Method and system for patterning a mask layer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8968985-B2
Application number	US-73168907-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2007
Priority date	Mar 30, 2007
Publication date	Mar 3, 2015
Grant date	Mar 3, 2015

Abstract

The presently described embodiments use a printing process, e.g. a wax printing technique, to pattern a mask layer (such as a soldermask layer) of, for example, a printed circuit. Substantially all other conventional processes in developing soldermask and exposure processes can be maintained. According to the presently described embodiments, each printed circuit will have a unique pattern that matches uniform and non-uniform runout. In one form, the pattern is comprised of wax single drops having a specified gap to make the process transparent to the current industry practice. Furthermore, the single drops can be used for both large and small areas without any development time differences. In at least one form, the wax pattern and the soldermask in the gap are removed during development.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for forming a pattern in a layer of ultraviolet curable material on a printed circuit to expose selected portions of the printed circuit, the method comprising:
determining a mask pattern for a mask to be applied to the layer;
forming the mask based on the mask pattern on the layer, the mask having dense and isolated features;
exposing the layer and the mask to ultraviolet light; and,
developing a pattern in the layer such that the mask,…

Assignees

• Limb Scott Jong Ho
• Shrader Eric J
• Srinivasan Uma
• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Limb Scott Jong Ho
• Shrader Eric J
• Srinivasan Uma

Classifications

• H05K3/0023

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H05K3/0082

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H05K2203/0551

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H05K3/28

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G03F7/2018 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic