CIRCUIT BOARD STRUCTURE
A circuit board structure including a circuit board main body and an injection molded three-dimensional circuit device encapsulating at least a portion of the circuit board main body is provided. The three-dimensional circuit device includes a molded plastic body having a non-plate type, stereo structure, on which a three-dimensional pattern is also fabricated. The three-dimensional pattern is interconnected with a contact pad on the circuit board main body through a conductive via.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit board structure. In particular, the present invention relates to a circuit board having a three-dimensional circuit structure and the fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As known in the art, circuit boards are essential devices in all electronic products where circuit boards are used to bear all kinds of electronic elements such as chips, resistors or capacitors. There are many layers of wires to connect these electronic elements.
As the electronic products become smaller and thinner, in many application fields such as wireless communication, portable electronic device or automobile instrumental panel, the circuit boards are always placed in limited space in the product, or interconnected with another outer circuit boards by buses or module-connectors, such as in the automobile instrumental panels or steering wheel with electronic functions. Thus, efficiently using substrate or the surface of module shell to pattern three-dimensional circuit layout or reducing the use of buses may be more efficient to utilize the space and increase the flexibility of designing. However, on plate-type plastic or copper foil substrate, conventional circuit manufacturing technology can only form two-dimensional wire trace instead of three-dimensional pattern.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is one objective of the present invention to provide a novel circuit board structure and a method for manufacturing a three-dimensional circuit structure in order to solve the above-mentioned prior art problems and shortcomings.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a circuit board structure includes a circuit board main body and an injection molded three-dimensional circuit device encapsulating at least a portion of the circuit board main body. The three-dimensional circuit device includes a molded plastic body having a non-plate type, stereo structure, on which a three-dimensional pattern is fabricated. The three-dimensional pattern is interconnected with a contact pad on the circuit board main body through a conductive via.
It is still another objective of the invention to provide a method for fabricating a circuit board structure. First, a circuit board main body is provided. Second, a molded plastic body is formed by encapsulating at least a portion of the circuit board main body with injection molded material. Then, a first three-dimensional pattern is formed on the molded plastic body thereby defining a three-dimensional circuit device.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
The present invention provides a novel circuit board structure, comprising a circuit board main body that could be rigid printed circuit board (rigid PCB), flexible printed circuit board (flexible PCB), rigid-flex composite printed circuit board (rigid-flex composite PCB) or rigid-flex combination printed circuit board (rigid-flex combination PCB). At least a portion of the circuit board main body is encapsulated by an injection molded three-dimensional circuit device. For one of the ordinary skill in the art, it is challenging and difficult to manufacture this novel circuit board which is even applicable to a wide range of technical fields such as automobile steering wheels, cellular phones or semiconductor package.
The present invention circuit board structure 1 features an injection molded three-dimensional circuit device 20. The three-dimensional circuit device 20 encapsulates at least a portion of the circuit board main body 10 such as a peripheral region and the three-dimensional circuit device 20 combines with the encapsulated portion of the circuit board main body 10 tightly. The three-dimensional circuit device 20 further comprises an injected molded plastic body 21 which is non-plate, stereo type and usually contains a scraggy surface, on which at least a three-dimensional pattern 22 is fabricated. The three-dimensional pattern 22 is interconnected with a contact pad 12a of the first pattern 12 through a conductive via 24 in the molded plastic body 21.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned injected molded plastic body 21 is made of plastic material comprising engineering plastic or ceramic. Specifically, the engineering plastic may be selected from a group consisting of polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS copolymer), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), liquid crystalline polymer (LCP), polyamide 6 (PA 6), Nylon, polyoxymethylene (POM), poly-phenylone-sulfide (PPS) and cyclic-olefin-copolymer (COC).
In addition, the plastic material further comprises catalytic particles, such as copper oxide particles, aluminum nitride particles or palladium particles. The plastic material is mixed with catalytic particles to form a laser activable material. The catalytic particles described above may be a plurality of metal oxide particles or metallic complexes particles. In one embodiment of the present invention, the catalytic particles are selected from a group consisting of manganese, chromium, palladium, copper, aluminum and platinum.
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According to the present invention, the combination of the molded plastic and the circuit board main body is not necessary done by injection molded technology.
The molded plastic body 221 further comprises a slot 221a. Subsequently, one end of the circuit board main body 200 is inserted into the slot 221a to make the contact pads 222a, 222b and 222c in contact with the contact pads 202a, 202b and 202c respectively, thereby tightly tenoning the molded plastic body and the circuit main board, as shown in
An injection molded three-dimensional circuit device 320 is formed on the main surface 302a, which contains a center cavity 330, exposing plurality of contact pads 312. The three-dimensional circuit device 320 comprises an injection molded body 321 having a non-plate type, stereo structure. At least a three-dimensional pattern 322 and another three-dimensional pattern 322a are formed on the surface of the molded main body 321 wherein the three-dimensional pattern 322 is connected to the pattern 316 encapsulated partially by the molded plastic body 321 while the three-dimensional pattern 322a is connected to the pattern 314 encapsulated by the molded plastic body 321 through a conductive via 324 in the molded plastic body 321. Besides, in another embodiment, the edge of the molded plastic body 321 aligns with the edge of the pattern 316, which is not shown in the figures.
The material of the molded plastic body 321 is similar to the molded plastic body 21 in the embodiment mentioned above, therefore it is not described herein for the sake of simplicity. The method for forming the three-dimensional patterns 322, 322a on the molded plastic body 321 is similar to the method for forming the three-dimensional patterns 122 on molded plastic body 121, which is mentioned above, thus it is not described for the sake of simplicity.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.
Claims
1. A circuit board structure, comprising:
- a circuit board main body; and an injection molded three-dimensional circuit device, encapsulating at least a portion of said circuit board main body, wherein said three-dimensional circuit device includes a molded plastic body having a non-plate type, stereo structure, on which a three-dimensional pattern is fabricated, said three-dimensional pattern is interconnected with a contact pad on said circuit board main body through a conductive via.
2. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein said circuit board main body includes rigid printed circuit board (rigid PCB), flexible printed circuit board (flexible PCB), rigid-flex composite printed circuit board (rigid-flex composite PCB) or rigid-flex combination printed circuit board (rigid-flex combination PCB).
3. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a two-layer board or a multi-layer board.
4. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a core layer.
5. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein said molded plastic body is made of plastic material comprising engineering plastic or ceramic.
6. The circuit board structure according to claim 5, wherein said engineering plastic is selected from a group consisting of polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS copolymer), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), liquid crystalline polymer (LCP), polyamide 6 (PA 6), Nylon, polyoxymethylene (POM), poly-phenylone-sulfide (PPS) and cyclic-olefin-copolymer (COC).
7. The circuit board structure according to claim 5, wherein said engineering plastic comprises catalytic particles.
8. The circuit board structure according to claim 7, wherein said catalytic particles comprise copper oxide particles, aluminum nitride particles or palladium particles.
9. The circuit board structure according to claim 7, wherein said catalytic particles are selected from a group consisting of manganese, chromium, palladium, copper, aluminum and platinum.
10. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein a first side of said circuit board main body has a coplanar first pattern, a second side of said circuit board main body has a coplanar second pattern.
11. The circuit board structure according to claim 10, wherein said first pattern is arranged in matrix and is partially covered by said molded plastic body.
12. The circuit board structure according to claim 10, wherein an edge of said molded plastic body aligns with an edge of said first pattern.
13. The circuit board structure according to claim 1, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a second three-dimensional pattern.
14. A method of fabricating a circuit board structure, comprising:
- providing a circuit board main body;
- forming a molded plastic body by encapsulating at least a portion of said circuit board main body with injection molded material; and
- forming a first three-dimensional pattern on said molded plastic body thereby defining a three-dimensional circuit device.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said molded plastic body is directly injected under low injected pressure or low molded temperature.
16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said circuit board main body includes rigid printed circuit board (rigid PCB), flexible printed circuit board (flexible PCB), rigid-flex composite printed circuit board (rigid-flex composite PCB) or rigid-flex combination printed circuit board (rigid-flex combination PCB).
17. The method according to claim 14, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a two-layer board or a multi-layer board.
18. The method according to claim 14, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a core layer.
19. The method according to claim 14, wherein said molded plastic body is made of plastic material comprising engineering plastic or ceramic.
20. The method according to claim 19, wherein said engineering plastic is selected from a group consisting of polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS copolymer), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), liquid crystalline polymer (LCP), polyamide 6 (PA 6), Nylon, polyoxymethylene (POM), poly-phenylone-sulfide (PPS) and cyclic-olefin-copolymer (COC).
21. The method according to claim 19, wherein said engineering plastic comprises catalytic particles.
22. The method according to claim 21, wherein said catalytic particles comprise copper oxide particles, aluminum nitride particles or palladium particles.
23. The method according to claim 21, wherein said catalytic particles are selected from a group consisting of manganese, chromium, palladium, copper, aluminum and platinum.
24. The method according to claim 14, wherein the first side of said circuit board main body has a coplanar first pattern, the second side of said circuit board main body has a coplanar second pattern.
25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said first pattern is arranged in matrix and is partially covered by said molded plastic body.
26. The method according to claim 24, wherein an edge of said molded plastic body aligns with an edge of said first pattern.
27. The method according to claim 14, wherein said circuit board main body comprises a second three-dimensional pattern.
28. The method according to claim 14, wherein said first three-dimensional pattern is formed by laser direct structuring (LDS), microscopic integrated processing technology (MIPTEC) or two-shot molding.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 29, 2008
Publication Date: Jan 14, 2010
Inventors: Cheng-Po Yu (Taoyuan County), Han-Pei Huang (Taoyuan City)
Application Number: 12/260,096
International Classification: H05K 1/11 (20060101); H05K 1/00 (20060101); B29C 35/08 (20060101); C04B 35/00 (20060101);