KR100972689B1 - Apparatus and method of forming conductive track on substrate at room temperature using particles - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for forming a conductive line on a substrate are provided to prevent thermal damage to a substrate by spraying conductive metal powder on the substrate through a spray nozzle. CONSTITUTION: A vacuum pump(20) maintains pressure inside a chamber(10) between 10kPa and 30kPa. A substrate supporting unit(30) and a spray nozzle(40) are arranged inside the chamber. The spray nozzle sprays the powder on the substrate. The powder is tin, copper, gold, silver, platinum or a mixture thereof. A gas inlet is arranged outside a chamber. A pipe transfers the gas inserted through the gas inlet to the spray nozzle. A powder supplying unit supplies powder to the pipe.

Description

Apparatus and method for forming a conductor on a substrate at room temperature using a powder {APPARATUS AND METHOD OF FORMING CONDUCTIVE TRACK ON SUBSTRATE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE USING PARTICLES}

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for laminating a predetermined powder on a substrate, and more particularly, to a soldering material containing, for example, tin (Sn) as a main component or conductive metal powder such as copper, gold, silver and platinum at room temperature. The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for forming a conductor on a substrate at room temperature using powder capable of soldering or forming a conductor by spraying a high pressure carrier gas onto a substrate through a nozzle.

Due to the increasing interest in environmental pollution, development and research on environmentally friendly materials are actively underway. Conventionally, lead has been used in electronic devices, telecommunications fields, and circuits for low melting points and easy handling and excellent conductivity.

However, this lead is a heavy metal belonging to a serious environmental problem.

Therefore, tin (Sn) or a mixture of tin and other metals such as gold, silver, and copper as a substitute for lead for wiring has recently been studied as an alternative to lead.

However, tin and tin mixtures are less susceptible to environmental problems than lead, but have the disadvantage of high melting points. Therefore, these tin or tin mixtures are often required to be handled at high temperatures to form lead wires. Generally, materials used for substrates are often weak to heat such as PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and PMMA (PolymethylMethacrylate).

Therefore, when conducting wires are formed on the substrate at a high temperature, the substrate, which is susceptible to heat, may be damaged.

The present invention has been devised to overcome the above problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a high-pressure transfer gas to a conductive material powder such as copper, gold, silver, platinum, or the like for soldering materials containing tin as a main component at room temperature. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for forming a conductor on a substrate at room temperature using powder which can be used to form a conductor by spraying and laminating the substrate through an injection nozzle.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wire forming apparatus on a substrate at room temperature using powder, the wire forming apparatus comprising: a chamber; A vacuum pump connected to the chamber to create a vacuum environment inside the chamber; A substrate support formed in the chamber and supporting the substrate; An injection nozzle formed in the chamber and configured to spray predetermined powder on the substrate; A gas injection unit formed outside the chamber and injecting a predetermined gas; A pipe connected to each of the gas injection unit and the injection nozzle to move the gas injected from the gas injection unit to the injection nozzle; And a powder supply part connected to the pipe and supplying powder to the pipe through which the gas moves, wherein the powder has a size of 0.01 to 20 μm and the injection speed by the injection nozzle may be 200 to 1500 m / sec. have.

The injection nozzle includes a first opening connected to the pipe, a second opening for injecting powder onto the substrate, and a nozzle neck formed between the first opening and the second opening, and the nozzle at the first opening. The aperture is gradually reduced to the neck, the aperture is gradually increased or maintained from the nozzle neck to the second opening, and the size of the second opening may be 1 mm or less.

The apparatus for forming a wire on a substrate at room temperature using the powder may further include a heating unit for heating the powder to 300 ° C. between the injection nozzle and the powder supply unit.

The injection nozzle may be configured to be tilted relative to the substrate surface.

The substrate support may be formed to be movable in the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis.

The apparatus for forming a wire on a substrate at room temperature using the powder may further include a mask providing unit that provides a mask having a specific pattern between the substrate and the nozzle.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a lead on a substrate at room temperature using powder, the method comprising: a first step of supplying powder; A second step of transporting the supplied powder to the injection nozzle by discontinuously injecting a transport gas at room temperature; And a third step of forming the conductive wire by spraying the transported powder onto a substrate using the injection nozzle at room temperature and atmospheric pressure or in a vacuum state, wherein the powder has a size of 0.01 to 20 μm, The width is 1 mm or less, and the third step may be performed at an injection speed of 200 to 1500 m / sec.

The powder is a powder of a metal selected from the group comprising tin, copper, gold, silver, platinum, and mixtures thereof and the substrate may be a polymer substrate, a glass substrate, or a paper substrate comprising PCB, PET, PMMA.

The third step may be performed in a vacuum state.

The third step may include moving the substrate to form a pattern on the substrate.

The method of forming a conductive wire on a substrate at room temperature using the powder may further include providing a mask between the substrate and the spray nozzle to form a pattern on the substrate.

The third step may include the step of spraying the powder to connect the electric element and the wire or the step of spraying the powder to the disconnected wire.

As described above, the apparatus and method for forming a wire on a substrate at room temperature using the powder according to the present invention transfer the conductive material powder such as copper, gold, silver, platinum and the like at a high pressure to a soldering material containing tin as the main component at room temperature. Conducting wires can be formed by using a gas and spraying and stacking the substrate through an injection nozzle. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the thermal damage of the substrate that can occur when forming the conductive wire on the substrate that has been pointed out as a problem with the conventional wire forming apparatus or method.

Hereinafter, the same reference numerals will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, with reference to the same components preferred embodiments of the present invention. The terms and words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed as limited to ordinary or dictionary meanings and should be construed in accordance with the technical meanings and concepts of the present invention.

The embodiments described in the specification and the configuration shown in the drawings are preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various equivalents and modifications that can be substituted for them at the time of the present application are There may be.

1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a powder laminating apparatus using a discontinuous transfer gas supply according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the powder stacking apparatus 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a chamber 10, a vacuum pump 20, a substrate support 30, an injection nozzle 40, and a gas injection unit 50. , Piping 60, and powder supply unit 70.

The chamber 10 accommodates the substrate support 30 and the injection nozzle 40, and the chamber 10 is connected to a vacuum pump 20 for vacuuming the inside of the chamber 10.

The substrate support part 30 is formed inside the chamber 10 to support a predetermined substrate S, and is configured to be movable on the X and Y axes by the predetermined driving device 31. In this way, since the substrate S fixed to the substrate support 30 is also movable, powder may be laminated on the substrate S in a predetermined pattern.

As the substrate S, a metal, a ceramic, or a polymer material may be used.

The spray nozzle 40 is formed in the chamber 10 to spray powder onto the substrate S to stack the powder on the substrate S. The injection nozzle 40 may include a first opening 41, a second opening 42, and a nozzle neck 43.

The first opening 41 is connected to the pipe 60 and serves to receive powder from the pipe 60. The second opening 42 serves to spray the powder received through the first opening 41 onto the substrate S, and the nozzle neck 43 is disposed between the first opening 41 and the second opening 42. It is formed in the interconnection between the first opening 41 and the second opening 42.

The nozzle neck 43 may be formed to have a diameter or width of, for example, 10 μm to 3 mm. Since the aperture is gradually reduced from the first opening 41 to the nozzle neck 43 and the aperture is gradually increasing from the nozzle neck 43 to the second opening 42, the powder sprayed through the injection nozzle 40 is, for example. It may be able to be injected at an injection speed of 200 to 2000m / sec.

In addition, the first opening 41 may be larger than the second opening 42.

In addition, the width of the conductive line formed on the substrate S may be adjusted by adjusting the size of the second opening 42. For example, the conduction wire of 1 mm or less can be formed on the board | substrate S by making the size of the 2nd opening part 42 into width of 1 mm or less.

In FIG. 1, the spray nozzle 40 is formed perpendicular to the surface of the substrate S. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the spray nozzle 40 may be tilted at a predetermined angle with respect to the surface of the substrate S. It may be formed and thus the powder to be sprayed may be sprayed so that it can be tilted with respect to the substrate (S) surface.

In addition, the present invention is not limited thereto, but may be disposed so that the injection nozzle 40 is perpendicular to the horizontal plane and the substrate S may be tilted at a predetermined angle.

The gas injection unit 50 is formed outside the chamber 10 to inject a gas to transport the powder. By properly adjusting the gas pressure injected from the gas injection unit 50 and using the injection nozzle 40, it is possible to appropriately control the injection speed of the powder injected through the injection nozzle 40.

As the gas injected from the gas inlet 50, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, air, or the like may be used, but not limited thereto.

The pipe 60 is connected to the gas injection unit 50 and the injection nozzle 40 so that the gas supplied from the gas injection unit 50 can move to the injection nozzle 40.

The powder supply unit 70 is connected to the pipe 60 to supply the powder to the pipe (60). The powder supplied may comprise a metal or a ceramic, the size of which may be in the range of 0.1 to 10 μm, for example.

In FIG. 1, only one powder supply unit 70 is provided. However, the present invention is not limited thereto and may include a plurality of powder supply units.

In this case, the pipe 60 may also be composed of a plurality of pipes to connect each of the plurality of powder supply unit and may also include a pipe in which the plurality of pipes are integrated, and such integrated pipes may be connected to the injection nozzle 40. Can be.

The powder laminating apparatus for discontinuous delivery gas supply according to the present invention may further include a filter 80, wherein the filter 80 is disposed between the chamber 10 and the vacuum pump 20 to perform lamination. It can also play a role in collecting.

On the other hand, it may further include a heating unit (not shown) between the injection nozzle 40 and the powder supply unit 70 may be heated to, for example, room temperature to 300 ℃ conveyed through it.

In this way, by additionally configuring the heating unit, when the powder is heated in the range of the predetermined temperature, the spraying speed of the powder can be set slightly slower, for example, the spraying speed range is set to 300 to 1200 m / sec. That is, the heated powder can move at a higher speed than the unheated powder, so that when the powder is heated to a predetermined temperature range, the desired speed can be obtained when the powder finally collides with the substrate even if the spraying speed range is set slightly slower. do.

In addition, when the powder is heated to a predetermined temperature range, when the powder collides with the substrate, the particle is smoothly deformed to improve the lamination efficiency on the substrate.

In addition, the pipe 60 may further include a filter unit (not shown) between the injection nozzle 40 and the powder supply unit 70. The filter unit may filter the powder having a predetermined size or more by floating the conveyed powder in a gas.

Further, a mask providing unit (not shown) may be further provided between the substrate S and the spray nozzle 40 to provide a mask having a specific pattern for an etching process.

In addition, in the embodiment with reference to FIG. 1, only one injection nozzle 40 is provided, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and a plurality of injection nozzles may be provided. In this case, a separate control valve 90 may be provided for each of the plurality of injection nozzles, and thus, powder may be laminated in a predetermined pattern on the substrate S by controlling the plurality of control valves, respectively.

In the conducting wire forming apparatus on a substrate at room temperature using the powder according to the embodiment of the present invention, the powder may be continuously or discontinuously supplied from the powder supply unit 70.

In the case of discontinuous supply, for example, a control valve (not shown) may be further included between the powder supply part 70 and the gas injection part 50, and the injection from the injection nozzle 40 is controlled by controlling the on / off of the control valve. You can speed up even more.

The size of the powder in discontinuous feeding may be in the range of, for example, 0.01 to 20 μm, and the time to the full opening of the control valve for the control of the conveying gas when the powder is sprayed onto the substrate S may be, for example, 2 seconds or less, The supply time of the gas may be, for example, 10 seconds or less from the opening of the control valve to the closing, and the pressure of the conveying gas may be, for example, 2 to 30 bar.

Hereinafter, a method of forming a conductive wire on a substrate at room temperature using powder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the conductive wire forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1. However, the method of forming a conductive wire on a substrate at room temperature using the powder according to the present invention is not limited to that performed by the conductive wire forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 and may be performed by other devices.

First, a predetermined powder is supplied. Here, as the kind of powder, a metal such as tin, tin mixture, copper, gold, silver, platinum, or a mixture thereof can be used. Powder may be supplied through the pipe 60 from the powder supply unit 70 shown in FIG.

The step of supplying the predetermined powder may include supplying a plurality of powders each including, for example, supplying a first powder and supplying a second powder. In this case, the method may include transporting the first powder in the first path, transporting the second powder in the second path, and mixing the first powder and the second powder.

In this case, the first powder and the second powder may use different materials from each other, and the amount supplied may be variously changed.

Next, the gas is injected through the pipe 60 through the gas injection unit 50 at room temperature to transport the supplied powder to the injection nozzle 40.

The gas pressure of the injected gas may be appropriately adjusted in view of the injection speed of the powder injected through the injection nozzle 40.

On the other hand, the powder may be heated to a range of, for example, from room temperature to 300 ° C. during the conveyance of the powder. In this case, the injection speed of the powder injected through the injection nozzle may be set to be somewhat slow, specifically, for example, in the range of 300 to 1200 m / sec. have.

In addition, the powder may be suspended in the gas during the transport of the powder to filter the powder of a predetermined size or more.

Next, the powder is sprayed onto the substrate S using the spray nozzle 40.

The substrate may be made of a polymer substrate such as PCB, PET, PMMA, glass substrate or paper.

This process may be performed in the chamber 10 in a vacuum state using the vacuum pump 20.

And by spraying powder in the state which arrange | positioned the mask on the board | substrate S before spraying powder, it can laminate | stack by the conducting wire which has a predetermined pattern. In this way, the conductive wire can be formed on the substrate without thermal damage to the substrate as in conventional soldering.

If the conveying powder as described above includes conveying each of the plurality of powders, such as conveying the first powder and conveying the second powder, the substrate using the spray nozzle 40 Injecting the powder on (S) may be implemented by injecting the mixed first powder and the second powder using one injection nozzle, wherein the amount of the first powder and the second powder supplied By changing the amounts of the first powder and the second powder sprayed by changing, the ratios of the first powder and the second powder applied on the substrate S may be changed differently or continuously.

Experimental Example

Hereinafter, the experimental results of the formation of the lead on the substrate at room temperature using the powder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 4C.

Here, as a substrate (S), PCB (Printed Circuit Board), PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate), PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate), glass, and paper substrates are prepared, and as a powder for lamination, the size of several tens of nanometers to several micrometers The tin (Sn) powder manufactured by the company was used.

Compressed air or helium gas was used as a conveying gas, and a slit type nozzle of 10 mm width x 0.4 mm gap size was used as the injection nozzle.

In addition, the distance between the substrate and the injection nozzle 40 was 2 mm, the gas pressure was 700 kPa for compressed air, 500 kPa for helium, the pressure in the chamber was 10-30 kPa, and the lamination repetition time was less than 10 seconds.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an image taken with an optical microscope of a wire formed on a substrate through a wire-forming device on a substrate at room temperature using powder according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2A to 2E are used. Figures show the case where the substrate is PCB, PET, PMMA, glass, and paper. In the case of PET substrate, 20mm long wires were laminated, and other wires were 10mm long.

As can be seen in Figure 2 it was confirmed that the clear tin lead is formed on the substrate.

3 is a view showing a surface roughness (Surface Profile) of the conductive wire formed on the substrate through the substrate-form wire forming apparatus at room temperature according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figures 3a to 3e is used Figures show the case where the substrate is a PCB, PET, PMMA, glass, and paper. Here, the surface roughness of each substrate was measured with a Dektak 6M surface roughness gauge manufactured by Beco Instruments Inc. and a diamond stylus having a 0.2 μm radius.

As can be seen in FIG. 3, the maximum height of the laminated powder lead wire was about 92 μm when laminated on a paper substrate, and the minimum height was about 1 μm when laminated on a glass substrate.

In addition, it was confirmed that the width of the formed tin line is smaller than the width of the spray nozzle except that formed on the PCB substrate.

Table 1 below is a table showing the width and height of the stacked tin line according to the type of substrate, and Table 2 is a table showing the results of measuring the conductivity of the tin line by a multimeter by the type of the substrate.

From the above results, the formation of the tin lead by the lead forming apparatus on the substrate at room temperature using the powder according to the present invention is very close to the theoretical value (calculated value) except that the lead is formed on the glass substrate. It has been shown to be available as a way of forming.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a tin lead formed on a substrate by an apparatus for forming a substrate on a substrate at room temperature using powder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A illustrates a case in which the substrate is a PCB, and FIG. 4C shows the case where the substrate is paper, respectively.

4, the boundary between the laminated tin powder and the substrate was clearly confirmed, and it was confirmed that no deformation or defect of the substrate such as thermal deformation due to the use of conventional solder or the like was found.

The technical spirit of the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but this is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, it is a matter of course that various modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention by anyone having ordinary skill in the art.

1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a powder lamination apparatus using a discontinuous transfer gas supply according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view showing an image taken with an optical microscope of a wire formed on a substrate through a wire-forming device on a substrate at room temperature using powder according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2A to 2E are used. A diagram showing the case where the substrates are PCB, PET, PMMA, glass, and paper, respectively;

3 is a view showing a surface roughness (Surface Profile) of the conductive wire formed on the substrate through the substrate-form wire forming apparatus at room temperature according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figures 3a to 3e is used A diagram showing the case where the substrates are PCB, PET, PMMA, glass, and paper, respectively; And

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a tin lead formed on a substrate by an apparatus for forming a substrate on a substrate at room temperature using powder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A illustrates a case in which the substrate is a PCB, and FIG. Fig. 4C shows the case where the substrate is paper, respectively.

Claims (13)

chamber; A vacuum pump connected to the chamber to create a pressure inside the chamber in a low vacuum environment of 10 kPa to 30 kPa; A substrate support formed in the chamber and supporting the substrate; An injection nozzle formed in the chamber and configured to spray predetermined powder on the substrate; A gas injection unit formed outside the chamber and injecting a predetermined gas; A pipe connected to each of the gas injection unit and the injection nozzle to move the gas injected from the gas injection unit to the injection nozzle; And A powder supply part connected to the pipe and supplying powder to a pipe through which the gas moves, wherein the powder has a size of 0.01 to 20 μm, and the injection speed by the injection nozzle is 200 to 1500 m / sec. The powder is a powder of a metal selected from the group comprising tin, copper, gold, silver, platinum, and mixtures thereof and the substrate is a polymer substrate, a glass substrate, or a paper substrate comprising PCB, PET, PMMA, The injection nozzle includes a first opening connected to the pipe, a second opening for injecting powder onto the substrate, and a nozzle neck formed between the first opening and the second opening, and the nozzle at the first opening. The aperture is gradually reduced to the neck, and the aperture is gradually increased or maintained from the nozzle neck to the second opening, and the diameter or width of the second opening is 1 mm or less. . delete The method of claim 1, And a heating unit for heating the powder to 300 ° C between the spray nozzle and the powder supply unit. The method of claim 1, And the spray nozzle is configured to be tilted relative to the substrate surface. The method of claim 1, The substrate support is powder laminating apparatus, characterized in that formed to be movable in the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis. The method of claim 1, And a mask providing part for providing a mask having a specific pattern between the substrate and the nozzle. A first step of feeding powder; A second step of transporting the supplied powder to the injection nozzle by discontinuously injecting a transport gas at room temperature; And And a third step of forming the conductive wire by spraying the transported powder on a substrate using the spray nozzle at room temperature and in a vacuum state. The powder size is 0.01 to 20 ㎛, the width of the laminated wire is less than 1mm, the third step is carried out at an injection speed of 200 to 1500m / sec and the pressure in the chamber under 10kPa to 30kPa, the injection nozzle Includes a first opening connected to the pipe, a second opening for injecting powder to the substrate, and a nozzle neck formed between the first opening and the second opening, and the aperture from the first opening to the nozzle neck. This gradually decreases, the aperture from the nozzle neck to the second opening portion is gradually increased or maintained, the diameter or width of the second opening portion is 1mm or less, characterized in that the use of the powder on the substrate at room temperature . The method of claim 7, wherein The powder is a powder of a metal selected from the group comprising tin, copper, gold, silver, platinum, and mixtures thereof and the substrate is a polymer substrate, a glass substrate, or a paper substrate comprising PCB, PET, PMMA. A method of forming a conductive wire on a substrate at room temperature using a powder. delete The method of claim 8, The third step is a method of forming a wire on a substrate at room temperature using a powder, characterized in that for moving the substrate to form a pattern on the substrate. The method of claim 8, And providing a mask between the substrate and the jet nozzle so that a pattern is formed on the substrate. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the third step comprises spraying the powder to connect an electrical element with a wire. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the third step includes connecting the disconnected wiring by spraying the powder.

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