COMPONENT QUANTITY SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENT TAPE REELS

Abstract

An improved electronic component holder of the type having a reel of tape, wherein the tape has a back side, a front side, and may include small wells evenly spaced from each other and containing electronic components The improvement includes markings on one of the back side and the front side of the reel of tape containing the electronic components with a scale that will ultimately determine an amount of electronic components left on the reel of tape. The markings may include a means of determining quantity of components on a tape or length of tape by automatic identification or machine vision. The markings may be applied to tapes on reels containing components or to each piece of the component tape assembly, for example the cover tape or component tape, individually such as in a tape pre-print assembly on a newly manufactured cover tape reel.

Claims

1. An improved electronic component holder of the type having a reel of tape, wherein the tape has a back side, a front side, and small wells evenly spaced-apart from each other and containing electronic components so as to make it easy for a machine to remove the electronic components from the reel of tape and insert the electronic components onto an electronic component, or a method of affixing electronic components to the tape without the need for wells such as passive components, wherein said improvement comprises: markings on one of the back side and the front side of the reel of tape containing the electronic components with a scale that will ultimately determine an amount of electronic components left on the reel of tape.

2. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said markings being a ruler.

3. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said marking on the one of the back side and the front side of the reel of tape produces visible images.

4. The improved electronic component holder of claim 3, wherein the improvement further comprises the visible images of the markings being offset printing.

5. The improved electronic component holder of claim 3, wherein the improvement further comprises the visible images of the markings being ink jet printing.

6. The improved electronic component holder of claim 3, wherein the improvement further comprises the visible images of the markings being flexo printing.

7. The improved electronic component holder of claim 3, wherein the improvement further comprises the visible images of the markings being laser markings.

8. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said markings being disposed along one of the back side of the tape and the front side of the tape.

9. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises if said markings are disposed along the front side of the tape, said markings are affix via a supplemental tape that extends adhesively along the front side of the tape and has the markings thereon.

10. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said markings include a scale, which will ultimately determine a length of tape left on the reel.

11. The improved electronic component holder of claim 10, wherein the improvement further comprises said scale of said markings include a ruler.

12. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said marking on one of the back side of the tape and on the front side of the tape include offset printing.

13. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said marking on one of the back side of the tape and on the front side of the tape include ink jet printing.

14. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said marking on one of the back side of the tape and on the front side of the tape include flexo printing.

15. The improved electronic component holder of claim 1, wherein the improvement further comprises said marking on one of the back side of the tape and on the front side of the tape include laser markings.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES OF THE DRAWING

[0011] The figures of the drawing are briefly described as follows:

[0012] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a prior art reel and tape;

[0013] FIG. 2 is an enlarged diagrammatic front side view of a section of the prior art tape of the prior art reel and tape identified by ARROW 2 in FIG. 1; and

[0014] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic back side view of a section of the tape of the reel and tape of the embodiments of the present invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS UTILIZED IN THE FIGURES OF THE DRAWING

Prior Art

[0015] 10 reel of tape of prior art [0016] 14 reel of reel of tape 10 of prior art [0017] 16 tape of reel of tape 10 of prior art [0018] 20 back side of tape 16 of reel of tape 10 of prior art [0019] 22 front side of tape 16 of reel of tape 10 of prior art [0020] 24 evenly spaced-apart wells of front side 22 of tape 16 of reel of tape 10 of prior art [0021] 26 electronic components of prior art

Present Invention

[0022] 30 improved electronic component holder tape of embodiments of present invention [0023] 32 markings [0024] 33 supplemental tape [0025] 34 scale of markings 32 [0026] 36 ruler of scale 34 of markings 32 [0027] 38 most inner portion on tape 16 on reel 14 [0028] 40 low number of most inner portion 38 on tape 16 on reel 14 [0029] 42 most outer portion on tape 16 on reel 14 [0030] 44 high number of most outer portion 42 on tape 16 on reel 14 [0031] 46 remaining length of tape 16 on reel 14

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0032] Referring now to FIG. 3, the improved electronic component holder tape of the embodiments of the present invention is shown generally at 30.

[0033] The improved electronic component holder tape 30 includes markings 32. The markings 32 are disposed along one of the back side 20 of the tape 16 and the front side 22 of the tape 16. If the markings 32 are disposed along the front side 22 of the tape 16, they are affixed via a supplemental tape 33 that extends adhesively along the front side 22 of the tape 16 and has the markings 32 thereon.

[0034] The markings 32 include a scale 34, such as, a ruler 36, which will ultimately determine a length of tape 16 left on the reel 14 by the following operation: [0035] a) A most inner portion 38 on the tape 16 on the reel 14 would be a low number 40; [0036] b) A most outer portion 42 on the tape 16 on the reel 14 would be a high number 44; [0037] c) Simple subtraction of the low number 40 from the high number 44 would give a remaining length 46 of the tape 16 on the reel 14; [0038] d) Since the electronic components 26 are evenly spaced-apart, a determination of components per unit length segment can be made; [0039] e) Multiply the remaining length 46 of the tape 16 on the reel 14 by the components per unit length segment will yield the number of electronic components 26 remaining on the reel 14.

[0040] The marking 32 on one of the back side 20 of the tape 16 and the front side 22 of the tape 16 can be made by any method that produces a visible image. This may include offset printing, ink jet printing, flexo printing, laser markings, or any other technology that produces the visible image.

[0041] The embodiments of the present invention 30 will aid in determining the true quantity of electronic components 26 left on the reel 14 used in electronic manufacturing.

[0042] It is to be understood, however, in the alternative, the markings 32 on the tape may consist of barcodes and or RFID (generally called AutoID).

[0043] These barcodes and RFID will contain information that can be retrieved from the tape automatically by appropriate devices, such as, but not limited to, by a barcode reader or an RFID tag reader.

[0044] With this arrangement of the barcode and the RFID, the reel quantity is directly inputted into a production control system, and the calculations are processed automatically. It is a way of determining the yield of electronic components 26 remaining on the reel 14 automatically.

Impressions

[0045] It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

[0046] While the embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described as embodied in a component quantity system for electronic component tape reels, nevertheless, they are not limited to the details shown, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions, and changes in the forms and details of the embodiments of the present invention illustrated and their operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the embodiments of the present invention.

[0047] Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the embodiments of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt them for various applications without omitting features that from the standpoint of prior art fairly constitute characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of the embodiments of the present invention.