1.PCB VS flexible printed circuit board
PCB is one of the important electronic components in the electronic industry. Almost every kind of electronic equipment, such as electronic watches, calculators, computers, communication electronic equipment, military weapon systems, etc., as long as there are electronic components such as integrated circuits, all need to use printed boards for electrical interconnection. PCB has developed from single-sided to double-sided, multi-layered and flexible, and has been developing in the direction of high precision, high density and high reliability, and has been continuously reducing the volume, reducing the cost and improving the performance, so that PCB has always maintained a strong vitality in the development process of electronic equipment.
Compared with the hard circuit board, the flexible printed circuit board soft board has the characteristics of flexibility, easy turning, light weight, thin thickness and so on. The soft board product is made up of a soft copper foil substrate and a soft insulating layer attached with adhesive (glue) and then pressed together, which has many advantages that the hard printed circuit board does not have. Such as free bending, winding and folding, can be arranged arbitrarily according to the spatial layout requirements, and can move and stretch freely in three-dimensional space, thus achieving the integration of components, components assembly and wire connection. The use of flexible printed circuit board can greatly reduce the volume of electronic products, which is suitable for the development of electronic products in the direction of high density, miniaturization and high reliability. Therefore, FPCB has been widely used in aerospace, military, mobile communication, laptop, computer peripherals, PDA, digital camera and other fields or products.
PCB and flexible printed circuit board FPC are important components and line connection carriers in 3C industry.
With the continuous development of intelligence in the electronic industry, PCB and flexible printed circuit board FPC are getting smaller and thinner, and more and more electronic components are accommodated, so the requirements for processing precision are getting higher and higher. At the same time, the application of laser in PCB and flexible printed circuit board is more and more extensive!
2. Application of laser in PCB and FPC manufacturing
With the development of flexible circuits, the smaller and more complex flexible printed circuit board will become the future development direction. Traditional processing methods are difficult to meet the processing needs due to their own limitations. In order to achieve more refined flexible circuit design, more refined processing solutions are needed.
1. Laser marking
Laser marking has high precision, high speed and stable performance. It only needs to be controlled by a computer, the operation is simple, it can print all kinds of complicated patterns, characters, QR codes and other contents, and it is non-contact processing, without consumables, environmental protection and pollution-free, which fully meets the requirements of existing PCB and high-quality marking in flexible printed circuit board industry. It can make up for the deficiency of screen printing processing, and gradually become the best processing tool for PCB marking, which plays an important role in the circuit board industry!
Ultraviolet laser marking machine, with high-energy laser beam, can convert light energy into chemical energy when acting on polymer materials such as PI. Under the action of precision laser beam, some chemical bonds connecting atoms and molecules of substances change, thus achieving the purpose of surface treatment. In the process of processing, due to the processing time and energy concentration, the surface of the processed object will hardly be damaged. Therefore, both the machining accuracy and quality can be effectively guaranteed. Although the current UV laser marking machine is more expensive than the traditional processing equipment, the technological requirements of marking are difficult to reach by other processing methods. In the future, laser technology will give more refined processing solutions to the current flexible processing, and provide a strong guarantee for the future flexible circuits to be smaller and more complicated.
Compared with traditional printing technology, laser marking technology has many advantages:
1) Good quality and strong wear resistance. PCB surface marking is clear and beautiful, and various LOGO, patterns, two-dimensional codes and words can be marked, and the patterns are directly carved on the material, so the wear resistance is more prominent;
2) High machining accuracy. After the laser beam emitted by the laser is focused, the minimum spot diameter can reach 10um(UV laser), which is of great help to complex graphics and precision machining.
3) High efficiency, simple operation and cost reduction. Users only need to set the parameters on the computer to mark directly, and the material surface can be marked in just a few seconds to more than ten seconds.
4) Non-destructive marking. Laser marking adopts non-contact processing, and the laser head does not need to touch the surface of the material, so there is no need to consider the damage to the material.
5) Wide application range, safety and environmental protection. All kinds of thin metal/nonmetal materials can be marked;
6) Stable performance and long service life of equipment. With the development of technology, the service life of laser is greatly increased and the service life of equipment is greatly prolonged.
2. Laser cutting
1) high precision
Compared with the traditional cutting technology, the precision of laser cutting is self-evident. Generally, taking the MPS-0606LP model of Han family as an example, the positioning accuracy of laser cutting is ±0.01mm, and the repeated positioning accuracy is 0.005mm It is suitable for cutting precision fittings and fine cutting of various craft characters and paintings.
2) Narrow slit
The laser beam is focused into a very small spot, so that the focal point reaches a high power density, and the material is quickly heated to the degree of gasification, which evaporates to form holes. With the relative linear movement of the light beam and the material, the holes continuously form narrow slits. Generally, the notch width is 0.10 ~ 0.20 mm. Compared with the traditional cutting technology, the slit formed by laser cutting is very narrow.
3) the cutting surface is smooth
Generally speaking, for some industries or products with very high cutting requirements, no burr is allowed. Traditional cutting technology can’t meet this requirement, while laser cutting technology can achieve burr-free cutting surface.
4) Fast speed.
Another significant advantage of the new laser cutting technology is that the cutting speed is very fast. Under normal circumstances, taking the MPS-0606LP model as an example, the maximum acceleration can reach 1.5G, and the maximum positioning speed can reach 60m/min, which is much faster than that of gongs and punches. For some demanding fields, the application of laser cutting is also very frequent.
5) Good quality and no damage.
Laser cutting is a kind of non-contact cutting, the cutting edge is little affected by heat, and there is basically no thermal deformation of the workpiece, which completely avoids the edge collapse formed when the material is punched and sheared. Generally, secondary processing is not required for cutting seams. The laser cutting head will not contact with the surface of the material, thus ensuring that the workpiece will not be scratched.
6) Not affected by material properties
Laser can process steel plates, stainless steel, aluminum alloy plates, cemented carbide and substrates made of various materials in PCB industry, and can cut without deformation regardless of hardness. Laser processing flexibility is good, it can process arbitrary figures, and can also cut pipes and other profiles.
7) Save mold investment. Compared with punch processing, laser processing needs no mold, no mold consumption, and no mold repair, saving the time of replacing the mold, thus saving the processing cost and reducing the production cost, especially suitable for processing large products.
8) Save materials
Using computer programming, products with different shapes can be cut, and the utilization rate of materials can be increased to the maximum extent.
9) Improve the sample delivery speed.
After the drawing of the product is formed, laser processing can be carried out immediately, and the physical object of the new product can be obtained in the shortest time.
10) Safety and environmental protection
The equipment has high integration, small floor space, less processing waste, low noise, cleanness, safety and no pollution, which greatly improves the working environment.
3. Advantages of green/ultraviolet PCB laser cutting machine in processing PCB.
1) Compared with CO2 laser, it is applicable to a wider range of materials. Except aluminum substrate, almost all material products can be processed, such as FR4, glass fiber board, paper substrate, copper clad laminate, etc. In addition, the wavelength of ultraviolet light and green light is shorter, the pulse width is smaller, the thermal influence is smaller, and the burning phenomenon will not occur.
2) Non-contact processing, which can be used for any graphic processing without being affected. Therefore, compared with the traditional processing method, it does not need any adjustment in the PCB industry, which can effectively improve the response speed and process any curve.
3. The machining effect is good, the wavelength of laser is short, the thermal influence is small, the cutting edge is smooth and burr-free, and no dust will be generated in the machining process. Will not produce any stress on PCB circuit board, and will not deform the board.
4) High cutting accuracy, camera positioning, cutting gap less than 50 microns, high cutting position accuracy. It is especially suitable for some specific PCB sub-board industries with high processing requirements.
5) The operation process is simple, the software is automatically controlled, and the automatic feeding and unloading mechanism can be docked, thus saving the labor cost.
