Development of automatic through-insulation welding for microelectric interconnections

The capability to automatically route, remove insulation from, and weld small-diameter solid conductor wire is presented. This would facilitate the economical small-quantity production of complex miniature electronic assemblies. An engineering model of equipment having this capability was developed and evaluated. Whereas early work in the use of welded magnet wire interconnections was concentrated on opposed electrode systems, and generally used heat to melt the wire insulation, the present method is based on a concentric electrode system and a wire feed system which splits the insulation by application of pressure prior to welding. The work deals with the design, fabrication, and evaluation testing of an improved version of this concentric electrode system. Two different approaches to feeding the wire to the concentric electrodes were investigated. It was concluded that the process is feasible for the interconnection of complex miniature electronic assemblies.