterioration of the laser light source over time, the operator of the drawing apparatus checks the history information stored in the storage unit 22 to check the replacement time of the laser light source 31. You can judge.

FIG. 2 shows an operation flow of the drawing machine 30 of the drawing apparatus configured as described above. In this flow, the program stored in the memory 37 of the drawing machine 30 is executed by the CPU 3
5 is executed.

When the power of the drawing machine 30 is turned on, step S1 is first executed. In step S1, the variable CurPow
The initial setting such as substituting the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 when the printed circuit board is the inner layer board is performed. Then, it proceeds to step S2.

In step S2, the drawing machine 30 receives a drawing start command from the controller 20 (S2: Yes).
s), stand by (S2: No). Then, it proceeds to step S3. In step S3, drawing data and hierarchical data are received from the controller 20. The received hierarchical data is stored in the memory 37. Then, it proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the content of the hierarchical data received in step S3 is checked to determine whether the printed circuit board on which the drawing is performed is the outer layer board or the inner layer board. That is, if drawing is performed on the inner layer substrate (S4: inner layer), the process proceeds to step S5. On the other hand, if drawing is performed on the outer layer substrate (S4: outer layer), step S6
Proceed to.

In step S5, the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 when the printed circuit board is the inner layer substrate is substituted in the variable NextPow, and then the process proceeds to step S7. Also, step S
In 6, the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 when the printed board is the outer layer board is assigned to the variable NextPow, and then the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S7, the variable NextPow and the variable CurP
A comparison of ow is made. That is, if NextPow and CurPow are equal (S7: Yes), the process proceeds to step S10, and NextPow
If ow and CurPow are different (S7: No), the process proceeds to step S8.

In step S8, the variable CurPow is set to the variable NextPow.
Is substituted. Then, it proceeds to step S9.

In step S9, the drive voltage of the laser light source 31 is set to the content of the variable CurPow.

Then, the process proceeds to step S10. Step S
At 10, a trial shot of a laser beam is performed. Next, the process proceeds to step S11, and the light amount sensor 32 detects the light amount of the laser beam that has been sampled in step S10. The detected value of the light amount is stored in the memory 37. Then step S
Proceed to 12.

In step S12, the detected value of the light amount detected in step S11 and stored in the memory 37 is transmitted to the controller 20 as history data. Then, the process proceeds to step S13.

Here, the controller 20 has a clock (not shown). The CPU 21 of the controller 20 controls this clock to measure the date and time when the history data is received, and creates a history database file in the storage means 22 in which the date and time, the detected value of the light amount, and the contents of the hierarchical data are arranged in time series. Therefore, the operator of the drawing apparatus can confirm the contents of this database file and judge the degree of deterioration of the laser light source 31 from the transition of the detected value of the light amount according to the contents of the hierarchical data.

At step S13, it is judged from the detected value of the light amount detected at step S11 whether or not the laser beam has a sufficient light amount for exposing the resist. If the laser light has a sufficient amount of light (S1
3: Yes), the process proceeds to step S14, and if the light quantity is insufficient (S13: No), an alarm is sounded to notify the abnormality of the drawing machine and the operation of the drawing machine 30 is stopped.

In step S14, a drawing operation is performed.
When all the drawing operations are completed, the process returns to step S2 and waits until the next drawing command is received.

When the CPU 35 of the drawing machine 30 executes the above-described flow, the drawing machine 30 resets the light amount of the laser beam according to whether the printed board to be drawn is the outer layer board or the inner layer board. It becomes possible.

[0038]

As described above, according to the drawing apparatus of the present invention, the life of the laser light source can be extended.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an overall view of a drawing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flow of the drawing machine according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a printed circuit board after a wiring pattern is drawn and developed.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 editor 20 controller 30 drawing machine 31 laser light source 32 Light intensity sensor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A drawing apparatus for irradiating a printed board coated with a resist with a light beam to draw a wiring pattern, wherein the drawing apparatus is an outer layer board of a laminated board or an inner layer board. A drawing device, characterized in that a light amount of a light beam applied to the printed circuit board is changed depending on whether the drawing board is present. 2. The drawing device according to claim 1, wherein when the printed board is an inner layer board, the light amount of the light beam is lower than when the printed board is an outer layer board. Drawing device. 3. The drawing device according to claim 1, wherein the drawing device irradiates a laser beam on a printed circuit board to draw a wiring pattern. 4. The drawing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drawing apparatus has a detecting unit that detects the light amount, and creates history information of the light amount value detected by the detecting unit. .