JPH1197125A - Columnar connector and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To ensure sure electric connection with a large current capacity without connection with an electronic parts substrate by spacedly arranging a plurality of loop-shaped metal narrow wires on an insulative rubber sheet disposed on the outer circumferential surface of a columnar cushion material composed of insulative elastomer. SOLUTION: As a core a hollow or solid columnar cushion material 2 is used which is obtained preferably by foaming an insulative elastomer resin such as silicone rubber. On the outer circumferential surface of the material 2, an insulative rubber sheet 3 is provided through a silicone adhesive layer 4. As the sheet 3, for example, that formed by coating a film of such as polyester with silicone or the like by a topping method, with the thickness of the film being 50-200 μm or so is preferably used. On the outer circumferential surface of the sheet 3, a plurality of narrow metal wires 5 whose diameter is about 3-500 μm formed of cupper alloy or the like plated with gold or the like are spacedly arranged in a loop shape while they cross each other at right angles in the axial direction of the cushion material 2. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a columnar connector capable of sure electric contact with low compression.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector used for connecting circuits between electronic component substrates and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a connector used for connecting circuits between electronic component substrates, a laminated connector a called a so-called S-type connector shown in FIG. The laminated connector a is configured by alternately laminating plate-shaped conductive silicone rubbers b and insulating silicone rubbers c, and is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape.

[0005] In addition, a thin metal wire connector d shown in FIG. 5B is also used. This metal thin wire type connector d
In the insulating silicone rubber c formed in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, thin metal wires e are arranged in parallel in the thickness direction, that is, the connection direction (press-contact direction), at equal pitches.

[0004]

The conventional laminated connector has a high conductive resistance because the conductive silicone rubber is formed by mixing and dispersing a conductive filler such as carbon black in the silicone rubber to form a conductor. It is not suitable for connection requiring a large current capacity. The connection is performed by pressing the connector between the electrodes of the electronic component substrate. When the silicone rubber member forming the connector is pressed against the electronic component substrate for a long time, the silicone rubber member and the electronic component substrate are pressed. Are adhered, which hinders the maintenance of substrates and electronic components.

[0005] A thin metal wire type connector as shown in FIG. 5 (b) is connected by bending a thin metal wire by pressure welding.
It must be compressed with a large force, which causes bending of the electronic component substrate, peeling of the circuit pattern, and destruction of the electronic component. Further, similarly to the multilayer connector, the silicone rubber member may adhere to the electronic component substrate. Furthermore, in the conventional metal thin wire type connector, the electronic component substrate is a glass substrate,
In the case of transparent ITO electrodes or connection electrodes printed on film, these connection electrodes are cut off at the cut surface of the thin metal wire of the connector due to repeated connection or vibration, and there is a high risk of causing a connection failure, and reliability is high. Is low.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has a large current capacity, does not adhere to an electronic component substrate, and further causes warpage or deformation of the electronic component substrate. Another object of the present invention is to provide a connector capable of obtaining a reliable electrical connection with low compression and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0007]

The cylindrical connector according to the present invention comprises a hollow or solid cylindrical cushion material made of an insulating elastomer as a core material, and an insulating rubber sheet provided on the outer peripheral surface of the core material. A plurality of loop-shaped thin metal wires carried on the outer peripheral surface of the conductive rubber sheet are arranged to be separated from each other and orthogonal to the axial direction of the core material.

In the method for manufacturing a cylindrical connector according to the present invention, thin metal wires are arranged at equal pitches on an unvulcanized insulative rubber sheet, and after adhesive vulcanization, the thin metal wires are cut at right angles to the arranged thin metal wires. Is formed, and the conductive sheet is placed on a lower mold having a molding surface having a semi-cylindrical shape, molded into a U-shape along a thin metal wire, and in the U-shaped recess, via an adhesive. Insert the cushion material molded into a hollow or solid cylindrical shape, cover the upper mold with a semi-cylindrical molding surface, and form a loop so that the thin metal wire covers the outer peripheral surface of the cushion material, and heat molding To integrate the conductive sheet and the cushion material into a cylindrical shape.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A cylindrical connector according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG.
(A) is a perspective view of the cylindrical connector of the present invention, (b)
Is a longitudinal sectional view thereof. In the cylindrical connector 1, an insulating rubber sheet 3 is adhered to a peripheral surface of a solid cylindrical cushioning material 2 made of an insulating elastomer via an adhesive layer 4 provided as necessary, and an insulating rubber. A plurality of loop-shaped thin metal wires 5 are arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the sheet 3 so as to be separated from each other, preferably at an equal pitch.

A cylindrical connector 1 shown in FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention, and (a) is a perspective view of the cylindrical connector.
(B) is a longitudinal sectional view thereof. The cylindrical connector 1 is provided on a peripheral surface of a cushion member 6 having a hollow cylindrical shape, that is, a cylindrical shape.
An insulating rubber sheet 3 is attached via an adhesive layer 4 as needed, and a plurality of loop-shaped thin metal wires 5 are preferably arranged at an equal pitch on the outer peripheral surface of the insulating rubber sheet 3. The arrangement pitch of the thin metal wires 5 does not necessarily have to be the same pitch over the whole in one connector, and may be appropriately adjusted to the arrangement of the connected terminals. For example, in FIG. Only half may be a pitch selected from 1/3 to 2 times the pitch of the left half.

Next, a method of manufacturing a connector according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, as shown in FIG. 3, thin metal wires 5 are arranged at appropriate intervals, preferably at equal pitches, on an insulating rubber sheet 3 obtained by applying silicone rubber on an insulating resin sheet such as a polyester film. After vulcanization, the polyester film is peeled off to obtain the wiring sheet 7. The wiring sheet 7 is cut at right angles to the arranged metal thin wires 5 by a cutter 8 in accordance with the circumferential length of the cylindrical connector to be manufactured, thereby obtaining a conductive sheet 9.

Next, as shown in FIG.
Is placed along a molding surface in a lower molding die 10 having a molding surface having a semi-cylindrical shape, with the metal fine wire 5 being on the outside and the metal fine wire 5 having a U-shape. Into the lower mold 10 to form a U-shape. Into this U-shaped concave portion, a molded cushion material 12 coated with a silicone adhesive on the outer peripheral surface is inserted.

Thereafter, an upper mold 13 having a similar semi-cylindrical molding surface is placed over a position facing the semi-cylindrical molding surface of the lower mold 10, and the thin metal wire 5 is placed on the outer peripheral surface of the cushion material 12. When the conductive sheet 9 is opened in a U-shape and formed into a cylindrical shape on the semi-cylindrical forming surface of the upper mold 13, the thin metal wire 5 is formed. Becomes a loop, and the conductive sheet 9 and the cushioning material 12
To obtain a columnar connector integrated with the adhesive.

The insulating rubber sheet used in the present invention comprises:
Polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, on a film such as a polyester film or polyimide film such as polyethylene nitrile, a rubber material selected from chloroprene rubber, silicone rubber, isoprene rubber, butyl rubber, fluorine rubber, urethane rubber, etc., for example, topping It is applied to a thickness of about 50 to 200 μm by the method, and the thickness variation is preferably ±
It is 5 μm or less. This is the thickness variation (Rmax)
Is more than 10 μm, the arrangement pitch of the thin metal wires tends to be disordered. In order to obtain such a rubber sheet, the rubber material kneaded with two or three calender rolls is preferably fractionated onto a non-stretchable (5% or less) carrier sheet such as PET. As the rubber material, silicone rubber excellent in environmental resistance characteristics, mechanical characteristics, and the like is preferable.

As the cushioning material, an insulating elastomer resin which is preferably foamed is used. Among them, silicone rubber is preferable in terms of environmental resistance and elasticity, and its foaming ratio is in the range of 1.2 to 1.8.

As the thin metal wire, a thin metal wire such as copper, phosphor bronze, iron, platinum, brass, beryllium copper, nickel, or a round wire obtained by plating gold, silver, rhodium, nickel or the like on these thin metal wires can be used. it can. However, if the diameter of the thin metal wire is too large, it is not possible to obtain a fine wire pitch, and when forming into a cylindrical shape, the bending elasticity of the thin metal wire is too strong, and it is difficult to form a circle along the mold, and Is too small, it is easy to break at the time of wiring, so the thickness of the thin metal wire is 3 to 500 μm which is easy to mold and easy to handle.
It is preferably in the range of 10 to 100 μm, more preferably 15 to 50 μm, and 1/5 to 4/5 of the thickness of the fine metal wire on the unvulcanized insulating rubber sheet layer, preferably 40 to 50 μm. It is preferable that the thickness is 60% buried.

Since the connector of the present invention having the above-described configuration has a cylindrical shape, it is not necessary to pay attention to the direction and position of the connector when connecting and connecting between electronic component substrates. Even if it is arranged, it can be connected. Further, the contact pressure can be appropriately selected by foaming the connector or forming the connector into a solid or hollow cylindrical shape.

[0018]

【Example】

Example 1 The surface of a polyester film having a thickness of 50 μm and a heat shrinkage of 0.5% was sandblasted to obtain a surface roughness Ra.
0.8 and a silicone rubber compound with a rubber hardness of 50 ° H on the surface treated with a surfactant.
100 parts by weight of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., 0.5 parts by weight of an additive vulcanizing agent C-19A (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., trade name)
After adding and mixing 2.5 parts by weight of C-19B (trade name, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) and 1.0 part by weight of silane coupling agent KBM-403 (trade name, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.), the kneaded product is calender rolled. And a silicone rubber sheet having a thickness of 0.1 mm was obtained.

This silicone rubber sheet was wound around a cylindrical rotating drum and fixed. A gold-plated thin wire obtained by plating a 40-μm-diameter brass fine wire with an Au-Co alloy to a thickness of 0.4 μm was arranged on this surface at a pitch of 0.1 mm. At 120 ° C for 15
After heating for 5 minutes, the polyester film was peeled off, and FIG.
Was obtained. This wiring sheet has a diameter of 5.5
The sheet was cut at right angles to the gold-plated thin wire with a cutter to a length corresponding to the circumference of mm to obtain a conductive sheet.

On the other hand, the silicone rubber compound KE-15
1U (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., trade name) 100 parts by weight, blowing agent
3.5 parts by weight, vulcanizing agent C-1 (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., trade name)
1 part by weight, 2 parts by weight of C-3 (manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) and 3 parts by weight of colorant color W (manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) were mixed and kneaded. Filling into a mold with a cavity of 300mm length, pressure 200kg / c
m ^{2 at} a temperature of 180 ° C for 5 minutes, and the expansion ratio is 1.5
A doubled foam cushion material was obtained.

The above conductive sheet is placed on a molding surface in a lower molding die having a semi-cylindrical shape (diameter 5.5 mm) with the thin metal wires being outside and the thin metal wires being U-shaped. It was placed along and pushed into the lower mold by a pushing die to form a U-shape. The above-mentioned foamed cushion material was evenly applied to the outer peripheral surface of the U-shaped concave portion, and the silicone adhesive KE-1935A / B (trade name, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) was evenly applied and inserted.

Thereafter, a similar semi-cylindrical molding surface (5.5 mm in diameter) is placed at a position facing the semi-cylindrical molding surface of the lower mold.
) Is covered with an upper mold and heated at 150 ° C. for 3 minutes to form a conductive sheet having a U-shaped upper side into a cylindrical shape by the upper mold. A cylindrical connector having a diameter of 5.5 mm and a length of 300 mm was obtained in which the conductive sheet and the foam cushion material were bonded and integrated. This cylindrical connector was cut into a length of 50 mm to obtain a cylindrical connector. Since the inside of this cylindrical connector is made of a foam cushion material, it is very soft and enables a reliable connection with a low load.

Example 2 Example 1 was repeated except that a hollow foamed cushion material having a cylindrical shape with an outer diameter of 5 mm, an inner diameter of 2 mm, and a thickness of 1.5 mm was used as the cushion material.
In the same manner as described above, a cylindrical connector having a diameter of 5.5 mm and a length of 50 mm was manufactured. The hollow foam cushion material is composed of 100 parts by weight of silicone rubber compound KE-941U (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., trade name) and 2 parts by weight of vulcanizing agent C-8 (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., trade name) After kneading, the mixture was molded using an extrusion die. Since this cylindrical connector uses a hollow foam cushion material, it is softer and more freely deformable, such as an elliptical shape, than a solid cylindrical foam cushion material.
A secure connection is guaranteed.

[0024]

According to the cylindrical connector of the present invention, the viscoelasticity of the cushion material and the conductive sheet deforms integrally with the electronic component substrate with a relatively small compressive force, so that even if the electronic component substrate is warped, a small contact pressure is obtained. The electrical connection can be reliably performed.
In addition, since electrical connection can be obtained only by contact between the thin metal wire and the electronic component substrate, there is no adhesion, and further, since electrical conduction is obtained by the thin metal wire, a large current capacity can be obtained. Further, the contact pressure can be appropriately selected by changing the hardness of the cushion material, making the cushion material foam, or making the cushion material hollow, so that the electrical connection between the electronic component substrates can be reliably performed. In addition, since the connector is formed in a cylindrical shape, it is not necessary to worry about the direction of conduction in assembling and installing at the time of connection, so that workability and work quality are improved. Furthermore, since the conductive sheet has a cylindrical shape, the cut surface of the loop-shaped thin metal wire does not touch the connection surface during connection with the electronic component substrate, so that the connection surface of the electronic component substrate is not damaged. According to the manufacturing method of the present invention, the conductive sheet can be formed into a circle without using a special mold and jig, and the cushion material formed into a predetermined shape is bonded and formed simultaneously with the formation of the conductive sheet. Therefore, the process can be simplified and shortened. By molding the cushion material first, the shape and dimensions of the connector are stabilized, the connector can be made as designed, and a high-quality, high-precision cylindrical connector can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 (a) and 1 (b) show a perspective view and a longitudinal sectional view, respectively, of a cylindrical connector of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a perspective view and a longitudinal sectional view, respectively, of a cylindrical connector according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing a conductive sheet forming step used in manufacturing the cylindrical connector of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view showing a step of integrating a cushion material and a conductive sheet in manufacturing the cylindrical connector of the present invention.

FIGS. 5A and 5B each show a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1.・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Cylindrical connector,・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Cushion material 、 ３． ... Insulating rubber sheet ..... adhesive layer, 5. ..... a thin metal wire; ... Hollow foam cushion material; ..... wiring sheet ..... cutter, 9. ... conductive sheet; ..... lower mold,・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Push type ... Cushion material, 13. .... Upper mold, a. ..... laminated connector, b. ... conductive silicone rubber, c. .... Insulating silicone rubber, d. .... Thin metal wire connector, e.・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Metal wire,

Claims (2)

[Claims] A hollow or solid cylindrical cushion material made of an insulating elastomer is used as a core material, and an insulating rubber sheet is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the core material. Wherein the loop-shaped thin metal wires are arranged so as to be separated from each other and perpendicular to the axial direction of the core material. 2. An electrically conductive sheet is formed by arranging fine metal wires at equal pitches on an unvulcanized insulative rubber sheet, bonding and vulcanizing, and then cutting the aligned metal fine wires at a right angle to form a conductive sheet. The molding surface is placed on a lower mold having a semi-cylindrical shape, and molded into a U-shape along a thin metal wire.
Insert the cushion material molded into a hollow or solid cylindrical shape through the adhesive, cover the upper mold with a semi-cylindrical shape on the molding surface, and form a loop so that the fine metal wires cover the outer peripheral surface of the cushion material. A method of manufacturing a cylindrical connector, wherein the conductive sheet and the cushion material are formed into a cylindrical shape by forming and heat molding.