JPH11191662A - Flexible printed board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a flexible printed board(FPC) which is given wider latitude for position adjustment of a part and possessed of an FPC arm which connects parts located apart from each other in the circuit of the FPC and does not require a large space for housing. SOLUTION: A printed board 100 is equipped with a mounting part 15, where a part 20 which requires a position adjustment to a prescribed equipment main body is mounted and an arm 50 which connects the main part 10 of the printed board 100 with the mounting part 15. In this case, when the printed board 100 is developed on a plane, the arm 50 forms the shape of a letter S (U, J, or C) or a shape similar to these letters, and when the part 20 is moved to a plane which comprises the arc-shaped part of the arm 50 and in a planar direction to which the arm 50 is extensible, the arc-shaped part is allowed to be deformed into a cone, and the arm 50 bulges slightly in the direction vertical to the plane. The part 20 is movable in the direction in which the arm 50 lacks in length, so that the arm 50 is not required to be previously more elongated in length than necessary, and on an average the arm 50 is set bulging less due to its slacks.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flexible printed circuit (FPC) used for circuits of small electric equipment and electronic devices, which is easy to adjust the position of attached components.
About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a printed circuit board has been used for many small electric appliances, and the components connected to the printed circuit board are connected by various wiring means. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, a conventional flexible printed circuit board (abbreviated as FPC) has an arm portion of an FPC extending to a component element 20 separated from a main board 10 of the FPC on which a CPU 1 and the like of the main body are mounted. By taking ample room for the length of 50 and stacking or folding in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, or by combining them in a loop, "distortion" and "slack" when adjusting the position of component elements Absorbed and implemented.

For example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 61-44639 discloses a printed circuit board which is incorporated in a camera, bends in a loop, and connects components such as a separate line sensor and a main IC in an adjustable manner. ing. 63-3
Japanese Patent No. 9216 discloses an FPC as a wiring connecting a zoom movable lens barrel side of a camera and a main body, is vertically folded back and forth via a guide roller or the like, is stored in the lens barrel side, and the wiring length is zoomed. A technique improved so as to follow the operation is also disclosed. Particularly, in a recent camera as a small electronic device that is convenient to carry around, when wires connecting various functional blocks are installed in places separated from each other as shown in FIG. There are component elements 30, 40, 60, etc. connected via 50 (51, 52,).

In actuality, there is a flexible printed circuit board for a camera on which an electronic circuit as shown in FIG. 7 is printed, and this board is illustrated in a state where it is developed on a plane. For example, C on the main board 10 fixed in the camera body
In the arms (51, 52,) for interconnection between the semiconductor chip such as PU1 and the terminal component element, whether a thin wiring pattern or a bundle of linear parallel lines is formed as shown in the figure. ,
Some are connected to the main board 10 side by a flat cable or the like via a predetermined connector terminal (not shown). Usually, such a flat cable-shaped arm portion is formed to be longer than necessary as described above, so that the extra length is absorbed by folding or folding along the longitudinal direction during assembly. You can see that it is adjusted.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior arts proposed so far, a large space is required to accommodate the wiring board corresponding to the arm for position adjustment. This has always been a factor in the necessity of designing the apparatus main body to be relatively large. Therefore, various attempts have been made in the past to avoid the problem regarding the spatial waste, but at present, no proposal has been made on the realization of an effective method relating to this.

In any of the conventional flexible printed circuit boards, attention is not paid to the spatial shape of the arm when mounted, and only the shape of the board when it is spread out on a plane and the ease of its manufacture are considered. At present, it is important as a design requirement. Therefore, the present invention provides a flexible printed circuit that does not require a large space for accommodating a plurality of separated circuit elements in a circuit of a printed circuit board and that has a large degree of freedom in position adjustment between the circuit elements. It is intended to provide a substrate.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has taken the following means in order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve this object. For example, [1] In the case of a flexible printed circuit board having a mounting portion of a printed circuit board for mounting a component requiring position adjustment with respect to a main body of a predetermined device and an arm portion connecting the main body of the printed circuit board, When the flexible printed circuit board is developed on a plane, the shape of the arm is U-shaped or J-shaped.
It is formed on a flexible printed circuit board having a letter, C, S or similar shape. [2] In the case of a flexible printed circuit board having a flexible printed circuit board mounting portion for mounting a component requiring position adjustment with respect to a predetermined device main body and an arm portion for connecting the flexible printed circuit board main body portion, The flexible printed circuit board is formed such that the shape of the arm portion when the flexible printed circuit board is developed on a plane has, for example, a meandering shape including one or more substantially circular arcs of 180 degrees or more. [3] By using the device as a camera and the component as an optical component element such as a focus detection device or a liquid crystal display device,
This flexible printed circuit board is applied.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of a flexible printed board according to the present invention and modifications thereof will be described in detail. (First Embodiment) As shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2, some structures of a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter abbreviated as FPC) as a first embodiment of the present invention. Suggest.

FIG. 1A shows a planar structure of an FPC 100 in which an electronic circuit mounted inside a device is formed in a single plane, and FIG. 1B shows a state viewed from the side. It is shown. The FPC 100 includes a main board 10 on the device main body side, a sub-board 15 on which the component elements 20 on the terminal side are mounted, and an arm 50 (11 to 14) formed by, for example, meandering, which integrally connects these boards. (Including FPC). Specifically, a main board end FPC11 formed on the main board 10,
The first substantially circular arc portion 12, the second substantially circular arc portion 13, and the sub-board end portion 14, which is the end of the arm portion 50 of the sub-board 15 in which the predetermined component element 20 is fixed on the sub-board 15, for example.
From the one.

That is, in the arm portion 50 of this embodiment, substantially arc portions having opposite phases and substantially the same curvature are continuously provided at two places. In other words, the first substantially circular arc portion 12 is displaced at most + 90 ° with respect to the direction (Z direction not shown) orthogonal to the X direction, while the second substantially circular arc portion 13 is displaced at most −90 ° “inverted S-shaped”. Are formed in a plan view. The meandering arm 50 is made of the same flexible thin film as that of the main board 10 and has a width substantially the same. (Effect 1) Therefore, when the component element 20 disposed at the tip of the arm 50 is installed at a desired position, the component element 20 is fixed to the device body only by moving or changing the direction of the component element. Free position adjustment can be performed on the main board 10 in the X direction and the Y direction two-dimensionally and continuously. In other words, when the component element 20 is moved when the component element 20 is installed inside the apparatus at the time of assembling, a force (compression force, tension, etc.) is applied to each part of the arm 50, so that the original inverted S-shape is formed. The developed plane developed shape is automatically deformed two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally. At this time, the arm 50 absorbs the force of the movement in the Y direction by the vertical movement of the surface of the FPC 100 perpendicular to the Y axis direction (that is, the surface along the Z direction), while moving in the X direction. For the X-direction, the first
The force is absorbed by deforming the substantially circular arc portion 12 and the second substantially circular arc portion 13 into, for example, a “conical shape” or a “mortar shape”.
Therefore, the amount of deflection in the Y direction is smaller than when the second substantially circular arc portion 13 has a linear shape as in the related art. Also, X
Even in the + direction, the first substantially circular arc portion 12 and the second substantially circular arc portion 13 are each deformed, so that the component element 20 or the sub board 15 can be easily moved. Further, since the arm 50 can be moved in a direction in which the length of the arm 50 is insufficient, it is less necessary to make the length of the arm 50 longer than necessary. Further, the swelling of the arm portion 50 is improved so that the swelling due to the slack is reduced on average.

As described above, instead of the arm 50, the component element 2
By simply bringing the sub-board 15 or the sub-board 15 to a desired installation location, each part of the arm 50 is automatically transformed into a predetermined two-dimensional or three-dimensional shape, and can be stored in a relatively small area or volume. It transforms automatically. Therefore, the arms 50 (11, 12,
It is not necessary to previously set the lengths 13 and 14) to be longer, and it is also possible to omit a manual operation such as overlapping the flat cable-shaped arms 50 as in the related art. Also, FPC1
The amount of slack of the arm 50 at 00 may be generally smaller than before. In this example, the component element 20
Is attached via the sub board 15, but the FP
The component element 20 is directly connected to the tip of the arm 50 without providing the sub board 15 on the C100, and the main board 1
It may be configured to communicate with 0 remotely.

FIG. 2 shows a plan configuration of a flexible printed circuit board in which the first embodiment is similarly applied to an electronic circuit of a camera. As shown, the FPC 100
The gist of the first embodiment of the present invention is adopted in precision electronic equipment which is required to be small and light, such as a camera, and has the above-mentioned shape characteristics so that it can be arranged in a limited space inside the camera body. ing. That is, in the FPC 100 of this example,
A group of component elements is arranged at two places apart from the main board 10, and one of the group of component elements is an optical component of a liquid crystal display device (for example, an LCD panel 30).
And an image select button 40: see FIG. 6). The arm 50 between the group of component elements and the main board 10 is composed of the main board end 11, the first substantially arc 12, the second substantially arc 13 and the end 14 connected to the LCD panel 30 of the FPC. , As shown in the figure.

As one component element group, there is provided an optical component element (for example, a photo interrupter and a photo reflector 60: see FIG. 6) of a focus detection device arranged on one patterned sub-board 15. Have been. Arm 5 between this component element group and main board 10
Numeral 0 is composed of one third substantially arc-shaped portion 16 and a sub-board end portion 14 of an FPC formed in a so-called "C-shape" as shown in the figure.

That is, the FPC 100 is formed into a planar development shape such that the FPC 100 is arranged at a predetermined position along the inside of the bottom surface, the inside of the top surface, the inside of both side surfaces, and the inside of the back surface of the main body of the electronic device such as the exemplified camera which requires small size and light weight. Is formed in advance, and the shape of the arm portion 50 provided between the sub-board 15 or the component element 20 corresponding to a position distant from the main board 10 is desirably such that the limited space inside the camera body can be used without waste. Is an appropriate shape that can be deformed to fit into the minimum volume, such as "L-shaped" or "U-shaped"
It is appropriately formed in a “J-shape”, “S-shape”, “C-shape”, or a combination thereof. Note that, in the electronic circuit of the camera illustrated in FIG. 2, the arm 50 protruding from the main board 10 is provided at two places for simplicity of description, but actually, some of the terminal component elements illustrated in FIG. In order to be arranged at a predetermined position on the body, they may be similarly connected via the respective arm portions.

(Function and Effect 1) As described above, in the first embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, not only a straight line or L-shape but also a U-shaped
By forming into a shape having a bend such as a J-shape, a C-shape, and an S-shape, a space saving suitable for a free three-dimensional deformation that is characteristically deformed by an external force of these planar development shapes. Optimum storage configuration

Further, even if the FPC originally has little so-called "slack" space, since the initial linear distance is extended by deformation, the position of the component fixed to the FPC can be adjusted to some extent freely. . Note that the configuration of the flexible printed circuit board as in this example is most suitable for precision electronic equipment that requires small size and light weight. In other words, the device can be freely arranged by efficiently utilizing the narrow internal space of the device main body, and can be easily mounted in the device, and the storage space can be saved. This can contribute to further reduction in size and weight.

(Modifications) The arrangement of the flexible printed circuit board illustrated in the first embodiment described above may be appropriately changed based on the gist of the present invention, as in a plurality of modifications described later. Modifications can be made. That is, FIG.
FIGS. 3A to 3D show shapes of the flexible printed circuit board according to a modification of the present invention, respectively.
(D ') shows each side view.

According to (a), the arm portion 50 has an "L-shape", and according to the FPC having this shape, it can be folded and stored as in the conventional case. In addition, the main board 10 is arranged so as to maintain the same plane in a positional relationship of 90 °, but is deformed three-dimensionally with a small volume following movement in the X direction, the Y direction, or the Z direction. As described above. According to (b), it can be seen that the arm 50 has a “substantially U-shape”. According to the FPC of this shape, 90
In addition to being directly applicable to an arrangement having a displacement of not less than 180 ° and not more than 180 °, the component element 20 can be accommodated by utilizing the fact that it is deformed into a substantially conical shape particularly at a bent portion following the positional movement of the component element 20.

According to (c), the arm 50 has a straight portion and a "C-shaped" bent portion. FP of this shape
C can easily follow a displacement of 90 ° to 360 °. In this case, the one bent portion indicated by the reference numeral 16 is also deformed into a substantially conical shape following the movement of the position of the component element 20, so that it can be stored even in a narrow space. Further, according to (d), it can be seen that the arm 50 has an “S-shape”. This shape is a meandering complicated shape having bent portions of opposite phases continuously at a plurality of locations, and it is 90 ° to 360 ° rather than being used as it is in a flat developed shape.
And it can follow the position movement of more angles. This can be applied to various position movements of the component element 20 as many as there are portions deformed conically, and as a result, the component element 20 can be arranged at an almost desired arbitrary position. At this time, the plurality of portions deformed into a conical shape can be spirally stacked when they are overlapped with each other. Since it can be stored in a space, it is easier to store it in a narrower space than in a conventional case where it is folded and stored.

In the example shown in FIGS. 3 (a ') to 3 (d'), the sub board 15
Is set, but is not necessarily limited to this positional relationship. It is more preferable that the position is set so that the part 14 is bent in an arbitrary direction. In addition, the width, length, dimensions such as curvature, and the dimensional ratio of each part of the arms of the flexible printed circuit board in this example may be arbitrarily designed based on the equipment to be mounted. It is desirable that the arm be designed to have a plane-deployed shape in consideration of the bent shape and the storage space thereof. However, since the flexible printed circuit board of the present invention has a planar development shape using a large number of curves as described above, the degree of freedom for deformation is large, so that the flexible printed circuit board is appropriately stored with a deformation degree corresponding to the shape and volume of the storage space. Is also good.

(Other Modifications) The present invention can be variously modified in addition to the above-described examples without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, a circuit of a predetermined pattern may be provided on the arm. In addition, of course, not only the shape and dimensions of each part relating to the illustrated flexible printed circuit board, but also the material and the like can be variously changed as necessary, and an appropriate combination with the conventional technology and other field technologies is also possible. is there.

As described above, the description has been given in accordance with the plural embodiments and the modified examples. However, the present invention includes the following invention. That is, (1) a part requiring position adjustment, a mounting part of a flexible printed circuit board to which the part is connected, and an arm part of the flexible printed circuit board extending forward from the mounting part; Has a meandering shape including one or more substantially circular arcs of 180 degrees or more.

(2) An arm for connecting a flexible printed circuit board mounting portion for mounting a component requiring position adjustment to the device main body and a body portion of the substrate not requiring position adjustment to the device main body. A flexible printed circuit board, wherein the arm portion has a shape capable of adjusting the position of the component. (3) The printed circuit board according to (1) or (2), wherein the arm has a U-shaped or S-shaped shape. (4) The printed circuit board according to (1) or (2), wherein the component is a light emitting element or a light emitting element of a focus detection unit. (5) The printed component according to (1) or (2), wherein the component is a liquid crystal display element.

(6) A first flexible board section, a second flexible board section, and a connecting section (arm section) of a flexible board that integrally connects the first flexible board section and the second flexible board section. ), Wherein the flexible substrate is capable of relatively displacing the first flexible substrate portion and the second flexible substrate portion in all directions when unfolded on one plane. A flexible substrate characterized in that the connecting portion (arm portion) is formed such that

According to such a flexible board, the first flexible board section (for example, the main board 1 in FIG. 1)
0), a second flexible board section (for example, the sub-board 15 in FIG. 1), the first flexible board section and the second flexible board section.
And a flexible board connecting portion (for example, the arm section 50 in FIG. 1) integrally connecting the flexible board sections, wherein the flexible board is expanded when it is unfolded on one plane. The connecting portion (arm portion) is formed so that the first flexible substrate portion and the second flexible substrate portion can be relatively displaced in all directions with respect to each other. When one of the first flexible substrate portion and the second flexible substrate portion is fixed and the other is given a relative displacement on the above-mentioned plane with respect to one of them, the position can be freely taken.

[0026]

As described above, according to the flexible printed circuit board of the present invention, the space between the plurality of separated circuit elements in the circuit of the printed circuit board can be accommodated in a smaller space than in the conventional case. It is possible to provide a flexible printed circuit board that can secure a large degree of freedom for adjustment between these circuit elements.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a flexible printed board as a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a plan view showing a plan shape of the board, and FIG. 1B is a side view showing a side shape of the board.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a flexible printed circuit board for a camera to which the gist of the first embodiment is applied.

3A and 3B show a modified example of the flexible printed circuit board of the present invention, wherein FIG. 3A is a plan view showing a planar shape of a first modified example, FIG.
(B) is a plan view showing a planar shape of the second modified example, (b ′)
) Is a side view showing this side shape, and (c) is
A plan view showing the planar shape of the third modified example, (c ′) is a side view showing the same side surface shape, (d) is a plan view showing the planar shape of the fourth modified example, and (d ′) is a plan view showing the planar shape of the fourth modified example. Similarly, the side view which shows this side shape.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a conventional flexible printed circuit board.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conventional flexible printed circuit board.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an electric circuit configuration of the camera.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a conventional flexible printed circuit board for a camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CPU (main chip), 10 ... Main board (main body side), 11 ... Main board end part, 12 ... 1st substantially circular arc part, 13 ... 2nd substantially circular arc part, 14 ... Sub board end part, 15 ... Sub Board (terminal component side), 16: third substantially circular arc portion, 20: component element (terminal element), 30: LCD panel (first component element), 40: image select switch (second component element), 50: arm Parts, 51, 52 ... connection site, 60 ... photo interrupter (third component element), 100 ... FPC (flexible printed circuit board).

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A flexible printed circuit board comprising: a mounting portion of a printed circuit board for mounting a component requiring position adjustment with respect to a main body of a predetermined device; and an arm portion connecting the main body portion of the printed circuit board. A flexible printed circuit board, wherein the shape of the arm portion when the printed circuit board is developed in a plane is formed into a U-shape, a J-shape, a C-shape, an S-shape, or a shape similar thereto. 2. A flexible printed circuit board comprising: a mounting section of a flexible printed circuit board for mounting a component requiring position adjustment with respect to a main body of a predetermined device; and an arm section connecting the main body section of the flexible printed circuit board. The flexible printed circuit board, wherein the shape of the arm portion when the flexible printed circuit board is developed in a plane is formed in a meandering shape including one or more substantially circular arcs of 180 degrees or more. 3. The flexible printed circuit board according to claim 1, wherein the device is a camera, and the component is an optical component such as a focus detection device or a liquid crystal display device.