BATTERY-INCLUDED PCB
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board (PCB) which includes a battery.
Background Art
In a Christmas card sounding a melody, a battery is included inside the card. The battery is usually an alkali or mercury battery and installed on the upper surface of a PCB. Since many parts are needed to include the battery and the battery itself has a predetermined thickness, there is a limit in manufacturing a melody-generating card to be no greater than a particular thickness.
Also, since other parts of the battery have particular thicknesses due to structural reasons, it is difficult to reduce the thickness of the card without deteriorating the life or performance of the battery. Further, a manufacturing technology to reduce the thickness of a product is required not only for the Christmas card above but also for most electronic devices.
Disclosure of the Invention
Accordingly, to solve the above problems, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a battery-included PCB which can be mounted on an ordinary PCB substrate so that ultra-thin (about 3 micrometers) electronic devices can be manufactured. To achieve the above objective, there is provided a battery-included
PCB comprising: an anode portion integrally formed by a lower substrate, a metal plate formed on the lower substrate, and an anode material layer coated on the metal plate; and a cathode portion integrally formed by an upper substrate and a nickel layer, a lithium layer, and a polymer layer deposited in order on the upper substrate; wherein the metal plate is mesh- shaped and has a circumferential plate along the circumference of the metal plate which is connect to the metal plate, and the lithium layer comprising
the polymer layer is formed to have a surface corresponding to the area of the metal plate and a circumferential plate is formed along the circumference of the upper substrate.
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the upper and lower substrates which include a battery according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the battery-included PCB according to the present invention which is mounted on an ordinary PCB having a predetermined thickness.
Best mode for carrying out the Invention Referring to FIG. 1 , a nickel (Ni) layer 8 is formed on the lower surface of an upper substrate 1 which forms a negative terminal layer. A lithium (Li) layer 3 is vacuum-deposited on the nickel layer 8. A conductive (ion-permissible) polymer layer 4 of an extremely thin film is preferably formed on the lithium layer 3. Here, the material of the polymer layer 4 is not limited to the above polymer material and other materials can be used in its place.
A lower substrate 2 disposed to face the upper substrate 1 has a metal plate 5 formed on the upper surface thereof. An anode material layer 6 including carbon or carbon-based compound is formed on the metal plate 5. The metal plate 5 which will be a positive terminal layer is formed to have a mesh shape.
FIG. 2 shows an example of the battery-included PCB according to the present invention which is applied to a melody card.
The metal plate 5 is formed to have a mesh-shaped, occupying most of the area at the center of the lower substrate 2. The anode material layer 6 on which anode material has already been formed is deposited on the metal plate 5. The mesh-shaped metal plate 5 is connected to a
circumferential plate 51. The circumferential plate 51 is formed of a metal plate along the circumferential edge of the lower substrate 2, surrounding the area for the metal plate 5. A copper (Cu) thin film is deposited on the circumferential plate 51 where the anode material layer 6 is not formed. The circumferential plate 51 by being coated with lead is combined with the upper substrate 1 forming a seal. The lower substrate 2 forms the anode
(+)■
The lower surface of the upper substrate 1 forming the cathode (-), facing the anode above, is shown at the upper right portion of FIG. 2. As shown in the drawing, the lithium layer 3 having the polymer layer 4 coated thereon occupies most of the area at the center of the upper substrate 1.
A first hole 31 is formed at one side of the upper substrate 1. A circumferential plate 32 formed of a thin copper film is formed along the circumferential edge of the upper substrate 1 , surrounding the area for the polymer layer 4. A second hole 33 having a surface area protruding inwardly is formed at one side portion of the circumferential plate 32, opposing the position of the first hole 31.
The circumferential plate 32 and the circumferential plate 51 of the lower substrate 2 are combined with one another, for example, by soldering. Meanwhile, an IC portion 11 including an IC is formed on the upper surface of the upper substrate 1. Also, an IC connecting portion 12, an LED chip 13 and a switch portion 14 commonly accompanying the IC are formed on the upper substrate 1.
FIG. 3 shows that a battery including the thin upper and lower substrates which are combined with each other by soldering is attached on the upper surface of a PCB 7 having a common predetermined thickness.
Here, the battery can be attached to the PCB by previously forming an adhesive layer on the lower surface of the battery, i.e., on the bottom of the lower substrate. As shown in the drawing, since the battery is formed by combining the thin upper and lower substrates 1 and 2 and attaching the battery on a PCB having a relatively much greater thickness than that of the battery, the total
thickness of the battery-included PCB according to the present invention shows no difference from the thickness of the PCB.
Thus, there is an effect of mounting an extremely thin battery which provides numerous application opportunities to various products. Since the drawings above is for explanation of the present invention, an actual battery can be manufactured to be even thinner.
For reference, the total thickness of the layers forming a battery only excluding the upper and lower substrates is about 3 micrometers.
The operation of the battery-included PCB having the above structure is as follows.
The nickel layer 8 as a negative terminal and the metal plate 5 as a positive terminal form a cathode and an anode, respectively. The polymer layer 4 formed of polymer activates ion-conductivity.
As an electrical connection between the cathode and the anode, the second hole 33 of the upper substrate 1 shown in FIG. 2 contacts the surface of the circumferential plate 51 connected to the surface forming the metal plate 5 and the anode material layer 6 of the lower substrate 2, while the first hole 31 of the upper substrate 1 contacts the position between the circumferential plate 51 and the metal plate 5 of the lower substrate 2. The inner circumferential surfaces of the first and second holes 31 and 33 are formed of conductive metal. Accordingly, the second hole 33 of the upper substrate 1 and the surface of the metal plate 5 of the lower substrate 2 which forms the anode material layer 6 conduct electricity, and the first hole 31 is conductive with the nickel, lithium, and polymer layers 8, 3, and 4 formed on the lower surface of the upper substrate 1.
Therefore, the electrical connection between the lower substrate 2 forming the anode and the upper substrate 1 forming the cathode can be made by the switch portion 14 for electrically connecting the first and second holes 31 and 33 of the upper substrate 1. Any structure for the above switching operation is possible and it is not limited to the above structure of the switch portion 14.
Since the principle of charging and discharging by movement of ions
in the structure shown in FIG. 1 is similar to that of a common battery, the description of the function and operation thereof will be omitted.
Industrial Applicability It is obvious that the battery-included PCB according to the present invention can be structured as a rechargeable type.
According to the above structure of the present invention, the conventional lithium battery can be replaced by mounting a thin battery on a common PCB, thus simplifying the structure and reducing the number of parts. The battery-included PCB of the present invention can be used for various electronic devices, especially for ones which devices that are required to be thin.
That is, in the present invention, since a battery can be integrally formed extremely thin on a PCB, there is an effect of usefulness in all PCB requiring mounting of a battery.
Also, since the battery used in the present invention is structured to prevent natural discharge compared to other battery type, the length of use thereof can be extended considerably.
It is noted that the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiment described above, and it is apparent that variations and modifications by those skilled in the art can be effected within the spirit and scope of the present invention defined in the appended claims.
For example, although the present invention is applied to a typical
PCB having a predetermined thickness, it is possible to adopt the present invention to any other object which is required to be thin, instead of a PCB.
That is, it is possible to manufacture a battery according to the present invention additionally and form an adhesive layer on the bottom thereof, i.e., a sticker type, so that the battery can be easily attached to any products.