JPH0750825B2 - Direct drawing apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a direct writing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a circuit board arranged on a table that moves relative to a nozzle at a predetermined speed. Discharge the paste from the nozzle,
The present invention relates to a direct writing apparatus and method for writing a pattern on a circuit board.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, when a pattern 45 of a hybrid IC as shown in FIG. 10 is drawn by using such a direct drawing apparatus, as shown in FIG. In many cases, it is composed of a box-shaped portion 46 formed in a closed loop shape such as a closed portion, a component mounting portion, a pad portion on which a resistance pattern is drawn later, and a line 47 connecting these boxes.

When such patterns 46 and 47 are directly drawn by the drawing device, the line-shaped portion 47 and the box-shaped portion 46 are drawn by different methods. That is, the line-shaped portion 47 is rewritten by the user by inputting the line width of one drawing line and the required line width and reciprocating a plurality of times along the line by the software installed in the drawing device. A pattern is formed. During this round trip, the input data is offset left and right by a constant value so as to gradually approach the line width requested by the user. This offset amount is automatically calculated by the software of the drawing apparatus or manually set by the user.

The box-shaped part 46, on the other hand, uses different methods, which are illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13. Usually, the data of the pattern to be drawn is sent by communication from an external controller as a coordinate group of each node of the contour of the pattern. For example, if the pattern to be formed is a rectangular pattern 50 as shown in FIG.
Nodal points 50a to 50d of the pattern 50 as shown in FIG.
The periphery is drawn along the outline of the pattern 50 so as to connect the lines, and the paste is applied to draw the line 51. Then, the inner side 52 thereof is sequentially filled (hatched) with a direction and a pitch designated by the user as shown in FIG. 12C to form a rectangular pattern 50. The state where the paste 54 is discharged from the nozzle 53 to fill the inside 52 is the 13th
It is illustrated in the figure.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the line width L of the normal drawing line 51 is about 100 to 150 μm, when drawing along the outline line 50, the outermost side 51a of the drawing line 51 is more than the outline line 50. About 50 to 75 μm, which is about half of the line width, is projected and there is a risk of short-circuiting with the adjacent line.

If the drawing data to be transmitted is reduced in order to prevent this, there is a problem that the operation becomes complicated, time is required, and management of the drawing data becomes complicated.

Further, when the pattern to be drawn becomes a complicated pattern 55 as shown in FIG. 14, it is necessary to fold and draw a large number of lines at the portion 55a, and the nozzle 53 is required for each fold.
The amount of paste 54 dispensed from must be controlled. Therefore, the control and the time for turning on and off the air pressure for ejecting the paste from the nozzle are required, which causes a problem that it takes a long time to draw and a good pattern cannot be drawn.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and there is no contact with an adjacent pattern, the drawing time can be shortened, and a direct drawing device capable of drawing a good drawing pattern, The challenge is to provide a method.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the present invention, the paste is discharged from the nozzles onto a circuit board arranged on a table that moves relative to the nozzles at a predetermined speed. In a direct drawing device that draws a pattern on a circuit board,
A structure for identifying the inside of the closed-loop contour line of the pattern to be drawn and a means for calculating the drawing line offset by a predetermined amount inside the contour line, and drawing the pattern along the drawing line is adopted. .

Further, according to the present invention, in a direct drawing method in which a paste is discharged from a nozzle onto a circuit board arranged on a table that moves relatively at a predetermined speed with respect to the nozzle, and a pattern is drawn on the circuit board, the pattern should be drawn. Identifies the inside of the closed-loop contour line of the pattern, draws the periphery along the contour line by offsetting it by a predetermined amount toward the inside of the contour line, and further draws the periphery along the contour line by offsetting it by a predetermined amount. A configuration is also adopted in which a pattern is drawn by repeating this.

[Operation] With such a configuration, the pattern is drawn by offsetting a predetermined amount inside the outline instead of drawing the pattern with the outline of the pattern to be drawn as the center line. The formed pattern does not extend beyond the outline, and has less contact with the adjacent drawing pattern. The amount to be offset to the inside of the contour line of the pattern is set to an amount corresponding to about half the discharge line width of the paste. Also, when drawing a rectangular pattern, instead of folding back as in the past, by reducing the pattern at a fixed interval facing inward from the outline of the pattern and forming a circuit pattern, control becomes easier, It is possible to significantly reduce the drawing time.

[Examples] Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be described based on Examples shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a direct drawing apparatus according to the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the structure of a control system of the apparatus shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a circuit board made of ceramic or the like and is positioned at a predetermined position on an XY table 2 which is moved in the X and Y directions. The nozzle 3 of the ink pen 4 for ejecting the paste 3a forming the conductor and the insulator on the substrate 1 is arranged perpendicularly to the XY table 2,
It is moved via the motor 5 in the Z-axis direction perpendicular to the XY plane.

Various circuit films can be formed on the circuit board 1 by numerically controlling the discharge of the paste 3a from the nozzle 3 and the stop of the discharge, and the movement of the XY table 2 on the XY plane according to a predetermined program. . At that time, the unevenness of the circuit board 1 is detected by the height sensor 6 corresponding to the optical distance sensor, and the height of the nozzle 3 is automatically controlled via the motor 5 along the Z-axis direction.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration including a control unit of this direct drawing device, and 20 is a microcomputer including a CPU, ROM, RAM, etc., which will be described later from the CAD system 30 via the input / output device 21. Input drawing data including such a drawing pattern and temporarily store the necessary data in the memory 22,
Further, by using programs and various data stored in advance in the memory 22 to integrally control each part of the direct drawing apparatus, the thickness can be set on the substrate 1 made of ceramic or the like that is positioned and mounted on the XY table 2. Form a membrane circuit.

That is, the microcomputer 20 outputs an XY table control signal according to the drawing data to the motor controller 23, and the motor controller 23 causes the motor 24 (actually, there are two motors for driving the X direction and the Y direction). ) Is controlled to move the XY table 2 so that the substrate 1 moves relative to the nozzle 3 held by the cylinder in a desired locus.

Further, before starting drawing, the height sensor 6 measures the height variation of the entire drawing surface of the substrate 1, and stores the measurement result in the memory 22 in association with the coordinate value.

At the time of drawing, the data is read out, a nozzle position control signal is output to the motor controller 25, and the motor controller 25 drives and controls the motor 5 to correct the height variation of the drawing surface of the ceramic substrate 1. Is moved up and down so that the distance between the nozzle 3 and the drawing surface of the ceramic substrate 1 is always kept proper.

Further, the microcomputer 20 outputs a signal corresponding to the set air pressure to the electropneumatic converter 26 to convert the high pressure air pressure from the air source 27 into the set pressure, and controls the solenoid valve 28 to open it. Air pressure is supplied to the ink pen, and the paste in the ink pen 4 is discharged from the nozzle 3 at a predetermined flow rate,
The thick film circuit is drawn with the set basic line width.

The CAD system 30 is a system that uses a personal computer to input the data of the outline (generally the outline) of the circuit pattern digitized by the digitizer 40 to create drawing data. In this embodiment, this CAD system is mainly used. Is used to create drawing data.

Next, the operation of the apparatus thus configured will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

A case where the pattern to be drawn by the drawing device is the pattern 60 as shown in FIG. 4 will be described.
The pattern 60 has a plurality of nodes P1 to P9, and the x coordinate and the y coordinate of each node are continuously stored in the memory 22 as one pattern data. This storage state is shown in the form of a table in FIG.

First, in step S1 in FIG. 3, a point having the smallest x coordinate, that is, the leftmost point, is obtained from a series of closed-loop drawing data to be drawn. In the pattern 60 of FIG. 4, P2, P3, P7,
This applies to each point on P8. When it is determined in step S2 that there are a plurality of leftmost point data, in step S3, the point having the smallest y coordinate among the plurality of points is set as a starting point, and when the leftmost point data is one, Step S4
Then, the point obtained in step S1 is taken as the starting point.

When the starting point is determined in this way, in step S5, the y-coordinates of the data before and after the starting point are compared to determine whether to perform the data processing in the data storage order stored in the memory or in the reverse order. decide. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the starting point is Pn, and the y coordinate of Pn + 1 is Pn.
If it is larger than the y-coordinate of -1 (that is, FIG. 6A), the data processing is Pn, Pn + 1, Pn + 2, ... Pm, P1, P2, Pn-.
1 (Pm is the final data), while in the opposite case as shown in FIG. 6B, the data processing is Pn, Pn-1, Pn-2, ...
P2, P1, Pm, ... Pn + 1 are processed.

In this way, the smallest point of the x and y coordinate points is obtained,
Determining the processing direction means recognizing the inside of the outline of the closed loop.

Next, the drawing line width is parallel to the line segment connected by the current processing point and the next processing point (the current point in FIG. 7 is Pi, the next point is Pi + 1, and will be described below based on this figure). The equation of the straight line 1 offset to the right in the traveling direction of the half-width processing is calculated (step S6). Similarly, the equation of a straight line l2 that is parallel to the line segment connecting Pi + 1 point and Pi + 2 and is offset to the right in the advancing direction of the half width processing of the drawing line width is calculated (step S7).

Next, the intersection of the straight line 1 and l2 is obtained and stored in the memory (step S8), and the process proceeds by one (step S9). When the processing has completed one cycle (step S10), the outer circumference is drawn along the line based on the data offset inward (step S1).
1) Then, the inside thereof is drawn and painted at a predetermined pitch in a predetermined direction (step S12).

In this way, by deciding a certain specific point and deciding the data processing direction, the inside of the closed-loop pattern is recognized, and as shown in FIG. Can be created, and a predetermined drawing can be performed along it. Therefore, by designating this offset amount by the user, it is possible to freely reduce it with the main unit value main body, and it is not necessary to change or newly create the designed pattern itself, which saves time and troublesome data processing. Will be released.

Furthermore, it is possible to reduce or enlarge the pattern by setting the offset amount in addition to the half width of the drawing line width.

Further, when the pattern shown in FIG. 14 is performed by the conventional method, a set of short lines is formed at 55a as described above,
At the beginning and the end of the drawing line, there is a time delay of turning on and off the air pressure, and since it is synchronized with the XY table drive, there is a drawback that the drawing time becomes long. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, instead of being folded back as in the conventional case, as shown in FIG. 9, the data sequentially offset by the above-described method is obtained, and the data is shifted toward the inner side of the contour line of the pattern at regular intervals. When the pattern is reduced and drawn to form the circuit pattern, a long line is drawn, the on / off of the air pressure can be reduced, and the drawing time can be remarkably reduced.

As described above, according to the present invention, the inside of the closed-loop contour line of the pattern to be drawn is identified, and the pattern is drawn along the drawing line offset by a predetermined amount inside the contour line. Therefore, the drawn pattern does not extend beyond the outline, and the contact with the adjacent drawing pattern is significantly reduced, which enables good drawing.

Also, a predetermined amount is offset toward the inside of the contour line to draw the periphery along the contour line, and a further predetermined amount is offset inward to draw the periphery along the contour line, and this is repeated to draw the pattern. Therefore, the drawing time can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of a direct drawing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the control system shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the control flow. , FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the shape of the pattern to be drawn, FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the coordinates of the nodes of the pattern of FIG. 4 are stored in the memory, FIG. 6 (A), ( B) is an explanatory diagram showing the order of drawing from the starting point, FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a process of obtaining a point offset by a predetermined amount from the contour line, and FIG. 8 shows the entire offset line. FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a state of drawing a pattern along an offset line, FIG. 10 is an explanatory view showing a pattern of a hybrid IC, FIG. 11 is a pattern of FIG. An explanatory diagram showing the basic components, and FIGS. 12 (A), (B), and (C) are subordinates. FIG. 13 is an explanatory view showing a conventional pattern drawing method, FIG. 13 is an explanatory view showing a conventional pattern drawing method, and FIG. 14 is an explanatory view showing a conventional pattern drawing method. 1 ... Substrate, 2 ... X, Y table 3 ... Nozzle, 4 ... Ink valve 6 ... Height sensor 20 ... Microcomputer 22 ... Memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pattern to be drawn in a direct drawing apparatus for discharging a paste from a nozzle onto a circuit board arranged on a table that moves relatively at a predetermined speed with respect to the nozzle and drawing a pattern on the circuit board. Of the closed loop contour line, and means for calculating a drawing line offset by a predetermined amount inside the contour line, and a pattern is drawn along the drawing line. . 2. The offset amount is set to an amount corresponding to about half the discharge line width of the paste.
The direct drawing device according to the item. 3. A pattern to be drawn in a direct drawing method in which a paste is discharged from the nozzle onto a circuit board arranged on a table that moves relatively at a predetermined speed with respect to the nozzle, and a pattern is drawn on the circuit board. The inside of the closed loop contour line of is identified, and the surroundings are drawn along the contour line by offsetting the inside by a predetermined amount, and further offset by a predetermined amount toward the inside. A direct drawing method characterized by drawing a pattern by repeating.