JP3450288B2 - Sensor element with bracket - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sensor element with a bracket formed by bonding a bracket to the back surface of an insulating substrate having electrodes and a sensor film formed on the surface. is there. 2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 5A and 5B show a plan view and a side view of a conventional sensor element with a bracket, such as a humidity sensor or a dew sensor, in which 1 is an insulating substrate. A pair of electrodes 2 and 2 and a sensor coating 3 are formed on the insulating substrate 1. The sensor coating 3 is connected to a pair of electrodes 2, 2, and lead wires 5, 5 having one end connected to a connector 4 are connected to the pair of electrodes 2, 2 by soldering. A bracket 6 is adhered to the back surface of the insulating substrate 1 with an adhesive. The width dimension W1 of the bracket 6 is larger than the width dimension W2 of the insulating substrate 1, and the width direction end of the bracket 6 projects outside beyond the width direction end of the insulating substrate 1. Bracket 6
Is formed with a through hole 7. [0003] In order to improve the electrical characteristics, such as the response characteristics, of a sensor element such as a dew sensor, it is necessary to increase the area of the sensor coating 3. However, if the area of the sensor coating 3 is increased in the conventional structure, the width of the insulating substrate 1 must be increased, and the width of the bracket 6 increases accordingly. Therefore, in the conventional structure, in order to improve the electrical characteristics, the dimensions of the entire sensor element are increased, the mounting space for the sensor element is also increased, and there is a problem that the miniaturization of the device and the increase in the density of the circuit are hindered. . Further, in the conventional structure, there is a problem in that the detection performance is deteriorated when the adhesive that protrudes to the side of the insulating substrate adheres to the sensor element on the surface during the joining operation. [0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a bracket-equipped sensor element capable of reducing the overall size even if the size of the insulating substrate on which the sensor coating is formed is increased. According to the present invention, an electrode and a sensor film connected to the electrode are formed on a surface of an insulating substrate, and a bracket is adhered to the back surface of the insulating substrate with an adhesive. Sensor elements with brackets are targeted for improvement. In the present invention, the width of the bracket is smaller than the width of the insulating substrate. Then, the bracket is bonded to the back surface of the insulating substrate so that the widthwise end of the bracket does not protrude outward in the widthwise direction beyond the widthwise end of the insulating substrate.
In this way, the width of the bracket is made smaller than the width of the insulating substrate, and the bracket in the width direction is prevented from protruding outward in the width direction beyond the widthwise end of the insulating substrate. If the insulating substrate is enlarged to increase the area of the sensor coating, the width of the sensor element does not become larger than the width of the insulating substrate. In addition, since the adhesive is likely to protrude to the side of the insulating substrate and hardly adhere to the sensor coating on the surface of the insulating substrate, a decrease in yield can be prevented. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 (A) and 1 (B) are a plan view and a side view of a sensor element with a bracket in which the present invention is applied to a dew sensor, and FIG. 5 shows parts similar to those of the conventional sensor element shown in FIG. The reference numeral obtained by adding 10 is attached.
In these figures, reference numeral 11 denotes an insulating substrate made of alumina. A pair of electrodes 12, 12 are formed on the surface of the insulating substrate 11 by silver paste, and a sensor coating 13 is formed between the pair of electrodes. Have been. Lead wires 15, 15 having one ends connected to a connector 14 are connected to the pair of electrodes 12, 12 by soldering. Insulating substrate 1
A bracket 16 made of aluminum is adhered to the back surface of 1 with an epoxy-based adhesive. This bracket 16 is provided for fixing the sensor element, and a mounting screw is inserted into a through hole 17 provided at one end in the longitudinal direction. The width dimension W1 of the bracket 16 is smaller than the width dimension W2 of the insulating substrate 11, and the width direction end of the bracket 16 does not exceed the width direction end of the insulating substrate 11, so that Glued. Next, an embodiment of a method for manufacturing the sensor element shown in FIG. 1 will be described. 2A to 2C show a plan view, a right side view, and a front view of the bracket connector 101 used in this embodiment. Bracket connector 101
Is a connecting portion 104 including a straight portion 102 and twelve projecting pieces 103 projecting from one side in the width direction of the straight portion 102.
And positioning pieces 105 and 106 connected to the two projecting pieces 103 on both sides, and ten projecting pieces 10 at the center.
.. Are connected to ten bracket pieces 107. The bracket connecting body 101 is formed integrally by punching, but the connecting portion of the protruding piece 103, the positioning pieces 105, 106 and the bracket piece 107 has a V-shaped cross section on both sides in the thickness direction. Groove g is formed. Each groove g is formed along the straight portion 101 of the connecting portion 104, and each piece can be relatively easily connected to the connecting portion 1 by an operator applying a certain force with a finger.
04 can be separated. Positioning piece 10
Each of 5 and 106 has a projection p at a position corresponding to the vertex of a triangle. These protruding projections p constitute a positioning engagement portion that facilitates positioning of the sensor assembly substrate on the bracket connector 101 when the sensor assembly substrate described later is bonded to the bracket connector 101. The bracket pieces 107 are attached to the protruding pieces 103 so as to form a row with substantially equal intervals between them. After fixing the bracket connector 101 to a jig (not shown), the sensor assembly substrate 108 is bonded to the bracket connector 101 as shown in FIGS. 3 (A) and 3 (B). In FIG. 3, the sensor assembly substrate 108
Since the mask sheet 109 is stretched over this, the coating pattern is not shown, and only the electrodes 12 are shown. The sensor assembly substrate 108 is formed by forming a plurality of sensor elements formed of electrodes and a sensor coating connected to the electrodes at predetermined intervals on the surface of an elongate substrate made of alumina. A V for separating from the surface side of the substrate along the separating portions 110 between the elements;
A groove is formed. Like the groove g formed in the bracket coupling body 101, the groove is formed to such an extent that an operator can relatively easily separate the insulating substrate by hand. The grooves formed along the separating portions 110 are:
The sensors extend in the width direction of the sensor assembly board 108 and are provided at substantially equal intervals L in the longitudinal direction. The distance L is set to be substantially equal to the distance between the central axes of the bracket pieces 107. Thus, the insulating substrate can be separated without any trouble. The sensor assembly substrate 108 is bonded by applying an epoxy-based adhesive to the back surface of the sensor assembly substrate 108. Needless to say, the adhesive may be applied to the bracket connecting portion 101 to perform the bonding. [0009] Here, referring to FIG.
A brief description will be given of a method of manufacturing the device. First, using a large ceramic substrate S having a grid-shaped separation groove formed on the surface as shown in FIG. 4A, electrodes and a sensor coating are formed in each of the grids by a known method. Attach a mask sheet that can be easily separated as shown in FIG.
FIG. 4B shows a state in which masking has been performed. After completion of the masking, the sensor substrates 108 are formed by dividing each ceramic substrate S for each row. In the example of FIG.
The illustration of the electrodes and the sensor coating is omitted. In the example of FIG. 3, the sensor element is also formed on the insulating substrate adhered to the positioning pieces 105 and 106, but when forming the coating of the sensor element on the ceramic substrate S, the positioning piece is formed. It is a matter of course that a film may not be formed in advance on the portions adhered to 105 and 106. After the bonding is completed, in this embodiment, the lead wires 15 shown in FIG. 1 are soldered to the electrodes 12 of each sensor element. Of course, the soldering of the lead wires may be performed before the bonding operation. After soldering, a cleaning operation is performed to remove the flux. After cleaning work,
The mask sheet 109 is peeled off, and an electrical characteristic test is performed on each sensor element. In the characteristic inspection, the inspection work is easy because the sensor elements are connected. After the inspection is completed, the bracket connecting body 101 and the sensor assembly board 108 are separated. In this embodiment, since the separation groove g is provided in both the bracket connecting body 101 and the sensor assembly board 108, the separation operation can be easily performed manually. In the present embodiment, since the separating operation can be performed manually, the possibility of damaging the sensor coating by the separating operation is greatly reduced, and the yield of products can be improved. It is needless to say that the separating operation can be performed by using a known cutting means without providing the separating groove. In the above-described embodiment, the bracket connector having one row of bracket pieces is used. However, rows of bracket pieces may be provided on both sides of the straight portion 102 of the bracket connector 101 in the width direction. The shape and structure of the bracket connection body are arbitrary. In the above embodiment, the bracket assembly is fixed to the jig first, and the sensor assembly board is bonded to the bracket assembly afterward. However, the sensor assembly board is fixed to the jig, and the bracket assembly is fixed later. Needless to say, the connection body may be bonded to the sensor assembly substrate. The sensor assembly board also
The sensor unit is not limited to the one in which the sensor units are arranged in one row as in the above embodiment. And so on. According to the present invention, even if the insulating substrate is enlarged in order to increase the area of the sensor coating, the width of the sensor element does not become larger than the width of the insulating substrate. There are advantages. Further, according to the present invention, the adhesive is protruded to the side of the insulating substrate, and there is almost no possibility that the adhesive adheres to the sensor coating on the surface of the insulating substrate. is there.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1A and 1B are a plan view and a side view of a sensor element with a bracket in which the present invention is applied to a dew sensor. FIGS. 2A to 2C are a plan view, a right side view, and a front view of a bracket connector used in the embodiment. FIGS. 3A and 3B are a plan view and a right side view of a state where a sensor assembly board is bonded to a bracket connection body. FIGS. 4A to 4C are diagrams for explaining a method of manufacturing a sensor assembly substrate. 5 (A) and (B) are a plan view and a side view of a conventional sensor element with a bracket. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,11 Insulating board 2,12 Electrode 3,13 Sensor coating 4,14 Connector 5,15 Lead wire 6,16 Bracket 7,17 Through hole 101 Bracket connecting body 102 Straight part 103 Projecting piece 104 Connecting part 105, 106 Positioning piece 107 Bracket piece 108 Sensor assembly board 109 Mask sheet 110 Separation part g Separation groove

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01N 27/00-27/49 G01K 1/00-19/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claim 1] An electrode and a sensor coating connected to the electrode are formed on a surface of an insulating substrate, and a bracket is adhered to the back surface of the insulating substrate with an adhesive. Sensor element, wherein the width dimension of the bracket is smaller than the width dimension of the insulating substrate, and the widthwise end of the bracket does not protrude outward in the widthwise direction beyond the widthwise end of the insulating substrate. Wherein the bracket is adhered to the back surface of the insulating substrate.