JP5944353B2 - Etching method and etching apparatus for crystal resonator. - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a crystal resonator etching method and an etching apparatus, and more particularly to an etching method and an etching apparatus for etching a crystal resonator used as a frequency control device with an ion beam.

  Conventionally, as an apparatus for etching a crystal resonator with an ion beam for frequency adjustment, for example, an etching apparatus of Patent Document 1 is known. In this etching apparatus, a quartz crystal resonator serving as a work is mounted in a matrix-shaped mounting hole provided on a pallet, and an ion beam is irradiated to the bottom of the crystal resonator from an ion beam irradiation device provided below the pallet. Etching to adjust the frequency. At this time, the frequency is measured by the frequency measuring means connected to the electrode pad of each workpiece, and when the frequency reaches a predetermined value, the shutter under the workpiece is closed to block the ion beam. As the frequency measuring means, for example, an apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 is known.

US Pat. No. 6,273,991 JP 2010-281675 A

  When etching an extremely small electronic component such as a crystal resonator, manufacturing efficiency can be improved by simultaneously etching a plurality of workpieces.

  FIGS. 7A to 7D are schematic views showing processing steps in the conventional etching method. FIG. 7A is a state before processing, and FIGS. 7B to 7D are sequentially shown. In this state, the workpiece W is being etched. The workpiece W, which is a crystal resonator, is sent to the machining area A together with the pallet P in a state of being mounted in a mounting hole provided in the pallet P.

  As shown in FIG. 7B, the pallet P first feeds two workpiece rows T1 and T2 on the leading side onto the machining area A. Rows C1 and C2 of the shutter S are provided at positions corresponding to the mounting holes in the processing area A. By opening the shutter S with the workpiece rows T1 and T2 being sent out, the shutters S are mounted on the workpiece rows T1 and T2. Etching is performed by irradiating the workpiece W with an ion beam from below. Of the workpiece W, the hatched portion is the workpiece that has been etched, and the white portion is the workpiece before the etching.

  When the etching process on the workpieces W in the first two rows T1 and T2 of the pallet P is completed, the pallet P is fed by the workpiece W2 row, and the workpieces W in the workpiece rows T3 and T4 are etched as shown in FIG.

  When the above steps are repeated and the etching process of the work W in the last work row Tn and the previous row Tn-1 as shown in FIG. 7D is completed, all the work W mounted on the pallet P are processed. The etching process ends.

  When performing the etching process, the ion beam is irradiated from below the workpiece to perform the etching process, and a contact block is placed above the pallet of the transfer board to measure the electrical characteristics of each workpiece. For a workpiece whose measured value shows a predetermined value, irradiation of the ion beam is blocked by closing the shutter.

  The shutter for controlling the irradiation / blocking of the ion beam is a component as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, for example. By rotating the shutter shaft 16 to which the shutter blade 16a is attached by an actuator 16c, It controls beam irradiation / blocking.

  Here, as described above, in order to increase manufacturing efficiency, it is important to increase the number of workpieces to be processed at the same time. With a conventional etching apparatus, workpieces are arranged in a matrix of, for example, 18 columns × 16 rows on one pallet. The mounted pallet is etched by the aforementioned process. However, in order to increase the work load on one pallet, the size of the shutter, particularly the actuator, becomes a bottleneck when the work is an ultra-small electronic component such as a crystal resonator. A small crystal unit has a size of about 1.0 mm × 1.2 mm, and the shutter actuator is very large compared to the crystal unit. For this reason, there is a problem that the interval between the workpieces mounted on the pallet is limited by the size of the shutter, and the manufacturing efficiency cannot be sufficiently increased.

  Further, when the interval between the workpieces is narrowed, there is a problem that the etching accuracy cannot be increased due to the influence of the ion beam irradiated to the adjacent workpieces.

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a crystal resonator etching method and an etching apparatus that can increase the number of workpieces mounted on one pallet.

The configuration of the present invention made to solve the above-described problem is that a quartz resonator serving as a workpiece is mounted in each mounting hole of a pallet provided with mounting holes in a matrix, and the pallet mounting the workpiece is slid. An etching method for a crystal resonator in which etching is performed by irradiating an ion beam onto the delivered workpiece by feeding it upwards to the shutter mechanism of the etching apparatus, wherein the pallet is arranged in a row above the shutter mechanism. The ion beam is sent to two adjacent columns that are sent out by the pallet, a first workpiece column that etches only even-numbered workpieces and a second workpiece column that etches only odd-numbered workpieces. It is characterized by being irradiated with respect to.

  In the method for etching a crystal resonator according to the present invention, it is preferable that the first workpiece row and the second workpiece row are two adjacent rows of the pallet.

The configuration of the etching apparatus according to the present invention made to solve the above-described problem is an etching apparatus that etches a crystal resonator by the etching method described in paragraph 0014 above, and is placed on the top of the pallet. And a contact block for measuring the electrical characteristics of the workpiece irradiated with the ion beam, the contact block being a position corresponding to the position of the workpiece of the two rows of workpieces irradiated with the ion beam Each has a pair of contact pins .

  In the etching apparatus according to the present invention, the shutter mechanism includes two rows of shutters arranged in a staggered manner corresponding to the positions of the work in the first row and the second row, and an ion beam at the open / close position of the shutter. And an aperture provided with a small hole for irradiating the light.

  According to the present invention, the ion beam is applied to odd-numbered workpieces in the first workpiece column and even-numbered workpieces in the second workpiece column, and the workpieces are mounted in a matrix on the pallet. One row is sent out onto the shutter mechanism.

  Since only one of the two or more columns is irradiated with the ion beam in one row, the number of shutters necessary for etching a workpiece in one column is equal to the number of rows in the column. It becomes half. Since the number of shutters in one column can be significantly reduced rather than the number of rows of workpieces, the amount of workpieces mounted on one pallet can be greatly increased to increase manufacturing efficiency.

  In addition, the work irradiated with the ion beam does not irradiate the work adjacent to the column direction and the row direction with the ion beam. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the influence of the ion beam irradiation on the workpiece adjacent to one workpiece during the etching processing, and to improve the accuracy of the etching processing.

The schematic diagram which shows the process in embodiment of this invention. The schematic diagram which shows the positional relationship of the workpiece | work and shutter in the embodiment. The perspective view which shows the principal part of the etching apparatus in the embodiment. The disassembled perspective view of the shutter mechanism in the embodiment. Sectional drawing of the pallet in the embodiment. The perspective view of the contact block in the embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows the process process in the conventional etching method. The perspective view of the shutter used for the conventional etching method.

Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIGS. 1A to 1D are schematic views showing processing steps of the etching method according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1A shows a state before processing, in a state in which a pallet P on which workpieces W are mounted in a matrix is sent out on a processing area A in which a plurality of shutters S are provided in a staggered pattern. is there.

  In the processing area A, the columns C1 and C2 of the shutter S are provided at locations corresponding to the workpiece W mounted on the pallet P, but only at locations corresponding to odd rows of the workpiece W in the first shutter column C1. A shutter S is provided, and in the second shutter column C2, the shutter S is provided only at a position corresponding to an even-numbered row of workpieces W.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, the pallet P is sent to a position where the work row T1 which is the foremost row overlaps the first shutter row C1, and the work W on T1 is etched. At this time, since the shutter S is provided only in the portion corresponding to the odd-numbered workpieces W in the first shutter column C1, only the odd-numbered workpieces W are etched in the workpiece column T1, and the even-numbered workpieces W are processed. Is not processed.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 1C, the pallet P is fed by one row of the workpiece W, the workpiece row T1 is positioned on the second shutter row C2, and the workpiece row T2 is positioned on the first shutter row C1, and etching is performed. Processing.

  At this time, the work W on the work column T1 is processed only in the even-numbered workpieces W because the shutter S is provided only at the position where the second shutter column C2 corresponds to the even-numbered workpieces W, and FIG. All the workpieces W in the workpiece row T1 are etched together with the previous step shown in b). On the other hand, the work column T2 newly sent to the work area A is positioned on the first shutter column C1 in this step, and only the odd-numbered workpieces W are etched.

  This is sequentially repeated, and as shown in FIG. 1D, when the work column Tn which is the last column is sent out onto the second shutter column C2 and the even-numbered workpieces W are etched, The etching process for all the workpieces W is completed. In this embodiment, the right column in the region A is the first shutter column for etching only odd-numbered workpieces, and the left column is the second shutter column for etching only even-numbered workpieces. It may be arbitrarily changed whether to process the workpieces W in odd or even rows in the columns.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between the workpiece W and the shutter mechanism in the etching method according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the shutters S in the two shutter columns C1 and C2 are arranged in a staggered manner, so that the shutters in one column are half the number of rows of the workpieces W. Since the number of shutters required is smaller than the number of rows of mounting holes provided in the pallet, the amount of work W mounted on one pallet can be increased without increasing the overall size of the shutter mechanism. Efficiency can be improved.

  Here, in the etching of the crystal resonator, there are cases where the size of the workpiece W is small, which may be about 1.0 mm × 1.2 mm. However, in order to increase the number of workpieces W mounted on one pallet, it is necessary to reduce this interval. However, when this interval is narrowed, there is a problem in that one workpiece W is affected by an ion beam irradiated to the adjacent workpiece W, so that high-precision etching cannot be performed. However, in the etching method of the present embodiment, in the process in which the workpiece W on the one shutter S is etched in the processing area A, the adjacent workpiece W is not etched, so the etching processing to the adjacent workpiece is performed. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate both the high-precision etching process and the production efficiency.

Next, an etching apparatus for etching a crystal resonator by the etching method of this embodiment will be described.
3 and 4 show a main part of an etching apparatus 1 for etching a crystal resonator by the etching method of the present embodiment, that is, a pallet unit 2 on which a workpiece is mounted, and a shutter mechanism 3 on which the pallet unit 2 is mounted. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the main part during the etching process.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the pallet unit 2 includes a transfer boat 6 and a pallet 7 mounted on the transfer boat 6. The transport board 6 includes a first aperture 8 in which a large number of incident holes 8 a are formed, a side plate 9 provided at an outer edge portion of the first aperture 8, and a pallet 7 placed above the first aperture 8. ing.
A protruding edge 8b is formed on the four sides around the first aperture 8, and a recessed portion 8c is formed above the incident hole 8a of the first aperture 8 by the protruding edge 8b. The inner dimension of the recess 8c is formed substantially the same as the outer dimension of the pallet 7, and the pallet 7 can be fitted into the recess 8c.

  The side plate 9 is a member whose top surface is flush with the protruding edge 8b of the first aperture 8. A plurality of vertical guide rollers 10 are provided on the outer side surface of the side plate 9, and a plurality of horizontal guide rollers 11 are provided on the upper surface. The vertical guide roller 10 and the horizontal guide roller 11 are transported onto the etching apparatus 1 by rolling along the guide rail 4.

The pallet 7 is a plate-like member whose outer dimension is substantially the same as the inner dimension of the concave portion 8 c, and a plurality of mounting holes 7 a are formed at substantially the same location in the incident hole 8 a of the first aperture 8.
The mounting hole 7 a is a square hole for mounting the crystal resonator, which is a workpiece in the present embodiment, on the pallet 7. The mounting hole 7a is formed so that the inner dimension of the opening on the upper surface side of the pallet 7 is larger than the outer dimension of the workpiece in order to load the workpiece from the upper surface side of the pallet 7, while the inner dimension of the opening on the lower surface side is In order to prevent the workpiece from falling off, the inner dimension is smaller than the outer dimension of the workpiece.

  A plurality of mounting holes 7a are provided at the same positions as the incident holes 7a when the pallet 7 is fitted into the recess 8c so that a plurality of workpieces can be mounted on the pallet 7. As a result, the workpieces are mounted on the pallet 7 in a matrix, that is, vertically and horizontally in a grid. In the present embodiment, 18 mounting holes 7a in the horizontal direction and 32 in the vertical direction are provided to form a matrix of 18 columns × 32 rows.

  FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the shutter mechanism 3 on which the pallet unit 2 shown in FIG. 3 is placed. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the shutter mechanism 3 includes a shutter base 12 having a leg portion 12a at the lower portion. A shutter plate 13 having an opening 13a is provided on the shutter base 12, and a second aperture 14 in which two rows of small holes 14a are formed so as to cover the opening 13a is attached to the shutter plate 13. . The shutter base 12 is provided with a connector 12 b for supplying water for water cooling, and a pair of shutter units 15 is provided above the shutter plate 13 and the second aperture 14. The above-described pallet unit 2 can be slidably supported by attaching the above-described guide rail 4 to the shutter base 12.

  In the present embodiment, 16 small holes 14a are arranged in a staggered manner in the second aperture 14 in a row, and 32 shutters 16 are arranged in a staggered manner above the second aperture 14. A shutter unit 15 is provided.

  As the shutter 16 constituting the shutter unit 15, for example, a conventional shutter 16 as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B can be used. The shutter 16 includes a rotating shaft 16b to which a shutter blade 16a is connected, and an actuator 16c for rotating the rotating shaft in a predetermined direction.

  As shown in FIG. 3, guide rails 4 having an L-shaped cross section are provided in parallel on both sides of the shutter unit 15, and the above-described pallet unit 2 is movably mounted on the guide rail 4.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in the pallet unit 2 in the etching apparatus 1 according to this embodiment, the mounting holes 7a of the pallet 7 and the incident holes 8a of the first aperture 8 form a matrix of 18 columns × 32 rows. On the other hand, in the shutter unit 15, a total of 32 shutters 16 are arranged in two rows of 16 each, and the second aperture 14 is also provided with a total of 32 small holes 14 a in a row. In this state, by sending the pallet 2 to the shutter mechanism 3 one column at a time by the above-described method, it is possible to etch a work forming a matrix of 18 columns × 32 rows.

  Moreover, when performing the etching process in this embodiment, the contact block 5 as shown in FIG. 6 is mounted above the pallet unit 2 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the contact block 5. The contact block 5 is composed of a block main body 5a having a substantially I-shaped plane and contact pins 5b protruding to the bottom side of the block main body 5a. The contact pins 5b are provided with a pair of contact pins 5b for one workpiece, and the block main body 5a of the present embodiment has a total of 32 pairs of contact pins corresponding to the small holes 14a of the second aperture 14. 5b is arranged in a staggered pattern.

  When the workpiece W is etched, the workpiece W is sent out above the shutter mechanism 3 in a state where the mounting hole 7 a of the pallet 7 is mounted, and the contact block 5 is placed above the pallet 2. In this state, the workpiece W is irradiated with an ion beam from below the shutter mechanism 3, and the electrical characteristics of the workpiece W are measured by a pair of contact pins 5 b provided on the contact block 5. When the electrical characteristics of the workpiece W show a predetermined value, the ion beam is shut off by closing the shutter 16, and the etching process is completed.

  The above is description of embodiment which concerns on this invention, However, Embodiment of this invention is not restricted above. For example, the mounting holes 7a provided in the pallet 7 are formed in a matrix of 18 columns × 32 rows, but the number of mounting holes 7a is arbitrary, the size of the shutter mechanism 3 and the etching apparatus 1 as a whole, and the size of the work W It may be changed depending on the size. Other configurations can also be changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Etching apparatus 2 Pallet unit 3 Shutter mechanism 4 Guide rail 5 Contact block 6 Transfer board 7 Pallet 8 First aperture 12 Shutter base 13 Shutter plate 14 Second aperture 15 Shutter unit 16 Shutter W Work C1 First shutter row C2 Second shutter Column

Claims (3)

A quartz resonator as a workpiece is mounted on each mounting hole of the pallet provided with mounting holes in a matrix, and the pallet mounting the workpiece is slid and sent out above the shutter mechanism of the etching apparatus. A method of etching a crystal unit that performs etching by irradiating a workpiece with an ion beam,
The pallet feeds workpieces one row above the shutter mechanism,
The ion beam is applied to two adjacent columns that are sent out by the pallet, a first workpiece column that etches only even-numbered workpieces and a second workpiece column that etches only odd-numbered workpieces. A method for etching a crystal resonator, comprising: An etching apparatus for etching a crystal resonator by the etching method according to claim 1 ,
A contact block placed on top of the pallet for measuring the electrical properties of the workpiece irradiated with the ion beam;
The etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the contact block includes a pair of contact pins at each of the positions corresponding to the positions of the two rows of workpieces to which the ion beam is irradiated. The etching apparatus includes two rows of shutters arranged in a staggered manner corresponding to the positions of the workpieces of the first row and the second row, and small holes for irradiating the open / close positions of the shutters with an ion beam The etching apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising: a shutter mechanism having an aperture provided with an aperture.