JP2001305075A - Appearance inspecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an appearance inspecting device for a liquid crystal substrate, having high accuracy in inspection and capable of easily distinguishing a defective mode and easily accumulating and controlling defective position information or the like while reducing required labor and manual assistance. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a ring light 2 and a line light 2 serving as a plurality of irradiating means for irradiating light from different directions toward the surface of the substrate which is an inspection object, and CCD cameras 6 and 7 serving as photographing means. The device is further provided with a biaxial robot 9 serving as a positioning means capable of freely moving the relative position of the substrate 1 to the CCD cameras, and a monitor 8 serving as a display means for acquiring image information by selecting and combining the appropriate ones out of the lights and CCD cameras at every part of the main surface, and processing the image for display so as to facilitate the detection of a defective part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a substrate surface. More specifically, for example, the present invention relates to an inspection apparatus that inspects the appearance of the surface of a glass substrate of a liquid crystal display device (hereinafter, referred to as a “liquid crystal substrate”).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a visual inspection of the surface of a liquid crystal substrate is performed by a visual inspection under which an operator visually compares the substrate with a liquid crystal substrate which is a sample of a limit standard of each item. It was done in.

[0003]

The position information of a defective portion in the appearance of a liquid crystal substrate is extremely important information in process control. Therefore, when a defective portion is found in the appearance inspection, marking on the liquid crystal substrate itself by an operator has been performed. However, when systematically recording position information, the manual work of the operator is greatly increased, and the operator is burdened both physically and physically. No information was stored as material. As described above, since it was not possible to accumulate the position information or quickly utilize the position information, the discovery of the process defect or the device defect was delayed, and as a result, the number of defective products was increased. Even for a liquid crystal substrate on which an operator has performed marking, the management of the marking result is complicated and requires extra man-hours.

[0004] Further, since this test itself is a sensitivity test visually performed by an operator, there are many human factors, and the judgment result depends on the skill level, physical condition of the day, and the like. In a visual inspection of a liquid crystal substrate, it is necessary to determine a minute defective portion on a micron basis depending on a defective item. However, such a manual inspection has a limit in improving reliability.

[0005] Further, depending on the mode of the defective portion, it is difficult to distinguish between dirt and scratch, so that it takes time for the inspection and erroneous determination is unavoidable.

In general, in order to identify the cause of a defect during production, it has been desired to perform an external appearance inspection for a certain long period before and after each process. Then, a lot of manpower was required, the load was physically large, and it could not be practiced sufficiently.

Therefore, the present invention reduces the required labor and manpower, makes it easy to distinguish types of defects, has high inspection accuracy, and can easily accumulate and manage defect position information and the like. It is an object to provide an inspection device.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plurality of irradiating means for irradiating light from different directions toward a main surface of a substrate to be inspected. Photographing means for photographing the main surface, positioning means for freely moving the relative position of the substrate with respect to the irradiating means and the photographing means, and, for each part of the main surface, the irradiating means and the photographing means. Display means for selecting and combining desired ones to obtain image information and displaying the image information so that a defective portion can be detected.

By adopting the above configuration, it is possible to acquire image information suitable for inspecting a desired defective portion by appropriately combining irradiation means and photographing means according to the inspection region, and display the image information on the display means. Since the appearance inspection can be performed, the labor required for the appearance inspection can be significantly reduced, and the accuracy of the inspection itself can be increased.

In the above invention, preferably, the acquisition of the image information is performed for each divided region of the main surface,
An image information management unit is provided for integrally recording and managing the acquired image information for each of the main surfaces. By adopting this configuration, it is possible to carry out inspection without any problem even on a substrate having a main surface having a large area so that image information cannot be acquired at one time, and the obtained image information is collected for each main surface. Since the information is managed and managed, it can be easily used as reference information later.

In the above invention, preferably, when the defective portion is irradiated with light by changing the combination of the irradiating means, the difference in the image information obtained is given by
There is provided irradiation changing means for enabling the type of the defective portion to be determined. By adopting this configuration, even when the type of the defect at the defective portion is difficult to determine visually, it can be determined by changing the combination of the irradiation units by the irradiation changing unit.

In the above invention, preferably, at the time of acquiring the image information, marking is performed at a position corresponding to the defective portion by an operator's position designation operation on a screen displaying an image based on the image information. One that can
The above-mentioned marking means is provided. By employing this configuration, the operator can perform marking only by performing operations while viewing the image, and can perform marking efficiently with a small amount of labor.

Preferably, in the above-mentioned invention, in the marking, a marking selecting means is provided for selecting a marking means of a type corresponding to the defective item by an operator selecting a defective item. By adopting this configuration, marking can be performed by color coding or the like according to the type of the defective portion, which is convenient for later arrangement and utilization of the defective sample.

In the above invention, preferably, there is provided position information management means for acquiring the position information of the defective portion from the information of the position where the marking is performed, and managing the acquired position information. By employing this configuration, the accumulation and management of the information on the location where the defect has occurred can be automatically performed only by performing the marking without requiring extra labor.

In the above invention, preferably, the position information of the defective portion is obtained by the marking, and the defect content information of the defective portion is obtained from the type of the selected defective item. A failure-related information management means for managing the failure content information; By adopting this configuration, the position information and the defect content information can be automatically accumulated and managed as a set only by performing the marking without requiring extra labor.

[0016] In the above invention, preferably, the defect information is combined with the pattern information of the substrate recognized in advance, and the defective information is extracted and emphasized to enable recognition by emphasizing the defective data. Is provided. By employing this configuration, it is extremely easy for the operator to find a defective portion, and the burden on the inspection can be reduced. In addition, since the discrimination becomes easy, a highly reliable inspection with few oversights or the like can be performed.

Preferably, in the above invention, a screen for displaying an image based on the image information is provided with a dimension measuring means for measuring a dimension of the defective portion. By adopting this configuration, the dimensions can be measured on the screen, so that the operator can easily and smoothly measure the dimensions of the defective portion, and accurately determine whether the defective product is a good product or a correctable product. be able to.

[0018]

(Embodiment 1) (Configuration) FIG. 1 shows an appearance inspection apparatus according to this embodiment. This appearance inspection apparatus includes a working unit shown in FIG. 1A and a display unit shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1A, this appearance inspection apparatus includes a ring light 2 irradiating from above and a lateral irradiation as a plurality of irradiating means for irradiating a main surface of a substrate 1 to be inspected with light. A line light 3, a backlight 4 irradiating from the back surface of the substrate 1 through a stage 12 on which the substrate 1 is mounted, and a CC
A coaxial light 5 is provided on the D camera and emits light coaxially with the shooting direction of the CCD camera. Further, a low-magnification CCD camera 6 and a high-magnification CCD camera 7 are provided above the substrate 1 as photographing means for photographing the main surface of the substrate 1. Instead of using two CCD cameras 6 and 7, one CCD camera with a zoom function may be used instead. The appearance inspection of the main surface of the substrate 1 is performed using these CCD
An image is acquired by a camera. In this case, an optimal magnification can be selected according to the mode and position of the defective portion.

Further, this visual inspection apparatus uses a two-axis robot 9 as positioning means which can freely move the relative position of the substrate 1 with respect to a plurality of irradiation means and a plurality of photographing means by remote control using a pre-registration or a joystick. Prepare.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the appearance inspection apparatus includes display means for displaying image information acquired by the CCD cameras 6 and 7 so that an operator can detect a defective portion. A monitor 8 is provided. In addition, the appearance inspection apparatus includes a mechanism that can change the selection of the irradiation unit among the irradiation units as the irradiation changing unit.

Table 1 shows an example of a combination of the irradiating means and the photographing means corresponding to each type of defect. It is preferable that such combination information be registered in advance.

[0022]

[Table 1]

Note that the acquisition of image information by the CCD cameras 6 and 7 is not performed at once for the entire substrate 1 but is performed for each region of one substrate 1. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the substrate 1 is divided into regions. The division of the region may be performed in accordance with the original pattern of the substrate 1. However, when a particular defect in a specific region is to be inspected with particular emphasis on the manufacturing process, such circumstances are taken into consideration. May be performed. In the example of FIG.
Since the types of defects to be inspected with particular emphasis in these areas are known in advance, they are used in correspondence with the areas 101 to 107 as shown in Table 2. Irradiation means and photographing means to be determined are determined.

[0024]

[Table 2]

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the configuration of the appearance inspection apparatus. The visual inspection apparatus includes a personal computer 13 as image information management means for integrally recording and managing image information acquired for each divided area for each main surface.

The switching of the irradiating means and the photographing means for obtaining the optimal image information is performed in advance by registering the switching procedure in advance so that the switching can be performed quickly.

In this appearance inspection apparatus, a cursor 10 is arranged on a screen of a monitor 8 as a dimension measuring means.
The dimensions can be easily measured on the screen by the cursor 10. Further, a marking unit 11 is provided as marking means for marking a position corresponding to a defective portion by an operation of an operator. As shown in FIG. 4, the marking unit 11 includes a plurality of markers 21, a marker slide unit 22, a marker XY robot 23, and a cylinder 24. The plurality of markers 21 include those of a plurality of colors different from each other, and as a marking selecting means, by selecting a defective item on the monitor 8 by an operator's operation, a mechanism capable of selecting and using the marker 21 of the corresponding color. Has become. Specifically, the marker 21 to be selected by the marker XY robot 23 is moved on the extension of the cylinder 24, and the cylinder 21 pushes out the marker 21, whereby the marker 21 is sent out along the marker slide portion 22, The main surface of the substrate 1 is marked.

(Operation / Effect) For example, when there is a flaw and a dirt on the main surface, the distinction between the two is made directly by the monitor 8.
Even if it is projected on the screen, it is often difficult to see it visually. That is, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the ring light 2 and the line light 3 are simultaneously irradiated on the main surface of the substrate 1, as shown in FIG. On 8, although both are displayed as images, it is indistinguishable which is flawed and which is dirty. Therefore, by individually irradiating a part of the plurality of irradiating units with light by the above-described irradiation changing unit, the image of each defective unit can be raised. Specifically, the scratch 31 and the stain 3
In order to make a distinction from 2, as shown in FIG.
The irradiation of the ring light 2 is stopped, and only the line light 3 is irradiated. Then, as shown in FIG.
Disappears from the image, and only the image of the stain 32 rises. In this way, it is possible to discriminate between the flaw 31 and the stain 32.

Conventionally, when there is a defective portion, it is determined whether the mode is defective, non-defective, or correctable. However, this determination depends on the size of the defective portion.
Has been determined. Conventionally, since the number of steps could not be increased for discrimination, the operator visually checked the limit sample and the substrate 1 by comparing them with each other. Since the dimensions can be measured by the operator, the operator can easily measure the dimensions of the defective portion, and can accurately determine whether the product is defective, non-defective, or correctable.

Further, the operator can perform marking on a defective portion by the marking section 11 by operation. In particular, if each of the plurality of colors of the marker 21 has a meaning, the operator selects a defective item on the screen of the monitor 8 so that the marker 21 of the color corresponding to the defective item is automatically selected. And marking is performed. Specifically, the selection and marking are performed by moving the marker slide unit 22 and moving the marker 21 by the cylinder 24.
This is done by extruding As described above, since marking can be performed in different colors, it is clear at a glance which type of defect occurs where the marked substrate 1 is viewed.

(Embodiment 2) (Configuration) The configuration of the appearance inspection apparatus in this embodiment is as follows.
Basically the same as in Embodiment 1, but
The following components are added. That is, the personal computer 13 also functions as a position information management unit that acquires the position information of the defective portion from the information of the position where the marking is performed, and stores and manages the position information. Alternatively, more preferably, the personal computer 13 is provided not only with the position information management means but also with the type of defect such as a flaw or dirt at the defective portion based on the type of defect item selected by the operator at the time of marking. Information (hereinafter, referred to as “defect content information”) may also be acquired, and the position information and the defect content information may be set as a defect-related information management unit that stores and manages the information.

(Operation / Effect) When the visual inspection apparatus has position information management means, when an operator selects a defective item and performs marking, the position information is automatically acquired and stored by a personal computer.・ Managed. When a defect-related information management unit is provided, the position information and the defect content information are accumulated and managed as a set. Therefore, when inspections and markings have been performed manually by the operator in the past, the accumulation and management of information on defective locations, which had not been thoroughly performed because of the complexity, can be automatically performed without requiring extra labor. Can be done. Analyzing such accumulated information is expected to greatly contribute to process improvement.

(Embodiment 3) (Configuration) The configuration of the appearance inspection apparatus in this embodiment is as follows.
Basically, it is the same as that in Embodiment 1 or 2, but the following components are added. That is,
The personal computer 13 can previously recognize information on a pattern originally existing on the substrate 1 (hereinafter, referred to as “pattern information”) as a defective portion emphasizing means. By combining with the acquired image information,
It is configured so that a portion having a high possibility of being a defective portion is extracted and highlighted by a method such as binarization to emphasize the portion.

(Operation / Effect) Since only the image of the defective portion can be extracted and emphasized by making it stand out, it is extremely easy for the operator to find the defective portion by looking at the screen of the monitor 8 and perform the inspection. Can be reduced. Further, as a result of easy determination, a highly reliable inspection with few oversights or the like can be performed.

Further, a mechanism for automatically performing analysis by the personal computer 13 on the basis of the image derived by the defective portion emphasizing means and making an automatic determination is provided, and a mechanism for automatically supplying and discharging the substrate 1 is provided. , The appearance inspection of the substrate 1 can be automatically performed without the intervention of an operator.

The above embodiment disclosed this time is illustrative in all aspects and is not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and includes any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

[0037]

According to the present invention, image information can be obtained by a combination of an irradiating unit and a photographing unit appropriate for a defective portion, and an appearance inspection can be performed based on the image information displayed by the display unit. Therefore, the labor required for the appearance inspection can be significantly reduced. Further, since the type of the defect can be identified and the dimension can be measured while looking at the screen, the burden on the operator can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a front view of a work unit, and FIG. 1B is a front view of a display unit, of a visual inspection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of division of a region to be inspected in a visual inspection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a visual inspection device based on the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a structure of a marking means of the visual inspection device according to the present invention.

FIGS. 5 (a) to 5 (d) are explanatory diagrams of a defect type determination method in the visual inspection device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 board, 2 ring lights, 3 line lights, 4
Backlight, 5 coaxial light, 6, 7 CCD camera, 8 monitor, 9 2-axis robot, 10 cursor,
11 marking section, 12 stage, 13 personal computer, 21 marker, 22 marker slide section, 24 cylinder, 31 scratch, 32 dirt, 101,
102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 areas.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page F term (reference) 2F065 AA49 BB01 BB22 CC25 FF02 FF04 FF61 GG16 GG17 HH14 HH15 JJ03 JJ05 JJ26 MM03 MM07 MM24 QQ04 QQ13 QQ25 QQ32 RR08 SS13 2G051 AA07 EA01 CA03 DA04 EC01 ED14 FA10 2H088 FA12 FA16 FA17 FA24 MA16

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. toward a main surface of a substrate to be inspected,
A plurality of irradiating means for irradiating light from different directions, a photographing means for photographing the main surface, a positioning means capable of freely moving a relative position of the substrate with respect to the irradiating means and the photographing means, Display means for selecting and combining desired ones of the irradiating means and the photographing means for each part, acquiring image information, and displaying the image information so that a defective portion can be detected. Inspection equipment. 2. An image information management means for acquiring the image information for each divided area of the main surface, and integrating and recording and managing the acquired image information for each main surface. The visual inspection device according to claim 1. 3. Irradiation change means for irradiating the defective portion with light by changing the combination of the irradiating means and enabling the type of the defective portion to be determined from the difference in the obtained image information. The visual inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising: 4. When acquiring the image information, one or more markings can be made at a position corresponding to the defective portion by a position designation operation of an operator on a screen displaying an image based on the image information. The visual inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising a marking unit. 5. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a marking selection unit that selects a type of the marking unit corresponding to the defective item by an operator selecting a defective item in the marking. 6. A position information managing unit that acquires position information of the defective portion from information of a position where the marking is performed, and manages the acquired position information.
Or an appearance inspection apparatus according to 5. 7. The position information of the defective portion is obtained by the marking, the defect content information of the defective portion is obtained from the type of the selected defective item, and the obtained position information and the defective content information are obtained. The visual inspection device according to claim 5, further comprising a failure-related information management unit that manages the information. 8. A defective portion emphasizing means for combining the pattern information of the substrate recognized in advance with the image information, thereby extracting the defective portion and emphasizing the defective portion so that the defective portion can be recognized. Item 8. An appearance inspection apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 7. 9. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a dimension measuring unit that can measure a dimension of the defective portion on a screen that displays an image based on the image information.