TWI575117B - Electroplating equipment - Google Patents

Description

Plating equipment

This invention relates to an electroplating apparatus, and more particularly to an electroplating apparatus that provides independent cathode current for each object to be plated.

In the manufacturing process of the printed circuit board, it is necessary to form a conductive path between the substrates via an electroplating process, and then perform subsequent surface treatment to form the printed circuit board. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional plating apparatus 80 for a printed circuit board is designed to have plating materials B connected to the anode of the power supply 81 on both sides of the plating tank 82, and to be connected to the cathode of the power supply 81. The object A is placed between the plating materials B on both sides of the plating tank 82 to keep the object A in a fixed state; then, by controlling the current output state of the power supply 81, the metal ions from the plating material B can be made. Deposited on the object A to be plated.

The basic arrangement of the power supply 81 for the fixed plating apparatus 80 is to fix all the objects A to be fixed to the same conductive copper strip 83 of the connected cathode, and to fix all the plating materials B in the same branch and connect to The conductive copper busbar 84 of the same anode is controlled by the power supply 81 to perform an electroplating process.

Another continuous mobile plating apparatus 90, as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, is similar in design to the above-described fixed plating apparatus, with the difference that the continuous moving plating apparatus 90 is capable of opposing the object A in the plating tank 92. The plating material B is continuously moved. The moving member 93 for holding the object A can be slid along the conductive copper strip 94 by the sliding portion 931, and the moving member 93 is electrically connected to the cathode of the power supply 91, so that the object A and the conductive copper tube 94 are both With cathode electricity. The plurality of plating materials B are divided into different regions, and each region is electrically connected to a different anode of the power supply 91.

The power supply 91 for the continuous mobile plating apparatus 90 is arranged such that all of the objects A are connected to the same cathode by the conductive copper strips 94 and continuously moved in one direction in the plating tank 92. All of the plating materials B are fixed but connected to different anodes, and then the power supply 91 controls the current output power to perform the plating process.

Regardless of any of the foregoing control methods, all of the objects to be plated share the same cathode, so that when the conductivity of the object to be plated is different, different objects to be plated will collide with each other and cause uneven electric power between the objects to be plated. Affects the uniformity of the thickness of the coating on the object to be plated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the present invention is to provide an electroplating apparatus for providing a separate cathode current for each of the electroplated materials to solve the disadvantage that the electroplating apparatus of the conventional common cathode current is susceptible to uneven plating thickness of the object to be plated.

To achieve the above objectives, the electroplating apparatus includes a main power supply, a plurality of movable pylons, and a first anode conductive member. The plurality of moving pylons are used for driving the plurality of objects to be continuously moved. Each of the moving pylons includes a pylon and a shunt power supply combined with the pylon. The pylon includes a contact portion and a clamping portion for holding the object to be plated. And the shunt power supply is electrically connected to the main power supply; wherein the shunt power supply is connected to the clamping portion by a cathode, and the contact portion is connected by an anode. The first anode conductive member is electrically connected to the plurality of plating materials, wherein each of the moving rack groups is electrically connected to the first anode conductive member by the contact portion and moves along the first anode conductive member. The plurality of substrates are distributed to the same cathode current by the respective split power supplies of the plurality of moving rack groups, and the plurality of plating materials share the anodes of the respective split power supplies by the first anode conductive members.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes at least one second anode conductive member, wherein the at least one second anode conductive member is configured to provide a plurality of plating materials, and each plating material is electrically connected by at least one second anode conductive member. An anode conductive member.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shunt power supply includes a wireless control module for receiving wireless control signals to control the power output.

In an embodiment of the invention, the electroplating apparatus further includes a conductive component, and the main power supply is electrically connected to each of the shunt power supplies by the conductive components for transmitting the DC power to the shunt power supplies via the conductive components.

In an embodiment of the invention, each of the shunt power supplies further includes a sliding portion that is slidably coupled to the conductive component.

In an embodiment of the invention, the contact portion is at least one slide assembly.

In an embodiment of the invention, the output voltage of the main power supply is greater than the output voltage of each of the shunt power supplies.

By this design, each object to be plated can be individually controlled by a separate shunt power supply, so that each object to be plated has the same cathode current, and the coating uniformity of the object to be plated is improved.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent and understood.

Please refer to Figure 4 below. As shown in FIG. 4, the electroplating apparatus 1 includes a main power supply 10 and a plurality of mobile pylon groups 20. The main power supply 10 is used to convert the AC power into a DC power source and output the DC power to the plurality of mobile rack groups 20 for subsequent applications. The plurality of moving pylon groups 20 are sequentially arranged and can be driven by a driving device (for example, a motor or the like, not shown) to continuously move in a set direction L.

Each of the mobile rack sets 20 includes a pylon 21 and a shunt power supply 22, and the shunt power supply 22 is coupled to the pylon 21. The main power supply 10 is electrically connected to the shunt power supply 22 of each mobile rack set 20 to obtain a smaller output current by each shunt power supply 22. In an embodiment of the present invention, the main power supply 10 is capable of converting a high-voltage AC power source into a lower-voltage DC power source, and then distributing the output to each of the shunt power supplies 22 so that each of the shunt power supplies 22 A smaller output DC power supply is obtained, but the DC power supply design described above is not limited to this embodiment.

It should be noted that the number of the mobile rack groups 20 increases or decreases depending on the plating requirements and the size of the equipment; and when the number of the mobile rack groups 20 is large, the main power supply can be increased depending on the situation in the setting of the plating apparatus 1. The number of the devices 10 is such that the output power is distributed to the shunt power supply 22 of the plurality of mobile pylon groups 20.

In the present embodiment, the shunt power supply 22 includes a wireless control module 221. The wireless control module 221 is configured to receive a wireless control signal from the outside and control the power output of the wireless control signal according to the wireless control signal. Here, the wireless control module 221 can adopt a Bluetooth module, an infrared module, a Wi-Fi module, a 3G/4G network communication module, or other wireless control module with wireless signal transmission function. Therefore, the user can remotely control the power output of the shunt power supply 22 of each mobile pylon group 20 by remote control, mobile phone, computer, etc., to achieve the effect of immediate control and increase the convenience of operation.

Please refer to Figure 5 and Figure 6 below. As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the electroplating apparatus 1 further includes a first anode conductive member 30, and the first anode conductive member 30 is electrically connected to the plurality of electroplating materials B. The hanger 21 of each of the moving pylons 20 includes a contact portion 211 and a clamping portion 212. The contact portion 211 is used to maintain electrical connection with the first anode conductive member 30 and to enable the hanger 21 to move along the first anode conductive member 30. In this embodiment, the first anode conductive member 30 is an anode copper row, and the contact portion 211 is formed by at least one sliding component, such as a roller set, and is slidably coupled to the anode copper row by the sliding assembly. The contact portion 211 can not only be stably and smoothly moved along the first anode conductive member 30, but also ensure the electrical connection between the contact portion 211 and the first anode conductive member 30, but the contact portion 211 is not designed. This is limited.

The clamping portion 212 is configured to clamp the object to be plated A, so that when the moving hanger group 20 moves, the object to be plated A can be moved together. In the present embodiment, the clamping portion 212 is used to clamp or loosen the object A by manual or electric means using at least one clamp, such as a metal clip or the like.

The shunt power supply 22 of each mobile rack set 20 includes a cathode 222 and an anode 223. The cathode 222 of the shunt power supply 22 is electrically connected to the clamping portion 212, and the anode 223 of the shunt power supply 22 is connected to the contact portion 211. Thereby, the cathode 222 of the shunt power supply 22 can output the cathode current to the object A held by the clamping portion 212, so that the object A is charged with a cathode; and the anode 223 of the shunt power supply 22 is The contact portion 211 is electrically connected to the first anode conductive member 30 such that the plating material B carries an anode charge.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the electroplating apparatus 1 further includes at least one second anode conductive member 40 for use as an electrical connection medium between the first anode conductive member 30 and the plurality of plating materials B. That is, at least one second anode conductive member 40 can be used to provide a plurality of plating materials B, and each plating material B can also be electrically connected to the first anode conductive member 30 by at least one second anode conductive member 40. Here, at least one of the second anode conductive members 40 is provided with two anode copper rows respectively disposed on both sides of the plating tank 50, and each anode copper row is provided with a plurality of plating materials B. It should be noted that the number and type of the at least one second anode conductive member 40 are not limited thereto.

Thereby, the cathode 222 of each of the shunt power supplies 22 can independently output the cathode current to the object A to be clamped by the clamping portion 212, that is, each object A is corresponding to an independent shunt power source. The anode 22 of each of the shunt power supplies 22 is electrically connected to the first anode conductive member 30 via the contact portion 211 to form an effect of connecting the anodes 223 in parallel, so that the anode 223 forms a common anode circuit.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, in the present embodiment, the plating apparatus 1 further includes a conductive member 60. The conductive component 60 is a conductive medium between the main power supply 10 and the shunt power supply 22 of each mobile pylon group 20, so that each mobile pylon group 20 can still move relative to the main power supply 10 It is electrically connected to the main power supply 10. The main power supply 10 is electrically connected to each of the shunt power supplies 22 via the conductive component 60 for transmitting the DC power output from the main power supply 10 to the shunt power supply 22 via the conductive component 60.

In the design, the conductive component 60 includes two conductive copper bars respectively connected to the anode DC terminal and the cathode RTN terminal of the main power supply 10; and each of the shunt power supplies 22 further includes a sliding portion 224, and the sliding portion 224 can be a collar The hooks or other electrically conductive sliding structures are respectively slidably connected to the two conductive copper strips, so that the moving rack groups 20 can still be electrically connected to the main power supply 10 during the movement, but The invention is not limited to this.

When the electroplating process is actually performed, the electroplating apparatus 1 drives the plurality of moving pylon groups 20 to continuously move along the first anode conductive member 30 toward the set direction L; at this time, each of the plurality of substrates to be sandwiched by each of the moving pylon groups 20 A will be driven and continuously moved between the plurality of plating materials B on both sides of the plating bath 50. Of course, each of the shunt power supplies 22 is also driven by each of the mobile rack groups 20 to continuously move. By the power output of each of the shunt power supplies 22, each of the plating materials B becomes an anode, and each of the objects A is a cathode.

Since each of the mobile rack groups 20 has separate shunt power supplies 22, each of the objects A can be individually controlled by the corresponding shunt power supply 22 so that it can be distributed to the same and stable cathode current. Because the electroplated materials A may have a difference in electrical conductivity, the electrolessness is uneven; and the plurality of electroplating materials B share the anodes of the shunt power supplies 22 by the first anode conductive members 30 to form the same anode loop.

Thereby, since the cathode currents to which the respective objects A are distributed are the same, the uniformity of the plating film thickness can be maintained when the plating is performed, and the disadvantages of the conventional plating apparatus are greatly improved. The user can also monitor the status of the electroplating equipment in real time by means of a remote control device to ensure the yield and effect of the electroplating process.

In summary, the present invention, regardless of its purpose, means, and efficacy, exhibits characteristics that are different from conventional techniques. It should be noted that the various embodiments described above are merely illustrative for ease of explanation, and the scope of the invention is intended to be limited by the scope of the claims.

1‧‧‧Electroplating equipment
10‧‧‧Main power supply
20‧‧‧Mobile rack group
21‧‧‧ hanging rack
211‧‧‧Contacts
212‧‧‧ gripping department
22‧‧‧Split power supply
221‧‧‧Wireless Control Module
222‧‧‧ cathode
223‧‧‧Anode
224‧‧ ‧Sliding section
30‧‧‧First anode conductive parts
40‧‧‧Second anode conductive parts
50‧‧‧ plating bath
60‧‧‧ Conductive components
A‧‧‧ plating
B‧‧‧Electroplating materials
L‧‧‧Set direction
(known technology)
80‧‧‧Fixed plating equipment
81‧‧‧Power supply
82‧‧‧ plating bath
83‧‧‧ Conductive copper bars
84‧‧‧ Conductive copper bars
90‧‧‧Continuous mobile plating equipment
91‧‧‧Power supply
92‧‧‧ plating bath
93‧‧‧Mobile parts
931‧‧‧Sliding section
94‧‧‧ Conductive copper bars
A‧‧‧ plating
B‧‧‧Electroplating materials
L‧‧‧Set direction

1 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional stationary plating apparatus. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional continuous plating apparatus. Figure 3 is a top plan view of a conventional continuous plating apparatus. 4 is a schematic diagram of the composition of a main power supply and a plurality of mobile pylons of an electroplating apparatus. Figure 5 is a side cross-sectional view of an electroplating apparatus. Figure 6 is a plan view of an electroplating apparatus.

1‧‧‧Electroplating equipment

10‧‧‧Main power supply

20‧‧‧Mobile rack group

21‧‧‧ hanging rack

211‧‧‧Contacts

212‧‧‧ gripping department

22‧‧‧Split power supply

222‧‧‧ cathode

223‧‧‧Anode

30‧‧‧First anode conductive parts

40‧‧‧Second anode conductive parts

50‧‧‧ plating bath

60‧‧‧ Conductive components

A‧‧‧ plating

B‧‧‧Electroplating materials

Claims (6)

An electroplating apparatus for plating a plurality of objects to be plated with a plating material, the electroplating apparatus comprising: a main power supply unit; and a plurality of moving rack groups for driving the plurality of objects to be continuously moved, each of the moving rack groups The utility model comprises a pylon and a shunt power supply connected to the pylon, the pylon includes a contact portion and a clamping portion for clamping the object to be plated, and the shunt power supply is electrically connected to the main power source a supply device; wherein the shunt power supply is connected to the clamping portion by a cathode, and the shunt power supply is connected to the contact portion by an anode; and a first anode conductive member electrically connecting the plurality of electroplating materials; The movable pylon group is electrically connected to the first anode conductive member and moved along the first anode conductive member; wherein the plurality of substrates are filtered by the plurality of mobile pylon groups The supply is distributed to the same cathode current, and the plurality of plating materials share the anode of each of the shunt power supplies by the first anode conductive member; and a conductive component, the main power supply is guided by the lead Assembly electrically connected to each of the shunt power supply to the DC power supply transmission to each of the power supply through the shunt conductive elements. The electroplating apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one second anode conducting member, wherein the at least one second anode conducting member is configured to dispose the plurality of electroplating materials, and each of the plating materials is electrically conductive by the at least one second anode The piece is electrically connected to the first anode conductive member. The electroplating apparatus of claim 1, wherein the shunt power supply comprises a wireless control module for receiving a wireless control signal to control the power output. The plating apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the shunt power supplies further comprises a sliding portion that is slidably coupled to the conductive component. The electroplating apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contact portion is at least one sliding component. The electroplating apparatus of claim 1, wherein an output voltage of the main power supply is greater than an output voltage of each of the shunt power supplies.