JP6560108B2 - COATING UNIT, COATING DEVICE, METHOD FOR PRODUCING OBJECT TO BE COATED, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SUBSTRATE - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an application unit for applying a liquid application material and an application apparatus using the same, and more specifically, an application material is applied to an object to be applied using an application needle to draw a conductive pattern. Or it is related with the coating unit for correcting the open defect of an electroconductive pattern, and the coating device using the same. Furthermore, this invention relates to the manufacturing method of the to-be-coated object using such a coating unit or a coating device, and the manufacturing method of a board | substrate.

  In recent years, printed electronics technology for drawing and forming a fine circuit such as an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag by a printing (hereinafter also referred to as coating) method has been rapidly developed. As a method for forming a fine circuit pattern or electrode pattern, a printing method, an ink jet method, etc. are common, but a method using a coating needle can also be finely applied using a material with a wide range of viscosity. It is attracting attention in terms of points.

  As a method for finely coating a coating material using a coating needle, for example, a method using a coating unit disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4802627 (Patent Document 1) has been proposed.

  Such a coating unit is intended to correct defects in a fine pattern, and can perform fine coating using a coating material having a wide range of viscosity. During the coating operation, one coating needle is projected from a through hole formed in the bottom of the coating material container that holds the coating material. The application needle performs transfer application (hereinafter referred to as application) by bringing an application material adhering to the tip into contact with an object to be applied (hereinafter referred to as an object to be applied).

Japanese Patent No. 4802027

However, repeating the coating operation causes the following problems.
6 and 7 are diagrams illustrating examples of the state of the coating unit when the coating operation is repeated. FIG. 6 shows a case where the coating unit operates normally because the number of repetitions is small, and FIG. 7 shows a case where an abnormality occurs in the operation of the coating unit because the number of repetitions is large.

  FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a coating standby state. FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating the protruding state of the application needle after the transition from the state of FIG. FIG. 6C is a diagram illustrating a coating standby state after transition from the state of FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C, the coating material container 121 stores the coating material 100.

  A first hole 22 is opened in the bottom portion 28 of the coating material container 121, and a second hole 27 is opened in the upper lid portion 129. The application needle 24 is provided so as to be movable along a straight line passing through the first hole 22 and the second hole 27.

  As shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C, in the case of normal operation, a coating material pool as described later does not occur.

  FIG. 7A shows a coating standby state. FIG.7 (b) is a figure showing the application needle | hook protrusion state after the transition from the state of Fig.7 (a). FIG.7 (c) is a figure showing the application | coating standby state after a transition from the state of FIG.7 (b).

  As shown in FIG. 7C, a coating material pool (shown in (2)) is generated in the first hole 22. Thereby, since the amount of the coating material 100 adhering to the tip 23 of the coating needle 24 changes, there arises a problem that the amount of the coating material 100 applied to the application target portion varies. The reason why such a coating material pool is generated is as follows.

  As shown in FIGS. 7A to 7C, while the application operation is repeated a plurality of times, the application material 100 adheres to the upper part of the application needle 24 and the upper part of the application needle 24 as shown in (1). And the upper lid portion 129 of the coating material container 21 is sealed by adhering to the gap between the first hole 27 and the wall of the second hole 27. Therefore, when the large-diameter shaft of the application needle 24 is inserted into the application material container 121 during application, the air in the application material container 121 is pressurized and the application material is pushed out into the first hole 22 of the application material container 121. As a result, a coating material pool is generated. This problem is particularly noticeable when the coating material 100 is a conductive high-viscosity material containing metal powder.

  In order to draw a fine circuit such as an RFID tag, it is necessary that a high-viscosity metal material can be stably applied for a long time. However, as described above, in the conventional system, a high-viscosity metal material is required. It was difficult to apply the conductive material stably for a long time.

  In view of the above-described conventional problems, a main object of the present invention is to provide a coating unit capable of stably coating a coating material for a long time and a coating apparatus using the coating unit.

  The application unit of the present invention includes a container for storing an application material, and an application needle for applying the application material accommodated in the container to an application target surface. A first hole is opened in the bottom portion of the container, and a second hole is opened in the upper lid portion of the container. The application needle is provided so as to be movable along a straight line passing through the first and second holes. A third hole is opened in a part of the container to allow air to pass through.

Preferably, a third hole is opened in the upper lid portion.
The coating apparatus of the present invention applies a coating material to the surface to be coated using the coating unit.

  The method for manufacturing an object to be coated according to the present invention uses any one of the coating unit and the coating apparatus.

  The substrate manufacturing method of the present invention includes a step of drawing a circuit pattern of the substrate by applying a conductive material, which is a coating material, onto the surface to be coated of the substrate by the coating apparatus.

  According to the present invention, the coating material can be stably applied for a long time.

It is a typical perspective view of the coating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. (A) is a front view of a coating unit. (B) is a side view of a coating unit. It is the expanded view which looked at the flange part containing a cam surface from the side surface. It is a figure showing the coating material container and coating needle which are contained in the coating unit shown in FIG. It is the figure which expanded the part of the area | region 350 shown to FIG. 4 (A). It is a figure showing the example of the state of a coating unit in case the frequency | count of repetition of coating operation is few. It is a figure showing the example of the state of an application unit in case the repetition frequency of application | coating operation is large.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. Their names and functions are also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[Configuration of the entire coating apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a coating apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a coating apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a base 12, an X-axis table 1, a Y-axis table 2, a Z-axis table 3, and a coating unit arranged on a floor surface. 4, an observation optical system 6, a CCD camera 7 connected to the observation optical system 6, and a control unit 11.

  On the upper surface of the base 12, a Y-axis table 2 configured to be movable in the Y-axis direction in FIG. 1 is installed. Specifically, a guide portion is installed on the lower surface of the Y-axis table 2 and is slidably connected along a guide rail installed on the upper surface of the base 12. A ball screw is connected to the lower surface of the Y-axis table 2. By operating the ball screw by a driving member such as a motor, the Y-axis table 2 can move along the guide rail (in the Y-axis direction). Further, the upper surface portion of the Y-axis table 2 is a mounting surface on which a substrate 5 that is an object to be coated is mounted.

  On the base 12, a gate-shaped structure is provided so as to straddle the guide rail of the Y-axis table 2 in the X-axis direction. On this structure, an X-axis table 1 that is movable in the X-axis direction is mounted. The X-axis table 1 can move in the X-axis direction using, for example, a ball screw.

  A Z-axis table 3 is mounted on the moving body of the X-axis table 1, and a coating unit 4 and an observation optical system 6 are mounted on the Z-axis table 3. The coating unit 4 and the observation optical system 6 can move in the X direction together with the Z-axis table 3. The coating unit 4 is provided to apply a coating material to the coated surface (upper surface side) of the substrate 5 using a coating needle provided in the coating unit 4. The observation optical system 6 is provided for observing the application position of the substrate 5 to be applied. The CCD camera 7 of the observation optical system 6 converts the observed image into an electrical signal. The Z-axis table 3 supports the coating unit 4 and the observation optical system 6 so as to be movable in the Z-axis direction.

  The control unit 11 includes an operation panel 8, a monitor 9, and a control computer 10. The control unit 11 controls the X-axis table 1, the Y-axis table 2, the Z-axis table 3, the coating unit 4 and the observation optical system 6. The operation panel 8 is used for inputting a command to the control computer 10. The monitor 9 displays image data converted by the CCD camera 7 of the observation optical system 6 and output data from the control computer 10.

  When the circuit pattern is formed on the substrate 5 from the beginning, or when a defective portion of the circuit pattern formed on the substrate 5 is corrected, the drawing position of the substrate 5 to be coated is set to the position just below the observation optical system 6 in the X axis. The drawing is moved by the table 1 and the Y-axis table 2, the drawing start position is observed and confirmed by the observation optical system 6, and the drawing start position is determined. Then, a circuit pattern is drawn based on the determined drawing start position. From the drawing start position, the substrate 5 is moved by the X-axis table 1 and the Y-axis table 2 so that the drawing position is directly below the coating unit 4. When the movement is completed, the coating unit 4 is driven to perform coating. By repeating this continuously, a circuit pattern can be drawn.

  The relationship between the descending end position of the application needle 24 and the focus position of the observation optical system 6 is stored in advance, and at the time of drawing, the application needle 24 is positioned with the position where the image is focused by the observation optical system 6 as the Z-axis direction reference. The application is performed after the position in the Z-axis direction is moved by the Z-axis table to a height at which it contacts the substrate 5. If the area of the circuit pattern to be drawn is large and the change in the substrate surface height of the substrate 5 to be coated during drawing is large, the focus position is confirmed in the middle if necessary and the position in the Z-axis direction is corrected. Then apply. The adjustment of the focus position at this time may be a method of automatically focusing using image processing, or the height position of the surface of the substrate 5 to be coated is always detected and corrected in real time using a laser sensor or the like. You can hang it.

  A substrate on which a pattern is formed can be obtained by a substrate manufacturing method including a step of forming a circuit pattern of a substrate from the beginning by a method of drawing a circuit pattern on the substrate 5 as described above.

  In addition, by the method for drawing a circuit pattern on the substrate 5 as described above, the substrate manufacturing method includes a step of correcting a defect in the circuit pattern of the substrate already formed by another method such as a printing method or an inkjet method. A substrate having no defect in the pattern can be obtained.

(Configuration of coating unit)
The coating unit 4 described above will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. The application unit 4 fixed to the Z-axis table 3 shown in FIG. 1 includes a servo motor 41, a cam 43, a bearing 44, a cam connecting plate 45, a movable portion 46, an application needle holder 20, and the application. An application needle 24 held by the needle holder 20 and an application material container 21 are mainly included. The servo motor 41 is installed such that the rotation axis extends in a direction along the Z-axis direction shown in FIG. A cam 43 is connected to the rotation shaft of the servo motor 41. The cam 43 is rotatable about the rotation axis of the servo motor 41.

  The cam 43 includes a center portion connected to the rotation shaft of the servo motor 41 and a flange portion connected to one end portion of the center portion. As shown in FIG. 3A, the upper surface (surface on the servo motor 41 side) of the flange portion is a cam surface 61. The cam surface 61 is formed in an annular shape along the outer periphery of the center portion, and is formed in a slope shape so that the distance from the bottom surface of the flange portion varies. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3 (B), the cam surface 61 is disposed at a distance from the upper end flat region 62 having the largest distance from the bottom surface of the flange portion, and the upper end flat region 62. The lower end flat region 63 having the smallest distance from the bottom surface of the flange portion and the slope portion connecting the upper end flat region 62 and the lower end flat region 63 are included. Here, FIG. 3B is a developed view of the flange portion including the cam surface 61 arranged in an annular shape so as to surround the center portion, as viewed from the side.

  A bearing 44 is disposed so as to contact the cam surface 61 of the cam 43. The bearing 44 is arranged in a specific direction (on the right side of the servo motor 41) as viewed from the cam 43 as shown in FIG. 2A, and the cam 43 is rotated by rotating the rotation shaft of the servo motor 41. At this time, the state in contact with the cam surface 61 is maintained. A cam coupling plate 45 is connected to the bearing 44. In the cam connecting plate 45, the other end opposite to the one end connected to the bearing 44 is fixed to the movable portion 46. An application needle holder fixing part 47 and an application needle holder storage part 48 are connected to the movable part 46. The application needle holder 20 is stored in the application needle holder storage portion 48.

  The application needle holder 20 includes an application needle 24. The application needle 24 is arranged so as to protrude from the application needle holder 20 on the lower surface of the application needle holder 20 (the lower side opposite to the side where the servo motor 41 is located). A coating material container 21 is disposed under the coating needle holder 20. The application needle 24 is held in the application material container 21 in an inserted state.

  A fixed pin 52 is installed on the movable portion 46. In addition, the other fixing pin 51 is installed on the gantry holding the servo motor 41. A spring 50 is installed so as to connect the fixing pins 51 and 52. Due to the spring 50, the movable portion 46 is in a state of receiving a tensile force toward the coating material container 21 side. Further, the tensile force generated by the spring 50 acts on the bearing 44 via the movable portion 46 and the cam connecting plate 45. The bearing 44 is kept pressed against the cam surface 61 of the cam 43 by the tensile force of the spring 50.

  The movable portion 46, the application needle holder fixing portion 47, and the application needle holder storage portion 48 are connected to a linear guide 49 installed on the gantry. The linear guide 49 is disposed so as to extend in the Z-axis direction. Therefore, the movable part 46, the application needle holder fixing part 47, and the application needle holder storage part 48 are movable along the Z-axis direction.

[Coating material container and coating needle]
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the coating material container 21 and the coating needle 24 included in the coating unit 4 shown in FIG. 4A shows an application standby state in which the application needle 24 is raised, and FIG. 4B shows an application state in which the application needle 24 is lowered. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a region 350 shown in FIG.

  The coating material container 21 stores a coating material 100 used when drawing a pattern. The coating material 100 is a highly viscous metal conductive material or the like. A first hole 22 is opened in the bottom portion 28 of the coating material container 21, and a second hole 27 is opened in the upper lid portion 29. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, a third hole 80 is opened in the lid portion 29 in order to prevent the occurrence of a coating material pool in the conventional method. Air can enter and exit between the coating material container 21 and the outside through the third hole 80.

  The application needle 24 is provided so as to be movable along a straight line passing through the first hole 22 and the second hole 27. The tip 23 of the application needle 24 can be reciprocated upward and downward by a linear motion mechanism of the application unit 4 described later.

  The first hole 22 is set to a size that allows the coating needle 24 to penetrate and the tip 23 to protrude downward, and to prevent the coating material held in the coating material container 21 from dripping down. Has been. The second hole 27 has a size that allows the application needle 24 to reciprocate in the vertical direction. That is, since the application needle 24 can move in the vertical direction, a minute gap is formed between the wall of the second hole 27 and the application needle 24.

  When the application needle 24 that can reciprocate in the vertical direction moves downward, the application needle 24 protrudes from the first hole 22 toward the object to be applied with the application material attached to the surface of the tip 23. .

  Referring to FIG. 4A, the application needle 24 has moved to the upper end position within the range in which the application needle 24 can move. At this time, the tip 23 of the application needle 24 is immersed in the application material 100 accommodated in the application material container 21.

  FIG. 4B shows a state where the application needle 24 is lowered and the tip 23 of the application needle 24 is in contact with the surface to be applied of the substrate 5 and the application material 100 is applied.

  Referring to FIG. 4B, when the application needle 24 moves to the lower end position, the tip 23 penetrates the first hole 22 formed in the bottom of the application material container 21 from the bottom surface of the application material container 21. It protrudes downward.

  While repeating the application operation a plurality of times, as described in the background art, as shown in (1), the application material adheres to the upper part of the application needle 24 and the upper part of the application needle 24 and the second hole. The upper lid portion 29 of the coating material container 21 is sealed by adhering to the gap with the wall 27. However, since the air is discharged through the third hole 80 when the large-diameter shaft of the application needle 24 is inserted into the application material container 21, the air in the application material container 21 is not pressurized and applied. The coating material 100 is not pushed out into the first hole 22 of the material container 21. Therefore, in this embodiment, the coating material pool does not occur.

[Application unit operation]
Next, the operation of the coating unit 4 described above will be described. In the coating unit 4 described above, the cam 43 is rotated by driving the servo motor 41 to rotate the rotation shaft of the servo motor 41. As a result, since the cam surface 61 of the cam 43 changes in height in the Z-axis direction, the position of the bearing 44 in contact with the cam surface 61 on the right side of the cam 43 in FIG. It fluctuates according to the rotation of the drive shaft of the servo motor 41. Then, according to the position variation of the bearing 44 in the Z-axis direction, the movable portion 46, the application needle holder fixing portion 47, and the application needle holder storage portion 48 move in the Z-axis direction. As a result, the application needle holder 20 held in the application needle holder storage 48 also moves in the Z-axis direction, so that the position of the application needle 24 installed in the application needle holder 20 in the Z-axis direction can be changed. Can do.

  Specifically, referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, when the bearing 44 is in contact with the upper end flat region 62 on the cam surface 61 of the cam 43, the application needle 24 is moved as shown in FIG. It is arranged at the upper end position (position closest to the servo motor 41). At this time, the tip end portion of the application needle 24 is immersed in the application material 100 held in the application material container 21.

  Next, when the servo motor 41 rotates the rotating shaft, the cam 43 rotates and the bearing 44 comes to a position where the lower end flat region 63 of the cam surface 61 is in contact with the bearing 44. FIG. 2, the application needle 24 passes through the first hole 22 formed in the bottom of the application material container 21 and protrudes downward from the bottom surface of the application material container 21. At this time, a part of the coating material 100 is attached to the surface of the coating needle 24 protruding from the bottom surface of the coating material container 21. Then, the Z-axis table 3 (see FIG. 1) moves the coating unit 4 toward the substrate 5, so that the tip of the coating needle 24 comes into contact with the surface of the substrate 5, and the coating material 100 is placed on the surface of the substrate 5. Can be applied. The servo motor 41 may be driven after the movement of the Z-axis table 3 first, or the operations of the Z-axis table 3 and the servo motor 41 may be performed almost simultaneously.

  Thus, in the coating unit 4, the rotational motion of the servo motor 41 can be converted into motion (vertical motion) of the coating needle 24 in the Z-axis direction. With such a configuration, the application needle 24 can be moved quickly and accurately in the Z-axis direction.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a coating material such as a high-viscosity metal conductive material can be stably applied for a long time.

  In addition, the structure of the said coating device is an example, What is necessary is just a structure which can apply | coat to the arbitrary positions of the application | coating surface of a coating object board | substrate, and is not limited to the said structure.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

  The present invention provides a coating unit for conducting conductive pattern drawing, correcting open defects in conductive patterns, forming fine circuit patterns such as RFID tags, correcting defects, and applying a conductive adhesive. The present invention is particularly advantageously applied to a coating apparatus, a method for manufacturing an object to be coated, a method for manufacturing a substrate, and the like.

  4 coating unit, 5 substrate, 6 observation optical system, 7 camera, 8 operation panel, 9 monitor, 10 control computer, 11 control unit, 12 base, 21,121 coating material container, 22 first hole, 23 tip , 24 Application needle, 27 Second hole, 28, 128 Bottom part, 29, 129 Upper lid part, 41 Servo motor, 43 Cam, 44 Bearing, 45 Cam connecting plate, 46 Movable part, 47 Application needle holder fixing part, 48 Application needle holder storage section, 49 linear guide, 50 spring, 51, 52 fixing pin, 61 cam surface, 62 upper end flat area, 63 lower end flat area, 80 third hole, 100 application material, 200 application apparatus.

Claims (5)

A container for storing the coating material;
An application needle for applying the application material contained in the container to the application target surface;
A first hole is opened in the bottom portion of the container, a second hole is opened in the upper lid portion of the container, and the application needle is movable along a straight line passing through the first and second holes. A coating unit that is provided and has a third hole opened in a part of the container to allow air to pass through.   The coating unit according to claim 1, wherein the third hole is opened in the upper lid portion.   A coating apparatus that coats the coating material on the coating target surface using the coating unit according to claim 1.   A method for manufacturing an object to be coated using any one of the coating unit according to claim 1, the coating unit according to claim 2, and the coating apparatus according to claim 3.   A method for manufacturing a substrate, comprising: a step of drawing a circuit pattern of the substrate by applying a conductive material, which is the coating material, to the surface to be coated of the substrate by the coating apparatus according to claim 3.

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