Thin, molded, surface mount electronic device

Abstract

Abstract An electronic component (10) having a flexible substrate (32) with conductive traces (34) thereon may have the leads separated into arrays (24) that are shaped to contact and be surface mounted to the bonding lands (16) on a printed circuit board (PCB) (12). The flexible substrate (32) , such as polyimide, adheres to the traces (34) and is formed into lead arrays (24) with them. The lead arrays (24) thus keep portions of the leads and the outer bonding areas (50) corresponding thereto aligned with respect to each other during handling and mounting to the PCB (12). An alignment mechanism (24/28) may be optionally present on the lead arrays (24) that mates with a corresponding mechanism (30) on the PCB (12). The package body (18) itself may be overmolded, assembled from prior parts, etc. Another alternate version includes test points (46) on the perimeter of the substrate(32) beyond the outer bonding areas (50) that may be used to test the device, such as an integrated circuit chip or die, at an intermediate stage in the assembly process. The periphery (44) and test points (46) may be sheared away before the device (10) is mounted to the PCB (12). A variety of outer bonding area pitches may be provided on the same device (10) with test points (46) of a standard pitch. The relatively inexpensive device (10) is thin and easily mounted by conventional techniques.

Inventors

• 👤 Paul T. Lin
• 👤 Michael B. Mcshane

Bibliographic Details