JP2002056777A - Vacuum airtight processing method inside electronic component - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of performing a gas exhausting, a superposition, sealing, and the like within one vacuum chamber, without using a chip pipe, in formation of a discharging space inside an electronic component, such as a flat panel display. SOLUTION: A front substrate 12 with an electrode formed on the inside face, and a back substrate 14 with an electrode and a phosphor layer formed on the inside face, are attached to hot plates 2, 4 in each of which a heating wire is built in a vacuum chamber A. After evacuating air from inside of the vacuum chamber A, both the substrates 12, 14 are piled up and sealed with each other with a sealant currently formed in the circumference of both the substrates 12, 14 or one of the substrates, while heating the substrates 12, 14. Then, the sealant is cured by cooling.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flat and thin flat panel display such as a plasma display (hereinafter referred to as PDP) and a field emission display (field emission display element, hereinafter referred to as FED). The present invention relates to a vacuum hermetic treatment method for forming a discharge space inside an electronic component such as a sensor using a cold cathode device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a display, a cathode ray tube (CRT) has been widely used for a long time.
The CRT is a glass vacuum tube, which scans an electron beam generated by an electron source with an electric field and irradiates the phosphor plate with light so that the phosphor plate emits light to display an image. This CRT
Is a display with excellent brightness, number of colors, viewing angle, and the like. However, because it is a vacuum tube made of glass and it is necessary to scan electrons, flattening, thinning,
There is a problem that it is difficult to increase the size.

In recent years, television screens have tended to be flat, thin, and large, and various display methods have been studied to realize such displays. That is, as a display instead of a CRT, a PDP that emits light by a discharge gas or an FE combining a field emission cathode and a phosphor.
D is under development.

[0004] The PDP has a structure in which two substrates on which electrodes, partition walls, luminous bodies, etc. are formed are sealed with a sealing material at the periphery thereof, and discharge gas is sealed in a discharge space sandwiched between the two substrates.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a front substrate 30 and a rear substrate 32 having electrodes formed on at least one of them are sealed by melting a sealing material 36 applied to the periphery thereof under heating in the air. A discharge space 34 is formed between the front substrate 30 and the rear substrate 32 by a sealing material and a rib (not shown), and is passed through a chip tube 38 provided on an exhaust / gas introduction hole 40 opened in the rear substrate 32. After evacuating the discharge space 34, a discharge gas is introduced into the space 34 from the tip tube, and then the tip tube 38 is melted and sealed, whereby the discharge gas is sealed in the discharge space. .

The FED has a cathode conductor 52, an insulating layer 54, and an emitter 56 as shown in FIG.
And a surface substrate 50 having a field emission cathode formed of a gate electrode 58 on the inner surface thereof and an anode conductor 6 such as an ITO film.
2. A back substrate 60 having a phosphor layer 64 and the like formed on the inner surface thereof. The substrate is heated and sealed at atmospheric pressure with a spacer 66 sandwiched between sealing materials formed on the peripheral portions of the two substrates. A discharge space 68 is formed in the discharge space 68, and then the two substrates are heated while the impurity gas components in the discharge space 68 are evacuated through a chip tube 72 provided on an exhaust hole 70 opened in the rear substrate 60. It is manufactured by a method of melting and sealing the tip tube 38.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned method of manufacturing a PDP or FED, the gap between the sealed substrates is small, and the chip tube provided on the rear substrate has a diameter of 2 to 3 mmφ × 20 mm. Of the degree
It has been pointed out that the exhaust conductance is small and the exhaust time in the heating step is long.

Further, in the above-mentioned production of PDP and FED, a step of fusing and sealing the tip tube with a gas burner or the like at the end of the production process is necessary, and since this step is performed manually, It is a major factor that hinders automation and labor saving of all processes, and measures are urgently needed.

In view of the above, the present invention relates to PDP, FE
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of forming an internal discharge space under vacuum airtight without using a chip tube in obtaining an electronic component such as a flat panel display such as D or a sensor using a cold cathode element.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a front substrate having electrodes formed on an inner surface thereof and a rear substrate having electrodes and phosphor layers formed on an inner surface thereof are provided with a gap in a vacuum chamber. A process of holding on the lower heating plate,
Evacuation of the vacuum chamber, above the vacuum chamber,
A step of heating the substrate held on the lower heating plate, a step of laminating and sealing both substrates with a sealing material applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate under heating, and after laminating and sealing A step of cooling the vacuum chamber to harden the sealing material and then returning the vacuum chamber to atmospheric pressure.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the step of superposing and sealing the two substrates under heating is applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate. It is performed through a sealing material and a spacer.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the electronic component is a field emission display.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a front substrate having an electrode formed on an inner surface thereof and a back substrate having an electrode and a phosphor layer formed on an inner surface thereof are provided at intervals in a vacuum chamber. Holding the substrate on the lower heating plate, evacuating the vacuum chamber, heating the substrate held on the lower and upper heating plates in the vacuum chamber, introducing a discharge gas into the vacuum chamber, discharging gas A step of laminating and sealing both substrates with a sealing material applied to the above-mentioned front substrate and / or rear substrate in an atmosphere and under heating. After the lamination and sealing, the vacuum chamber is cooled to cure the sealing material. And a step of returning the pressure in the vacuum chamber to the atmospheric pressure.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the step of superposing and sealing the two substrates under heating in the discharge gas atmosphere is performed by using the front substrate and / or the rear substrate. And a rib formed on one of the substrates.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth or fifth aspect, the electronic component is a plasma display.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the front substrate and the rear substrate are installed in the vacuum chamber at an interval, and attached to the lower heating plate to exhaust the vacuum chamber. The front substrate and the rear substrate are separately heated to a predetermined temperature by the upper and lower heating plates, respectively, and then both substrates are superimposed by applying a load, and sealing is performed. Exhaust conductance of exhaust can be increased, and exhaust time can be significantly reduced. Then, the impurity gas adhering to the vacuum chamber and the substrate surface in the chamber can be completely removed within a short evacuation time.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the two substrates are overlapped and sealed with each other via the sealing material and the spacer, the discharge space is made larger in addition to the effect of the first aspect. be able to.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the front substrate and the rear substrate are installed in the vacuum chamber at an interval, and attached to the lower heating plate to evacuate the vacuum chamber. The back substrate and the upper and lower heating plates are separately heated to a predetermined temperature, and then a discharge gas is introduced into an exhaust vacuum chamber, and both substrates heated in the discharge gas atmosphere are sealed with a sealing material. Thus, a discharge space in which a discharge gas is sealed can be created by superimposing, and it can be performed in a short time when both substrates are superimposed. This allows
The evacuation conductance of the evacuation can be increased, the evacuation time can be greatly reduced, and the discharge space in which the discharge gas is sealed can be easily provided.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the superposition and sealing of the two substrates heated in the discharge gas atmosphere are performed via the sealing material and the rib formed on one of the substrates. In addition to the effect of the fourth aspect, the discharge space in which the discharge gas is sealed can be made large.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a vacuum hermetic treatment method according to the present invention will be described for a field emission display (FED) with reference to FIG.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are explanatory views showing a vacuum hermetic treatment method of the present invention in the order of steps. FIG. 1A shows a vacuum chamber before mounting a substrate, FIG. It shows the time of alignment and sealing. In the figure, A is a superposition
This is a vacuum chamber for sealing. In the vacuum chamber A, heating plates 2 and 4 having a built-in heating wire 6 such as a nichrome wire are vertically arranged at a required interval. A pressing plate 8 is engaged with the upper heating plate (hereinafter, referred to as an upper heater) 2. The upper heating plate 2 and the pressing plate 8 are connected to an elevator 10 outside the vacuum chamber A. And move up and down together. In addition, the lower heating plate (hereinafter, referred to as
Although not shown, the lower heater 4 is provided with a three-dimensional fine adjustment mechanism for adjusting the position when the substrates are overlapped. In addition, 12 is an oil rotary pump, 14
Is a turbo molecular pump; 16 is a gas introduction pipe for introducing an inert gas such as N ₂ gas or Ar gas or a mixed gas such as Ne + He or Xe + He into the vacuum chamber A as a discharge gas; It is connected to the.

In the vacuum chamber A having the above structure, FIG.
First, the rear substrate 14 on which the anode conductor, the phosphor layer and the like are formed is attached to the lower surface side of the upper heater 2 by a mechanical or electrostatic chuck mechanism (not shown). On the lower heater 4, a surface substrate 12 on which a field emission cathode including a cathode conductor, a gate electrode, an emitter and the like is formed is placed. Although not shown, both the front substrate 12 and the rear substrate 14 have a sealing material applied to the periphery of the electrode conductor forming surface, and a spacer material 16 is attached to the sealing material surface of the rear substrate 14. I have. This spacer material may be mounted on the sealing material surface of the front substrate 12.

After the substrates 12 and 14 are disposed on the upper heater 2 and the lower heater 4 as described above, the inside of the vacuum chamber A is controlled to 10 ^-5 by an oil rotary pump 20 and a turbo molecular pump 22.
Evacuate to about -10 ^-9 Torr. After that, heating is performed by the upper heater 2 and the lower heater 4, and the rear substrate 14,
The surface substrate 12 is heated to about 400 ° C. in 10 minutes, and kept at this temperature for about 4 hours. This is for activating the getter material previously incorporated in the back substrate 14.

After the activation of the getter material in the rear substrate 14 as described above, the temperature of both substrates 12 and 14 is set to about 435 ° C.
The temperature is raised in 10 minutes until this temperature is reached and maintained at this temperature for about 10 minutes. During this time, the back substrate 14 is lowered by the elevator 10 and is attached to the lower heater 4 on which the front substrate 12 is mounted by a camera through a window provided on the side wall of the vacuum chamber A (not shown). While operating the fine adjustment mechanism,
The spacer material 16 on the periphery of the rear substrate 14 is
It is superimposed on the peripheral sealing material, and
A load of about 3 kg / cm ² is applied to the pressurizing plate 8 engaged with the upper heater 2 which is chucking the upper substrate ² to seal the rear substrate 14 and the front substrate 12.

Thereafter, the two substrates 14 and 12 sealed are cooled under vacuum while applying a load, and the upper heater 2 and the pressure plate 8 are separated from the rear substrate 14 by the elevator 10. Ar gas is introduced as an inert gas from the gas introduction pipe 24 to cool the substrate temperature to about 100 ° C. in about 40 minutes. Then, after the vacuum chamber A returned to the atmospheric pressure, the panel in which the substrates 14 and 12 were sealed was taken out of the vacuum chamber A. Thereby, the thickness of the spacer material 16 is reduced to the discharge space 1.
An FED of 8 was obtained.

According to the vacuum sealing method of the present invention, a plasma display (PDP) can be easily obtained as a flat panel display in addition to the above-mentioned FED. The method will be described with reference to FIG.
Surface substrate 12 as the back substrate 14, respectively under the heater 4, attached to the upper heater 2, a vacuum chamber A 10 ^-5
Evacuate to about -10 ^-9 Torr, top heater 2,
Heated by the lower heater 4, the back substrate 14, the front substrate 1
2 to about 400 ° C. in 10 minutes, and at this temperature
The steps up to the step of activating the getter material of the rear substrate 14 by holding the time are the same as those of the above-described FED.

After the activation of the getter material in the back substrate 14 as described above, a mixed gas of He + Ne is introduced into the vacuum chamber A from the gas introduction tube 24 as a discharge gas. Then
In the atmosphere of the discharge gas, the temperature of both substrates 12 and 14 is raised to about 435 ° C. in 10 minutes. At this temperature about 10
During this time, the back substrate 14 is lowered by the elevator 10, and while the fine adjustment mechanism attached to the lower heater 4 on which the front substrate 12 is placed is operated, the ribs (not shown) are The formed rear substrate 14 is superimposed on the front substrate 12 having a peripheral portion coated with a sealing material, and at the same time, the pressure plate 8 engaged with the upper portion of the upper heater 2 chucking the rear substrate 14. About 3kg / cm ²
The rear substrate 14 and the front substrate 12 are sealed by applying a load of a certain degree. After that, the introduction of the discharge gas is stopped and the excess discharge gas in the vacuum chamber A is evacuated to a vacuum. After separating the upper heater 2 and the pressure plate 8 from the substrate 14, the gas introduction pipe 24 is inserted into the vacuum chamber A.
Ar gas was introduced as an inert gas from
Cool to about 100 ° C in about 0 minutes. Then, after the vacuum chamber A returned to the atmospheric pressure, the panel in which the substrates 14 and 12 were sealed was taken out of the vacuum chamber A. This makes it possible to easily obtain a PDP in which the thickness of the rib is the discharge space 18 and the discharge space is filled with the discharge gas.

In the above embodiment, a heating plate having a built-in heating wire such as a nichrome wire is used as a heating plate for heating both substrates. In addition, a plate-like body made of a conductive material such as carbon or stainless steel is used. May be. In the above embodiment, the rear substrate 14 is held on the lower surface of the heating plate 2 by a mechanical or electrostatic chuck mechanism. In addition, as shown in FIG. The rear substrate 14 may be pushed up horizontally by the elevator 26 having the tip contacted, and may be held so as to provide a gap between the rear substrate 14 and the heating plate 2.

[0029]

As described above, according to the vacuum airtight processing method according to the first aspect of the present invention, the front substrate and the rear substrate are installed at an interval in the vacuum chamber, and After evacuating the vacuum chamber by attaching it to the heating plate of
The front substrate and the rear substrate are separately heated to a predetermined temperature by the upper and lower heating plates, and then both substrates are overlapped and sealed, so that the exhaust conductance of the vacuum exhaust before heating is performed. And exhaust time can be greatly reduced. Then, the impurity gas adhering to the vacuum chamber and the surface of the substrate in the vacuum chamber can be completely removed within a short evacuation time.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the front substrate and the rear substrate are installed in the vacuum chamber with a space therebetween, and are attached to the lower heating plate to evacuate the vacuum chamber. After heating to a predetermined temperature separately with a heating plate, a discharge gas was introduced into an exhaust vacuum chamber, and the discharge gas was sealed by overlapping both substrates heated in a discharge gas atmosphere. Since a discharge space can be created, this operation can be performed in a short time in which both substrates are overlapped with the sealing material. As a result, the exhaust conductance of the vacuum exhaust can be increased, the exhaust time can be greatly reduced, and the discharge space filled with the discharge gas can be easily provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a vacuum hermetic treatment method of the present invention in the order of steps.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a plasma display (PDP).

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a field emission display (FED).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing another example of holding the back substrate in the vacuum airtight processing method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Vacuum chamber 2 Heating plate (upper heater) 4 Heating plate (lower heater) 8 Pressure plate 12 Front substrate 14 Back substrate 16 Spacer material 18 Discharge space

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C012 AA05 AA09 BC03 PP03 PP08 5C040 HA06 JA21 LA16 MA26 5G435 AA17 BB06 EE09 KK02 KK05 KK10

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A front substrate having an electrode formed on an inner surface thereof and a rear substrate having an electrode and a phosphor layer formed on an inner surface thereof are held in a vacuum chamber at an interval and held by a lower heating plate. Performing the step, evacuating the vacuum chamber, heating the substrate held on the upper and lower heating plates in the vacuum chamber,
A step of laminating and sealing the two substrates with a sealing material applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate under heating, and after the lamination and sealing, the vacuum chamber is cooled to cure the sealing material. And a step of returning the vacuum chamber to atmospheric pressure. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of superposing and sealing the two substrates under heating is performed via a sealing material and a spacer applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate. A method for vacuum-tightening the inside of an electronic component as described above. 3. The vacuum-tight processing method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic component is a field emission display. 4. A front substrate having electrodes formed on an inner surface thereof and a back substrate having electrodes and phosphor layers formed on the inner surfaces thereof are held in a vacuum chamber at intervals and held by a lower heating plate. Performing the step, evacuating the vacuum chamber, heating the substrate held on the upper and lower heating plates in the vacuum chamber,
A step of introducing a discharge gas into a vacuum chamber, a step of laminating and sealing both substrates with a sealing material applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate in a discharge gas atmosphere and under heating, and a lamination and sealing Cooling the vacuum chamber after the attachment to cure the sealing material, and then returning the vacuum chamber to atmospheric pressure. 5. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of laminating and sealing the two substrates under heating in the discharge gas atmosphere is performed by applying a sealing material applied to the front substrate and / or the rear substrate and a rib formed on one of the substrates. The method according to claim 4, wherein the process is performed via a vacuum. 6. The vacuum hermetic processing method according to claim 4, wherein the electronic component is a plasma display.