Ultrasonic bonding
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorMichael Nikkhoo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The described embodiment relates generally to the field of ultrasonic bonding. More specifically, an apparatus for bonding a number of wires directly to a metal substrate in a single operation without the use of any kind of adhesive or solder is disclosed. The apparatus is an ultrasonic bonder. The ultrasonic bonder has a horn with a cavity specifically sized for the number of wires to be bonded. The ultrasonic bonder is driven at a frequency that corresponds to a resonant frequency of the wires to be bonded.
Claims17
A method for bonding a plurality of wires to a printed circuit board (PCB) pad without solder, the method comprising:
- arranging a plurality of wires together on the PCB pad;
- placing a conformal cavity of an ultrasonic bonding horn over a portion of each of the plurality of wires wherein the conformal cavity and the PCB pad cooperate to restrict movement of the plurality of wires;
- and
- actuating the ultrasonic bonding horn, wherein the actuation of the ultrasonic bonding horn causes a metal-to-metal bond to be formed between each of the plurality of wires and the PCB pad such that each of the plurality of wires is in direct contact with the PCB pad.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed by a processor of a computer aided manufacturing system for bonding a plurality of wires to a metal substrate without solder cause the computer aided manufacturing system to perform the following:
- place a cavity of an ultrasonic bonding horn over an end portion of each of the plurality of wires, wherein the cavity and the metal substrate cooperate to restrict movement of the plurality of wires;
- and
- actuate the ultrasonic bonding horn, wherein the actuation of the ultrasonic bonding horn causes a bond to be formed between each of the plurality of wires and the metal substrate such that each of the plurality of wires is in direct contact with the metal substrate.
A method for bonding a plurality of wires to a metal substrate without solder, the method comprising:
- arranging a plurality of wires together on the metal substrate;
- aligning a cavity of an ultrasonic bonding horn with the metal substrate such that the cavity is over an end portion of each of the plurality of wires arranged on the metal substrate;
- and
- actuating the ultrasonic bonding horn to cause each of the plurality of wires to be bonded directly to the metal substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.