JP2002367514A - Method and device for manufacturing display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate flicker and dispersion in the discharge start voltage in the peripheral zone of the displaying area of a PDP, i.e., in the neighborhood of the part where a sealing member is formed, such problems being caused by an impurity gas emitted from a frit. SOLUTION: A mixture of frit and a solvent is used as a component of a paste prepared when the sealing member is applied. For preventing a nozzle of a dispenser from clogging caused by precipitation of the frit, a stirring mechanism is installed in a syringe used in the dispenser, or otherwise a paste stirring part is coupled with the syringe, a valve is installed in the coupling part, and the valve is opened only at the time of application. The risk of cracking of dried frit paste partially or of exfoliation can be precluded by applying the frit paste and drying, heating the part where the sealing member is formed, and melting the facial part and hardening.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display panel, a method for manufacturing the same, and an apparatus for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to the application of a sealing member used in a sealing step of arranging two substrates facing each other and sealing a peripheral portion of the substrates. The process has features.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an example of a display panel is as follows.
An AC type plasma display panel (hereinafter, referred to as PDP) as shown in FIG. 4 is known.

In this PDP, a first substrate (upper panel substrate) 4 made of glass having a plurality of display electrodes 1, a dielectric layer 2, and a protective layer 3 formed on an inner surface thereof is orthogonal to the display electrodes 1. A plurality of data electrodes 5 and a dielectric layer 6 are formed on the inner surface and are formed of a low melting point glass which defines a light emitting region at predetermined positions on the dielectric layer 6. Partition walls 7 are formed in parallel, and a second substrate (lower panel substrate) 8 made of glass, on which phosphors 11 for emitting respective colors are formed, is arranged between the partitions 7 so as to face each other. The envelope 1 is sealed with a sealing member 9 made of glass.
0 is completed and the discharge gas 12 is sealed.

Here, the sealing step will be described in more detail. The sealing member 9 is initially in a paste form. This paste is made into a paste by mixing a liquid in which a resin component is dissolved with a solvent into a frit obtained by mixing a predetermined amount of ceramic powder with powdery low-melting glass as a main component. The solvent refers to a liquid at room temperature, and in particular, isoamyl acetate, α-terpineol and the like are used, and a resin is a solid at room temperature alone, but nitrocellulose, ethyl cellulose, acryl, and the like which are soluble by the solvent are generally used. The paste-like sealing member 9 is applied by a dispenser or the like to the peripheral edge of the second substrate 8 on which the partition walls 7 and the phosphors 11 are formed in advance. Next, a drying step of heating at a temperature of 110 ° C. for about 10 minutes is performed to remove the solvent component of the sealing member 9. Then 36
By heating at 0 ° C. for about 30 minutes, the resin component used for forming the paste is vaporized and removed from the sealing member 9. This step is generally called a debubbling step. This de-buying step is performed in order to remove as much as possible a resin component that easily becomes an impurity gas, since the presence of an impurity gas when the panel of the PDP is turned on causes flickering in the discharge and a reduction in the luminance of the phosphor. Is done. After the paste is dried, if the sealing step is performed without performing the de-buying step, the resin component contained in the paste is vaporized with the heating in the sealing step, and the low-melting glass, which is the main component of the paste, melts. Then, when the periphery of the first substrate 4 and the periphery of the second substrate 8 are sealed, they are sealed as impurity gas inside the panel. After performing the alignment of the first substrate 4 and the second substrate 8 facing each other, the sealing member 9 having undergone the de-buying step is heated to 450 ° C.
The two substrates are melted and sealed.

Here, the manufacturing process has been described by taking a PDP as an example, but two or more PDPs, such as a field emission display (hereinafter referred to as an FED) for emitting electrons by applying a strong electric field to emit a phosphor. The display panel formed by melting the frit glass and joining the glass member (substrate) described above to the above is substantially through the above-described manufacturing process.

[0006]

By the way, when a PDP is formed in this way, flickering occurs in the periphery of the display area of the completed PDP, that is, in the vicinity of the portion where the sealing member is formed, and the discharge starting voltage is reduced. There were some variations.

[0007] As a result of detailed analysis of these panels, more impurity gas containing carbon as a component was detected from the periphery of the display area near the center. In addition, generally acrylic resin is dissolved in a solvent and kneaded with glass powder,
After debuying and firing, the amount of carbon is analyzed.
There is also a report of 0.2% by weight. The adhesion of the carbon component at the periphery of the display area is largely affected by the resin in the sealing member. That is, the resin component used for forming the paste of the sealing member is vaporized in the de-buying step and adheres to the surrounding phosphor, or the resin component that has not been sufficiently removed in the de-buying step becomes a panel in the sealing step. It is considered that the air conditioner is confined inside and causes deterioration of characteristics when the panel is lit. Originally, the de-buying step is a step of heating and vaporizing the resin component contained in the paste to remove the resin component, but the peak temperature of vaporization is 250 ° C. or higher, and even if the peak temperature of the sealing step reaches 450 ° C. Many trace resin components remain without vaporization. On the other hand, the frit starts melting gradually from around a temperature exceeding 350 ° C. At this time, the resin component that has not been completely vaporized is wrapped in the frit, which makes it more difficult to vaporize. The resin component remaining in this way is
When heated to around 450 ° C. in the next sealing step, the gas is gradually released. Since the gas is already sealed at this time, the released resin component gas is confined in the panel and becomes an impurity gas.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a display panel which prevents a resin component contained in a sealing member from remaining in the panel in a later step, a method of manufacturing the display panel, and an apparatus for manufacturing the display panel.

[0009]

A method of manufacturing a gas discharge panel according to the present invention uses a mixture of a frit and a solvent as a component of a paste prepared when applying a sealing member. Here, the solvent is a liquid composed of an organic substance, which completely evaporates at a temperature of 300 ° C. or less. By not mixing the resin component at the paste stage in this way, the subsequent preliminary firing step can be omitted, and the resin component remaining in the sealing member can be significantly reduced even if the de-buying step is performed. I can do it.

Further, when the frit and the solvent are mixed and applied by a dispenser or the like as described above, there is a problem that the frit sinks and the nozzle of the dispenser is clogged. On the other hand, it is possible to eliminate the nozzle clogging due to frit sedimentation by providing a stirring mechanism in the syringe used in the dispenser, or connecting the paste stirring section and the syringe and providing a valve in the connection section and opening the valve only during application. The frit can be applied without using a resin. Therefore, the resin component remaining in the sealing member can be significantly reduced.

On the other hand, when a paste containing no resin component is applied to a frit paste on a large substrate exceeding 40 inches, the frit paste is dried, and then the substrate is conveyed. Further, there is a possibility that adverse effects such as peeling off may also occur. The problem can be solved by applying a frit paste and drying it, and then heating the sealing member forming portion without giving the substrate a deflection such as conveyance and melting and hardening the surface layer portion thereof.

Until now, as a sealing member containing no resin component, a low-melting glass made into a fibrous form and knitted into an elongated cloth has been disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-22178. I have. However, if the low-melting glass is formed into a fibrous form, the cost is high, dust tends to be generated during handling, and it is difficult to dispose the glass on a substrate in mass production.

In the present invention, a manufacturing method and a manufacturing method which do not degrade the characteristics of the display panel while realizing the formation of a sealing member which is inexpensive and can be easily mass-produced without largely changing the process as compared with the conventional method. Equipment can be provided.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a simplified perspective view showing a method of manufacturing a display panel according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a modification thereof.

(Embodiment 1) Since the present invention is characterized by the step of forming a sealing member, the steps will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 13 denotes a dispenser, 14 denotes an agitating section, 15 denotes a paste serving as a sealing member, 16 denotes a syringe, 17 denotes a heating lamp, and 18 denotes a paste curing section.

First, a paste 15 is prepared. As the paste, a mixture obtained by sufficiently mixing 10 g of ethanol as a solvent with 50 g of LS0206 (manufactured by NEC Corporation) containing low-melting glass is used. Here, ethanol is used, but any other solvent that completely vaporizes at 300 ° C. may be used. Here, the reason why the temperature is set to 300 ° C. is that the frit starts to soften at about 350 ° C. or more, as described above, so that the gas evaporated by frit melting cannot be trapped, so that the frit has a sufficient margin.
It is desirable to select a solvent that completely vaporizes at 0 ° C. This paste 15 is applied to the syringe 1 of the dispenser 13.
6 and the stirrer 14 is arranged and operated. Stirrer 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a metal blade provided around the shaft, and the shaft is rotated by a motor or the like, so that the blade stirs the paste 15. Here, the stirrer was placed inside the syringe 16,
As shown in FIG. 2, the syringe 16 and the stirring unit 14 are separated, connected by a connecting unit 19, and a valve 20 for supplying the paste 15 from the stirring unit 14 into the syringe 16 only in a necessary amount only at the time of application is arranged. It is also possible. Here, a mechanism for rotating plate-like wings as the agitating unit 14 is shown, but the wings may be spiral, or as shown in FIG. It may be a mechanism that repeats sucking out from.

Next, the dispenser 13 is moved onto the second substrate 8, and the paste 15 is applied to the periphery of the second substrate 8.

Further, the applied paste 15 is sequentially heated by a heating lamp 17, and its surface is melt-hardened. Here, a halogen lamp is used to heat up to 365 ° C. to evaporate the solvent and harden the paste surface. The halogen lamp may be focused by a dome-shaped mirror or the like to locally heat only the portion where the paste 15 is to be formed. In addition, it is desirable to set the temperature in the vicinity thereof to a slightly lower temperature. In order to sufficiently remove the solvent, a first heating lamp set at a temperature near the boiling point of the solvent and a second heating lamp set at a temperature at which the paste surface is melted may be provided.

Although a halogen lamp is used here, a laser may be used as a heating means, or a metal member such as a heated iron may be directly contacted with the paste 15. It is also possible to combine those heating means. Although the method of locally heating the paste 15 has been described, the entire substrate may be placed in an oven or the like and heated to a temperature at which the solvent evaporates to remove the solvent. Furthermore, it is also possible to put the entire substrate in an electric furnace and heat it as in the conventional case.

As described above, when the frit is applied to the substrate without using the resin component, it is apparent that the amount of residual carbon becomes 0.2% by weight or less.

[0023]

As described above, the method and apparatus for manufacturing a gas discharge panel according to the present invention use a mixture of a frit and a solvent as a component of a paste prepared when applying a sealing member. By not mixing the resin component at the paste stage, the subsequent calcination step can be omitted, and the resin component remaining in the sealing member can be significantly reduced even if the de-buying step is performed.

In addition, when the frit and the solvent are mixed and applied with a dispenser or the like as described above, the problem that the frit settles and the nozzle of the dispenser is clogged is solved by providing a stirring mechanism in a syringe used in the dispenser. Alternatively, by connecting the paste agitating section and the syringe and providing a valve at the connecting section and opening the valve only at the time of application, the clogging of the nozzle due to frit sedimentation can be eliminated, and the frit can be applied without using resin, and therefore the sealing member Resin components remaining in the inside can be greatly reduced.

On the other hand, in order to avoid the possibility that cracks may be formed in a part of the dried frit paste or that the frit may be peeled off, the frit paste is applied and dried, and then the sealing member forming portion is heated. This can be solved by melt-hardening the surface layer.

According to the present invention, a manufacturing method which does not degrade the characteristics of the display panel, and which realizes the formation of a sealing member which is inexpensive and can be easily mass-produced without largely changing the process as compared with the conventional method. Equipment can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified perspective view showing a method of manufacturing a PDP according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a first modification of the PDP according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view according to a second modification of the PDP according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional PDP.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 first substrate 8 second substrate 13 dispenser 14 stirring mechanism 17 heating lamp 18 curing unit 21 pump

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masafumi Okawa 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5C012 AA09 BC03 BC04 5C040 FA01 FA04 GB03 GB14 HA01 HA02

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing a display panel in which at least two substrates are arranged to face each other and sealed using a sealing member, wherein a frit and a liquid solvent are mixed at room temperature to form a paste, and at least one of the substrates is formed. A method for manufacturing a display panel, wherein the method is applied to at least one of them to form a sealing member. 2. The method for manufacturing a display panel according to claim 1, wherein, when applying the paste to the substrate constituting the display panel, the paste is applied with stirring. 3. A paste stirring section, a syringe section, and a connecting section for connecting the paste stirring section and the syringe section,
A paste application device, wherein a valve for controlling the supply of the paste is arranged at the connecting portion. 4. A method for manufacturing a display panel in which at least two substrates are arranged to face each other and sealed using a sealing member, wherein a frit is directly arranged on at least one of the substrates. Panel manufacturing method. 5. A method of manufacturing a display panel in which at least two substrates are disposed to face each other and sealed using a sealing member, wherein a frit and a liquid solvent are mixed at room temperature to form a paste, and at least one of the substrates is formed. A method for manufacturing a display panel, comprising: a coating step of coating on one of the two sides; a drying step of evaporating the solvent; and a curing step of heating and curing the surface of the sealing member dried in the drying step. 6. A method for manufacturing a display panel in which at least two substrates are arranged to face each other and sealed using a sealing member, wherein an arrangement step of directly arranging a frit on at least one of the substrates; A method for manufacturing a display panel, comprising a curing step of heating and curing a surface of a frit arranged in the step. 7. The method for manufacturing a display panel according to claim 5, wherein the heating in the curing step uses a lamp. 8. The method for manufacturing a display panel according to claim 5, wherein the heating in the curing step uses a laser. 9. The heating in the curing step is performed by contact of a heating metal.
The manufacturing method of the display panel described in the above. 10. The display panel manufacturing method according to claim 5, wherein the heating in the curing step locally heats a peripheral portion of the sealing member. 11. A display panel, wherein the amount of carbon remaining in the sealing member is 0.2% by weight or less. 12. A manufacturing apparatus for a display panel in which at least two substrates are arranged to face each other and sealed using a sealing member, wherein an arrangement means for arranging a frit on at least one of the substrates, An apparatus for manufacturing a display panel, comprising a curing means for heating and curing the surface of a frit arranged by an arrangement means.