KR100329056B1 - RF communication unit and its inspection method - Google Patents

Abstract

The RF communication unit consists of a circuit board on which an RF processing circuit is assembled and a shield case for accommodating the circuit board. The circuit board has protrusions protruding outward of the shield case, and the protrusions are provided with attachment portions for attaching the antenna and electrodes used for inspection. During the inspection, the projections are sandwiched between both sides of the inspection apparatus to prevent bending of the circuit board.

Description

RF communication unit and its inspection method

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an RF (radiofrequency) communication unit mounted on a radio communication device such as a low power radio device and a radio telephone, and an inspection method of the RF communication unit.

7 is a perspective view showing a conventional RF communication unit. The RF communication unit 50 includes a circuit board 51 (not shown in FIG. 7) in which various circuits such as a modulation circuit are provided, and a shield case 52 covering the circuit board 51. The shield case 52 is composed of an upper shield cover 53a, a lower shield cover 53b, and a chassis 54, and the chassis 54 is a protrusion 54a for fixing the RF communication unit 50 on the motherboard. )

The circuit board 51 is provided with connector pins 56 for connecting to the antenna via the motherboard. The connector pin 56 is formed to protrude downward from the shield case 52. In addition, the circuit board 51 is provided with connector pins 55 for connecting the circuit assembled on the board and the circuit on the motherboard. This connector pin 55 is also formed to protrude downward from the shield case 52.

8 shows a method of fitting the RF communication unit 50 onto the motherboard. The motherboard 60 is provided with a socket 57 for accommodating the connector pins 56 and an antenna attachment portion 59 for mounting the antenna. The socket 57 is electrically connected to the antenna attachment portion 59 by a printed wiring pattern 58 having an impedance of 50 Ω. In addition, the connector pin 55 is connected to a connector (not shown) on the motherboard 60. The projection 54a of the chassis 54 is inserted into a hole formed in the motherboard 60 to fix the RF communication unit 50 on the motherboard 60. An inspection land 51a is formed in the vicinity of the connector pin 56 of the circuit board 51 so as to be directly accessible from the lower side of the RF communication unit 50.

In the RF communication unit 50 having the above-described configuration, a connection part such as a connector pin 56 for connecting to an antenna provided on the motherboard 60 is required. In addition, it is necessary to separately provide components such as the socket 57 and the wiring pattern 58 having an impedance of 50? On the motherboard 60. For this reason, the number of parts required for antenna connection is increased, which causes a cost increase. Moreover, the communication performance of the RF communication unit 50 affects how a wiring pattern such as a wiring pattern 58 having an impedance of 50 Ω is formed on the motherboard 60 and how the wiring patterns are connected to the antenna. Will receive. That is, poor performance of the motherboard 60 may degrade the communication performance of the RF communication unit 50 in some cases.

9 is an enlarged view of the periphery of the inspection land 51a of the RF communication unit 50. In FIG. 9, the lower shield cover 53b is shown by the dotted line. The circuit board 51 has a test electrode 61 used as a test point during a signal line test on the inspection land 51a near the connector pin 56. The test electrode 61 is composed of a GND (ground) land 62 and a signal line land 63, and one of the connector pins 56 is electrically connected to the signal line land 63.

10 shows a method of bringing the probe into contact with the test electrode 61 during the inspection of the RF communication unit 50. The inspection is performed by coaxial probe 65 with test pin 64. The coaxial probe 65 is pressed onto the circuit board 51 to hold the test pin 64 in contact with the test electrode 61. In this state, a high frequency signal can be obtained, and electrical performance can be measured. However, at this time, the circuit board 51 is bent by the pressure of the coaxial probe 65, so that a poor contact often occurs between the test pin 64 and the test electrode 61. For this reason, it was difficult to perform performance evaluation in a stable manner conventionally.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an RF communication unit which can be connected to an antenna using a minimum of components and which can accurately and easily carry out the inspection. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of inspecting the RF communication unit.

According to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an RF communication unit formed by accommodating a circuit board in a shield case has a circuit board having an antenna attachment portion, and a part of the circuit board including the antenna attachment portion is formed of the shield case. It is designed to protrude outward.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an electrode for use in an inspection is provided on a protrusion of a circuit board protruding outward of the shield case, and the inspection is performed while the protrusion is fitted in the inspection apparatus.

1 is a perspective view showing an RF communication unit embodying the present invention;

2 is a partial perspective view of a circuit board of the RF communication unit of the embodiment;

3 shows an assembly method of the RF communication unit of the embodiment;

4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the RF communication unit of the embodiment is mounted on the motherboard,

Fig. 5 is a partially enlarged view of a circuit board of the RF communication unit of the embodiment, with the coaxial connector inserted in the antenna attachment portion;

6 is a perspective view showing an inspection method of the RF communication unit of the embodiment;

7 is a perspective view showing a conventional RF communication unit,

8 is a view showing a method of mounting a conventional RF communication unit on the motherboard,

9 is an enlarged view of an inspection land periphery of a conventional RF communication unit, and

10 illustrates a method of contacting a probe with a test electrode during inspection of a conventional RF communication unit.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a perspective view showing an RF communication unit of one embodiment of the present invention. The RF communication unit 10 is composed of a circuit board 11 such as a printed circuit board and a shield case 12 made of a metal or a radio wave shielding material. In the circuit board 11, various circuits for performing processing related to transmission and reception, such as a modulation circuit for modulating a carrier wave in accordance with a signal to be transmitted and a demodulation circuit for demodulating a received carrier wave and extracting a desired signal, are assembled. have. Most of the circuit board 11 is covered with the shield case 12. The shield case 12 is composed of an upper shield cover 13a, a lower shield cover 13b, and a chassis 14. The chassis 14 has a plurality of protrusions 14a, which fit into attachment holes formed in the motherboard (not shown).

The circuit board 11 is provided with connector pins 15 for connecting circuits assembled on the board to circuits on the motherboard. The connector pin 15 is formed to protrude downward from the shield case 12. The circuit board 11 exchanges electrical signals with the motherboard through the connector pins 15.

2 is a partial perspective view of the circuit board 11 of the RF communication unit 10. The circuit board 11 has a projection 11a that projects laterally from the side of the shield case 12. The circuit board 11 has a substantially rectangular shape in which two adjacent corner portions are cut out, and the entire portion between the two cut corner portions forms a protrusion 11a. Therefore, the width of the protrusion 11a is approximately equal to the width of the circuit board 11. Therefore, the protrusion 11a includes most of one edge of the circuit board 11, so that only a small portion of the side edge protrudes from the shield case, and the mechanical strength is sufficiently large and difficult to be damaged.

The protruding portion 11a is formed with a through hole that serves as an antenna attachment portion 16 for attaching an antenna or a connector for connecting a coaxial cable connected to the antenna. The through hole is connected to a circuit whose inner surface is plated and assembled on the circuit board 11. One antenna attachment portion 16 is provided near each end of the projection 11a, so that the antenna or coaxial cable connection connector can be attached to an appropriate one of the two positions according to the actual needs.

Since the antenna attachment portion 16 is provided on the protrusion 11a, the antenna or coaxial cable connector is attached without causing any interference with the shield case 12 after the circuit board 11 is accommodated in the shield case 12. can do. In addition, since the antenna or coaxial cable connector can be directly attached to the antenna attachment portion 16, the connection to the antenna can be made with a minimum number of parts, thereby achieving cost reduction.

In the vicinity of the base of the protrusion 11a of the circuit board 11, rectangular holes 17 which are used to fix the shield case 12 are formed. Further, a test electrode 18 is provided on the bottom surface of the protrusion 11a of the circuit board 11 to connect the circuit board 11 to the electrode of the probe at the time of inspection. The test electrode 18 is composed of electrodes 18a and 18b, and the electrode 18a is electrically connected to the antenna attachment portion 16. Since the test electrode 18 is formed in the protrusion 11a of the circuit board 11, the inspection of the RF communication unit 10 can be easily performed.

3 shows a method of assembling the RF communication unit 10. The circuit board 11 is mounted to the chassis 14 as the projection 14b formed in the chassis 14 is inserted into the rectangular hole 17 formed in the circuit board 11. The upper shield cover 13a has a claw 13c, and the hook 13c is fitted into the rectangular hole 17 into which the protrusion 14b is inserted in advance. In addition, when the upper shield cover 13a is mounted to the chassis 14, the side of the upper shield cover 13a presses the side of the chassis 14 so that the two are fixed to each other.

4 is a perspective view of the RF communication unit 10 mounted on the motherboard. The RF communication unit 10 is mounted on the motherboard 19 by the projections 14a of the chassis 14 inserted into the holes formed in the motherboard 19 and joined together. The antenna 20 is mounted directly to one of the antenna attachments 16 of the RF communication unit 10. Since the antenna 20 is mounted directly on the RF communication unit 10, wiring is unnecessary on the motherboard 19 so that the connection to the antenna is made, so that the number of necessary parts is reduced by that much. In addition, since the communication performance is not affected by the performance of the antenna wiring on the motherboard, it is possible to realize a communication device that provides stable communication performance.

5 is a partially enlarged view of the circuit board 11 with the coaxial connector mounted on the antenna attachment portion 16. As shown, the antenna connection portion 16 may be equipped with components for connection to an antenna such as a coaxial connector 27. In this case, since the antenna attachment portion 16 is separated from the chassis 14, the coaxial cable connected to the coaxial connector 27 can be freely moved without disturbing the chassis 14.

6 is a perspective view illustrating a test method of the RF communication unit 10. On the lower surface of the protrusion 11a of the circuit board 11 of the RF communication unit 10, as described above, the test electrode 18a and the antenna attachment portion 16 electrically connected to the antenna attachment portion 16. ) Is a test electrode 18b which is not electrically connected to the. The inspection is performed using the inspection apparatus 21 having the performance measuring member 22 and the pressing member 23, and the protrusion 11a of the circuit board 11 is sandwiched between the two members from above and below. The performance measuring member 22 has electrodes 22a and 22b and the electrode 22a is connected to the measuring probe 24.

First, the lower surface of the protrusion 11a is brought into contact with the performance measuring member 22 with the test electrode 18a facing the electrode 22a and the test electrode 18b facing the electrode 22b, respectively. . Next, the protruding portion 11a is pressed onto the performance measuring member 22 from the top by the pressing member 23. In that state, the communication characteristic of the RF communication unit 10 is checked. Since the circuit board 11 is fitted to the test | inspection apparatus 21, it does not bend. Therefore, there is no risk of damaging the circuit board 11 at the time of inspection. In addition, the electrodes 22a and 22b of the inspection apparatus 21 can be reliably connected to the electrodes 18a and 18b of the RF communication unit 10, so that the inspection of the RF communication unit 10 can be executed accurately.

As described above, the RF communication unit according to the present invention is designed such that the circuit board has a protrusion protruding from the shield case, and the antenna attachment portion and the test electrode are provided at the protrusion. As a result, the connection to the antenna is made of only a minimum of parts, so that the loss of communication performance can be minimized, and the inspection can be performed easily and accurately. In addition, manufacturing costs can be reduced and inspection efficiency can be improved. In the above embodiment, an example in which the through hole is formed as the antenna attachment portion is disclosed, but any other configuration may be used as long as the antenna or coaxial cable connector can be securely mounted.

In the above description, it is apparent that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention. Accordingly, the invention can be practiced otherwise than as described in the detailed description, within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (6)

The circuit board 11 is formed to be accommodated in the shield case 12, and the circuit board has an antenna attachment portion 16, and the protrusion 11a of the circuit board including the antenna attachment portion extends to the outside of the shield case. In the protruding RF communication unit, The shield case has a chassis 14 for supporting a circuit board and an upper shield cover 13a for covering an upper portion of the chassis, and the circuit board has a through hole in the vicinity of a base of the protrusion which protrudes outward of the shield case. 17), The chassis has a projection 14b inserted into the through hole, The upper shield cover has a hook 13c inserted into the through hole, And the circuit board is fixed to the shield case by inserting the protrusion into the through hole and then engaging the hook into the through hole. The RF communication unit according to claim 1, wherein a test electrode (18) used for circuit inspection on a part of the circuit board in the shield case is provided on a part of the circuit board protruding out of the shield case. The inspection is carried out with the part of the circuit board projecting out of the shield case inserted into an inspection apparatus having two planes facing each other and an electrode provided on one of the two planes so as to be in contact with the test electrode. The inspection method of the RF communication unit of Claim 2. An RF communication unit comprising a circuit board 11 having circuitry for generating an RF signal to be transmitted or processing a received RF signal, and a shield case 12 for receiving the circuit board. And the circuit board has a protrusion (11a) protruding from the shield case, and a test electrode (18) for use in inspecting the circuit in the shield case is provided on the surface of the protrusion. The signal is extracted from the test electrode with the projections fitted from above and below an inspection apparatus having two planes facing each other and an electrode provided on one of the two planes so as to be in contact with the test electrode. Inspection method of the described RF communication unit. A first member 22 having a flat surface, the surface of which is provided with electrodes 22a and 22b for contacting the test electrode and for extracting a signal; and An inspection apparatus for an RF communication unit according to claim 4, comprising a second member (23) having a flat surface for pressing the projection onto the surface of the first member.