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Micro-holes are drilled and plated in flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) for connecting circuits from different layers. More holes, with diameters smaller than 0.3 mm, are required to be drilled in smaller areas with flexible circuits’ miniaturization. The micro-hole quality of micro-drilling is one of the biggest issues of the flexible circuit manufacturers’ production. However, it is not easy to control the quality of micro-holes. The purpose of this study was to conduct research on the tool wear characteristics of FPC drilling process and its influence on micro-hole quality to improve the micro-hole quality of FPC.

The tool-wear characteristics of micro-drills after FPC drilling were observed. The influence of spindle speed, feed rate, number of drilled holes and entry board materials on tool-wear was analyzed. The hole qualities of FPC micro-drilling were measured and observed. The relationship between tool-wear and hole quality was analyzed.

The result showed that the tool-wear characteristics of FPC micro-drilling was similar to the tool-wear characteristics of rigid printed circuit board (RPC) micro-drilling. Abrasive wear occurred on both the main cutting edges and the chisel edges of micro-drills, even though there was no glass fiber reinforcing the cloth inside FPC. Resin adhesion was observed on the chisel edge. The influence of feed and number of drilled holes on tool-wear was significant. Tool-wear significantly influences the hole quality of FPC. Tool-wear will largely decrease the hole position accuracy of FPC micro-holes. Tool-wear will increase the thickness of PI nail heads and the height of exit burrs. Fracture was the main difference between tool wear of FPC and RPC micro-drilling. Resin adhesion of RPC was much more severe than FPC micro-drilling. Increasing the spindle speed properly may improve tool life and hole quality.

The technology and manufacturing of FPC has been little investigated. Research on micro-drilling FPC and research data is lacking so far. The micro-hole quality directly affects the reliability of FPC. Thus, improving the micro-hole quality of FPC is very important.

The purpose of this study is to present the entry drilling process of flexible printed circuit board (FPCs) and its influence on hole quality, especially hole location accuracy. Compared with the traditional PCB drilling process, the technology of drilling FPCs is facing more problems, such as hole location accuracy, smear on the hole wall surface, burned hole wall surface, etc. Moreover, the materials of FPCs are quite different from the rigid printed circuit boards (RPCs). FPCs no longer contain glass fiber cloths to reinforce resin, resulting in flexibility. Micro-hole quality is the most important issue in FPC drilling. Suggestions were given to obtain higher hole qualities and higher FPC reliability.

The entry drilling process of FPC with different kind of entry boards was observed by a high-speed camera. The hole qualities of FPC micro-drilling, especially hole location accuracy and hole entrance quality, were measured. The relationship between entry boards and hole quality was analyzed.

Significant sliding occurred when drilling FPC with using no-entry board or pure aluminum plate entry board. On the contrary, no significant sliding occurred when using LC-110 or resin-coated aluminum foil (MVC) entry boards. The type, thickness and use-pattern of entry boards influenced hole location accuracy of FPCs seriously. In addition, entry board also influenced the micro-hole entrance quality and micro-hole diameter. The entrance quality of drilling FPC with LC-110 entry board was the best. The diameter variation of drilling FPC with MVC entry board was the smallest. The hole location accuracy decreased as the thickness of entry board increased. Thus, the best use-pattern of entry board was putting a LC-110 under MVC entry board, resulting in best entrance quality and hole location accuracy.

The technology and manufacturing of FPCs in China are obviously behind. Research of FPCs micro-drilling and research data are lacking so far. Thus, it is most necessary to improve the technology level of FPCs micro-drilling in China. Researches on hole quality, especially hole location accuracy of FPCs drilling, were performed in this paper. Suggestions were given to obtain higher hole quality of FPCs.

Compared with the traditional printed circuit board (PCB) drilling process, the technology of drilling IC substrate is facing more problems, such as much smaller hole diameter, more intensive hole space, thinner sheet and more complicated materials are drilled in process. Moreover, the base material of IC substrate is different from traditional PCB, more kinds of fillers added in IC substrate which make the drill worn seriously during drilling process. Micro-drills wear and micro holes quality are the most important questions when drilling IC substrate so far. Wear morphology of micro-drill, holes wall roughness and hole location accuracy are researched in this paper. The influence factors of micro-drills wear and micro holes quality are also studied in this drilling process. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Two drills with same structure and different diameter are used to drill different stacks of IC substrate and drill different holes in this paper. There are four experiments made and the drilling parameters including spindle speed (n), feed rate (v_f) and retraction speed (v_r) are recommended by drill manufacturing company. Wear morphologies of drill are observed, holes wall roughness (R_max) and holes location accuracy (C_pk) are measured in this paper. Analyzing the main factors influence on drill wear, holes wall roughness and holes location accuracy through these experiments.

The micro-drills of IC substrate wear more severely compared with other material of PCB through the experimental results in this paper. Drill diameter has influence on micro-drill wear when drilling IC substrate, the smaller of drill is, the more severely of micro-drill wears. Drill diameter affect the holes wall roughness too, the holes wall roughness of larger holes is better than smaller one in a certain range. The drilled holes number also has influence on micro-drills wear, holes wall roughness and holes location accuracy. The more drilled holes, the seriously of micro-drills wear, and the worn drill would destroy the hole quality. Therefore, the more drilled holes lead the bad holes wall roughness and holes location accuracy in this paper. In addition, stacks of IC substrate affect much on the holes location accuracy, the more stacks, the worse holes location accuracy.

Chinese Mainland is obviously lagging behind in technology and manufacturer of IC substrate which is incompatible with the nation circumstances. There is few research of drilling IC substrate in China and research data are lacking so far. It is most necessary to improve the technology level of drilling IC substrate in China. In order to reduce the wear of micro-drills and improve the quality of micro-holes, many experimental tests about drilling IC substrate are researched in this paper.

In an integrated circuit (IC) substrate, more fillers, including talcum powder and aluminium hydroxide, are added, which leads to much higher rigidity and hardness compared with a traditional printed circuit board. However, the micro drilling of IC substrates is harder. This paper aims to test the drilling process of IC substrates to improve the drilling process and the micro hole quality.

Substrate drilling by a micro drill with 0.11-mm diameter was used under several drilling conditions. The influence of drilling conditions on the drilling process was observed. Drilling forces, drill wear and micro hole quality were also studied.

The deformation circle around holes, hole location accuracy, bugle hole and burrs were the major defects of micro holes that were observed during the drilling of the substrate. Reducing the drilling force and drill wear was the effective way to improve hole quality.

The technology and manufacturing of IC substrates has been little investigated. Research data on drilling IC substrates is lacking. The micro hole quality directly affects the reliability of IC substrates. Thus, improving the drilling technology of IC substrates is very important.

To provide a solution for PCB drilling with strict requirements on hole wall quality.

The influential mechanism of key micro drill bit parameters on hole wall roughness is analyzed. A new type of micro drill bit is developed on the basis of theoretical analysis and experimental verifications.

The key factors in drill bit design which can enable superior hole wall quality are described. Experimental results show that very good hole wall quality is achieved by such newly developed drill bits. Meanwhile, the new drill bits show good performance in terms of wear‐resistance and hole registration accuracy. A solution for PCB drilling with strict requirements on hole wall quality is provided.

The paper highlights the influential mechanism of key parameters of micro drill bit design on the hole wall quality of PCBs. A new kind of micro drill bit which can achieve superior hole wall quality has been developed.

The flexible printed circuit (FPC) board with the characteristic of light and thin strengthened confronted the growing miniaturization requirements of the electronic product and the popularity of wearable devices. The reliability of circuit could be influenced by the hole quality of FPC, such as burrs, which is one of the major problem in FPC.

In this paper, micro-drill with a diameter of 0.1 mm was used to drill the double-sided flexible copper clad laminate. The thrust force, the burr and tool wear were investigated. The influencing factors of the height of the burrs were studied. The relationship between the thrust force and the height of the burrs was also explored. Finally, the formation mechanism of burrs was analyzed.

The entrance burrs were usually less than the exit burrs. The burr height increased with the feed per rotation. The height of the burr increased with the increase of the thrust force for the plastic deformation of the copper foil was dominant. The abrasion of the drill gave rise to increase the height of burr. In micro-hole drilling, the growth of burrs can be suppressed effectively by reducing the clearance between the FPC and the backup plate. The thrust force would be controlled in a certain range to reduce the burr with specific drilling parameters. There existed a certain relationship of Gaussian distribution between the height of the burrs and the thrust force of FPC.

The reliability of the integrated circuit was directly affected by the burrs of the FPC. This research on the formation mechanism of FPC burrs and forecast of burr height provided a firm foundation for further work in the area of improvement of the micro-hole quality.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the thermal deformation effect of a machine tool frame on hole registration accuracy. Hole registration accuracy represents the drilling performance of a machine tool, and it greatly depends on the thermal deformation of the machine frame structures in practical engineering. Reducing thermally induced errors is crucial to improve the hole quality.

First, the thermal design of the machine frame was performed via an optimization procedure to reduce the thermal deformation at an early stage. Then, a thermal–mechanical coupling finite element method model was established to quantify the thermal deformation of the machine tool under environmental temperature fluctuations, and the validity of the presented model was confirmed experimentally using laser interferometry. Finally, a series of drilling tests, including micro-holes and medium holes, was carried out to practically investigate the hole drilling registration accuracy of the machine with a mineral casting frame under different thermal conditions.

Hole registration accuracy showed positional dependency and distinctly non-linear behaviour at different drilling axes which was closely related with the thermal conditions. The positional deviations of medium holes and micro-holes all showed an increasing trend in different degrees under the same temperature fluctuations, and the former were more sensitive to the latter. Therefore, keeping the drilling workshop under thermally stable conditions is crucial for improving the drilling performance of the machine.

The goal of this paper is to reveal the mechanism of hole registration accuracy variations with thermal fluctuations and to provide a strategy for the machine tool industry to further improve the drilling performance during the machining process.

The purpose of this paper was to study the influence of properties of printed circuit boards (PCBs) on the temperature during micro drilling and obtain the influential mechanism of PCBs based on temperature measurement.

Experiments were carried out to study the influence mechanism of PCB properties on micro hole drilling temperature under high spindle speed. The temperature measurement platform was applied, then the influence of components ratio of PCBs on the temperature of micro-drilling was analyzed by using comparative analysis method. The mass ratio of each kind of material in the PCB was defined as four levels and the influence mechanism of properties of PCBs based on temperature measurement was summarized.

Average filler and lower resin would have a positive impact on micro hole drilling temperature, and the smaller filler size and the even distribution would make it better.

An infrared temperature measurement platform was applied and influential mechanism of PCB properties on temperature was analyzed, which could provide the reference value on the optimization of temperature during micro drilling.

The purpose of this paper is to calibrate the surface emissivity of micro drill bit and to investigate the effect of different drilling parameters on the temperature of micro drill bit in printed circuit board (PCB) micro drilling process.

The surface emissivity of micro drill bit was obtained by experiments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied in this study to analysis the effect of different drilling parameters on the temperature of micro drill bit in PCB micro hole drilling. The most significant influencing factor on micro drill bit temperature was achieved by ANOVA.

First, the surface emissivity of cemented carbide rod decreased from 0.4 to 0.32 slowly with temperature in the range of 50-220°C. Second, the most significant influencing factor on the micro drill bit temperature was spindle speed among the drilling parameters including spindle speed, retract rate and infeed rate.

In this paper, the influence of roughness of black coating, carbide rod and micro drill bit on the surface emissivity calibration and the temperature measurement was not considered.

A new simple method has been presented to calibrate the surface emissivity of micro drill bit. Through calibrating the surface emissivity of micro drill bit, the temperature of micro drill bit can be measured accurately by infrared thermometry. Analyzing the influences of different drilling parameters on the temperature of micro drill bit, the mechanism of drilling parameters on drilling temperature is achieved. The basis for the selection of drilling parameters to improve the hole quality is enhanced.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain the micro drill bit temperature field distribution in micro-drilling process and the temperature drop in retracting process with simulation software. Meanwhile, the key factors that affect the micro drill bit temperature will be obtained as well. The results can also be used to improve the accuracy in on-line drilling temperature measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain the micro drill bit temperature field distribution in micro-drilling process and the temperature drop in retracting process with simulation software. Meanwhile, the key factors that affect the micro drill bit temperature will be obtained as well. The results can also be used to improve the accuracy in on-line drilling temperature measurement.

Micro drill bit high-temperature area mainly concentrates in the cutting edge and chisel edge. With the increase of spindle speed and feed speed, the micro drill bit highest temperature increased. The micro drill bit temperature drop rate reaches 20° in the micro-drilling retraction process with certain parameters. The micro drill bit highest temperature detected by an infrared camera is lower by 22° than that in real drilling. The simulation results can be used to guide the actual industrial production.

The simulation results can be applied to revise the temperature measurement by an infrared camera in the drilling process. Drilling experiments show that the simulation method is correct and has certain practical significance. The current temperature measurement method can satisfy most of the requirements of temperature measurements.