JP3523606B2 - Electronic component manufacturing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing a laminated electronic component.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one method of manufacturing a laminated electronic component, a ceramic coating containing a ceramic powder, an organic binder, a plasticizer, a solvent, etc. is applied on a film or sheet-like flexible support. The applied ceramic paint is dried to form a ceramic green sheet, and the required electrodes are formed on the green sheet at intervals by means such as screen printing, and further, on the green sheet on which the electrodes are formed, A method is known in which a ceramic coating material is applied so as to cover the electrodes and the electrode gap, and a laminated green sheet in which a first green sheet, an electrode and a second green sheet are sequentially laminated is obtained. As a known literature example disclosing such a method, there is, for example, JP-A-55-124225.

In order to manufacture a laminated electronic component such as a laminated ceramic capacitor by applying the above technique, a required number of laminated green sheets described above are laminated and stacked.

This conventional technique is extremely effective when the number of laminated layers is small. However, in recent multilayer electronic components, especially multilayer ceramic capacitors, the number of layers reaches hundreds in order to meet the demand for smaller size and larger capacity.
Depending on the number of laminated layers, the green sheet layer is 10 μm or less,
Furthermore, an extremely thin layer having a thickness of 2 μm or less may be formed.

The surface of a laminated green sheet using such a thin green sheet is affected by the film thickness of the electrode, and bulges in a portion where the electrode is present and is concave and convex in a portion where the electrode is not present. Becomes the surface of.

Therefore, when a large number of laminated green sheets are laminated and stacked to form a laminated body, the above-mentioned surface irregularities are accumulated according to the number of laminated layers, and eventually voids are generated in the laminated body. In addition, deformation is induced in the stack forming process. Structural defects occur due to the above-mentioned voids and deformation, and the manufacturing yield is reduced.

As a means for eliminating surface irregularities, attempts have been made to flatten the surface of the laminated green sheet by rolling it with a compaction roller. However, since a large rolling pressure is applied to the portion with electrodes and a small rolling pressure is applied to the spacing portions without electrodes, the packing density of the green sheet is high in the portions with electrodes and the spacing portions without electrodes are high. Then it will be lower. Therefore, the characteristics of the electronic component obtained from this laminated green sheet fluctuate, and the manufacturing yield is reduced.

[0008]

An object of the present invention is to provide a ceramic coating layer having a thickness of, for example, 10 μm or less, and further 2 μm.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus capable of manufacturing a high-quality laminated electronic component having no structural defect even when an ultrathin layer of m or less is formed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus capable of efficiently manufacturing a laminated electronic component with a high yield.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, in the method of manufacturing an electronic component according to the present invention, a ceramic coating is applied while a strip-shaped body provided with a large number of electrodes at intervals is run in the longitudinal direction. Apply to cover the electrodes and fill the gaps between the electrodes. Next, the surface layer of the applied ceramic paint is scraped to flatten the surface.

The manufacturing method according to the present invention covers an electrode,
Moreover, since the ceramic paint is applied so as to fill the space between the electrodes and the surface of the applied ceramic paint is flattened, the unevenness of the surface of the ceramic paint layer due to the electrode film thickness is eliminated. be able to.

Therefore, when a large number of laminated green sheets obtained by the present invention are laminated and stacked to form a laminated body, generation of voids due to accumulation of surface irregularities and deformation in the stack molding process are avoided. can do. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a high-quality electronic component having no structural defect even when the layer of the ceramic coating is an extremely thin layer having a thickness of 10 μm or less, further 2 μm or less.

Moreover, in the present invention, the surface layer of the applied ceramic paint is scraped to flatten the surface. According to this process, unlike the case where the roller is flattened by rolling with a compaction roller, almost no compaction is applied to the ceramic coating layer in the flattening step. For this reason, the packing density of the green sheet is made uniform in the portion with electrodes and the gap portion without electrodes, so that the characteristics of the electronic component obtained from this laminated green sheet are stabilized and the manufacturing steps are improved. The stay is improved.

The present invention further discloses a manufacturing apparatus directly used for carrying out the method described above. Other objects, configurations and advantages of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are merely examples.

[0015]

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus used for manufacturing an electronic component according to the present invention. The illustrated manufacturing apparatus is suitable for manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor.

The illustrated manufacturing apparatus includes a coating device 1 and a scraping device 2. The coating device 1 coats a strip-shaped body 4 on which a large number of electrodes 5 are printed with a gap G1 between them, and applies a ceramic paint 6 thereto. The strip 4 may be a single-layer ceramic green sheet, a laminated green sheet on which electrodes are already printed, or a flexible support different from the green sheet.

In the illustrated embodiment, the strip 4 is made of a single-layer ceramic green sheet and has an electrode 5 formed on the surface thereof. The strip-shaped body 4 is supported by the flexible support 7. The flexible support 7 is a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film or sheet, is supported by rollers 81 to 84, and is in the longitudinal direction F.
1 is transported. Various mechanisms for driving the flexible support 7 are already known, and they can be selected and applied.

As the coating apparatus 1, a doctor blade or a nozzle coater can be used. Among them,
A nozzle coater is suitable from the viewpoint that a thin ceramic layer having no defects can be obtained.

The material composition of the ceramic paint 6 is selected according to the electronic component to be obtained. Basically, it is a paste in which ceramic powder, an organic vehicle, and a solvent are mixed to give fluidity.

The scraping device 2 scrapes the surface layer of the ceramic coating 6 to flatten the surface. As a specific example, the scraping device 2 shown in the drawing is a rotary roller 2
1 and a scraping blade 22. Rotating roller 21
Comes into contact with the surface layer of the ceramic paint 6 to adhere the ceramic paint 6. The scraping blade 22 scrapes the ceramic paint 6 attached to the rotating roller 21.

The rotating roller 21 having a surface made of metal or resin is suitable from the viewpoints of the adhesion of the ceramic coating 6 and the durability. In a practical device, the rotating roller 21 has a cylindrical shape with a diameter of about 20 mm. The rotating roller 21 is positioned at a height position such that it passes a position slightly higher than the surface of the electrode 5 when viewed at the position closest to the outer peripheral surface thereof.

The scraping blade 22 is a kind of doctor blade and is made of resin, for example. The scraping blade 22 is arranged so that its tip comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the rotating roller 21 with an appropriate pressure.

In the illustrated embodiment, the second coating device 3 is further provided.
including. The second coating device 3 is for planarizing the surface of the ceramic coating material 6 and then coating the ceramic coating material 6 thereon, and is provided at a stage subsequent to the scraping device 2.

Although not shown, a drying device is provided between the scraping device 2 and the second coating device 3 to flatten the surface of the ceramic coating 6 and then to dry the layer of the ceramic coating 6. Can also be

Next, a manufacturing method according to the present invention using the manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. First, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a strip-shaped body 4 provided with a large number of electrodes 5 at intervals G1.
While being moved in the longitudinal direction F1 by the flexible support 7, the coating device 1 applies the ceramic coating 6 to cover the electrodes 5 and the gap G1 between the electrodes 5.
Fill in.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the surface layer of the applied ceramic paint 6 is scraped by the scraping device 2 to flatten the surface. More specifically,
The surface of the ceramic paint 63 which is scraped off and remains constitutes a flat plane without unevenness, or the ceramic paint 6
The surface of 3 and the surface of the electrode 5 constitute the same surface.

In the embodiment in which the rotating roller 21 and the scraping blade 22 are used as the scraping device 2, the rotating roller 21 is rotated in the direction of the arrow F2 so that the outer surface of the rotating roller 21 is covered with the surface layer of the ceramic paint 6. Then, the ceramic paint 61 is attached. This rotation direction F2 is preferably a direction facing the conveyance direction F1.

The ceramic paint 61 attached to the outer peripheral surface of the rotating roller 21 is scraped off by the scraping blade 22. Therefore, after passing through the scraping blade 22, almost no ceramic paint remains on the surface of the rotating roller 21. The ceramic paint 62 scraped by the scraping blade 22 is sent to a disposal device (not shown).

In the illustrated embodiment, the second coating device 3 is provided after the scraping device 2, so that the ceramic coating 64 is applied after the scraping process as shown in FIG.

As mentioned above, the electrode 5 is coated and
Since the ceramic paint 6 is applied so as to fill the gap G1 between the electrodes 5, and the surface of the applied ceramic paint 6 is flattened, the surface of the layer of the ceramic paint 6 due to the film thickness of the electrode 5 The unevenness of can be eliminated.

In the embodiment in which the rotating roller 21 and the scraping blade 22 are used as the scraping device 2, the surface of the layer of the ceramic paint 63 after scraping is the height of the closest approach of the rotating roller 21 to the surface of the electrode 5. Is constant in position,
Flattened. Temporarily, the ceramic paint 63 after scraping
Even if there is a difference in level between the surface of the layer and the surface of the electrode 5, it is extremely small, and both surfaces are highly flattened surfaces that can be regarded as substantially the same plane. Constitute.

Therefore, when a large number of laminated green sheets obtained by the present invention are laminated and stacked to form a laminated body, generation of voids due to accumulation of surface irregularities and deformation in the stack molding process are avoided. can do. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a high-quality electronic component having no structural defect even when the layer of the ceramic coating 6 is an extremely thin layer having a thickness of, for example, 10 μm or less, further 2 μm or less.

Moreover, in the present invention, the surface layer of the applied ceramic coating material 6 is scraped to flatten the surface. According to this process, unlike the case where the roller is pressed to be flattened by the roller, the layer of the ceramic coating material 6 is hardly subjected to the roller compaction in the flattening step. For this reason,
Since the packing density of the green sheet is made uniform between the portion where the electrode 5 is present and the portion where there is no electrode 5 and the gap G1, the characteristics of the electronic component obtained from this laminated green sheet are stabilized and manufactured. Yield is improved.

In the illustrated embodiment, the second coating device 3 is provided after the scraping device 2 and the ceramic coating material 64 is coated on the flattened surface. Therefore, the ceramic coating material 64 having a flat surface without unevenness is provided. Layers can be formed.

Further, the scraping device 2 and the second coating device 3
In the case where a drying device is provided between the layer and the layer to dry the layer of the flattened ceramic paint 63, the planar state of the surface of the layers of the ceramic paint 63 and the ceramic paint 64 should be further enhanced. You can

Although the contents of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to them, and those skilled in the art will understand the basic technical idea and teaching. It is obvious that various modifications can be conceived.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (A) To provide a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus capable of manufacturing a high-quality laminated electronic component having no structural defect even when the ceramic coating layer becomes an ultrathin layer having a thickness of 10 μm or less, further 2 μm or less. can do. (B) It is possible to provide a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus that can efficiently manufacture a multilayer electronic component with a high yield.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a coating stage in a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a scraping stage included in the manufacturing apparatus and the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another coating stage included in the manufacturing apparatus and the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 coating device 2 scraping device 3 Second coating device 4 band 5 electrodes 6 Ceramic paint 7 Flexible support

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing an electronic component, wherein a ceramic coating is applied to coat the electrodes while running a strip-shaped body having a large number of electrodes formed at intervals in a longitudinal direction, and the electrodes are also provided. Fills the spacing between
The layer of ceramic paint is on the surface of the electrode and
Scraping the surface layer of the ceramic coating , which is continuous and is applied next , at the interval between the electrodes.
The scraping device includes a step of scraping and flattening by a device , wherein the scraping device includes a rotating roller and a scraping blade.
The rotating roller, the surface layer of the ceramic coating,
Rotate in the direction opposite to the conveyance direction of the strip to make contact,
Note that the ceramic paint is attached, and the scraping blade is attached to the rotary roller.
A method for manufacturing an electronic component that scrapes off a ceramic paint . 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of flattening the surface of the ceramic paint and then drying the layer of the ceramic paint. 3. The method for manufacturing an electronic component according to claim 1, further comprising the step of flattening the surface of the ceramic paint and then applying the ceramic paint. 4. An apparatus for manufacturing an electronic component, comprising an applicator and a scraping device, wherein the applicator is a strip-shaped body having a large number of electrodes formed at intervals, and a ceramic coating material. The scraping device scrapes the ceramic paint surface layer to flatten the surface, and the scraping device includes a rotating roller and a scraping blade.
The rotating roller, the surface layer of the ceramic coating,
Rotate in the direction opposite to the conveyance direction of the strip to make contact,
Note that the ceramic paint is attached, and the scraping blade is attached to the rotary roller.
Manufacturing equipment that scrapes off ceramic paint . 5. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the surface of the rotating roller is made of metal or resin. 6. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a drying device, wherein the drying device flattens a surface of the ceramic paint and then dries the layer of the ceramic paint. apparatus. 7. The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a second coating device, wherein the second coating device flattens a surface of the ceramic coating material,
Manufacturing equipment that applies ceramic paint on it.