JP2774782B2 - Optical connector parts - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component for an optical connector for connecting an optical fiber, and more particularly to a component for an optical connector having a high toughness and a sufficient durability in a severe use environment and a long life.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Materials having excellent mechanical strength are used for precision parts which are repeatedly subjected to a load, such as bonding capillaries of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and parts for optical connectors for connecting optical fibers. Hereinafter, a description will be given of a bonding capillary and an optical connector part of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus as an example.

[0003] An IC frequently used as an electronic component is usually composed of a lead frame, an IC chip, and a package. The IC chip and the lead frame have a diameter of about 0.015 mm to 0.1 mm. ) Bonded by wire. In this wire bonding step, the capillary is alternately crimped to a predetermined position of the lead frame and the IC while sending the Au wire from the tip of the capillary (small tube), and the wire is connected to the lead frame or the IC.
This is performed by fusing on a C chip. Since the pressure bonding of the capillary is performed mechanically and at a high speed, the capillary is strongly hit against a lead frame or the like. Also, the capillaries may reach a high temperature of about 1000 ° C. instantaneously after being hit against the lead frame. Therefore, impact resistance and heat resistance are required as required characteristics of the capillary.

As a material of the capillary, glass or a super-hard material was initially used, but recently, from the viewpoint of abrasion resistance and the like, a material made of alumina (Al ₂ O ₃ ) polycrystalline ceramic or a material made of alumina is used. In addition, those formed of single crystal ruby, sapphire, and the like have been widely used.

[0005] In particular, low cost and economical alumina polycrystalline ceramic capillaries have been most frequently used. The outer shape of the vicinity of the tip of the capillary 1 is as shown in FIG.
A shape that gradually tapers toward the tip 1a.
It has a pore 3 having a diameter of about 0.025 mm to 0.1 mm for sending the u-line 2 to the tip.

On the other hand, examples of products having optical connector parts include optical connectors 10a and 10b shown in FIGS.
There is. The optical connector 10a shown in FIG. 3 includes an optical connector component (ferrule) 12a having a hole 11a having an inner diameter of about 0.1 to 0.15 mm in the axial direction, and a cylindrical support 13a made of, for example, stainless steel. The optical fiber 14 having a diameter of about 0.1 to 0.15 mm is inserted through the small hole 11a. In the optical connector 10b shown in FIG. 4, only one end of an optical connector component (ferrule) 12b having a hole 11b formed in the axial direction is inserted into the support 13b, and the optical fiber 14 is inserted into the hole 11b. Is inserted. The constituent materials of the optical connector parts (ferrules) 12a and 12b include:
Super hard materials and alumina ceramics were used.

[0007]

However, in the wire bonding step, in recent years, with the high integration and miniaturization of IC chips, it has been required to make the wires themselves thin and to perform high-density wire bonding. .
Therefore, the capillary itself is required to have a small outer diameter and a smaller hole diameter near the tip. Conventionally, the outer diameter of the tip of the capillary was about 200 μm, but at present, a fine capillary of about 50 μm is required.

In order to meet this demand, when a capillary having a shape similar to the conventional one and an outer diameter of the capillary tip of 50 μm is manufactured using Al ₂ O ₃ or ceramics which has been conventionally used as a capillary material. The following problems arise. In other words, although a capillary with a smaller outer diameter can be obtained than in the past, cracks may occur in the capillary due to insufficient strength of Al ₂ O ₃ , and the capillary cannot be used within a short period of time, and the life is short. is there.

On the other hand, ruby and sapphire have the disadvantage that the production cost is higher than that of alumina polycrystalline ceramic.

In order to perform wire bonding with even higher precision, the shape of the tip of the capillary is being adopted from a truncated cone shape as shown in FIG. 2 to a bottle neck shape as shown in FIG. . That is, the tip of the capillary 4 shown in FIG. 1 is formed by curving the outer surface inward in order to reduce processing distortion and prevent cracks from occurring. For this reason, the outer diameter of the distal end portion is much smaller than in the past, and in order to secure the same strength as in the past, it is necessary to use a material having higher toughness. In response to the demand, partially stabilized zirconia (Zr
Capillaries formed from O ₂ ) have also been used. However, a bottle formed of partially stabilized zirconia in the form of a bottleneck tends to be chipped at the time of molding or use, and has a drawback that its life is short.

On the other hand, a conventional optical connector using an optical connector component formed of a super hard material or alumina ceramic has low abrasion resistance and toughness. There was a problem that abrasion progressed rapidly, and cracking and spalling were apt to occur depending on the operation. Due to the occurrence of the abrasion and cracks as described above, the optical fibers 1 are not connected to the connection end surfaces 15a and 15b of the optical connector component.
Since the center axis of No. 4 is deviated from a predetermined position, problems such as a reduction in the amount of optical transmission at the connection portion have occurred.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides an optical connector component having high mechanical strength and toughness, less occurrence of cracks and chips, and less decrease in optical transmission amount. The purpose is to:

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the inventors of the present invention have conducted various studies on various ceramic materials, and found that cerium oxide (CeO ₂ ) was 3.0 to 20% by weight. Precise parts such as bonding capillaries and optical connector parts that have high toughness when formed into a part substantially made of zirconium oxide and have excellent strength even when formed into a small diameter shape. The present invention has been completed based on the findings obtained.

That is, an optical connector component according to the present invention is an optical connector component for connecting an optical fiber,
A sintered body obtained by sintering raw material powders of cerium oxide and zirconium oxide having an average particle diameter of 20 to 200 angstroms, and cerium oxide of 3.0 weight percent.
% To 20%, with the balance substantially consisting of zirconium oxide.

As cerium oxide and zirconium oxide used as raw materials for high-toughness precision parts such as optical connector parts which are the object of the present invention, commercially available powders can be used. Cerium oxide is contained in an amount of 3.0 to 20% by weight. This cerium oxide
It functions as a stabilizer to partially stabilize zirconium oxide and has the effect of increasing the toughness and strength of precision parts. However, if the content of cerium oxide is less than 3.0%, the toughness and strength become insufficient, while if the content exceeds 20%, sintering becomes difficult, so the content is 3.0 to 20.
It is set within the range of%.

Next, the manufacturing process of a precision component such as a bonding capillary or a component for an optical connector having the characteristics aimed at by the present invention will be described with reference to the aforementioned bonding capillary as an example. The manufacturing process of the optical connector component is almost the same as the manufacturing process of the bonding capillary.

That is, first, the respective raw material powders of cerium oxide and zirconium oxide are weighed so as to have the above-mentioned composition and mixed by a ball mill or the like. It is preferable that the raw material powder has an average particle diameter of 20 to 200 angstroms, because the ceramic obtained after sintering is dense and has high hardness.

The obtained mixed powder is press-molded at room temperature and processed into a green compact. What is important in processing for the green molded body is that the molded body has straight pores 5 and tapered holes 6 as shown in FIG. 1 and pores 11a and 11b as shown in FIGS. Since the rough processing is performed, the material has such a strength as to be able to chuck the capillary molded body or the optical connector component molded body to a grinding machine or the like at the time of the perforation processing. Usually, in order to secure this strength, the bulk density of the molded body may be set to 2.8 to 4 g / cm ³ . For this purpose, the press pressure at the time of pressure molding is 7
It is preferable to set in the range of 00 to 1000 kg / cm ² .

After the piercing operation is completed, the formed body is sintered under predetermined conditions. Characteristics such as mechanical strength and hardness of the obtained sintered body largely depend on sintering conditions at this time. In order to express the above-mentioned characteristic range, for example, the sintering temperature is 1400 to 1600 ° C., and the sintering time is 0.5 to
Four hours is sufficient.

The capillary formed by sintering does not have a shape such that the outer diameter gradually decreases toward the tip as in the conventional capillary 1 as shown in FIG. 2, but the capillary as shown in FIG. 4 has a shape in which the outer diameter suddenly decreases from a predetermined position, that is, a so-called bottleneck shape. For this reason, there is little processing distortion at the tip, and high-precision crimping of a bonding wire such as an Au wire becomes possible.

In addition, since a ceramic material having high toughness is formed by the addition of cerium oxide, even when the tip portion is finely formed into a bottleneck shape, cracks are less likely to occur in the capillary, and the capillaries can be formed for a long time. Stable performance can be maintained.

Further, since the capillary 4 is made of a high-strength ceramic, the hole diameter and the outer diameter of the tip 4a can be made relatively smaller in order to obtain the same strength. It is possible to sufficiently cope with high density and miniaturization.

According to the optical connector provided with the optical connector component formed of the binary ceramic material composed of CeO ₂ and ZrO ₂ , particularly, the high toughness of ZrO _{2 is changed} to CeO ₂ .
Addition of ₂ further improves toughness and strength and improves wear resistance, so wear can progress rapidly due to impact force and sliding action that occurs when attaching and detaching optical connectors,
Cracks and chips are less likely to occur. In particular, deformation during processing is small, and processing accuracy can be greatly increased. Therefore, the center axis of the optical fiber is less likely to be shifted at the connection portion, and the loss of the light transmission amount at the connection portion can be effectively reduced.

The present invention is applied to a material requiring high toughness, such as various wire guides, in addition to a wire bonding capillary and a component for an optical connector as described above. However, the applicable range is not limited to the above-mentioned parts, but can be similarly applied to all precision parts having a complicated shape, being thin and easily causing chipping or cracking.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the accompanying drawings. Examples 1 to 5 have a shape as shown in FIG.
The optical connector component having a size of 0.1 to 0.15 mm with a cerium oxide content of 3.5 to 20.0% as shown in the left column of Table 1 was prepared. Range, the remainder being zirconium oxide (ZrO ₂ )
Examples 1 to 5 were formed from a sintered body composed of

In order to evaluate the mechanical strength of each of the obtained optical connector parts, the bending strength and the fracture toughness were measured. Table 1 shows the measurement results.

Comparative Examples 1 and 2 On the other hand, as Comparative Examples 1 and 2, powder mixtures prepared with cerium oxide contents of 2.0% and 23.0%, respectively, and the balance of zirconium oxide were used. An optical connector component sintered body was formed in the same shape and under the same conditions as above, and the mechanical properties were measured in the same manner.

Comparative Example 3 As Comparative Example 3, yttrium oxide (Y ₂ O ₃ ) 3
Optical connector parts having the same shape and size as those of Examples 1 to 5 were manufactured from a sintered body composed of zirconium oxide (ZrO ₃ ) by weight, and the mechanical properties were measured in the same manner.

Comparative Example 4 Further, as Comparative Example 4, magnesium oxide (MgO) 0.1.
2 wt%, silicon oxide (SiO ₂₎ 0.2 wt%, the balance using Al ₂ O ₃ based ceramic made of aluminum oxide (Al ₂ O _3), the same shape and size as Examples 1-5 Optical component parts were manufactured and their characteristic values were measured in the same manner.

The measurement results of Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Examples 1 to 4 are shown in Table 1 below.

[0031]

[Table 1]

As is clear from the results shown in Table 1, in the range of the cerium oxide (CeO ₂ ) content shown in Examples 1 to 5, the ceramics containing Y ₂ O ₃ shown in Comparative Examples 3 and 4 were added. Alternatively, a higher fracture toughness value was obtained in each case than in a capillary formed of an aluminum oxide-based ceramic.

On the other hand, those having too little cerium oxide as shown in Comparative Example 1 have relatively low flexural strength and fracture toughness, while those having too much cerium oxide have poor sinterability as shown in Comparative Example 2. The strength was low, and cracks occurred frequently during processing and connection.

[0034]

As described above, according to the high-toughness precision parts such as the optical connector parts according to the present invention, the fracture toughness value is greatly improved as compared with the conventional products, so that even when processed into a fine shape, High-precision processing becomes possible without generating chips or cracks.

Further, according to the optical connector component of the present invention, since it is formed of a sintered body having enhanced strength and toughness by adding CeO ₂ to ZrO ₂ having high toughness, wear, cracks and chipping are caused. Less likely to occur. In particular, deformation during processing is small, and processing accuracy can be greatly increased.
Therefore, the center axis of the optical fiber is less likely to be shifted at the connection portion, and the loss of the light transmission amount at the connection portion can be effectively reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a shape example of a capillary as a high-toughness precision part.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a shape example of a conventional capillary.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a structural example of a conventional general-purpose optical connector.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another example of the structure of a conventional optical connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Capillary 1a Tip 2 Au wire 3 Pores 4 Capillary 4a Tip 5 Pores 6 Tapered hole 10a, 10b Optical connector 11a, 11b Porous 12a, 12b Optical connector parts (ferrule) 13a, 13b Support 14 Optical fiber 15a, 15b Connection end face θc _{Opening of} tapered hole

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A component for an optical connector for connecting an optical fiber, which is a sintered body obtained by sintering a raw material powder of cerium oxide and zirconium oxide having an average particle diameter of 20 to 200 angstroms, and oxidized by weight percent. An optical connector component comprising cerium in an amount of 3.0% or more and 20% or less, with the balance substantially consisting of zirconium oxide.