JPH03159161A - Apparatus for continuous manufacture of etching product - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an apparatus which can automatically monitor the etching quantity and automatically control the etching speed based on the result of the monitoring by installing an automatic measurement means to measure the etching quantity just after an etching means and installing an automatic controller to control the transfer speed based on the measured value. CONSTITUTION:An etching product manufacturing apparatus having an etching means 2, first transfer means 7 and 8 therein, and a post-etching second transfer means 17 etches a metallic thin plate 14, which has a photoresist film applied thereto and exposed and developed into the desired pattern, into the specified pattern. The apparatus has an automatic measurement means 13 to measure the etching quantity of the metallic thin plate 14 installed just after the etching means 2 and has an automatic controller 21 to control the transfer speed of the transfer means 7, 8, and 17 based on the value measured with the automatic measurement means 13. For example, a specular gloss meter 13 is used as the automatic measurement means 13 for the etching quantity, the result of the measurement is entered to a smart drive motor controller 21, and the driving speed of motors 15 and 19 are automatically controlled.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a continuous manufacturing apparatus for etching products such as lead frames and tape carriers for TAB.

<Prior Art> Recently, as IC chips have become smaller and more highly integrated, lead frames and TAB tape carriers have become thinner and have more pins. In particular, QFP (QuadFlat Package) where pins are provided on all sides of the lead frame.
), the number of pins exceeds 200 pins, and in that case, the pin width at the tip of the inner lead is 1.
00 μm or less, extremely fine processing technology is required.

Such a multi-pin frame is manufactured by photoetching. The photoetching method is a method in which a photoresist film is applied to a material, a mask with the desired pattern shape is placed on top of it, exposed and developed, and then an etching solution is sprayed to dissolve unnecessary parts to obtain a pattern. It is. Photo etching allows for finer processing than the pressing method, so it is suitable for producing fine patterns and small quantities of a wide variety of crystals.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In the photoetching method, the etching process is the most difficult to control. That is, if the etching solution is new, the temperature is high, the spray pressure is high, or the etching time is long, over-etching occurs and the pins become thinner. In the opposite case, the bottles are not completely separated and remain connected, resulting in underetching.

Since the rate of deterioration of the etching solution is fast, if the device is operated continuously, the pin width will fluctuate rapidly due to changes in etching conditions during operation, making it difficult to stably obtain products with a constant pin width.

Therefore, currently, the product after etching is visually inspected or
The dimensions are regularly measured directly using a measuring device, and in case of over-etching, the etching speed is increased to reduce the amount of etching, and in case of under-etching, the etching speed is slowed down manually.

Therefore, the operator must constantly monitor the process, and it takes time to provide feedback from measuring the pin width to adjusting the etching speed based on the result, resulting in a correspondingly large number of defects. In addition, since the speed was adjusted manually, it was difficult to set the appropriate speed, making stable work impossible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a novel continuous manufacturing apparatus for etching products that can automatically monitor the amount of etching and automatically control the etching rate based on the result.

Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes an etching means, a first conveyance means within the etching means, and a second conveyance means after etching, and a photoresist film is An etching product manufacturing apparatus for etching a thin metal plate coated, exposed to light in a desired pattern shape, and developed into a predetermined pattern, the apparatus comprising: an automatic measuring means for measuring the amount of etching of the thin metal plate immediately after the etching means; There is provided an apparatus for continuously manufacturing an etched product, characterized in that the automatic measuring means includes means for automatically controlling the conveying speed in both the withdrawing means based on the measured values.

Preferably, the automatic control means measures the etching amount of the etched product after etching is completed by temporarily stopping only the second conveying means without stopping the first m2 conveying means of the etching means.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below.

To which the present invention is applied, a metal thin plate (hereinafter referred to as
There are no particular restrictions on the constituent material of the metal sheet (simply referred to as a thin metal sheet), and iron, iron,
Examples include iron-based alloys, copper, copper-based alloys, and the like.

The present invention will be explained below based on an example of a continuous lead frame manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG.

The continuous manufacturing apparatus for etching products of the present invention includes a thin metal plate 1
4 sending out part 11 etching tank 2, film peeling tank 3, washing f
It is roughly divided into i4 and product winding section 5.

The thin metal sheet feeding section 1 is provided with a reel 6 and a plurality of rollers 7 for feeding out the thin metal sheet 14.

The etching tank 2 is connected to the sending section 1, and a peeling film 4 is provided on the downstream side thereof. y3, furthermore, a washing tank 4 is connected, and a plurality of rollers 7 and one or more transport rollers 8 and Rubber rollers 9 are provided to sandwich the thin plate 14 from above and below.

Inside the multi-tank 2.3.4, one or more gears 10 for rotating the conveying roller 8 and this gear 10 are provided.
A chain 16 rotated by a variable speed motor 15 for conveyance drive is connected to the downstream side of the rotary shaft 11 to enable the rotary shaft 11 to rotate.

That is, the etching tank 2, the peeling tank 3 and the water washing 4
i! Reference numeral 4 constitutes an etching means, the conveying means upstream from this is driven and conveyed by a motor 15, and the conveying means downstream from this is driven and conveyed by a motor 19.

A plurality of spray nozzles 12 are provided above and below the multi-tank 2.3.4 for spraying liquid onto both sides of the thin metal plate 14.

A draining device 23 is provided downstream of the washing tank 4.

An automatic means for measuring the amount of etching is provided between the washing tank 4 and the product winding section 5. As the measuring means, known ones can be used. That is, any device may be used as long as it can measure the etching amount of the etched thin metal plate 14 at predetermined intervals, but it is preferable to provide a means for irradiating light and a means for measuring the amount of reflected or transmitted light. In FIG. 1, a gloss meter 13 is provided to measure the amount of reflected light.

The principle of the etching amount measuring means by measuring the amount of reflected or transmitted light is to irradiate the etched product, such as a lead frame, from which the resist film has been removed after etching with light, and measure the amount of reflected or transmitted light. When measuring the amount of reflected light, if the shape of the lead frame after etching is thick, the area of the reflecting metal surface is large, so the amount of reflected light will be large, but if the lead frame is thin due to over-etching, the amount of reflected light will be small. Become. therefore,
By measuring the amount of reflected light, the amount of etching on the lead frame can be determined.

On the other hand, when measuring the amount of transmitted light, a light receiving section is provided on the opposite side of the lead frame from the light source, and the amount of etching is determined from the magnitude of the amount of transmitted light. That is, when the lead frame is thick, light is blocked and the amount of transmitted light decreases greatly relative to the amount of projected light, but when the lead frame is thin, the amount of transmitted light increases.

It is necessary to always measure the etching amount of the lead frame at the same portion of the lead frame. Pin width (etching amount) according to the material and lead frame shape in advance
It is desirable to understand the relationship between the amount of reflected light or the amount of transmitted light. When measuring the amount of reflected light, it is desirable to place a non-reflective black plate on the back side of the lead frame to control reflections from sources other than the lead frame as much as possible.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the relationship between the inner lead pin width and specular gloss of an etched product.

On the upstream side of the gloss meter 13, a conveyance roller 17 and a rubber roller 18- are provided so as to sandwich the thin plate 14 from above and below, and a gear 10 for rotating the conveyance roller 17 is provided.
, a chain 16, and a variable speed motor 19 for driving the conveyance.

A product winding section 5 is connected to the downstream side of the gloss meter 13. 22 is a phototube for checking the passage of the thin metal plate 14.

The product winding section 5 is provided with a plurality of rollers 7 for conveying the etched thin metal plate 14 and a roll 6 for winding up the product.

Note that the means for conveying the metal thin plate 14 is not limited to the above, and any known means may be used.

Next, an example of the operation of the continuous manufacturing apparatus for etching products according to the present invention will be explained.

The thin metal plate 14 set on the reel 6 of the delivery section 1 is transported at a predetermined speed by the rotation of the transport roller 8, and is sprayed with a predetermined etching solution from the nozzle 12 in the etching tank 2, and then transferred to the film peeling tank 3. After passing through water washing 4!4 to remove the resist film, washing with water, and draining, the motor 19 is stopped at predetermined intervals to stop the conveyance roller 17, and during this time the amount of etching on the thin plate 14 is measured. When the measurement is completed, the motor 19 is driven at high speed so that the conveyance roller 17 rotates faster than the conveyance roller 8.

While the motor 19 is stopped, the thin plate 14 gradually slackens between the washing tank 4 and the winding section 5, as shown in FIG.
9 is driven again, the conveyance roller 17 is moved to the conveyance roller 8.
By rotating at a higher speed, the slack is gradually eliminated.

Then, when the thin plate 14 passes through the phototube 22,
The motor 19 is controlled so that the rotation of the conveyance roller 17 is the same as that of the conveyance roller 8 by detecting the elimination of the slack.

The thin plate 14 whose etching amount is measured at predetermined time intervals and introduced into the winding section 5 is controlled in conjunction with the rotational speed of the conveying roller 17 by a driving means (not shown).
is wound onto the reel 6.

An example of the drive control means for conveying the thin plate using a gloss meter 13 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, a gloss meter 13 is provided on the portion of the thin plate 14 to measure the amount of etching, and light is irradiated to the drive motor controller 21 with a built-in microcomputer via the reflected light amount measuring device 21.
Input this measured value to the microcomputer to calculate the amount of adjustment of the driving speed of the motor 15 so as to achieve the preset etching amount, and set the stop-operation pattern of the motor 19 as described above in advance and input it to the microcomputer. By performing calculations and controlling the respective values, it is possible to automatically control the etching amount of the thin metal plate 14 to always maintain a predetermined value.

That is, for example, the upper and lower limits of etching dimensions are set, and when etching is insufficient, the rotation speed of the motor 15 is increased so that the etching time in the etching bath 2 is approximately 5% longer, and when overetching is occurring, the rotation speed of the motor 15 is increased. Conversely, the motor 15 may be controlled so that the etching time is shortened by about 5%.

Light irradiation for measuring the amount of etching is preferably performed so that at least two lead pins fall within the light irradiation range 27 (see FIG. 4).

The amount of etching can be measured by measuring the amount of reflected light, for example, as shown in FIG.
This will be carried out with the following.

Furthermore, the amount of etching is measured by measuring the amount of transmitted light.
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, at the position of the gloss meter 13,
Light #24 is provided to project light perpendicularly to the etching surface, and a light receiving section 25 is provided on the opposite side of the light source 24 with the thin metal plate 14 in between.

The above explanation has been given using the etching of lead frames as an example, but the device of the present invention can also be used to control the amount of etching with extremely high precision when etching tape carriers for TAB, etc., making it possible to obtain products with a constant bin width. .

<Example> The present invention will be specifically explained below based on Examples.

(Example 1) Using the continuous manufacturing apparatus of the present invention shown in Fig. 1, a resist film was applied to both sides of a 42 alloy strip (thickness: 0.1 mm, width: 42 mm), and then a resist film with a 100-pin QFP pattern was applied. One 25 m roll of the metal strip 14 provided by exposure and development was placed on the reel 6 of the delivery section 1, passed through the etching tank 2, and wound up again on the reel 6 of the winding section 5.

The metal strip 14 was sandwiched between a conveyance roller and rubber rollers 8.9 and 17.18, and was fed at a constant speed by rotation of the conveyance roller 8.17.

The conveyance speed of the metal strip 14 is determined by the rotation speed of the conveyance roller, and since the conveyance roller 8.17 is rotated by the motor 15.19 via the rotating shaft 11, the conveyance speed is determined by the rotation speed of the motor 15.19. It has a structure that can be changed by controlling.

After the metal strip 14 is etched by spraying from the nozzle 12 in the etching device 2, it is transferred to a resist film stripping tank 3;
It passed through the washing tank 4 and was wound up on the reel 6 of the winding section 5.

In the example of the present invention, the specular gloss meter 3 was installed at the part where the lead frame came out of the water washing [4] and immediately after the draining 23. That is, at regular intervals, first, the motor 19 stops, the conveying roller 17 stops, and the feeding of the metal strip 14 to the right side from the roller stops. At this time, since the motor 15 remains in operation, the strip gradually slackens before the conveyance roller 17 while being conveyed. During this time, the lead frame was irradiated with light using the gloss meter 13, and the amount of reflected light was calculated. As shown in FIG. 3, this result was input to a drive motor control section 21 having a built-in microcomputer, and the drive speed of the motor 15 was immediately automatically adjusted based on the amount of etching. That is, the upper and lower limits of the etching dimension are set in advance, and when the etching time is short and the dimension is still too thick, the rotation speed of the drive motor 15 is increased so that the etching time is approximately 5% longer, and in the case of over-etching. On the other hand, the etching time was controlled to be about 5% shorter.

The conveying roller 1), which had stopped during the measurement of the amount of reflected light, rotated immediately after the measurement was completed and sent the lead frame to the winding section. At this time, the rotation speed of the roller 17 was controlled to be the same as that of the roller 8 after the lead frame passed through the phototube 22 and the slack was removed by rotating faster than the conveyance roller 8.

With the device of the invention, the amount of etching was automatically measured when etching was completed, and the etching time could be changed immediately, making it possible to continuously and stably manufacture products with fixed dimensions.

That is, in the conventional etching apparatus, the product after etching is manually measured, and the etching speed is controlled based on the operator's intuition and experience based on the measurement results. Therefore, the amount of etching differs depending on the job, and the operator must constantly monitor the process. Furthermore, since it is not possible to measure the lead bin width during the work, it is necessary to wait until the work for one reel is completed. Therefore, if the etching speed setting fails in the initial stage, all of the lead frames for 1@ may become defective.

In the apparatus of the present invention, as described above, the etching amount is periodically measured during the work and the etching speed is immediately controlled, so that the above-mentioned problems are solved at once.

Traditional direct dimension measurement devices are large, heavy, and expensive.
Therefore, it is not possible to freely choose the installation location, whereas the measuring device of the present invention is small and lightweight, so it can be freely incorporated into a line for measurement, and it can be measured at low cost.

(Example 2) The gloss meter was removed from the area where the specular gloss meter 13 of FIG. 1 was attached, and the light source 24 was installed facing the lead frame 14 as shown in FIG. The light receiving section 25 was installed on the opposite side of the light source. That is, the amount of transmitted light, which changes according to the thickness (area) of the lead pin, which varies with changes in the amount of etching, was detected, the amount of etching was instantaneously quantified, and the etching rate was adjusted in the same manner as in Example 1. By incorporating this simple measuring device and being able to immediately and automatically change the etching speed according to the results, microfabricated products can be manufactured continuously and stably, greatly improving productivity. did.

Graph showing the relationship between pin width and specular gloss <Effects of the invention> Since the present invention is configured as described above, the device of the present invention can automatically perform etching using the built-in simple measuring device. The etching amount can be monitored and the etching speed can be automatically controlled based on the results, making it possible to continuously manufacture highly accurate etched products at low cost.

Furthermore, according to the apparatus of the present invention, the amount of etching of the etched product can be measured by temporarily stopping only the second conveying means without stopping the first m2 conveying means of the etching means, without interfering with the etching process. The amount of etching can be measured with extremely high precision.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the etching apparatus of the present invention. Figure 2 shows the inner lead of the etched product. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the drive control system. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a lead bin within the light irradiation range. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of etching amount measurement using a gloss meter. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of etching amount measurement using the transmitted light amount measurement method. Explanation of symbols 1...Lead frame feeding section, 2...Etching tank, 3...Peeling tank, 4...Washing tank, 5...Lead frame winding part, 6...Reel, 7... Roller 8... Conveyance roller 9... Rubber roller 10... Gear, 11... Rotating shaft, 12... Spray nozzle, 13... Specular gloss meter, 13a... Emitter, 13b... Light receiver, 14... Metal thin plate (lead frame), 15... Variable speed motor for conveyance drive, 16... Chain, 1st... Conveyance roller 18... Rubber roller 19... variable speed motor for conveyance drive, 20... reflected light amount measuring device, 21... drive motor control unit (built-in microcomputer), 22...
...Phototube, 23...Drainer, 24...Light source, 25...Light receiving section, 26...Lead bin, 27...Light irradiation range FIG, 2 Inner sword pier 1! (m rn )0 1

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Etching means, a first conveyance means within the etching means, and a second conveyance means after etching, and a thin metal plate coated with a photoresist film, exposed and developed in a desired pattern shape, to a predetermined location. An apparatus for manufacturing an etched product that is etched into a pattern, wherein an automatic measuring means for measuring the amount of etching of the thin metal plate is provided immediately after the etching means, and the conveyance by the two conveying means is based on the measured value by the automatic measuring means. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing etched products, characterized by having automatic speed control means. (2) The etching device according to claim 1, wherein the automatic control means measures the etching amount of the etched product after etching is completed by temporarily stopping only the second conveying means without stopping the first conveying means of the etching means. Continuous manufacturing equipment for products.