1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a real time clock integrated circuit (RTC IC), and more particularly to an integrated real-time clock integrated circuit device including a RTC and its related components and a method for manufacturing the same.
a device and method to integrate the RTC IC with its related components in a single package. PA1 1. The battery, quartz oscillator, and capacitors are not integrated with the RTC IC. Therefore, a large layout area on a printed circuit board (PCB) is required. Also, an extra battery holder is required in addition to a manual assembly to install the battery and the quartz oscillator, which increase manufacturing cost for the clock circuit. PA1 2. When the clock circuit is assembled, extra examination and fix-up processes are required to make sure the battery voltage is normal and the generated signal frequency is correct. If there is any abnormality found during the examination process, further adjustment or repair need to be performed by engineers until the circuit is in normal condition. The involved examination and fix-up processes increase manufacturing cost as well. PA1 providing a printed circuit board (PCB); PA1 providing at least one capacitor soldered on the PCB; PA1 providing a quartz oscillator soldered on the PCB; PA1 examining soldering points to identify defective soldering points; PA1 reworking the defective soldering points until the defective soldering points pass the examination; PA1 providing a real time clock integrated circuit (RTC IC), wherein a plurality of pins of the RTC IC are bent upward and pins of the RTC IC are rectified; PA1 soldering the PCB on a surface of the RTC IC; PA1 providing a battery soldered on the PCB; PA1 examining soldering points and measuring a battery voltage; PA1 re-soldering the soldering points if the soldering points fail to pass the examination; PA1 replacing the battery if the battery voltage is abnormal; PA1 charging the battery; PA1 measuring a signal frequency from the RTC IC and the battery voltage to identify abnormalities; PA1 fixing up the abnormalities until the signal frequency from the RTC IC and the battery voltage are both correct; PA1 providing a packaging cover and a gluing material; PA1 filling the gluing material into the packaging cover; PA1 assembling the packaging cover filled with the gluing material and the RTC IC soldered with related components to produce the integrated RTC IC package; and PA1 drying out the integrated RTC IC package naturally.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical appliances are widely used in the world. There is no exaggeration to say that these electrical appliances which provide great convenience to the human being are indispensable to the day-to-day life in this modern society.
One of the salient features of the electrical appliances is that most of them require a clocking function. For example, a clock circuit is required to automatically turn on and off a Hi-Fi or VCR. Also, commonly used personal computers are all embedded with a clock circuit, which operates to provide an accurate time even the main power of the computer is turned off. The operating system of the computer system can attach time information to a file when it is created or altered based on the clock function provided. Users can also distinguish the old files from the new ones according to the associated time stamp.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a clock circuit 100, including a real time clock integrated circuit (RTC IC) 110, a battery 134 and an oscillating circuit consisting of a quartz oscillator 131 and capacitors 132, 133. External control circuit, for example, a central processing unit (CPU) of a personal computer, can set parameters for the RTC IC 110 or read time information through a line 120. Note that the RTC IC 110 needs to keep operating to provide timing functions when the external power source is turned off. Therefore, the battery 134 is required to provide power for the RTC IC 110. The battery 134 can be a button-type lithium battery with a voltage of 3.0 V and a capacity of 50 mAH. The RTC IC 110 requires only a very small current to maintain operation thanks to the advancements in semiconductor technology. Therefore, the above-mentioned lithium battery can provide power to the RTC IC 100 for as long as two years. The quartz oscillator 131 provides a time base for the RTC IC 110. The capacitors 132 and 133 together with the quartz oscillator 131 constitute an oscillating circuit.
Although semiconductor technology has made significant progress recent years, the quartz oscillator and battery are nevertheless not integrated in the RTC IC 100. Furthermore, the capacitors 132 and 133 in the clock circuit 100 of FIG. 1 are closely related to the oscillating circuit based on the quartz oscillator 131, and therefore not integrated in the RTC IC 100 either. It is then inevitable to include the battery 134, quartz oscillator 131, and capacitors 132 and 133 in the clock circuit 100 when the RTC IC 100 is used.
In manufacturing the clock circuit 100, all the components, including the RTC IC 110, the battery 134, and quartz oscillator 131, require a manual assembly with an exception of the capacitors 132 and 133, which can be assembled automatically by using a surface mounted device (SMD) technology. The manual assembly of these components significantly increases the manufacturing cost. In addition, the installation of the battery 134 requires a battery holder, which also increases the manufacturing cost. Furthermore, when the assembling process is completed, an examination process is required to make sure the battery voltage is normal and the oscillating frequency is correct. If there is any abnormality occurred, a fix-up process is performed until everything is in normal condition. These extra examination and fix-up processes inevitably increase the manufacturing cost.
As a summary, the above-mentioned clock circuit using the RTC IC, quartz oscillator, capacitors, and battery has the following disadvantages: