Structure and method to fabricate tooling for bumping thin flex circuits

摘要

A structure and method for a post plate of a die set that can be used to emboss a plurality of contact pads of a flexible printed circuit during the formation of a printer printhead. In one embodiment, a plurality of post plate posts can be formed, where each post plate post has a flat upper surface, generally straight sides, and a sharp corner where the flat upper surface and the generally straight sides intersect. Each post can be polished using, for example, a pad and an abrasive polishing compound or an electrochemical polishing process, to round the sharp corners to form a post having a rounded contour. In another embodiment, a plurality of post plate posts each having a rounded contour can be formed using a molding process.

主权项

1. A method for forming a post plate for embossing a printhead flexible printed circuit, comprising:
anisotropically etching a post plate blank to form a plurality of posts each having a square or rectangular cross section, a flat upper surface, generally straight sides, and sharp corners where the flat upper surface and the generally straight sides intersect; and polishing the plurality of posts to round the sharp corners and to form a plurality of polished posts each having a rounded contour.