JP6305884B2 - Film laminating apparatus and operation method thereof - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a film laminating apparatus, and more particularly to a film laminating apparatus for affixing a laminated film such as a photosensitive dry film for pattern formation on a substrate surface of a printed circuit board and an operation method thereof .

Printed circuit boards are in a state of technological innovation centering on mobile devices, mobile phones, and the like, and in particular, miniaturization and weight reduction of boards have become important issues.
To reduce the size of the substrate, the pattern to be formed on the substrate is miniaturized and the substrate is multilayered. To reduce the weight, the substrate is made thinner.
Here, the pattern formation is mainly called a photolithography process, and a laminated film such as a photosensitive dry film is laminated on a copper-clad laminate, followed by exposure, development, etching or plating treatment to form a pattern. To form.

A photosensitive dry film or the like is mainly composed of a laminated film having a three-layer structure, and a photosensitive and thermosetting resist layer is applied on a base film made of a polyester film and the like, and a polyethylene film or the like is formed thereon. Consists of three layers laminated with protective films.
Hereinafter, the photosensitive dry film or the like is referred to as a laminated film.

  In the process of laminating films for printed circuit board production, the protective film of the laminated film is peeled off, and the resist layer is heated and pressed from the base film with a lamination roll, which is a thermocompression-bonding roll, to heat the laminated film on the copper-clad laminate. It is to be crimped.

The problem in the laminating process when miniaturizing the pattern of a printed circuit board is that when the laminated film is attached to the board, the base film is sucked and transported or the base film is sucked and held while the film is slid and moved In this process, there is a problem that fine scratches are generated on the base film on the suction surface side at the edge of the suction hole chamfered portion processed into the suction plate that sucks the film.
The fine scratches on the base film lower the illuminance due to scattering of ultraviolet rays or the like during exposure, and poor adhesion between the substrate and the resist occurs due to insufficient curing of the resist. In the resist adhesion failure, an etching solution that forms a pattern by dissolving copper invades into the adhesion failure portion in a later etching step, and a defect that cuts the pattern or a failure that breaks the pattern occurs.
Also, in the method of forming a pattern by using a resist as a partition and starting copper plating, the lower part of the partition is lost due to poor resist adhesion between patterns, the copper plating solution enters between the partitions, and the pattern is short-circuited. A defect occurs.

  As a countermeasure against fine scratches on the base film due to this adsorption, the film is held before the end of lamination, and the air shower nozzle and feed guide hold the film tension behind the affixing roller and move it synchronously on the feed guide. The thing is proposed (refer patent document 1).

Further, as a factor that hinders pattern miniaturization in the laminating process, there is a problem that minute foreign matters adhere to the resist surface to be attached to the substrate.
This is because the resist surface from which the protective film is peeled off is wet, and the floating foreign matter generated from the surrounding environment and the drive source of the device is caused by static electricity when the protective film is peeled off. It is because it adheres to.
Further, when foreign matters such as a resist chip generated during film cutting and a cutting tip for base film fall on the pasting substrate, the foreign matter is mixed between the resist and the substrate, resulting in a resist adhesion failure. In this case, a defect similar to the resist adhesion defect described above occurs.
As a measure for preventing foreign matter from adhering to the resist surface, a method has been proposed in which the release paper is peeled off before lamination before the film is coated (see Patent Document 2).

JP 2010-173233 A JP 2003-225945 A

By the way, when laminating a laminated film on a substrate, it is necessary to cut the laminated film to be shorter than the substrate length in accordance with the length of the substrate to be loaded in order to attach the laminated film to the frame in a frame shape.
As disclosed in Patent Document 2, a general film cutting method is to cut the back of the laminated film while adsorbing and holding the back of the laminated film according to the length of the substrate during lamination, and to slide while adsorbing the back of the laminated film.
The problem with this method is a fine scratch generated in the laminated film due to film adsorption.
Moreover, the subject of this cutting method is that the cutting | disconnection chip | tip from the laminated | multilayer film which generate | occur | produces by cut | disconnects on a sticking board | substrate, and raise | generates the adhesion defect.

Further, although cut by synchronously moving blade in laminate film which is flowing, the synchronization failure of the film cutting unit speed between laminating speed by a driving source different, holding the tension of the film behind in the laminate fluctuates , Pasting quality may be a problem.
When this film holding tension becomes small, wrinkles occur due to the looseness of the laminated film, and there is a possibility that the film will be transferred. Further, when the film holding tension is increased, vertical wrinkles are generated in the film flow direction, which may be transferred.
For this reason, it is a problem that the film holding tension is maintained at an optimum value depending on the width and thickness of the laminated film and is not changed.
Moreover, it is connected with quality improvement not to fluctuate film holding tension, such as film cutting, during lamination.
As a measure for eliminating fluctuations in the holding tension of the film, it is conceivable to stop the film flow when the film is cut. However, the lamination roll needs to have a roll surface temperature of about 110 ° C. due to resist characteristics. By stopping the film flow during laminating, the resist portion in contact with the lamination roll causes a quality defect due to the occurrence of thermal unevenness and a change in film thickness due to the bleeding of the resist.

The laminated film peels off the protective film and exposes the resist surface, but there is a problem in that static electricity is generated by peeling electrification at the time of peeling, and the floating foreign matter adheres to the resist surface by the static electricity.
In addition, the protective film is peeled off at the knife edge part, but by sliding the protective film at the knife edge part, static electricity is generated due to frictional charging, and there is a problem of adhering foreign matter to the pasting surface exposed from the tip of the knife edge part. is there.

In production factories, it is the mainstream to flow substrates for each lot for production management. When the time for substrate loading becomes longer between lots, the normal laminating apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 Since the front end of the film is temporarily press-bonded to the substrate, it stands by in a state where the front end of the resist surface is exposed.
For this reason, the exposed resist surface changes in quality due to adhesion of foreign substances, moisture absorption, and the like. For this reason, at the manufacturing site, when the substrate standby time becomes longer, the apparatus is switched to manual operation, and the exposed resist portion is cut and removed.
Since this operation is performed manually by stopping the automatic operation on the automatic operation line, there is a problem of reducing the production efficiency.

The object of the present invention is to provide a laminating apparatus and an operation method thereof for solving these problems.

In order to solve the problem of fine scratches generated in the laminated film due to film adsorption, the laminated film according to claim 1 is half-cut before lamination at the position of the length of one substrate pasted to form a continuous protective film. By using the transport means, the problem is solved.
In addition, the film holding tension is maintained at the optimum value depending on the width and thickness of the laminated film, and the half-cut is performed before laminating to the problem that it does not fluctuate. This is solved by means not performed during lamination.
More specifically, in a film laminating apparatus comprising a substrate transport means and a film laminating unit that peels off the protective film of the laminated film and attaches it to the substrate, the length of the substrate is measured before lamination. In order to change the film attachment length according to the length of the substrate to be input, the film length changes the film attachment length according to the length of the substrate between the knife edge part and the half-cut position. An adjustment mechanism is provided, and the laminated film is half-cut before lamination at a position corresponding to the length of the substrate affixed by the film length adjustment mechanism, and a continuous protective film is provided in the vicinity of the lamination roll by the film conveying means. The protective film is conveyed from the laminated film to the knife edge portion without being peeled off.

Then, the cutting chips from the laminated film of disconnection may fall on applied substrate, with respect to problems to cause adhesion failure, generates a laminated film drawn in the vertical direction half-cut position when half-cut The solution is to provide a cutting chip drop prevention cover for preventing the cutting chip from dropping onto the pasted substrate , below the half-cut position .
Here, a laminated film can be laminated on both surfaces of a board | substrate by providing a film laminating part vertically symmetrically about the conveyance means of a board | substrate.

Then , static electricity is generated by peeling electrification when the protective film is peeled off, and the problem of attaching floating foreign matters to the resist surface due to static electricity, and sliding the protective film at the knife edge, the floating foreign matters are attached to the resist surface by static electricity due to frictional charging. those against the challenges to the knife edge portion to peel off the protective film, which constitutes a conductive member, static electricity generated in the protective film peeling or the like, the solution so as to have a mechanism for dropping the housing ground It is.

Further, in a standby state in which the laminating operation is not performed, in order to temporarily press-bond to the substrate, the standby is performed with the resist attachment tip portion exposed. Since the resist surface changes in quality due to adhesion of foreign matter and moisture absorption, there is work to cut and remove the exposed resist part, and automatic operation is stopped in the automatic operation line and manual operation is performed for this part. In order to reduce the efficiency, the operation of the laminating apparatus according to claim 3 , more specifically, protection of a laminated film to be attached to the next substrate in a standby state where the laminating operation is not performed. The film peeling is not performed until the next substrate is put in, and is solved by not exposing the attachment surface such as the resist surface.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention has an effect of reducing product defects in a laminating process for forming a fine pattern on a substrate.
1. Defect reduction content (1) Preventing fine scratches on the laminated film that will cause exposure failure (2) Preventing mixed film cutting chips from causing resist adhesion failure (3) Making film holding tension uniform and preventing wrinkles by pre-half-cut cutting (4) Prevention of adhesion of minute foreign matter that causes resist adhesion failure by static electricity removal (5) Prevention of foreign matter adhesion and alteration during exposure to the substrate because the resist is not exposed. Other Effects Since an adsorption mechanism is not used for film conveyance and film holding, a laminating apparatus in a vacuum can be easily configured by placing this apparatus in a vacuum chamber. This vacuum laminator prevents microvoids (microbubbles) mixed when laminating in the air, and contributes to reducing defects when forming a fine pattern.

Side surface explanatory drawing of the lamination apparatus which concerns on this invention is shown. An explanatory view at the time of starting laminating operation of a laminating device concerning the present invention is shown. Explanatory drawing in the middle of the lamination operation | movement of the laminating apparatus which concerns on this invention is shown. An explanatory view before the end of a laminating operation of a laminating device concerning the present invention is shown.

An embodiment for carrying out a laminating apparatus and an operation method thereof according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a laminating apparatus according to the embodiment, showing a form in which a laminated film is laminated on both surfaces of a substrate. In the film laminating unit 2, a state immediately before lamination is shown.
The configuration of the apparatus includes a substrate loading conveyor unit 1, a film laminating unit 2, a substrate carry-out conveyor unit 3, and a control device (not shown) that controls them. In addition, since the film lamination part 2 is symmetrical vertically, the code | symbol of a lower side is abbreviate | omitted.

In FIG. 1, the substrate 4 a is carried in from the left direction by a transport conveyor or the like in the previous process, and the substrate width direction is aligned with the film width of the laminated film 9 by a substrate alignment device or the like (not shown). The substrate loading conveyor unit 1 measures the length of the loaded substrate 4a.
The purpose is to detect the length of the substrate 4a before lamination, determine the laminated film attachment length based on the information, and cut the laminated film 9 by half-cutting with the half-cut unit 10 and the cutter receiver 11 before lamination. Because.
Further, the stop of the laminate position at the tip of the substrate 4a is set by a control device (not shown) in order to attach the laminated film to the designated attachment position.

In the film laminating unit 2 of FIG. 1, the laminated film 9 is pulled out from the film unwinding unit 8 by the protective film feed roll 17, and the laminated film 9 is conveyed by the feeding of the protective film 16.
In the half cut unit 10 and the cutter receiver 11, the base film and the resist are cut while leaving the protective film 16 of the laminated film 9 to a length corresponding to the pasting length of the substrate 4 a that has been input. Thus, not cutting all the thickness of a laminated | multilayer film, but leaving and cutting the protective film which is the other side of the half cut unit 10 is called half cut.
Here, the cutting chip generated when half-cutting the laminated film 9 is collected by the cutting chip drop prevention cover 12 provided in the lower part, and is not dropped onto the laminating part of the lamination roll 20. The collected cutting chip can be automatically discarded by suction.

In the knife edge part 14, the laminated | multilayer film front-end | tip 15 which peeled off the protective film bonded by the board | substrate 4b is pulled out by folding the protective film 16 at an acute angle.
The material of the knife edge portion 14 is a structure in which a conductive member is used in order to remove static electricity generated when the laminated film 9 is conveyed or peeled off, and is connected to the housing ground to release static electricity. It is said. Moreover, the static elimination effect improves further by installing together with a commercially available static elimination bar.

The substrate 4b positioned at the laminating position and the laminated film tip 15 are clamped by a clamping mechanism (not shown) of the lamination roll 20, and lamination is performed while thermocompression bonding is performed by a rotation driving mechanism (not shown). At this time, the laminated film 9 is pulled out by the rotation of the lamination roll 20.
Further, the film unwinding unit 8 generates a brake torque on the film unwinding shaft by a torque motor or the like, and optimizes the holding tension of the laminated film at the time of lamination.
Further, the protection film 16 is wound up by drawing out the protection film 16 with the protection film feeding roll 17 and winding and collecting it with the protection film winding unit 19. The protective film feed speed is controlled by the roller driving servomotor 18 so as to be synchronized with the lamination speed of the lamination roll 20.

  In the substrate carry-out conveyor unit 3 of FIG. 1, the substrate 4c on which the laminated film 21 is laminated is received at the substrate carry-out conveyor speed synchronized with the lamination speed, and is carried out to the next process apparatus.

In preparation for operation, the laminated film 9 is pulled out from the film unwinding unit 8 shown in FIG. 1, the laminated film 9 is passed through each guide roll, and the leading end of the laminated film 9 is fixed to the protective film winding unit 19.
Next, the laminated film 9 is clamped and fixed by the protective film feed roll 17. At this time, the roller position of the film drawing adjustment unit 13 is the origin position where the substrate sticking length is the shortest, and the left end position of the roller movement.
Next, rotational torque is applied to the film unwinding unit 8 and the protective film winding unit 19 in a direction in which a holding tension is applied to the laminated film 9 by a torque motor (not shown).
Next, in the half cut unit 10 and the cutter receiver 11, the base film and the resist layer on the half cut unit 10 side are half cut while leaving the protective film of the laminated film 9.
Next, the protective film feed roll 17 is rotationally driven by a roller driving servomotor 18 to pull out the laminated film 9, and the roller driving servomotor 18 is aligned with the leading edge 15 of the laminated film at the tip of the knife edge portion 14. Pull out the laminated film 9.
With the above operation, the preparation for laminating the laminated film 9 is completed.

  When starting operation, the substrate 4a is loaded from the left side of FIG. 1, and the substrate detection sensor 5 detects the leading edge and the trailing edge of the substrate 4a. The substrate length of the substrate 4a during that period is determined by the rotation of the conveyor roller rotation detector 7. It is detected by integrating the amount and conveyor roller diameter. The affixing length of the laminated film 9 is determined by the length of the substrate 4a, and the roller position of the film drawing adjustment unit 13 is moved from the origin by the affixing length to determine the half-cut position. As a driving example of the film drawing adjustment unit 13, both sides of a roller (not shown) are supported by guide rails and controlled by a ball screw and a pulse motor or a servo motor.

  The substrate 4b on which the substrate 4a of the substrate loading conveyor unit 1 moves to the film laminating unit 2 proceeds to the right in the substrate loading conveyor unit 1, detects the substrate tip by the substrate tip positioning sensor 6, and rotates the conveyor roller from that position. The detector 7 is controlled so that the substrate 4b stops at the bonding position with the laminated film tip 15.

FIG. 2 shows a state at the start of lamination.
The upper and lower rolls of the lamination roll 20 are clamped by sandwiching the substrate 4b at the position of the laminated film tip 15 by using an air cylinder (not shown) or the like, and the lamination roll 20 is rotationally driven in the clamped state. As the rotational drive source, a servo motor or a speed control motor (not shown) is used to start the laminating operation.

FIG. 3 shows a state during the lamination of the substrate 4b.
Lamination conditions vary depending on the thickness of the substrate and the characteristics of the laminated film. Generally, the rubber surface of the lamination roll 20 is heated to about 110 ° C., which is the manufacturer recommended condition for the laminated film 9, and the applied pressure is about 0.3 MPa. The laminated film is laminated at a speed of about 3 m / min.
Here, the film holding tension is controlled by the film unwinding unit 8 and the film holding tension of the laminated film 9 is an important laminating condition. Although the film holding tension varies depending on the width and thickness of the laminated film 9, the optimum value of a general film holding tension is approximately 9.8 N / film width of 500 mm.
As an example of film holding tension, which is a lamination condition for forming a fine pattern, the film winding diameter of the film unwinding unit 8 is reduced by the consumption of the laminated film 9, so that the torque for controlling the film unwinding unit 8 is controlled. When the torque of the motor or the like is constant, the film holding tension acting on the laminated film 9 increases as the winding diameter decreases.
Therefore, the film winding diameter is measured by an ultrasonic sensor or a photoelectric sensor, and the torque applied to the film unwinding unit 8 is controlled so as to decrease in proportion to the winding diameter of the laminated film 9 as the winding diameter decreases. I do.

FIG. 4 shows a state before the substrate 4b is laminated.
The laminated film 21 is laminated with the lamination roll 20, and the lamination operation is completed by opening the clamp of the lamination roll 20 at the lamination end position by the laminated film application length set by the length of the substrate 4a.
Here, when the laminating operation is completed, the laminated film front end 15 controls the rotation of the protective film feed roll 17 so as to stop the film flow at the front end of the knife edge portion 14. The implementation method is such that the rotation amount of the protective film feed roll 17 is controlled by a roller driving servomotor 18 with respect to a certain distance from the tip of the knife edge portion 14 to the clamping position of the lamination roll 20.
In FIG. 1, when the substrate 4b to be loaded next arrives at the laminating position, the roller driving servo motor 18 is rotationally driven to feed the laminated film tip 15 to the laminating position, and laminating is started in the same manner as described above.

The film laminating apparatus and the operation method thereof according to the present invention have been described based on the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the configurations described in the above embodiments, and does not depart from the spirit of the present invention. The configuration can be changed as appropriate.

The film laminating apparatus of the present invention and the operation method thereof have characteristics that can reduce product defects in a laminating process of forming a fine pattern on a substrate by preventing fine scratches on a laminated film that becomes an exposure obstacle. Since it has, it can use suitably for the use of the lamination of the film for sticking laminated films, such as a photosensitive dry film for pattern formation, to the board | substrate surface of a printed circuit board.

1 Board loading conveyor (conveying means)
2 Film laminating section 3 Substrate unloading conveyor section (conveying means)
4a, 4b, 4c Substrate 5 Substrate detection sensor 6 Substrate tip positioning sensor 7 Conveyor roller rotation detector 8 Film unwinding unit 9 Laminated film 10 Half cut unit 11 Cutter receiver 12 Cutting chip fall prevention cover 13 Film drawer adjustment unit (film length) Adjustment mechanism)
14 Knife Edge 15 Laminated Film Tip 16 Protective Film 17 Protective Film Feed Roll 18 Roller Drive Servo Motor 19 Protective Film Winding Unit 20 Lamination Roll 21 Laminated Laminated Film

Claims (3)

In a film laminator equipped with a substrate transport means and a film laminating unit that peels off the protective film of the laminated film and attaches it to the substrate, the length of the substrate to be measured is measured before the lamination. In order to change the film attachment length according to the thickness, the film length adjustment mechanism for changing the film attachment length according to the length of the substrate is provided between the knife edge portion and the half-cut position, The laminated film is half-cut before lamination at the position of the length of the substrate pasted by the film length adjustment mechanism, and the continuous protective film is laminated to the knife edge provided near the lamination roll by the film transport means. The protective film was transported without peeling from the film, and was pulled vertically to the half-cut position. Knife edge portion so as to provide a fall prevention cover of the cutting tip so as not to fall on applied substrate cutting chips generated when the half-cut layer film below the half-cut position, is peeled off the protective film, the conductive A film laminating apparatus characterized by comprising a conductive member and having a mechanism for dropping static electricity generated when the protective film is peeled off to the housing ground .   2. The film laminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the film laminating section is provided symmetrically with respect to the substrate conveying means. It is equipped with a means for transporting the substrate and a film laminating section that peels off the protective film of the laminated film and affixes it to the substrate. The length of the substrate is measured before laminating, and the film depends on the length of the substrate to be loaded. In order to change the affixing length, it is provided with a film length adjustment mechanism that changes the affixing length of the film according to the length of the substrate between the knife edge part and the half-cut position. The laminated film is half-cut before laminating at the position of one sheet pasted on the substrate, and the protective film is peeled off from the laminated film to the knife edge provided near the lamination roll by the film transport means. When the laminated film pulled out in the vertical direction to the half-cut position is half-cut A method of operating a laminating apparatus and to provide a fall prevention cover of the cutting tip for cutting chips do not fall paste on a substrate that occurs below the half-cut position film, waiting is not performed laminating operation In the state, the protective film peeling of the laminated film to be attached to the next substrate is not performed until the next substrate is put in, and the attachment surface such as the resist surface is not exposed. Operation method of laminating equipment.

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