CN113547206A

CN113547206A - Laser etching device, method and system

Info

Publication number: CN113547206A
Application number: CN202110792102.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王祥; 李善基; 吕哲
Original assignee: Shenzhen Mingchuang Intelligent Equipment Co ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Mingchuang Intelligent Equipment Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-13
Filing date: 2021-07-13
Publication date: 2021-10-26

Abstract

The application discloses a laser etching device, which comprises a laser, a beam expander, a scanning galvanometer, a focusing lens and a processing platform, and is characterized in that the processing platform comprises an object bearing table, a first rotating assembly and a second rotating assembly; the object bearing table is used for bearing and fixing an element of an etching target; the rotating shafts of the first rotating assembly and the second rotating assembly are vertical, the first rotating assembly is used for driving the object bearing table to rotate in the plane where the object bearing table is located, and the second rotating assembly is used for driving the object bearing table to turn over; the device also comprises a controller, wherein the controller is electrically connected with the laser, the scanning galvanometer, the first rotating assembly and the second rotating assembly. The application also correspondingly provides a laser etching method and a laser etching system, which can accurately etch the circuit on the front, the side and the back of the mini LED display panel.

Description

Laser etching device, method and system

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of laser processing, in particular to a laser etching device, method and system.

Background

In the conventional technology, in order to realize large-screen display, a small-screen splicing method is generally adopted, namely a plurality of small mini LED display panels are spliced to form a large display panel, but gaps exist at the splicing positions, and when the gaps are large, the appearance is influenced.

In the conventional art, in order to reduce the gap width when little screen mini LED splices, adopt printing technology to form the circuit in the side of little screen mini LED display panel's base plate usually, can make display panel openly, the circuit of back and side switches on, place control circuit board in display panel's back, reduce the width in district of binding, thereby reduce the concatenation seam width, however, the circuit precision of printing technology formation on little screen mini LED display panel is not enough, make the inhomogeneous or dislocation of circuit and lead to the condition of product processing failure can appear during the concatenation, the yields is lower.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a laser etching device which can accurately etch lines on the edge area, the side face and the back face of the front face of a mini LED display panel to reduce the splicing seams of the mini LED display panel.

A laser etching device comprises a laser for emitting a laser beam, and the device sequentially comprises the following components along the propagation direction of the laser beam:

a beam expander for expanding and collimating the laser beam;

the scanning galvanometer is used for controlling the propagation direction of the laser beam according to a preset scanning rate;

a focusing lens for converging the laser beam;

the device also comprises a processing platform, wherein the processing platform comprises an object bearing platform, a first rotating assembly and a second rotating assembly;

the object bearing table is used for bearing and fixing an element of an etching target;

the rotating shafts of the first rotating assembly and the second rotating assembly are vertical, the first rotating assembly is used for driving the object bearing table to rotate in the plane where the object bearing table is located, and the second rotating assembly is used for driving the object bearing table to turn over;

the device also comprises a controller, wherein the controller is electrically connected with the laser, the scanning galvanometer, the first rotating assembly and the second rotating assembly.

In one embodiment, the laser is an ultraviolet picosecond laser or an ultraviolet femtosecond laser.

In one embodiment, the object stage further includes a vacuum adsorption device, and the vacuum adsorption device is used for fixing the etching target element on the object stage.

In one embodiment, the etching target element is of a flat structure and comprises a front surface, a bottom surface and a side surface, at least one area of at least one surface of the etching target element is coated or evaporated with a metal material, the bottom surface of the etching target element is tightly attached to the object bearing table, and the bottom surface covers the table surface of the object bearing table.

In one embodiment, the processing platform further comprises a translation assembly for driving the object bearing table to translate.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a first image sensor and a second image sensor connected to the controller;

when the object bearing table is in a horizontal state, the field angle of the first image sensor covers the table top of the object bearing table; when the object bearing table is turned over to be in a vertical state, the field angle of the second image sensor covers the table top of the object bearing table.

In addition, the application also provides a laser etching method based on the laser etching device, which can accurately etch lines in the edge area, the side face and the back face of the front face of the mini LED display panel so as to reduce the splicing seams of the mini LED display panel.

A laser etching method is based on the laser etching device, and comprises the following steps:

acquiring a front image of an etching target element fixed on the object bearing table through the first image sensor, processing the front image to determine a front etching track, and etching the front of the etching target element according to the front etching track;

controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table by 90 degrees, acquiring a front image of the etching target element through the second image sensor, determining a side etching track by processing the front image, and etching one side of the etching target element according to the side etching track;

controlling the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence, and etching at least one side surface of the etching target element according to the side surface etching track in sequence;

after the etching target element is turned over, acquiring a back image of the etching target element fixed on the object bearing table through the first image sensor, determining a back etching track through processing the back image, and etching the back of the etching target element according to the back etching track.

In one embodiment, after controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing platform by 90 degrees or controlling the first rotating assembly to sequentially rotate by a preset angle, the method further includes:

acquiring a front image of an etching target element fixed on the object bearing table through a second image sensor, identifying a mark pattern in the front image, judging whether the side surface to be etched of the etching target element is horizontal according to a mark area, and controlling the first rotating assembly to rotate and adjust the side surface to be etched of the etching target element to be in a horizontal state if the side surface to be etched of the etching target element is not horizontal.

In one embodiment, the front etching track or the side etching track includes at least one section, and etching the front or the side of the etching target element according to the front etching track or the side etching track includes:

controlling a laser to emit a laser beam, driving the scanning galvanometer to change the direction of the laser beam, and etching according to a section of the front etching track or the side etching track;

and controlling the translation assembly to translate the object bearing table by a distance corresponding to the section, and driving the scanning galvanometer to etch according to the next section of the front etching track or the side etching track.

In addition, the application also provides a laser etching system based on the laser etching device, corresponding to the laser etching method, the lines can be accurately etched in the edge area, the side face and the back face of the front face of the mini LED display panel, and therefore the splicing seams of the mini LED display panel are reduced.

A laser etching system based on the laser etching device comprises:

the first image sensor is used for acquiring a front image and a back image of an etching target element horizontally fixed on the object bearing table;

the second image sensor is used for acquiring a front image of the etching target element after the etching target element is turned over by 90 degrees from a horizontal state to a vertical state;

the controller is used for acquiring the front image and the back image, determining a front etching track and a side etching track by processing the front image, determining a back etching track by processing the back image, and controlling the laser and the scanning galvanometer to etch the front, the back or the side of the etching target element according to the front etching track, the back etching track or the side etching track;

the controller is also used for controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table for 90 degrees, changing the horizontal state of the element of the etching target into the vertical state, and switching the surface to be etched from the front surface to a side surface;

the controller is further used for controlling the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence to switch the side face to be etched when the etching target element is in a vertical state.

After the laser etching device, the laser etching method and the laser etching system are adopted, on the basis of a traditional laser etching scheme, aiming at the characteristics of the mini LED display panel and the edge line during splicing, a processing platform with a first rotating assembly and a second rotating assembly is added, so that the line etching can be performed on the edge area of the front side of the mini LED display panel firstly, then the laser beam is unchanged, the side face of the mini LED display panel is etched after the mini LED display panel is turned over for 90 degrees by rotating the second rotating assembly, meanwhile, the side face can be switched by rotating the first rotating assembly for etching, and finally the full etching of the line on the front side, the side face and the back side of the mini LED display panel is realized; and because the laser etching technology is adopted, compared with the traditional printed circuit mode, the precision is higher and the yield is higher.

Furthermore, the laser etching device, the laser etching method and the laser etching system also adopt the first image sensor and the second image sensor to accurately position the etching area and the etching track on the mini LED display panel, errors in mechanical operation can be corrected at any time, and compared with a mode of fixing processing parameters in the prior art, the laser etching device, the laser etching method and the laser etching system are better in flexibility, stronger in adaptability and higher in accuracy.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts. Wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a mini LED display panel;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mini LED display panel in a layered manner;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a front etching track of a mini LED display panel for splicing;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a side etching track of a mini LED display panel for splicing;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of etching tracks of the front (back) and the side of a mini LED display panel for splicing;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of coverage of the field of view of an image sensor of the laser etching apparatus in one embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of coverage of the field angle of an image sensor of the laser etching apparatus in another embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a laser etching apparatus with a translation apparatus in one embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a laser etching method based on the laser etching apparatus in one embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process of performing laser etching on the front surface of the display panel based on the laser etching apparatus in one embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a schematic view of a logo pattern on a mini LED display panel in one embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process of performing laser etching on a side surface of a display panel based on the laser etching apparatus in one embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating the circuit formed by etching the front, side and back surfaces of the mini LED display panel after laser etching is completed in one embodiment.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

It should be noted that if directional indications (such as up, down, left, right, front, and back … …) are referred to in the embodiments of the present application, the directional indications are only used to explain the relative positional relationship between the components, the movement situation, and the like in a specific posture (as shown in the drawings), and if the specific posture is changed, the directional indications are changed accordingly.

In addition, if there is a description of "first", "second", etc. in the embodiments of the present application, the description of "first", "second", etc. is for descriptive purposes only and is not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In addition, technical solutions between various embodiments may be combined with each other, but must be realized by a person skilled in the art, and when the technical solutions are contradictory or cannot be realized, such a combination should not be considered to exist, and is not within the protection scope of the present application.

The structure of the conventional mini LED display panel is shown in fig. 1, the front surface of a single mini LED display panel comprises a display area and an edge area, and as shown in fig. 2, the display area sequentially comprises a glass substrate, a circuit layer, a TFT (Thin Film Transistor, chinese) layer, an LED display layer and a protective layer from bottom to top. The circuit layer supplies power to the TFT layer, and the TFT layer controls the mini LED chip of the LED display layer to emit light. In order to solve the problem, as shown in fig. 3, 4 and 5, lines can be formed in the edge area of the front face of the mini LED display panel and the side face and the back face of the display panel, and the driving IC arranged on the back face and the display area are electrically connected through the lines. When the mini LED display panels are spliced, the width between the adjacent mini LED display panels is only less than 0.5 mm, and the visual effect can be greatly improved.

The invention particularly provides a laser etching device and a laser etching method and system based on the laser etching device, in order to generate circuits on the front, the side and the back of a mini LED display panel and conveniently place a control IC on the back of the panel so as to reduce splicing seams.

Specifically, in one embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, the laser etching apparatus includes:

and a laser 10 for emitting a laser beam. In this embodiment, the laser is preferably an ultraviolet picosecond laser or an ultraviolet femtosecond laser. For example, the laser beam may preferably be an ultraviolet laser beam having a wavelength of 200-400nm, and the pulse width may preferably be a picosecond laser of 1-50ps, or a femtosecond laser of 20-200 fs. The picosecond or femtosecond laser beam with ultrashort pulse is adopted for processing, so that the laser processing heat influence can be reduced, and a good processing effect can be obtained.

As shown in fig. 6, the laser etching apparatus further includes, in order along the propagation direction of the laser beam:

and a beam expander 20 for expanding and collimating the laser beam.

And a scanning galvanometer 30 for controlling the propagation direction of the laser beam according to a preset scanning rate.

And a focusing lens 40 for converging the laser beam.

In this embodiment, the etching target element 50 is a mini LED display panel, and a metal material may be coated or evaporated on the edge area, the side surface, and the back surface of the front surface of the mini LED display panel, and after the focusing lens 40 focuses the laser beam, a laser spot with high energy density may be formed on the metal material on the surface of the mini LED display panel, and the metal material at the laser spot scanning position absorbs the laser energy to be gasified, thereby completing the etching. And the laser spot is small after convergence, so that a high-precision line can be etched.

In this embodiment, the laser etching apparatus may include, but is not limited to the above optical components, and may further include other optical components, for example, a plane mirror in fig. 6, which may be used to change the direction of the laser beam, so that the laser beam can change from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction. The lateral laser beam may be harmful to a person when the light leakage is not controlled properly, and thus it is safer to change the etching laser beam to the vertical direction.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, the laser etching apparatus further includes a processing platform 60 (not shown), and the processing platform 60 includes an object bearing platform 62, a first rotating assembly 64 and a second rotating assembly 66.

The object stage 62 is used for carrying and fixing the etching target elements. In the present embodiment, the etching target element (mini LED display panel) has a flat plate structure, such as a rectangular plate structure or a hexagonal plate structure, including a front surface, a bottom surface, and side surfaces. Before laser etching, metal materials are coated or evaporated on the edge area, the side face and the back face of the front face of the single-chip mini LED display panel, then the single-chip mini LED display panel is placed on the object bearing table 62, the bottom face of an etching target element is attached to the object bearing table 62, and the bottom face covers the table top of the object bearing table.

That is to say, the bottom surface area of the single-chip mini LED display panel is larger than the area of the table top of the object bearing table 62, so that the mini LED display panel can cover the object bearing table, and the side edge of the mini LED display panel can exceed the object bearing table, thereby facilitating processing.

Preferably, the object stage 62 further includes a vacuum adsorption device (not shown) for fixing the etching target component on the object stage. Specifically, a plurality of through holes communicated with an air compressor or an air pump can be formed in the table top of the object bearing table 62, and after the mini LED display panel is placed on the object bearing table 62, the air compressor or the air pump works to pump out air, so that the mini LED display panel can be tightly adsorbed on the table top of the object bearing table 62. Compared with the scheme of sucking by the sucking disc, the sucking disc is made of flexible materials, so that the mini LED display panel is difficult to be ensured to be in a horizontal state after being fixed. And this scheme of adoption, there is not flexible filler before adsorbing with adsorb between the mesa of back holding platform 62 and the bottom surface of mini LED display panel, consequently can guarantee the mini LED display panel level to improve the machining precision.

In the present embodiment, the first and second

rotating assemblies

64 and 66 are rotating electrical machines. The rotating shafts of the first rotating assembly 64 and the second rotating assembly 66 are vertical, the first rotating assembly 64 is used for driving the object bearing table to rotate in the plane where the object bearing table is located, and the second rotating assembly 66 is used for driving the object bearing table to turn.

That is, as shown in fig. 6 and 7, when the object-holding platform 62 is in a horizontal state, the first rotating assembly 64 rotates to rotate the object-holding platform 62 in a horizontal plane, the second rotating assembly 66 rotates 90 degrees to turn the object-holding platform 62 90 degrees from a horizontal state to a vertical state, and at this time, the first rotating assembly 64 rotates to rotate the object-holding platform 62 in a vertical plane.

The laser etching apparatus further includes a controller 70, wherein the controller 70 is electrically connected to the laser 10, the scanning galvanometer 30, the first rotating assembly 64, and the second rotating assembly 66. The controller 70 is used for controlling the etching process of the whole laser etching apparatus, transmitting control information and/or power by sending messages or electric signals to the laser 10, the scanning galvanometer 30, the first rotating assembly 64 and the second rotating assembly 66, thereby controlling the laser 10 to be switched on and off and emitting laser beams with specific frequency, wavelength and power, controlling the scanning galvanometer 30 to change and adjust the direction of the laser beams according to a preset scanning route, controlling the first rotating assembly 64 to rotate the object bearing table 62 by a specific angle and controlling the second rotating assembly 66 to overturn the object bearing table 62 by a specific angle.

Further, in order to improve the control accuracy of the controller 70, in one embodiment, the laser etching apparatus further includes a first image sensor 82 and a second image sensor 84 connected to the controller 70.

When the object table 62 is in a horizontal state, the field angle of the first image sensor 82 covers the table top of the object table; when the object table 62 is turned over to be in the vertical state, the angle of view of the second image sensor 84 covers the top of the object table 62. The first image sensor 82 is used for shooting a front image of the display panel in the propagation direction of the laser beam, and sending the front image to the controller, and the controller sets an etching track according to the image for etching.

The second image sensor 84 is used for shooting the front image of the mini LED display panel on the turned object bearing table 62, namely shooting the front image of the display panel from the side surface, and sending the front image to the controller. The controller can confirm the connecting position of the etching track of the front side and the etching track of the side according to the front image so as to set the etching track of the side of the display panel, and then the controller controls the laser to etch the side. Meanwhile, the controller can also judge whether the side face of the mini LED display panel to be etched is horizontal or not after being turned over according to the image, and if not, the etching precision is influenced.

As shown in fig. 8, in the embodiment of fig. 8, a world coordinate system is used as a reference system, the laser 10 is horizontally disposed, the emitted laser beam is transmitted through an optical path (the planar mirror in fig. 8 is taken as an example, and the actual optical path transmission direction and the number of the planar mirrors may be determined according to specific circumstances), and then is changed to vertically and downwardly propagate, the table top of the object table 62 is horizontal, the first image sensor 82 may be disposed at any position above the object table 62, and the lens is aligned with the table top of the object table 62, so that only an image of the mini LED display panel fixed on the object table 62 needs to be acquired (i.e. the field angle covers the table top of the object table). Preferably, as shown in fig. 9, the first image sensor 82 is disposed right above the object bearing table 62, and the lens faces the mini LED display panel fixed on the object bearing table 62, so that the ambient light reflects little on the mini LED display panel, and the captured image is clearer.

The second image sensor 84 can be arranged at any position on one side of the table top of the object holding table 62 after the object holding table 62 is turned 90 degrees to a vertical direction, and only the image of the mini LED display panel fixed on the object holding table 62 after being turned 90 degrees needs to be collected (namely, the field angle covers the table top of the object holding table). Preferably, as shown in fig. 9, the second image sensor 84 is disposed at a position where the lens faces the top of the object stage 62 turned by 90 degrees from the horizontal state.

The horizontal state of the stage 62 is a state of being perpendicular to the laser beam to be etched. In the present embodiment, the horizontal state and the vertical state of the object table 62 are relative to the world coordinate system, and in the coordinate system, the laser beam is etched vertically downward, so that the horizontal state of the object table 62 is the horizontal state in the world coordinate system. However, the present invention is not limited to this layout, for example, in other embodiments, the laser beam is made to transversely propagate for scanning by changing the transmission direction of the laser beam, and at this time, the state that the object bearing table 62 and the etched laser beam are perpendicular to each other is the vertical state in the world coordinate system.

Further, as shown in fig. 10, the processing platform 60 further includes a translation assembly 68, and the translation assembly 68 is used for driving the object bearing table to translate. For example, the translation assembly 68 may be a slide rail and a slide block driven by a lead screw stepping motor along the X and Y directions on a horizontal plane, and the first rotation assembly 64 and the second rotation assembly 66 are disposed on the slide block, so as to drive the mini LED display panel on the object bearing table to translate.

In this embodiment, it should be noted that the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 can cover the front surface of the display panel of the object stage 62 when the object stage 62 is at different orientations in various ways: when the field angles of the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 are large, the front surface of the display panel can be directly covered; when the field angles of the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 are small, the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 may be disposed on a slide rail or other moving component, and the field angles thereof may be covered over the front surface of the display panel by moving the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 on the slide rail to change their orientations; when the field angles of the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 are small, the display panel can be moved by the translation assembly 68 so that the front surface thereof can be positioned below the field angles of the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 by moving; or the viewing angles of the first image sensor 82 and the second image sensor 84 may also be enlarged to cover the front of the display panel by adding other optics that increase the viewing angle.

The present invention is based on the foregoing laser etching apparatus, and in one embodiment, further provides a laser etching method, where the execution of the method is based on the foregoing controller 70 in the laser etching apparatus, and a computer program or a signal control system of a signal mechanism that may depend on a message mechanism, specifically, as shown in fig. 11, the method includes:

step S102: the front image of an etching target element fixed on the object bearing table is collected through the first image sensor, a front etching track is determined through processing the front image, and the front of the etching target element is etched according to the front etching track.

For convenience of description, the reference is still described in terms of the world coordinate system as an azimuth, and a rectangular mini LED display panel and laser beam are described as examples of vertical downward etching.

Before etching begins, the controller 70 may control the second rotating assembly to adjust the object-holding table 62 to a horizontal state, and then the mini LED display panel needs to be fixed on the object-holding table 62 and completely cover the object-holding table 62, exposing 4 side areas of the edge to be etched. As described above, the mini LED display panel can be fixed to the stage 62 by suction by the vacuum suction device. The placement can be based on manual placement, or can be based on automated fixture clamping mini LED display panels placed on the object bearing table 62.

Preferably, the mini LED display panel is placed on the object support 62 with its front side facing upward, and etched in the order of front, side and back, as shown in fig. 12, the first image sensor located directly above the mini LED display panel can capture the front image of the mini LED display panel. One or more than one identification pattern can be preset on the front surface of the mini LED display panel, for example, as shown in fig. 13, the identification pattern can be rectangular, dot-shaped or other shapes, and preferably, the identification pattern is arranged in the edge area of the mini LED display panel, which does not affect the light display effect of the display area; and because the edge area of the mini LED display panel is a transparent substrate, the identification pattern can be arranged on the front surface and the back surface of the mini LED display panel or in the transparent substrate.

The relative position of the identification pattern on the mini LED display panel is fixed, as shown in FIG. 13, the distance between the rectangular strip of the identification pattern 1, the dot of the identification pattern 2 and the dot of the identification pattern 3 and the edge of the display panel is fixed by preset parameters, the controller can position the display area and the edge area of the mini LED display panel by identifying the position of the identification pattern through image processing, so that the position coordinate of the edge area is determined to define an etching track, then the laser is started to emit laser beams, and the scanning galvanometer is controlled to etch the edge area on the front side of the mini LED display panel along the set etching track.

In fig. 12, since the edge area of the mini LED display panel includes A, B, C and D four areas, and the scanning range of the scanning galvanometer is usually small, and cannot cover A, B, C and D four areas at a time, in this embodiment, after etching the etching track of the area a, the controller controls the first rotating assembly to rotate by 90 degrees, that is, the object bearing table 62 drives the mini LED display panel to rotate by 90 degrees in the horizontal plane, and rotates the area B to the position where the area a is located before rotation, and then controls the scanning galvanometer to etch in the area B.

When the scanning range of the scanning galvanometer is too small, even one edge area of one edge cannot be covered at one time, the controller can divide the etching track into two or more sections and then carry out etching section by section.

For one section, the controller can control the laser to emit a laser beam, drive the scanning galvanometer to change the direction of the laser beam, etch according to one section of the front etching track, then control the translation assembly to translate the object bearing table by a distance corresponding to the section, and drive the scanning galvanometer to etch according to the next section of the front etching track. That is to say, for a longer or wider etching track, when the scanning galvanometer cannot complete etching at one time within the control range of the scanning galvanometer, the controller can divide the etching track into a plurality of sections, and then the display panel is moved section by section through the translation assembly, so that each section can be within the range of the scanning galvanometer in a time-sharing manner, and etching of the whole section, that is, the longer or wider etching track is realized.

And through the rotation of the first rotating assembly and/or the sectional translation of the translation assembly, the circuit of the edge area on the front surface of the mini LED display panel is etched immediately, and then the etching of the side surface of the mini LED display panel is started.

Step S104: and controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table by 90 degrees, acquiring a front image of the etching target element through the second image sensor, determining a side etching track by processing the front image, and etching one side of the etching target element according to the side etching track.

Referring to fig. 14, after the controller controls the second rotating assembly 66 to rotate 90 degrees, the object-supporting platform 62 is turned from the horizontal state to the vertical state, and the side of the display panel faces upward and the front faces the side. The spot formed by the laser beam is then focused on the upward side of the display panel. At this time, the front image of the display panel can be captured by the second image sensor, i.e., the front image of the display panel is taken from the side.

Similarly, because the relative position of the identification pattern on the mini LED display panel is fixed, the controller can position the display area and the edge area of the mini LED display panel by identifying the position of the identification pattern through image processing, and because the front line of the display panel needs to be communicated with the side line, the controller can determine the position coordinate of the etching track on the side to be etched as long as the position of the front line connected with the side line is determined, then the laser is started to emit laser beams, the laser beams are still in a vertical downward state at the moment, the side to be etched is in a horizontal state, and the scanning galvanometer can be controlled to etch on the side to be etched along the set side etching track.

After the first side surface is etched, the other side surfaces need to be etched continuously.

Step S106: and controlling the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence, and etching at least one side surface of the etching target element according to the side surface etching track in sequence.

That is, in the embodiment of the rectangular mini LED display panel, after the controller completes the etching of the first side circuit, the controller may sequentially control the first rotating assembly to rotate 90 degrees, and the first rotating assembly rotates the A, B, C and the side corresponding to the four sides D each time 90 degrees to the front side and to be in the horizontal state, perpendicular to the laser beam, and then performs the etching.

Preferably, in order to improve the precision and prevent mechanical errors generated during rotation of the first rotating assembly, after the first rotating assembly is rotated by a preset angle every time, the front image of the display panel is shot from the side by the second image sensor for processing, the display area and the edge area on the display panel are repositioned, the etching track of the side to be etched is reset, then the laser is started to emit a laser beam, the scanning galvanometer is controlled to etch on the side along the set etching track, and accordingly etching of lines on A, B, C and D four sides can be completed in sequence.

Thus, the etching of the front and the side of the mini LED display panel is completed.

Step S108: after the etching target element is turned over, acquiring a back image of the etching target element fixed on the object bearing table through the first image sensor, determining a back etching track through processing the back image, and etching the back of the etching target element according to the back etching track.

For the etching of the back of the mini LED display panel, the display panel can be turned over. The front surface of the display panel is tightly attached to the table top of the object bearing table after turning. After the mini LED display panel is turned over and fixed on the object bearing table, etching can be carried out according to the method for etching the front face of the display panel, and because the display panel is a transparent plate, the identification pattern can still be recognized by the first image sensor after the display panel is turned over, so that the modes of positioning the display panel and setting the back face etching track are the same as the method for etching the front face of the display panel, and are not repeated herein. When the controller 70 sets the etching track on the back side, the area range of the etching track on the back side can be approximately corresponding to the area of the etching track on the front side, as shown in fig. 15, the residual circuit after the circuit layer is etched extends from the front side to the edge of the display panel, and a circuit pin is formed on the back side after surrounding the whole edge side, and the circuit pin can be connected with the control circuit of the display panel, so that the control circuit of the display panel can be arranged under the mini LED display panel, and the pin does not need to be arranged to penetrate through the splicing seam and extend to the front side of the mini LED display panel to be connected with the circuit, thereby reducing the width of the splicing seam.

It should be noted that step numbers of S102, S104, and S106 in the above method are only used to distinguish the substance of the steps, and do not limit the execution sequence of the steps of the method, and in this embodiment, S102, S104, and S106 are the whole etching process described in the order of front, side, and back, but in other embodiments, the method may be executed in the order of etching the side first, and then etching the front and back.

In addition, the method is not limited to etching only the rectangular display panel, and may be applied to other flat display panels such as a hexagonal flat display panel, and only the preset angle of rotation of the first rotating assembly needs to be controlled, for example, in the case of a hexagonal display panel, the preset angle may be set to 60 degrees.

Further, in this embodiment, when the side of the display panel is etched, the side of the display panel needs to be strictly guaranteed to be in a horizontal state, otherwise, the etching traces are different in depth, and even missing, so that the yield is affected. However, since the first rotating assembly belongs to the moving part, when the preset rotating angle has an error or is disturbed, the side surface of the display panel may become non-horizontal, and if the conventional level meter and other devices are adopted for detection, a level meter needs to be installed on each side edge, which is obviously unreasonable.

Therefore, the controller can acquire the front image of the etching target element fixed on the object bearing table through the second image sensor after controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table by 90 degrees or controlling the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence, identify the identification pattern in the front image, judge whether the side surface to be etched of the etching target element is horizontal or not according to the mark area, and if not, control the first rotating assembly to rotate and adjust the side surface to be etched of the etching target element to be in a horizontal state.

As shown in fig. 14, for convenience of description, the reference is still described in terms of the world coordinate system as an azimuth, and a description is given with an example in which a rectangular mini LED display panel and a laser beam are etched vertically downward. After the controller controls the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table by 90 degrees or controls the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence, the mini LED display panel is in a vertical state, and the second image sensor can collect the front image of the display panel fixed on the object bearing table from the side. The front surface of the display panel can be preset with one or more than one identification patterns, such as rectangular and dot type. The relative position of the identification pattern mini LED display panel is fixed, and the controller identifies whether the image of the identification pattern is an image which is acquired when the side of the display panel which needs to be etched at present is in a horizontal state through image processing.

For example, as shown in fig. 13, for a rectangular logo pattern 1, an included angle between a central line thereof and a reference horizontal line can be obtained, if the included angle is 0, the logo pattern is determined to be horizontal, and if the included angle is not 0, the first rotating assembly is driven to rotate to be horizontal. For another example, for two dot-shaped patterns 2 and 3, an angle between the center line and the reference horizontal line can be calculated, if the angle is 0, the first rotating assembly is determined to be horizontal, and if the angle is not 0, the first rotating assembly is driven to rotate to the horizontal. Whether the side of treating the sculpture of display panel is horizontal is judged through second image sensor, can guarantee at first that the sculpture trace depth is unanimous, improves the yields, and for traditional spirit level, it is simple to structurally realize, does not occupy the more positions of processing platform.

The circuit can be accurately etched in the edge area, the side face and the back face of the front face of the mini LED display panel, so that the splicing seams of the mini LED display panel are reduced. The present invention is based on the foregoing laser etching apparatus, and in one embodiment, further provides a laser etching system, specifically, as shown in fig. 8 and 9, including:

and the first image sensor 82 is used for acquiring a front image and a back image of the etching target element horizontally fixed on the object bearing table.

And a second image sensor 84 for acquiring a front image of the etching target element after the etching target element is turned by 90 degrees from a horizontal state to a vertical state.

And the controller 70 is used for acquiring the front image and the back image, determining a front etching track and a side etching track by processing the front image, determining a back etching track by processing the back image, and controlling the laser and the scanning galvanometer to etch the front, the back or the side of the etching target element according to the front etching track, the back etching track or the side etching track.

The controller 70 is further configured to control the second rotating assembly to turn the object-holding table by 90 degrees, change the horizontal state of the etching target element into the vertical state, and switch the surface to be etched from the front surface to a side surface.

The controller 70 is further configured to control the first rotating assembly to rotate by a preset angle in sequence to switch the side to be etched when the etching target element is in a vertical state.

The above embodiments are merely examples, and not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and all modifications, equivalents, and flow charts using the contents of the specification and drawings of the present application, or those directly or indirectly applied to other related arts, are included in the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A laser etching device comprises a laser for emitting a laser beam, and the device sequentially comprises the following components along the propagation direction of the laser beam:

a beam expander for expanding and collimating the laser beam;

a focusing lens for converging the laser beam;

the device also comprises a processing platform, and is characterized in that the processing platform comprises an object bearing platform, a first rotating assembly and a second rotating assembly;

2. The laser etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser is an ultraviolet picosecond laser or an ultraviolet femtosecond laser.

3. The laser etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the object stage further comprises a vacuum adsorption device for fixing the etching target element on the object stage.

4. The laser etching device according to claim 1, wherein the etching target element is a flat plate-shaped structure and includes a front surface, a bottom surface and a side surface, at least one surface of the etching target element is coated or evaporated with a metal material in at least one region, the bottom surface of the etching target element is closely attached to the object bearing table, and the bottom surface covers the table surface of the object bearing table.

5. The laser etching device according to claim 1, wherein the processing platform further comprises a translation assembly for driving the object stage to translate.

6. The laser etching apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the apparatus further comprises a first image sensor and a second image sensor connected to the controller;

7. A laser etching method based on the laser etching device of claim 6, wherein the method comprises:

8. The laser etching method of claim 7, wherein after controlling the second rotating assembly to overturn the object bearing table by 90 degrees or controlling the first rotating assembly to sequentially rotate by a preset angle, the method further comprises:

9. The laser etching method according to claim 7, wherein the front etching track or the side etching track comprises at least one section, and the etching the front surface or the side surface of the etching target element according to the front etching track or the side etching track comprises:

10. A laser etching system based on the laser etching device of claim 6, comprising: