JPH1069094A - Aligner for printed wiring board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an aligner for a printing wiring board capable of unnecessitating such the operation of setting/replacing a belt-like spacer in accordance with the board thickness and the size of a printed wiring board for every printed wiring board to be aligned, and also improving an air vent performance and image resolution. SOLUTION: This aligner comprises an aligning stage 9 consisting of an annular sealing member 5 provided with sealing function and transparent acrylic plate, etc., provided with an evacuating hole 8, a printing frame 3 provided with a function of pressurizing the printed wiring board 4 from above so as to bring the board 4 into close contact with a mask film 6, and a base 10 for storing an ultraviolet lamp 11 inside. A plurality of through-holes 2 are arranged in the printing frame 3 and a resin sheet 7 comprising high polymer resin is arranged under the through-holes 2, and the air of a prescribed pressure is sent to the through-holes 2 of the printing frame 3 and the resin sheet 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board, and more particularly to an exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board which performs exposure by bringing a mask film and a printed wiring board into close contact with each other.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional exposure apparatus for printed wiring boards has been used in an exposure step which is a manufacturing step of a printed wiring board.
A cross-sectional view of the example is shown in FIG. 4, and a plan view of the exposure stage of the exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board is shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, in this conventional example, an annular sealing material 5 made of rubber or the like and having a vacuum stopping function is provided around the surface, and is connected to a vacuum pump to perform evacuation. An exposure stage 9 made of a transparent plate of acrylic or the like having a vacuum suction hole 8, a strip spacer 14 having substantially the same thickness as the printed wiring board 4, and a mask
The exposure unit is constituted by a baking frame 3 made of an acrylic plate or the like having a function of applying pressure from above to bring it into close contact with the film 6 (the functional relationship is not shown). The exposure stage 9 is mounted on an upper portion of a base 10 in which an ultraviolet lamp 11 is housed.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, exposure of the printed wiring board 4 is performed as follows. More specifically, the mask film 6 is fixed at a predetermined position on the exposure stage 9 and the printed wiring board 4 is placed thereon.
A band-shaped spacer 14 having substantially the same thickness as that of is set. Thereafter, the grill 3 is lowered and the vacuum suction holes 8 of the exposure stage 9 are removed.
The vacuum evacuation is further performed to bring the printed wiring board 4 and the mask film 6 into close contact. Then, exposure is performed by irradiating ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet lamp 11 inside the base 10 after the adhesion. After the exposure, the vacuum is released and the printed wiring board 4 is taken out.

In the conventional exposure apparatus as described above,
When the mask film 6 and the printed wiring board 4 at the time of exposure are pressed against the surface of the exposure stage 9 and are brought into close contact with each other, it is necessary to set a strip spacer 9 having the same thickness as the printed wiring board 4. If the strip spacer 14 is not used, a distortion occurs in the printing frame 3 and a gap is formed between the surface of the printed wiring board 4 and the mask film 6, thereby deteriorating the resolution of the printed wiring. There is.

[0005] In order to cope with this problem, as an example of an alternative to the conventional use of the above-mentioned spacer, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
As disclosed in JP-A-307552, there is known a method in which a grille frame 3 is provided with a gas-permeable elastic sheet having irregularities so that it can follow a slight change in plate thickness. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional example of a burning frame disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-307552. As shown in FIG. 6, an exposure stage 9 made of a transparent plate made of acrylic or the like has an annular sealing material 5 made of rubber or the like on the surface periphery and a vacuum suction hole 8 connected to a vacuum pump for vacuuming. Is provided. And then,
On the upper side, a traverser 15 for bringing the printed wiring board 4 into close contact with the mask film 6 and a suction plate 16 for vacuum-sucking the printed wiring board 4 are provided, and the suction surface of the suction plate 16 has irregularities. Elastic rubber seed 17 having suction surface 18
Is installed. The exposure stage 9 is mounted on a base 10 in which an ultraviolet lamp 11 is housed. Further, on the exposure stage 9, a strip spacer 14 having substantially the same thickness as the printed wiring board 4 is provided. Is provided. On the other hand, the traverser 15 is connected via a connection duct 19 to a vacuum pump (not shown). The suction plate 16 has a large number of suction holes 2.
0 are provided, and these suction holes 20 communicate with the connection duct 19. However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Also in the method according to the conventional example disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-52, it is necessary to prepare various types of spacers according to the size of the printed wiring board to be exposed, and each time the size of the printed wiring board 4 is changed, And remove
There is a problem in that it is necessary to set the corresponding spacer, which requires extra steps. Also,
In the exposure apparatus, since the spacers are set so as to surround the periphery of the printed wiring board 4, the spacers themselves hinder air bleeding, resulting in poor adhesion and an inability to increase the resolution of the printed wiring. There is.

[0006]

The above-described conventional printed wiring board exposure apparatus cannot cope with various sizes of printed wiring boards, and a spacer is required for each size of the printed wiring board. There is a drawback that it is necessary to prepare and replace and set.In addition, the range of plate thickness is also narrow, and it is necessary to prepare and replace spacers for each plate thickness. Disadvantage.

An object of the present invention is to set and replace a spacer other than a printed wiring board exposed by pressurizing air by arranging through holes in a burning frame and connecting an exhaust pump and a resin sheet by an air pipe. By adjusting the air pressure fed into the resin sheet, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the thickness of the printed wiring board and the board, and in addition, the resin sheet is circularly separated. As a result, the air bleeding property is improved, thereby eliminating the necessity of setting and replacing the belt-shaped spacer according to the size and thickness of the conventional printed wiring board,
An object of the present invention is to provide an exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board which can improve the resolution of a printed wiring.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board, comprising: an annular sealing material having elasticity; and a transparent plate having a vacuum suction hole inside the annular sealing material. An exposure stage on which a printed wiring board to be exposed is arranged via a mask film, and a plurality of through holes are arranged and provided.A flexible resinous sheet is mounted on the lower surface, and an upper surface is mounted on the upper surface. A plurality of pressurizing air pipes are connected to correspond to the respective through holes, a baking frame disposed on the upper surface of the printed wiring board, and a UV lamp for exposure are housed therein, and the exposure stage is provided on the upper part. And a base on which the device is mounted.

[0009] In the baking frame, the upper surface of the printed wiring board is formed through the through holes by a pressurizing action of air sent from a pressurizing air pipe connected to the plurality of through holes. Over the corresponding area of the flexible resin sheet except for the area to be formed, expand the resin sheet to form a convex resin sheet,
It has a function of preventing the occurrence of distortion at the time of exposure.

The plurality of through-holes provided in the grilling frame may be formed by through-holes of an arbitrary shape having the same size, or circular through-holes of the same diameter. May be formed.

Further, the plurality of through-holes provided in the grilling frame may be formed by through-holes of an arbitrary shape whose size decreases gradually from the periphery of the grilling frame toward the inside. Alternatively, the grilling frame may be formed by a circular through hole whose diameter gradually decreases from the periphery toward the inside.

[0012]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a burning frame included in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, this embodiment is a transparent plate made of acrylic or the like having an annular sealing material 5 made of rubber or the like having a vacuum stopping function and a vacuum suction hole 8 connected to a vacuum pump for performing vacuum evacuation. An exposure stage 9 comprising: a printing frame 3 having a function of pressing the printed wiring board 4 from above to bring the printed wiring board 4 into close contact with the mask film 6 (the functional relationship is not shown); and an ultraviolet lamp 11 housed therein The base 10 is provided. Also,
As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of (in the embodiment of FIG. 2, 108) through holes 2 are provided in the grilling frame 3, and a polymer polymer is provided below these through holes 2. A resin sheet 7 made of resin is provided. In addition,
The arrangement position of the printed wiring board 4 corresponding to the printing frame 3 is indicated as the position 4a of the printed wiring board, corresponding to the plan view of the printing frame of FIG. Air pipes 1 are provided above the through holes 2 of the grilling frame 3 so as to correspond to the respective through holes 2.
It is connected to the. A gauge 13 with a pressure setting is provided in the middle of the air pipe 1 so that air at a specified pressure is fed into the through hole 2 of the grill 3 and the resin sheet 7.

The resin sheet 7 is formed of a high-molecular polymer resin. The resin sheet 7 expands when air is sent by an exhaust pump 12 and has a local circular convex resin sheet corresponding to each through hole 2. (Protrusion) 7a is formed. In this case, the height due to the expansion of the circular convex resin sheet can be adjusted to an arbitrary height by adjusting the air pressure fed into the air pipe 1 by the pressure setting gauge 13. Further, as is apparent with reference to the plan view of the grilling frame 3 in FIG. 2, the through-hole 2 of the grilling frame 3 forms a locally circular convex resinous sheet as described above. Due to the size of the printed wiring board 4 to be exposed, the portion of the resinous sheet 7 in contact with the printed wiring board 4 is suppressed by the printed wiring board 4 and the resinous sheet 7 cannot expand. Thus, the circular convex resin sheet is not formed, and the planar state is maintained as it is. In this state, the position on the resin sheet 7 that cannot be expanded at the position 4a of the printed wiring board corresponding to the through hole 2 is indicated by a black circle at the position 4a of the printed wiring board using the plan view of the grilling frame of FIG. Have been. Of course, in the resin sheet 7 corresponding to the through hole 2 other than the position 4a of the printed wiring board, a circular convex resin sheet is formed as described above. In order to prevent the portion of the resin sheet 7 in contact with the printed wiring board 4 from popping out when the vacuuming is performed, the printed wiring board 4 and the mask film 6 are pressurized by the burning frame 3, and thereafter, A mechanism for performing vacuum evacuation for close contact.

As described above, in accordance with the size of the printed wiring board 4 to be exposed, the portion of the resinous sheet 7 in contact with the printed wiring board 4 automatically has the circular convex resin. By maintaining the planar state as it is without forming a conductive sheet, it is possible to eliminate the need to set and replace band-shaped spacers depending on the size and thickness of the printed wiring board 4 and to improve the resolution of the printed wiring. Become.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a grill frame included in the present embodiment. The configuration of the present embodiment and the mechanism of the burning frame are as follows.
This is the same as the case of the first embodiment shown in FIG. The difference of the present embodiment from the first embodiment is that, in the first embodiment, the diameter of the through hole 3 provided in the grilling frame 3 is a fixed value. In the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the grilling frame 3 is provided with a through hole (large) 2a, a through hole (medium) 2b, and a through hole (small) 2c having different diameters, respectively. The through hole of
A through hole (large) 2 a having a large diameter of the through hole is arranged at a position near the periphery of the grilling frame 3, and the through hole (middle) 2 b and the through hole ( Small) 2c are sequentially arranged. By arranging the through holes in this way, a circular convex resin sheet is formed at a position close to the outer periphery of the grill 3 by the resin sheet expanding more greatly through the through holes. Thus, a stronger force is applied to the peripheral portion of the grill 3 and there is an advantage that the effect of preventing the distortion of the grill 3 is further improved.

Next, in the exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board according to the first embodiment, the thickness of the printed wiring board 4, the air pressure in the polymer resin at the time of exposure, and the circular shape formed through the baking frame 3. The experimental results on the height of the convex resin sheet and the resolution at the time of exposure are shown in Table 1 below. Further, as a comparative example with respect to the first embodiment, printing was performed using a conventional exposure apparatus for printed wiring boards. Thickness of wiring board 4,
Table 2 below shows the experimental results on the thickness of the spacer and the resolution at the time of exposure. Table 1 shows the results of exposing by sending air into the resinous sheet 7 of the grill 3.
This is a result obtained by changing the air pressure in the resin sheet 7 and changing the thickness of the printed wiring board 4 to various values and conducting experiments. The numerical values of the resolution shown in Tables 1 and 2 represent the degree of the resolution of 100 μm or less, “○” indicates that the resolution is excellent, and “△” indicates that the resolution is slightly poor. Indicates that the
“X” indicates that the resolution is inferior.

Therefore, as shown in Table 1, in the first embodiment, it is understood that a printed wiring board having a thickness of 0.1 to 2.0 mm can obtain excellent resolution. Further, as shown in Table 2, in the conventional example as a comparative example with respect to the present embodiment, both the printed wiring board having a small thickness and the printed wiring board having a large thickness cannot obtain sufficient resolution. I understand. As is apparent from this, in the conventional exposure apparatus for printed wiring boards, it is necessary to change the thickness of the spacer every time the thickness of the printed wiring board changes,
Extra man-hours are required.

[0019]

[Table 1]

[0020]

[Table 2]

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the through-holes are arranged in the grilling frame, and the exhaust pump and the resinous sheet are provided in the polymer resin sheet provided in the grilling frame by the air pipe. By connecting, the air is sent to expand and pressurized to form a circular convex resinous sheet, and further, by appropriately adjusting the air pressure in the resinous sheet, the circular convex By adjusting the height of the resinous sheet, it is possible to respond to variations in various printed wiring boards and board thicknesses.In addition, by separating the resinous sheet in a circular shape, it is possible to improve air bleeding and print Depending on the size and thickness of the wiring board, it is possible to reduce the man-hours by eliminating the need for setting and replacing the strip spacers, which is conventionally required, and to improve the resolution of printed wiring. There is an effect that kill.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a burning frame included in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a burning frame included in a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a conventional exposure stage.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing another conventional example.

[Description of Signs] 1 Air piping 2 Through hole 2a Through hole (large) 2b Through hole (middle) 2c Through hole (small) 3 Burning frame 4 Printed wiring board 4a Printed wiring board position 5 Annular sealing material 6 Mask film 7 Resin sheet 7a Resin sheet (convex) 8 Vacuum suction hole 9 Exposure stage 10 Base 11 Ultraviolet lamp 12 Exhaust pump 13 Gauge with pressure setting 14 Strip spacer 15 Traverser 16 Suction plate 17 Elastic rubber sheet 18 Suction surface 19 Connection duct 20 suction holes

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printed wiring board to be exposed is formed by an elastic annular sealing material and a transparent plate having a vacuum suction hole inside the annular sealing material, and a predetermined mask film is provided on an upper surface thereof. An exposure stage, and a plurality of through-holes arranged in a row, a flexible resin sheet is mounted on the lower surface, and a plurality of pressurizing air pipes corresponding to the respective through-holes on the upper surface. Are connected, a baking frame disposed on the upper surface of the printed wiring board, a UV lamp for exposure is housed inside, and a base on which the exposure stage is mounted on the upper part, is provided. Characteristic exposure equipment for printed wiring boards. 2. In the baking frame, the pressurizing action of air sent from a pressurizing air pipe connected to the plurality of through-holes corresponds to the upper surface of the printed wiring board via the through-holes. Over the corresponding area of the flexible resin sheet excluding the region, forming a convex resin sheet by expanding the resin sheet, and having a function of preventing the occurrence of distortion of the burning frame at the time of exposure. The exposure apparatus for printed wiring boards according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of through holes provided in the baking frame are formed by through holes of an arbitrary shape having the same size. . 4. The printed wiring board exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of through holes provided in the baking frame are formed by circular through holes having the same diameter. 5. A plurality of through-holes provided in the grilling frame are formed by through-holes of an arbitrary shape whose size sequentially decreases from the periphery of the grilling frame toward the inside. Item 3. An exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board according to Item 2. 6. A plurality of through-holes provided in the grilling frame are formed by circular through-holes whose diameters gradually decrease from the periphery of the grilling frame toward the inside. The exposure apparatus for a printed wiring board according to the above.