Contact-making device, in particular for making contact between electrical components and lead frames, and process for its production

Abstract

A description is given of a contact-making device which can be used in particular for making contacts between electrical components in electrical subassemblies and lead-frames, such as printed-circuit boards, multi-chip modules, flexible circuits or the like. To achieve dependable, inexpensive and very accurate contact-making between the components and the lead-frames, the contact-making device has an electrical zero-insertion-force connector having an elastic dielectric, a number of electrically conducting connections formed in the zero-insertion-force connector and a number of contact points disposed on an upper side and an underside of the electrical zero-insertion-force connector. The contact points being connected via the connections. The contact points advantageously protrude in each case beyond the planes of the upper side and the underside of the electrical zero-insertion-force connector. Furthermore, a process for producing such a contact-making device is described.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A contact-making device for making electrical contact between components, comprising: 
 a zero-insertion-force connector having an elastic dielectric with an underside and an upper side forming an underside and an upper side, respectively, of said zero-insertion-force connector, said elastic dielectric formed of at least one elastic dielectric layer each having an underside and an upper side;    contact points disposed on said upper side and said underside of said zero-insertion-force connector;    electrically conducting connections disposed in said elastic dielectric and each of said electrically conducting connections respectively connecting a number of said contact points to one another;    a structured metal layer disposed on one of said underside and said upper side of at least one layer of said elastic dielectric, and said electrically conducting connections connecting said structured metal layer to said contact points on an oppositely lying one of said underside and said upper side of said zero-insertion-force connector.    
     
     
         2 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said structured metal layer is provided on said upper side and said underside of at least one layer of said elastic dielectric and said electrically conducting connections connect said structured metal layer on said upper side to said structured metal layer on said underside.  
     
     
         3 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said at least one elastic dielectric layer is one of at least two elastic dielectric layers, said structured metal layer is disposed between said two elastic dielectric layers, and said electrically conducting connections connect said contact points which are offset laterally in relation to one another with respect to said elastic dielectric layers to one another through said structured metal layer.  
     
     
         4 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said at least one elastic dielectric layer is one of a plurality of elastic dielectric layers and said upper side and said underside of each of said elastic dielectric layers have disposed thereon a respective structured metal layer and said electrically conducting connections in each case connect two structured metal layers to each other.  
     
     
         5 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said contact points disposed next to one another on said upper side and on said underside of said zero-insertion-force connector are connected to one another through said electrically conducting connections.  
     
     
         6 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said elastic dielectric is formed from a material selected from the group consisting of silicone rubber and polyurethane.  
     
     
         7 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein said contact points have surfaces and including a gold coating disposed on said surfaces of said contact points.  
     
     
         8 . The contact-making device according to    claim 1   , wherein at least some of said electrically conducting connections are disposed in releasable contact with respect to others of said electrically conducting connections in said zero-insertion-force connector.  
     
     
         9 . A process for producing a contact-making device for making electrical contact between components, which comprises the step of: 
 forming a zero-insertion-force connector having an upper side and an underside by the steps of: 
 providing an elastic dielectric having an upper side and an underside being the upper side and the underside, respectively, of the zero-insertion-force connector;  
 applying a metal layer to at least one of an upper side and an underside of a layer of the elastic dielectric;  
 structuring the elastic dielectric;  
 forming a number of contact points on the upper side and the underside of the zero-insertion-force connector; and  
 forming a number of electrically conducting connections in and through the elastic dielectric such that the electrically conducting connections connect a number of the contact points to one another.  
   
     
     
         10 . The process according to    claim 9   , which comprises applying the metal layer to the upper side and to the underside of the layer of the elastic dielectric.  
     
     
         11 . The process according to    claim 9   , which comprises: 
 structuring a further layer of the elastic dielectric;    forming additional ones of the electrically conducting connections in and through the further layer; and    placing the further layer and the layer such that the electrically conducting connections are connected to one another such that the contact points on the upper side are connected in an electrically conducting manner to the contact points on the underside.    
     
     
         12 . The process according to    claim 11   , which comprises applying the metal layer to both sides of the layer and the further layer of the elastic dielectric, and the metal layers are connected to one another by making contacts being electrolytically made between the metal layers.  
     
     
         13 . The process according to    claim 9   , which comprises forming the electrically conducting connections as micro-vias.  
     
     
         14 . The contact-making device according to    claim 9   , which comprises providing at least one layer of a photolithographic film on at least one of the upper side and the underside of the electrical zero-insertion-force connector.  
     
     
         15 . The contact-making device according to    claim 9   , which comprises forming an area for the electrically conducting connections by structuring at least one of the elastic dielectric, the metal layer, and the photolithographic film.  
     
     
         16 . The contact-making device according to    claim 9   , which comprises forming at least one of the contact points and the metal layer by electro-depositing a metal.  
     
     
         17 . The contact-making device according to    claim 15   , which comprises forming the electrically conducting connections by an electrolytical production process.  
     
     
         18 . A process for producing a contact-making device for making contact between electrical components and lead-frames, which comprises the steps of: 
 producing an electrical zero-insertion-force connector having at least one layer of an elastic dielectric coated on at least one of an upper side and an underside with an electrically conducting layer;    structuring the elastic dielectric and the electrically conducting layer to form an area for a number of electrically conducting connections;    forming the electrically conducting connections in the electrical zero-insertion-force connector; and    applying a number of contact points to an upper side and an underside of the electrical zero-insertion-force connector, the contact points being connected to one another through the electrically conducting connections.    
     
     
         19 . The process according to    claim 18   , which comprises providing at least two layers of the elastic dielectric with the electrically conducting layer on at least one of the upper side and the underside, and individual ones of the layers of the elastic dielectric are connected to one another after the structuring step to produce the electrical zero-insertion-force connector.  
     
     
         20 . The process according to    claim 18   , which comprises coating at least one of the upper side and the underside of the elastic dielectric with at least one photolithographic film.  
     
     
         21 . The process according to    claim 18   , which comprises performing the structuring step by at least one of laser structuring, photo-structuring, and etching-structuring.  
     
     
         22 . The process according to    claim 18   , which comprises building up the contact points electrolytically on the upper side and the underside of the electrical zero-insertion-force connector.  
     
     
         23 . The process according to    claim 18   , which comprises coating the contact points with a metal layer.  
     
     
         24 . The process according to    claim 19   , which comprises making contacts via an electrolytical process between the two dielectric layers through the electrically conducting layer to form the electrical zero-insertion-force connector.