Method of making thin film surface mount fuses
AssigneeAVX Corporation
InventorsAvner Badihi, Robert W. Franklin, Barry N. Breen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
SMD fuses having consistent operating characteristics are fabricated by forming a repeating lithographic fuse element pattern on an insulative substrate, passivating the structure, bonding a protective glass plate over the passivation layer, slicing the assembly so formed, terminating the slices and cutting the slices into individual fuses. Fuses thus manufactured may be of any desired dimensions, including standard and non-standard chip sizes.
Claims5
A method of manufacturing a surface mount electrical fuse, comprising the steps of:
- applying a thin metal film to a surface of an insulating substrate;
- removing selected portions of the thin metal film to define a repetitive pattern comprising continuous rows of identical fuse elements, each fuse element comprising a pair of contact portions interconnected by at least one fusible link having a width smaller than that of the contact portions;
- passivating the thin metal film and the adjacent surface of the substrate;
- bonding an insulating cover to the passivation layer formed by the preceding step;
- cutting the assembly formed by the preceding steps into strips along planes normal to the surface of the substrate, each strip thereby including opposed end planar surfaces formed by the cutting operation and a series of side-by-side fuses extending between the end surfaces, and an edge of one of the contact portions of each fuse element being thereby exposed at each of said end surfaces;
- applying a conductive termination over each end surface thereby electrically connecting each termination to the edges of the contact portions exposed at the end surface;
- and
- cutting the strips into individual fuses.
A method of manufacturing a surface mount electrical fuse comprising the steps of:
- depositing a thin conductive film on a surface of an insulating substrate;
- removing selected portions of said film to define parallel rows of plural fuse elements, each of said fuse elements comprising a pair of contact portions interconnected by at least one fusible link having a width smaller than that of the contact portions, the fuse elements of each row being disposed end to end in spaced apart relationship;
- applying a passivation layer to the thin film and surrounding surface of the substrate;
- adhesively bonding an insulating cover to the passivation layer;
- cutting the layered assembly formed by the preceding steps along parallel planes mutually perpendicular to the direction of said rows and to the thin film to define planar surfaces intersecting the contact portions of adjacent fuses, thereby forming strips of fuses disposed side-by-side and exposing edges of the contact portions;
- depositing a conductive termination layer over each of the planar surfaces formed by the preceding step thereby electrically connecting the exposed contact portion edges to the termination layer;
- and
- cutting the strips of fuses into individual fuses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.