Electrical conductor interconnect providing solderable connections to hard-to-contact substrates, such as liquid crystal cells
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsCharles W. Eichelberger, Wesley K. Waldron, Robert J. Wojnarowski
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Abstract
An electrical conductor interconnect is disclosed which permits hard-to-contact substrates, such as the glass substrate in liquid crystal display cells, to be connected to electrical apparatus by conventional soldering techniques. The interconnect conductor involves the use of a polymer loaded with both a conducting powder and a non-noble metal powder whose top surface is coated with a contiguous layer of an adherent solderable metal by an augmentation replacement reaction.
Claims35
An electrical conductor interconnect, comprising:
- a first conductor;
- a formation of a cured polymer containing a finely-divided first metallic composition and a second metal, said formation being positioned in electrical contact to said first conductor;
- and a contiguous layer of said second metal, wherein said second metal is below the metal of said first metallic composition in the activity series and wherein both said formation and said contiguous layer are electrically conductive and in electrical contact.
A method for fabricating an electrical conductor interconnect, comprising the steps of:
- providing a first conductor pattern;
- applying to selected areas of the pattern a metal ink comprising a curable polymer and a finely-divided composition of a first metal;
- at least partially curing said metal ink;
- contacting the resulting substrate with a solution of a salt of a second metal in which the second metal is below said first metal of said finely-divided composition in the activity series and whose anion forms soluble salts with the cation of said first metal, to form a contiguous layer of said second metal on said metal ink;
- and attaching a second conductor to at least said contiguous layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.