CN107807493B - Mask plate and exposure equipment - Google Patents
Mask plate and exposure equipment Download PDFInfo
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- CN107807493B CN107807493B CN201710895606.XA CN201710895606A CN107807493B CN 107807493 B CN107807493 B CN 107807493B CN 201710895606 A CN201710895606 A CN 201710895606A CN 107807493 B CN107807493 B CN 107807493B
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- 230000002093 peripheral effect Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 85
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 27
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 8
- 238000002834 transmittance Methods 0.000 description 36
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 24
- 229920002120 photoresistant polymer Polymers 0.000 description 23
- 239000010409 thin film Substances 0.000 description 14
- 239000010408 film Substances 0.000 description 11
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 7
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 7
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 6
- 238000005530 etching Methods 0.000 description 5
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 5
- 230000018109 developmental process Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000009471 action Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003247 decreasing effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000005611 electricity Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000012447 hatching Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000000059 patterning Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000007787 solid Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000003068 static effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000007704 transition Effects 0.000 description 1
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- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03F—PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES, e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR
- G03F1/00—Originals for photomechanical production of textured or patterned surfaces, e.g., masks, photo-masks, reticles; Mask blanks or pellicles therefor; Containers specially adapted therefor; Preparation thereof
- G03F1/26—Phase shift masks [PSM]; PSM blanks; Preparation thereof
- G03F1/32—Attenuating PSM [att-PSM], e.g. halftone PSM or PSM having semi-transparent phase shift portion; Preparation thereof
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- Exposure And Positioning Against Photoresist Photosensitive Materials (AREA)
- Preparing Plates And Mask In Photomechanical Process (AREA)
Abstract
The invention provides a mask plate, which is used for exposing an array substrate, wherein the array substrate comprises a display area and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, the display area comprises a plurality of display active areas, the peripheral area comprises a plurality of peripheral active areas, the length of the peripheral active areas is greater than that of the display active areas, the mask plate comprises a mask layer, the mask layer comprises a first mask part corresponding to the peripheral active areas, and the first mask part comprises a plurality of mask strips which are spaced from each other; in the first mask portion, the mask stripes are different in light transmission degree from other portions. Correspondingly, the invention also provides exposure equipment, and the exposure equipment can improve the uniformity of exposure on the active area of the array substrate.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of manufacturing of display devices, in particular to a mask plate and exposure
An apparatus.
Background
In the array substrate, a display area is provided with a plurality of thin film transistors for displaying, and a non-display area is provided with a plurality of thin film transistors for preventing static electricity. Generally, the width of the active layer of the thin film transistor in the display area is generally small to reduce leakage current; the width of the active layer of the thin film transistor in the non-display area is larger so as to improve the anti-static effect. In the manufacturing process of the array substrate, in order to reduce the process steps, more and more manufacturers manufacture the active layer and the source and drain electrodes of the thin film transistor by using a Half Tone Mask (HTM). The half-tone mask includes a light-transmitting region, a semi-light-transmitting region, and a non-light-transmitting region, wherein the semi-light-transmitting region is provided with a semi-light-transmitting film (light transmittance is preferably 50%). Taking a positive photoresist as an example, when exposing, the opaque region of the half-tone mask plate corresponds to the source drain electrode region; the semi-transparent area corresponds to the active area; the light-transmitting area corresponds to other areas; after development, a part of photoresist of the active region is reserved, the photoresist of the source drain electrode region is completely reserved, and the photoresist of other regions is removed. However, in the exposure process, the light source scans from one side of the mask plate to the other side, and a smear is generated during scanning, that is, when light just enters the semi-transparent region from the non-transparent region and is about to enter the non-transparent region, the transmittance has a certain transition, so that the actual transmittance of the semi-transparent region is larger, and the actual transmittance in the middle is smaller. As shown in fig. 1, a schematic diagram of light transmittance at each position when a semi-transparent film is used to expose an active region with a large length is shown, in which a solid line is a theoretical light transmittance curve and a dotted line is an actual light transmittance curve, it can be seen that, when the actual light transmittance of the semi-transparent film gradually transits to 50% during actual exposure, the actual light transmittance is increased to a certain extent, so that overexposure occurs, and the larger the length of the active region is, the longer the overexposed region is, the larger the overexposure degree is in the middle of the active region in the length direction is, and even the breakage is caused, thereby reducing the uniformity of subsequent etching composition.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to at least solve one technical problem in the prior art, and provides a mask plate and exposure equipment so as to improve the exposure uniformity of an active area.
In order to solve one of the above technical problems, the present invention provides a mask plate for exposing an array substrate, where the array substrate includes a display area and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, the display area includes a plurality of display active areas, the peripheral area includes a plurality of peripheral active areas, the length of the peripheral active area is greater than the length of the display active area, the mask plate includes a mask layer, the mask layer includes a first mask portion corresponding to the peripheral active area, and the first mask portion includes a plurality of mask strips spaced from each other; in the first mask portion, the mask stripes are different in light transmission degree from other portions.
Preferably, the mask layer further includes a second mask portion corresponding to the display active region, and the second mask portion is a semi-transparent film.
Preferably, the array substrate further comprises a plurality of display source regions and a plurality of display drain regions, each display active region corresponding to one display drain region and one display drain region, each display active region located between a corresponding display drain region and a corresponding display drain region,
the mask layer further comprises a second mask part corresponding to the display active region, a third mask part corresponding to the display source region, a fourth mask part corresponding to the display drain region and two shading blocks respectively arranged at two ends of the second mask part; the third mask portion and the fourth mask portion are opaque, the second mask portion is completely transparent, and the third mask portion, the fourth mask portion and the two shading blocks are arranged around the second mask portion.
Preferably, in the first mask portion, the light transmission degree of the mask stripes is lower than that of other portions.
Preferably, in the first mask portion,
the mask strip is light-proof, and the other parts of the mask strip are light-transmitting;
or the mask strip is semi-transparent, and the other parts are all transparent;
or the mask strip is opaque, and the other parts of the mask strip are semi-transparent.
Preferably, the first mask portion includes two mask stripes arranged in a width direction thereof, and an extending direction of the mask stripes intersects with the width direction of the first mask portion; the distance between two mask strips is larger than the width of the peripheral active region; in the first mask portion, the portions other than the mask stripes are semi-transparent.
Preferably, the first mask portion includes a plurality of mask stripes arranged along a width direction thereof, an extending direction of the mask stripes intersects with the width direction of the first mask portion, and a distance between two farthest first mask stripes is smaller than a width of the peripheral active region; or,
the first mask portion comprises a plurality of mask strips arranged along the length direction of the first mask portion, the extending direction of the mask strips is intersected with the length direction of the first mask portion, and the distance between two farthest mask strips is smaller than the length of the peripheral active region.
Preferably, the width of the mask stripes is between 0.5 and 1.5 μm, and the spacing between two adjacent mask stripes is between 0.5 and 1.5 μm.
Correspondingly, the invention also provides exposure equipment which comprises a scanning light source and the mask plate provided by the invention.
Preferably, when the mask is the above mask, the scanning direction of the scanning light source is the length direction of the first mask portion;
when the mask plate is the other mask plate, the scanning direction of the scanning light source is the arrangement direction of the mask strips.
In the invention, the first mask part of the mask plate comprises a plurality of mask strips which are spaced from each other, the light transmission degree of the mask strips is different from that of other parts of the first mask part, and the first mask part is semi-transparent as a whole under the restriction of exposure equipment and the diffraction action of light. Compared with the mode of realizing the semi-transparent effect by arranging the semi-transparent film in the prior art, when the semi-transparent effect is realized by arranging the plurality of mask strips, the mask strips can have certain influence on the light-transmitting effect of the area where the mask strips are arranged and the light-transmitting effect nearby the area, so that the plurality of mask strips can be uniformly arranged in the first mask part, and the exposure effect of the photoresist in the same peripheral active region is more uniform on the whole when the photoresist in the peripheral active region is exposed; or the mask strips are arranged at the position close to the edge of the first mask part and the middle of the first mask part to compensate the phenomenon that the middle exposure is larger than the two ends exposure in the prior art, and further improve the uniformity of the active layer formed by etching.
Drawings
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating light transmittance at various positions in a semi-transparent film when exposing an active region with a large length by using the semi-transparent film in the prior art;
fig. 2 is a schematic view of a first arrangement of mask strips in a first mask portion of a mask plate according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a second arrangement of mask stripes in the first mask portion;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a third arrangement of mask stripes in the first mask portion;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a first arrangement of the light transmittance of each portion of the first mask portion;
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a second arrangement of the light transmittance of each portion of the first mask portion;
FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a third arrangement of the light transmittance of each portion of the first mask portion;
FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing light transmittance at each position in the first mask portion when the first mask portion adopts the structure shown in FIG. 6;
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of the transmittance of light at each position in the second mask portion when the second mask portion is fully transparent and the light-shielding blocks are not disposed at both ends;
FIG. 11 is a first structural diagram of a second mask portion and its surrounding area;
FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view taken along line C-C of FIG. 11;
FIG. 13 is a schematic view showing light transmittance at each position in the second mask portion when the second mask portion adopts the structure shown in FIG. 12;
FIG. 14 is a second structural diagram of the second mask portion and its surrounding area;
FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional view taken along line D-D of FIG. 14;
wherein the reference numerals are:
10. a first mask portion; 11. a mask strip; 20. a second mask portion; 30. a third mask portion; 40. a fourth mask portion; 50. a fifth mask portion; 60. a sixth mask portion; 70. a light shielding block; 80. a substrate.
Detailed Description
The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the present invention, are given by way of illustration and explanation only, not limitation.
As an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mask for exposing an array substrate, where the array substrate includes a display area and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, the display area includes a plurality of display active regions, the peripheral area includes a plurality of peripheral active regions, and a length of the peripheral active region is greater than a length of the display active regions. In particular, the length of the peripheral active region is greater than 3 μm, and in general, can reach 60 μm; the length of the active region is shown to be less than 3 μm. As shown in fig. 2 to 8, the mask plate includes a mask layer disposed on a substrate 80, the mask layer including a first mask portion 10 corresponding to the peripheral active region, the first mask portion 10 including a plurality of mask stripes 11 spaced apart from each other; the mask stripes 11 are different in light transmission degree from other portions of the first mask portion 10. In the invention, the light transmittance can be divided into total light transmittance, semi-light transmittance and light-tight transmittance, wherein the total light transmittance means that the light transmittance is close to 100%, for example, the light transmittance is between 80% and 100%; opaque means that the transmittance is close to 0, for example, the transmittance is between 0 and 19%; the semi-transparent layer is between the totally transparent layer and the opaque layer, for example, the light transmittance is 20% to 80%, preferably 50%. In the various figures of the present invention, different degrees of light transmission are indicated by different hatching.
The mask plate can be used in the process of synchronously manufacturing the active layer and the source drain of the thin film transistor. The thin film transistor comprises a display thin film transistor formed in the display area of the array substrate and a peripheral thin film transistor formed in the peripheral area of the array substrate. The display active region is a region where an active layer of the display thin film transistor is located; similarly, the peripheral active region refers to a region where an active layer of a display thin film transistor is located. It is understood that the display region further includes a plurality of display source regions (i.e., regions where the sources of the display thin film transistors are located) and a plurality of display drain regions (i.e., regions where the drains of the display thin film transistors are located), each display active region corresponds to one display drain region and one display drain region, and each display active region is located between a corresponding display drain region and a corresponding display drain region. It should be noted that the length of the display active region is a dimension of the display active region along the arrangement direction of the display drain region and the display source region, that is, a distance between the display active region and the display drain region. Similarly, two sides of each peripheral active region in the peripheral region are respectively provided with a peripheral drain region and a peripheral source region; the length of the peripheral active region is the dimension of the peripheral active region along the arrangement direction of the peripheral source region and the peripheral drain region, i.e. the distance between the peripheral source region and the peripheral drain region.
When an active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode of the thin film transistor are synchronously manufactured, under the condition of adopting positive photoresist, semi-exposure is carried out on a semi-transparent area of a mask plate corresponding to a peripheral active area and a display active area during exposure; the opaque region of the mask plate corresponds to a display source region, a display drain region, a peripheral source region and a peripheral drain region; the full light-transmitting area of the mask plate corresponds to the rest area, so that after development, the photoresist of the display source area, the display drain area, the peripheral source area and the peripheral drain area is completely reserved, and a part of the photoresist of the display active area and the peripheral active area is reserved; the rest part of the photoresist is completely removed. Of course, a negative photoresist can also be adopted, and at the moment, only the full light-transmitting area and the light-proof area need to be exchanged, and the position of the semi-light-transmitting area is unchanged.
In the present invention, the first mask portion 10 includes a plurality of mask stripes 11 spaced apart from each other, and the mask stripes 11 have a light transmittance degree different from that of other portions of the first mask portion 10, that is, at least one of the mask stripes 11 and other portions of the first mask portion 10 is light-transmissive or semi-light-transmissive. In this case, because the exposure device has a certain exposure limit, even if the mask stripes 11 are opaque and the other portions are completely transparent, the photoresist below and near the mask stripes 11 does not completely receive the light or completely receive the light, but all receive a part of the light, and thus when the distance between the mask stripes 11 is small, the first mask portion 10 is also semi-transparent as a whole. Similarly, when the mask stripes 11 or other parts of the first mask portion 10 are semi-transparent, the first mask portion 10 can also be made to have a semi-transparent effect as a whole.
Compared with the mode of realizing the semi-transparent effect by arranging the semi-transparent film in the prior art, when the semi-transparent effect is realized by arranging the plurality of mask strips 11, the mask strips 11 can have certain influence on the light-transmitting effect of the area where the mask strips are arranged and the light-transmitting effect nearby the area, so that the plurality of mask strips 11 can be uniformly arranged in the first mask part 10, and the exposure effect of the photoresist in the same peripheral active region is more uniform on the whole when the photoresist in the peripheral active region is exposed; or the mask strips 11 are arranged at the positions close to the edge of the first mask portion 10 and the middle of the first mask portion 10, so that the phenomenon of overlarge intermediate exposure generated in the prior art is compensated, and the uniformity of an active layer formed by etching is improved.
In order to make the first mask portion 10 generate a semi-transmissive effect even when the mask stripes 11 themselves are opaque during the exposure process, the width of the mask stripes 11 may be between 0.5 μm and 1.5 μm, and specifically may be 1 μm in the present invention.
The structure of the mask of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig. 2 to 15.
Corresponding to the array substrate, as shown in fig. 2, 4 and 5, the mask layer includes a first mask portion 10 corresponding to the peripheral active region, a third mask portion 30 corresponding to the display source region, and a fourth mask portion 40 corresponding to the display drain region; as shown in fig. 11 and 14, the mask layer further includes a second mask portion 20 corresponding to the display active region, a fifth mask portion 50 corresponding to the peripheral source region, and a sixth mask portion 60 corresponding to the peripheral drain region. It should be noted that the mask layer in the present invention represents an entire layer structure, wherein each mask portion is not necessarily a solid structure, and when one of the mask portions is fully transparent, it may be hollowed out. In the present invention, the positive photoresist is used in the exposure process, and in this case, the third mask portion 30, the fourth mask portion 40, the fifth mask portion 50, and the sixth mask portion 60 are all opaque.
In the first mask portion 10, the light transmittance of the mask stripes 11 is lower than that of the other portions, as an embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, as shown in fig. 6, in the first mask portion 10, the mask stripes 11 are opaque, and the other portions are all transparent. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 7, in the first mask portion 10, the mask stripes 11 are semi-transparent and the other portions are all transparent. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 8, in the first mask portion 10, the mask stripes 11 are opaque, and the other portions are semi-opaque. When the first mask portion 10 shown in fig. 6 is used to expose a peripheral active region having a large length, the light transmittance at each position in the first mask portion 10 is as shown in fig. 9, a solid line in fig. 9 is a theoretical light transmittance curve of the first mask portion 10, a broken line is an actual light transmittance curve of the first mask portion 10, and in fig. 9 and fig. 10 and 13 mentioned below, the end portion is a middle portion in the light scanning direction, and the middle portion is a middle portion in the light scanning direction. It can be seen that, when a plurality of opaque mask strips 11 are arranged at intervals, theoretically, the positions of the mask strips 11 are opaque, but due to the diffraction of light and the exposure limit of the exposure device, certain light can be received below the mask strips 11, and the regions between the mask strips 11 are not completely transparent due to the optical smearing phenomenon, so that the first mask portion 10 can realize a uniform semi-transparent effect as a whole.
When the mask stripes 11 are made opaque, they may be made of opaque material. When the other portions of the first mask portion 10 except the mask stripes 11 are all transparent, they may be arranged in an open structure, as shown in fig. 6 and 7. When the mask stripes 11 or other portions are semi-transparent, they may be provided in a semi-transparent film configuration.
A first arrangement of the mask stripes 11 in the first mask portion 10 may be as shown in fig. 2 and 3, the first mask portion 10 includes two mask stripes 11 arranged along a width direction thereof, and an extending direction of the mask stripes 11 crosses the width direction of the first mask portion 10; the distance between two mask stripes 11 is greater than the width of the peripheral active region (dashed box area in fig. 2); in the first mask portion 10, portions other than the mask stripes 11 are semi-transparent. Wherein the width of the first mask portion 10 is a dimension thereof in the direction in which the fifth mask portion 50 and the sixth mask portion 60 are arranged. The mask stripes 11 may specifically extend in the lengthwise direction of the first mask portion 10. It should be understood that, in the patterning process, after exposure, development and etching, the pattern size of the area of the array substrate corresponding to the first mask portion 10 is not exactly the same as that of the first mask portion 10, but is shrunk to some extent, so that the width of the first mask portion 10 is greater than that of the peripheral active area of the array substrate.
When exposure is performed, the first mask portion 10 is arranged opposite to the peripheral active region, the fifth mask portion 50 is arranged opposite to the peripheral source region, and the sixth mask portion 60 is arranged opposite to the peripheral drain region, so that orthographic projections of the two mask strips towards the peripheral mask region are respectively located on two sides of the peripheral mask region active region along the width direction of the peripheral mask region active region. Compared with the mode of exposing the peripheral active region only by using the semi-transparent film in the prior art, when the peripheral active region is exposed by using the structure in fig. 2, and the light source of the exposure device scans to the middle of the first mask portion 10 along the length direction of the first mask portion 10, the arrangement of the mask stripes 11 can reduce the exposure of the photoresist of the peripheral active region at the position close to the projection of the mask stripes 11, thereby compensating the condition that the exposure of the photoresist is too large in the middle of the first mask portion 10, and reducing the exposure difference of the middle and two ends of the first mask portion 10 to the photoresist.
In the embodiment of fig. 2, the length of the mask stripes 11 may be approximately equal to the length of the peripheral active region; and because the effect of the mask stripes 11 compensates the phenomenon of the overlarge exposure amount in the middle of the peripheral active region, the length of the mask stripes 11 can also be smaller than that of the peripheral active region, and when exposure is performed, orthographic projections of the two mask stripes 11 towards the peripheral active region are respectively positioned on two sides of the peripheral active region along the width direction and are close to the middle of the peripheral active region along the length direction.
A second arrangement of the mask stripes 11 may be as shown in fig. 4, the first mask portion 10 includes a plurality of mask stripes 11 arranged along a width direction thereof, an extending direction of the mask stripes 11 intersects with the width direction of the first mask portion 10, and the mask stripes 11 may specifically extend along a length direction of the first mask portion 10. The distance between the two mask stripes 11 that are the farthest away is smaller than the width of the peripheral active region. When exposure is performed, the first mask portion 10 is arranged opposite to the peripheral active region, orthographic projections of the plurality of mask strips 11 towards the peripheral mask region are located in the peripheral mask region, and a light source of the exposure device scans along the width direction of the first mask portion 10. Because the arrangement of the mask stripes 11 can affect the exposure amount of the corresponding position to a certain extent, when the plurality of mask stripes 11 are uniformly distributed, the light transmittance of the first mask portion 10 at each position in the light scanning direction becomes more uniform on the whole, so that the exposure amounts of the photoresists at different positions in the same peripheral active region are uniformly distributed on the whole.
A third arrangement of the mask stripes 11 may be as shown in fig. 5, where the first mask portion 10 includes a plurality of mask stripes 11 arranged along a length direction thereof, an extending direction of the mask stripes 11 intersects with the length direction of the first mask portion 10, and the mask stripes 11 may specifically extend along a width direction of the first mask portion 10. And, the distance between the two mask stripes 11 farthest from each other is smaller than the length of the peripheral active region. This embodiment is similar to the embodiment in fig. 4, except that, at the time of exposure, the scanning direction of the light source is along the longitudinal direction of the first mask portion 10 at the time of exposure with the first mask portion 10 in fig. 5. That is, in both modes, the light scanning direction is the same as the arrangement direction of the mask stripes 11.
In fig. 4 and 5, the mask stripes 11 are made opaque, and the other portions of the first mask portion 10 are made semi-opaque, and the BB cross-sectional view of fig. 4 corresponds to fig. 8. Of course, in fig. 4 and 5, the mask stripes 11 may be made semi-transparent, and the other portions of the first mask portion 10 may be made completely transparent; or the mask stripes 11 are opaque and the other portions of the first mask portion 10 are all transparent.
In the embodiment of fig. 4 and 5, when the distance between the mask stripes 11 is too large, the light transmission effect may be different between the position near the mask stripes 11 and the middle position between the two mask stripes 11, and when the portion of the first mask portion 10 other than the mask stripes is completely transmitted, when the distance between the mask stripes 11 is too large and the mask stripes 11 are too narrow, the entire first mask portion 10 may be still close to completely transmitting light. For this reason, in the present invention, the width of the mask stripes 11 is set between 0.5 μm and 1.5 μm, and, for the embodiments of fig. 4 and 5, the pitch between adjacent two mask stripes 11 is set between 0.5 μm and 1.5 μm, preferably 1.1 μm.
The above is a description of the structure of the first mask portion 10 of the mask layer, and for the second mask portion 20 of the mask layer. Since the length of the display active region is small (typically between 2.0 μm and 2.5 μm), if a plurality of mask stripes are disposed in the second mask portion 20, when the second mask portion 20 is used to expose the photoresist of the display active region, the photoresist is not exposed enough; on the other hand, if the second mask portion 20 is configured to be transparent and the third mask portion 30 and the fourth mask portion 40 at two ends of the second mask portion 20 are configured to be opaque, since the length of the second mask portion 20 is generally a little longer than the length of the display active region, which is not long enough for the second mask portion 20 to generate the semi-transparent effect, this in turn may cause the actual light transmittance in the middle of the second mask portion 20 to be too large, as shown in fig. 10, and thus the overexposure may occur. In order to make the exposure of the photoresist showing the active region more uniform, the second mask portion 20 and its surrounding area adopt the following two structures in the present invention.
In the first structure, as shown in fig. 11 and 12, the second mask portion 20 is a semi-transparent film. In this case, the transmittance at each position of the second mask portion 20 is as shown in fig. 13, and although the actual transmittance at the middle portion of the second transmissive portion 20 exceeds the theoretical transmittance, the second transmissive portion 20 itself is semi-transmissive and has a small length, so that the overexposure or the phenomenon in which the difference between the intermediate exposure effect and the intermediate exposure effect is too large as in fig. 1 does not occur, and the intermediate overexposure does not occur as in fig. 10, thereby improving the exposure effect.
In a second structure, as shown in fig. 14 and 15, the mask layer includes two light shielding blocks 70 respectively disposed at both ends of the second mask portion 20, in addition to the second mask portion 20, the third mask portion 30, and the fourth mask portion 40. Wherein, the third mask portion 30 and the fourth mask portion 40 are not transparent, the second mask portion 20 is transparent (specifically, may be configured in a hollow form), and the third mask portion 30, the fourth mask portion 40 and the two light shielding blocks 70 are disposed around the second mask portion 20. The shape of the light shielding block 70 is not limited, and may be a square, a circle, a triangle, a semicircle, a sector, or the like. In the case where the light shielding block 70 is not provided, the exposure amount may be excessively large in the middle of the second mask portion 20; after the light shielding block 70 is disposed, the exposure amount near the light shielding block 70 is decreased, so that the excessive exposure amount in the middle of the second mask portion 20 can be compensated, and the exposure uniformity can be improved. In order to make the second mask portion 20 which is fully transparent to light generate the semi-transparent effect, the distance between the display source region and the display drain region can be set to a small value, for example, between 1.5 μm and 2.5 μm.
It should be noted that, on the array substrate, the display active region may have a bent shape, and accordingly, the second mask portion 20 also has a bent shape, as shown in fig. 14, in this case, the length of the display active region is the distance between the display source region and the display drain region, and the length of the second mask portion 20 is the distance between the third mask portion 30 and the fourth mask portion 40.
As another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an exposure apparatus including a scanning light source and the above mask. When an array substrate is exposed by exposure equipment, the mask plate is arranged on the side, to be exposed, of the array substrate, and the position of a first mask portion of the mask plate corresponds to the position of a peripheral active area of the array substrate; and enabling the scanning light source to be located on one side, away from the array substrate, of the mask plate, and then carrying out optical scanning on the mask plate along a preset direction by using the scanning light source.
The first mask part of the mask plate provided by the invention can realize the semi-transparent effect, and the exposure amount of the photoresist at the corresponding positions at the middle part and two ends of the first mask part can be closer through the arrangement of the mask strips, so that the exposure effect of the peripheral active region is more uniform when the array substrate is exposed by using the exposure equipment, and the uniformity of the pattern formed by etching is improved.
Specifically, when the first mask portion of the mask plate is as shown in fig. 2, the mask plate is disposed on the exposure side of the array substrate, so that orthographic projections of the two mask strips towards the peripheral active region are located on two sides of the peripheral mask region along the width direction of the peripheral mask region. And the scanning direction of the scanning light source is the length direction of the first mask part. When the first mask portion of the mask plate is as shown in fig. 4 or 5, the mask plate is arranged on the exposure side of the array substrate, so that the orthographic projection of each mask strip towards the peripheral active region is located in the range of the peripheral active region; and the scanning direction of the scanning light source is the arrangement direction of the mask stripes. When the structures of fig. 4 and 5 are employed, the exposure effect of the first mask portion is described above, and is not described here again.
The above is a description of the mask plate and the exposure apparatus provided by the present invention, and it can be seen that the mask plate provided by the present invention can improve the exposure uniformity of the display active region and the peripheral active region; in addition, the mask plate can be manufactured by the same manufacturing process as the existing mask plate, and extra process time and cost are not needed.
It will be understood that the above embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments taken to illustrate the principles of the present invention, which is not limited thereto. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the spirit and substance of the invention, and these modifications and improvements are also considered to be within the scope of the invention.
Claims (8)
1. A mask plate is used for exposing an array substrate, the array substrate comprises a display area and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, the display area comprises a plurality of display active areas, the peripheral area comprises a plurality of peripheral active areas, the length of the peripheral active areas is larger than that of the display active areas, the mask plate comprises a mask layer, and the mask plate is characterized in that the mask layer comprises a first mask portion corresponding to the peripheral active areas, and the first mask portion comprises a plurality of mask strips which are spaced from each other; in the first mask part, the light transmission degree of the mask strips is different from that of other parts;
the mask layer further comprises a second mask portion corresponding to the display active region, and the second mask portion is a semi-transparent film or a full-transparent area surrounded by a third mask portion, a fourth mask portion and two light shielding blocks.
2. A mask according to claim 1, wherein in the first mask portion, the mask stripes are less transparent than other portions.
3. A mask according to claim 2, wherein in the first mask portion,
the mask strip is light-proof, and the other parts of the mask strip are light-transmitting;
or the mask strip is semi-transparent, and the other parts are all transparent;
or the mask strip is opaque, and the other parts of the mask strip are semi-transparent.
4. A mask plate according to claim 1, wherein the first mask portion includes two mask stripes arranged in a width direction thereof, an extending direction of the mask stripes intersecting with the width direction of the first mask portion; the distance between two mask strips is larger than the width of the peripheral active region; in the first mask portion, the portions other than the mask stripes are semi-transparent.
5. A mask plate according to claim 1, wherein the first mask portion includes a plurality of mask stripes arranged along a width direction thereof, an extending direction of the mask stripes intersects with the width direction of the first mask portion, and a distance between two farthest first mask stripes is smaller than a width of the peripheral active region; or,
the first mask portion comprises a plurality of mask strips arranged along the length direction of the first mask portion, the extending direction of the mask strips is intersected with the length direction of the first mask portion, and the distance between two farthest mask strips is smaller than the length of the peripheral active region.
6. A mask according to claim 5, wherein the width of the mask strips is between 0.5 μm and 1.5 μm, and the spacing between two adjacent mask strips is between 0.5 μm and 1.5 μm.
7. An exposure apparatus, characterized by comprising a scanning light source and the mask of any one of claims 1 to 6.
8. The exposure apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when the mask plate is the mask plate according to claim 4, a scanning direction of the scanning light source is a length direction of the first mask portion;
when the mask is the mask according to claim 5, the scanning direction of the scanning light source is the arrangement direction of the mask strips.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN201710895606.XA CN107807493B (en) | 2017-09-28 | 2017-09-28 | Mask plate and exposure equipment |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN201710895606.XA CN107807493B (en) | 2017-09-28 | 2017-09-28 | Mask plate and exposure equipment |
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| CN107807493A CN107807493A (en) | 2018-03-16 |
| CN107807493B true CN107807493B (en) | 2020-08-07 |
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| CN201710895606.XA Active CN107807493B (en) | 2017-09-28 | 2017-09-28 | Mask plate and exposure equipment |
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| CN113820894B (en) * | 2021-08-30 | 2023-04-25 | 厦门天马微电子有限公司 | Array substrate, mask plate, active structure preparation method and display panel |
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| JP3993125B2 (en) * | 2003-04-01 | 2007-10-17 | Ｈｏｙａ株式会社 | Gray tone mask defect correction method |
| JP5036328B2 (en) * | 2007-01-24 | 2012-09-26 | Ｈｏｙａ株式会社 | Gray tone mask and pattern transfer method |
| CN101373325A (en) * | 2007-08-21 | 2009-02-25 | 北京京东方光电科技有限公司 | Half-tone mask plate structure and manufacturing method thereof |
| CN101738846B (en) * | 2008-11-17 | 2012-02-29 | 北京京东方光电科技有限公司 | Mask plate and manufacture method thereof |
| CN102645839B (en) * | 2011-06-15 | 2013-11-27 | 北京京东方光电科技有限公司 | Mask plate and manufacturing method thereof |
| CN105093807B (en) * | 2015-09-16 | 2024-01-23 | 京东方科技集团股份有限公司 | Mask plate, preparation method thereof and exposure system |
| CN206133181U (en) * | 2016-11-01 | 2017-04-26 | 合肥鑫晟光电科技有限公司 | Mask plate |
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