JP2003065962A - Apparatus and method for inspecting liquid crystal panel substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus and a method for inspecting a liquid crystal panel substrate wherein whether the supply state of a liquid crystal is satisfactory or not can be judged and measured with satisfactory accuracy. SOLUTION: The inspecting apparatus is provided with a hollow substrate table 3 on which a substrate 10 supplied with liquid crystals 11 is placed, an imaging means 6 which can be moved in the upper part of the substrate table 3 by a moving means and a control means which controls the substrate table 3 and the imaging means 6. A backlight 9 and a polarizing plate 21 are installed at the substrate table 3, a polarizing plate 20 is installed at a lens part 8 in the imaging means 6, and the polarizing plate 21 at the substrate table 3 and the polarizing plate 20 at the imaging means 6 are arranged so as to become mutually crossed Nicols.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention, when a liquid crystal is dropped and then substrates are attached to each other to assemble a liquid crystal display panel or the like, the liquid crystal is dropped with high precision even if wiring, an alignment film or the like is formed on the substrate. The present invention relates to a liquid crystal panel substrate inspection device and inspection method capable of determining and measuring the quality of a state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display panel, a space having a distance of several μm is provided between two glass substrates provided with transparent electrodes, thin film transistor arrays, etc. There is a step of enclosing the liquid crystal. This liquid crystal encapsulation process is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-89025. The conventional liquid crystal encapsulation process will be described below.

First, a sealant is applied to the peripheral edge of one surface of the substrate so as to surround the surface along the peripheral edge, and liquid crystal is dropped inside the sealant. At this time, the liquid crystal dropped on the substrate is prevented from leaking from the substrate surface to the outside by the sealing agent.

Next, the other substrate is placed above this substrate in a vacuum chamber, and one of the two substrates is relatively moved toward the other in a vacuum state to seal the substrate. Bonding is performed using the adhesive force of the agent. Here, the substrate may be attached after the adhesive is provided on the outer peripheral position of the sealant. As described above, the substrate in which the liquid crystal is sealed between the two glass substrates is assembled.

[0005]

When the liquid crystal is sealed as described above, various problems will occur if the liquid crystal is not supplied in an appropriate amount. Specifically, when the supply amount of the liquid crystal is too large, the liquid crystal overflows from the display area surrounded by the sealant, and as a result, the liquid crystal display panel has a defective display. Further, when the liquid crystal is supplied too much and the liquid crystal overflows the sealant, the liquid crystal adheres to the adhesive surface of the sealant, resulting in defective adhesion of the glass substrate. Further, when the supply amount of the liquid crystal is small, the liquid crystal is not sufficiently spread in the display area, and as a result, the liquid crystal display panel has a defective display.

Further, if the panel is assembled in a state where the liquid crystal is not sufficiently supplied due to a defective supply of the liquid crystal, there is a possibility that the assembly process of the liquid crystal display panel is adversely affected. Specifically, in the case of an assembly process of simultaneously assembling a plurality of liquid crystal display panels, one panel is defective and other panels on the same substrate to which liquid crystal is normally supplied are also regarded as defective. However, there is a fear that those normal liquid crystal panels cannot be assembled.

In order to solve the above problems, a method of judging the supply amount of liquid crystal by image processing was adopted. However, the liquid crystal is translucent milky white, and the glass substrate to which the liquid crystal is supplied has a color filter or a TFT. Since the array-like pattern is provided, it is difficult to judge the quality of the liquid crystal supply amount by image recognition.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an inspection device and an inspection method for a liquid crystal panel substrate, which can eliminate the above-mentioned problems and can accurately determine and measure the quality of the liquid crystal supply state.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a liquid crystal panel substrate inspection apparatus according to the present invention comprises a hollow substrate table on which a liquid crystal-supplied substrate is placed and an upper portion of the substrate table. An image pickup means movable by a movable means, and a control means for controlling the substrate table and the image pickup means. The substrate table is provided with a backlight and a polarizing plate, and the image pickup means is provided in the image pickup means. A polarizing plate is provided in the lens portion of the image pickup means, and the polarizing plate of the substrate table and the polarizing plate of the image pickup means are arranged so as to be in a crossed Nicols state.

In the liquid crystal panel substrate inspection apparatus of the present invention, the control means has a storage section for storing data.
In addition, the control unit is connected to a display unit for displaying data and images and an input unit for inputting data from the outside, and the control unit has a movement control function for controlling the movement operation of the image pickup unit, and an image picked up by the image pickup unit. An image processing function of performing image processing on the processed image data is compared with the input data input from the input unit and stored in the storage unit in advance, and the image processed image data is compared to supply the liquid crystal. It is provided with a judgment function for judging the quality of the state and a display function for displaying the judgment result data obtained by the judgment on the display section, and further, this control means is provided with the judgment result data obtained by the judgment. It has a transmission function of transmitting to another device.

Further, the liquid crystal panel substrate inspection method of the present invention includes an image processing step of performing image processing on the image data of the liquid crystal imaged by the image pickup means, and the number of objects and the center of gravity of the liquid crystal in a normal supply state which are set in advance. The amount of characteristic data about the position, the object area, and the perimeter is compared with the image processing data about the number of objects of the liquid crystal subjected to the image processing, the position of the center of gravity, the object area, and the perimeter to determine whether the liquid crystal supply state is good or bad. And a determination step to be performed.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A liquid crystal panel substrate inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a liquid crystal panel substrate inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Structure of Liquid Crystal Panel Substrate Inspection Apparatus> FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal panel substrate inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a gantry 1 and a camera mounted on the gantry 1 via first linear actuators 4a and 4b movable in the Y-axis direction in the figure. The support base 2 and the camera support base 2 are configured to be horizontally movable in the Y-axis direction on the base 1 by driving the first linear actuators 4a and 4b. Also, on the mount 1,
A substrate table 3 on which a substrate 10 is placed is provided so as to be sandwiched between the first linear actuators 4a and 4b.

The substrate table 3 is hollow, and a backlight 9 is provided on the side surface of the substrate table 3. With such a configuration, the substrate 10 placed on the substrate table 3 can be illuminated substantially uniformly from below the substrate 10.

An image recognition camera 6 as an image pickup means is attached to the camera support base 2 via a second linear actuator 5 which is movable in the X-axis direction in the figure, and drives the second linear actuator 5. As a result, the image recognition camera 6 is configured to be horizontally movable along the camera support base 2 in the X-axis direction. Further, in the image recognition camera 6, a camera barrel 7 and a lens 8 are provided on the surface of the substrate 10 in order to recognize the dropping state of the liquid crystal 11 in the area surrounded by the sealant 16 applied on the surface of the substrate 10. It is provided so as to face each other. In this embodiment,
Although the sealant 16 is provided on the substrate 10 onto which the liquid crystal is dropped, the sealant may be provided on the other substrate to be bonded.

The pedestal 1 also has a control processing function for positioning the first linear actuators 4a, 4b and the second linear actuator 5, an image processing function for image data taken by the image recognition camera 6, calculation and editing of various data, A control unit 12 having a management processing function, a communication processing function for transmitting / receiving data to / from another device, and the like is connected using a wiring 15 for data communication. A storage unit (not shown) is provided in the control unit 12. Further, a monitor 13 and a keyboard 14 are connected to the control unit 12, various processing data are input from the keyboard 14, and the processing operation in the gantry 1 is controlled by the control unit 12. Further, the monitor 13 displays the image captured by the image recognition camera 6 and the processing status of the control unit 12. In addition, the key
Input data and the like from the board 14 are stored in a storage medium (not shown) such as a hard disk (not shown) or a floppy disk which is a storage device.

<Structures of Image Recognition Camera and Substrate Table> The structures of the image recognition camera and the substrate table in the inspection apparatus having the above-described structure will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged configuration diagram of the image recognition camera and the substrate table in the inspection device of this embodiment. In FIG. 2, the parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 2, a polarizing plate 20 is attached to the lens 8 of the image recognition camera 6 in this inspection apparatus, and a polarizing plate 21 is also attached to the upper surface of the substrate table 3 equipped with the backlight 9. ing. Further, the substrate 10 to which the liquid crystal 11 is supplied is arranged between the two types of polarizing plates 20 and 21. Here, in this embodiment,
The polarizing plates 20 and 21 are arranged so as to be in crossed Nicols. Specifically, the polarizing plate 20 transmits only the light in the Y direction component, and the polarizing plate 21 transmits only the light in the X direction component. Polarizing plate 2 so that the transmitted light direction is shifted by 90 °
0 and 21 are arranged. By arranging the two types of polarizing plates 20 and 21 having such a relationship, the light of the backlight 9 is blocked by the polarizing plates 20 and 21, and the light is prevented from entering the image recognition camera 6 in the present embodiment. The image recognition camera and the board table are constructed.

Here, when the substrate 9 to which the liquid crystal 11 is supplied is mounted on the polarizing plate 21 of the substrate table 3 having the above-mentioned structure and the backlight 9 is turned on, the backlight light is reflected by the polarizing plate 21 in the X-axis direction. The light which is polarized into the substrate 10 and is incident on the substrate 10 is further propagated in the liquid crystal 11 after entering the substrate 10 and then is incident on the polarizing plate 20. Since it has a component twisted by 90 ° regardless of the state, it can enter the image recognition camera 6 without being blocked by the polarizing plate 20. On the other hand, the light that enters the polarizing plate 20 without propagating in the liquid crystal 11 after entering the substrate 10 is blocked by the polarizing plate 20 and cannot enter the image recognition camera 6. That is, since light can be transmitted only through a portion of the liquid crystal, the liquid crystal portion is regarded as a bright image by the image recognition camera 6
Is recognized by the image recognition camera 6 as a dark image in the other part.
Be recognized by. From this, a binary image is obtained from the light incident on the image recognition camera 6, and the binary image is used to determine the dropping position of the liquid crystal,
It is possible to measure the area and shape (shape, outer circumference length, etc.).

<Inspection processing operation of liquid crystal panel substrate>
The inspection processing operation of the liquid crystal panel substrate by the inspection device configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the inspection processing operation of the liquid crystal panel substrate by this inspection apparatus.

In this inspection apparatus, the power is first turned on (step 101), and then the inspection apparatus is initialized (step 102). In this initial setting step, by driving the linear actuators 4a, 4b, 5 to move the image recognition camera 6 in the X direction and the Y direction in the figure, a process of positioning the image recognition camera 6 at a predetermined reference position is performed. At the same time, setting processing of inspection condition data such as inspection position data, liquid crystal dropping position and shape data, and image processing condition data is performed.

The inspection position data setting process in step 102 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 as a specific example. FIG. 5A shows the positional relationship between the substrate and the sealant printing pattern in this example, and FIG. 5B shows the liquid crystal dropping position in this example. In this specific example, four liquid crystal display panels are produced from one substrate.

In the inspection position data setting process, first, the substrate origin O is set as an arbitrary point on the substrate as a reference point for indicating the position on the substrate by coordinates. Here, in the present embodiment, the substrate origin O is the lower left corner of the substrate as shown in FIG. Next, the coordinates of the vertices of the four sealant print patterns 16a to 16d from the substrate origin O and the coordinates of the positioning marks 17a and 17b are set as shown in Table 1. The coordinate data can be set by inputting from the keyboard, but the production data of the sealant dropping device (not shown) used in the pretreatment process is controlled via the network (not shown). It is also possible to transfer to the unit 12 and set and store in the storage unit.

[0024]

[Table 1]

As described above, the sealant printing pattern 16a
Coordinates of vertices in 16d and positioning mark 1
After the coordinates of 7a and 17b are set, the coordinates of the dropping positions 11a to 11d of the liquid crystals 11A to 11D in the normally dropped state as shown in FIG. Are set as described above and registered in the storage unit of the control unit 12. Also,
Actually, as shown in liquid crystals 11A to 11D in FIG. 5B, a preset amount of liquid crystal is normally dropped, and the dropped state is captured by the image recognition camera 6 and image processing is performed to spread the liquid crystal after dropping the liquid crystal. The condition setting test operation of obtaining the characteristic amount data indicating is performed, and the characteristic amount data obtained as a result is also registered in the storage unit in advance. Here, the feature amount data is data relating to the number of objects, the position of the center of gravity, the object area (for example, the number of white pixels in a binary image), and the perimeter, which are obtained by image processing, as shown in Table 2. The feature amount data is used at the time of the drop state pass / fail determination, and the pass / fail determination is performed by comparing the feature amount data with the image processing data as described later.

[0026]

[Table 2]

Further, the coordinate data of the inspection position of the image recognition camera 6 on the substrate 10 as shown in FIG. 6 is also registered in the storage unit of the control unit 12 in advance. Here, in the present embodiment, the optical system (lens enlargement ratio, visual field range, etc.) is designed so that one panel can be captured by one image pickup, and the inspection position is set so as to perform four moving image pickups. ing. Positions Ca to Cd indicate reference positions when the image recognition camera 6 is positioned at each inspection position,
Based on the known relationship between the center of the visual field range of the camera and the inspection position, the image recognition camera 6 is positioned at a desired imaging position by the control unit 12 with reference to the reference position.

In addition to the inspection condition data shown above, data relating to the order of inspection processing operations, threshold value data for binarization processing at the time of image processing, and each threshold value (good The defect determination condition range) is also registered and stored in advance in the storage unit in the control unit 12. Here, in the present embodiment, the respective threshold values used in the quality determination processing are the positional deviation threshold value, the permissible threshold value of the perimeter, and the area data, as will be described later, but the present invention is not limited to this. Absent. The input of each data described above is performed directly from the keyboard 14 or by transferring the dropping position data from a liquid crystal dropping device (not shown) via a network (not shown). Further, each input data is stored in the storage unit in the control unit 12. As described above, the initialization process of step 102 is performed.

When the initial setting process is completed, the substrate 10 to which the liquid crystal is supplied is then used by using a clamp mechanism (not shown) or a suction mechanism (not shown) such as vacuum suction.
However, it is placed on the substrate table 3 so as not to shift (step 103), and the substrate positioning process is subsequently performed (step 104). In this substrate positioning processing, the positioning marks 17a of the substrate 10 mounted on the substrate table 3
17b is photographed by the image recognition camera 6, the coordinates of the barycentric position of the positioning marks 17a and 17b are obtained by image processing, the obtained coordinate data and the positioning marks 17a set in the initial setting step, Positioning processing of the substrate 10 is performed based on the coordinate data of 17b.

Further, the coordinate data of the positioning marks 17a and 17b obtained in step 104 and the positioning marks 17a and 17 set in the initial setting step.
The displacement or inclination (mounting error) of the mounting position of the substrate 10 is calculated from the coordinate data of b, and is registered and stored in the storage unit of the control unit 12. The registered mounting error is used as a correction value when positioning the camera in the subsequent processing. When the positioning marks 17a and 17b are photographed by the image recognition camera 6, the marks 17a and 17b are used.
It is preferable that the image recognition camera 6 be equipped with an optimum illumination (for example, an LED type coaxial incident illumination) for the material of b.

When the substrate positioning process in step 104 is completed, a liquid crystal dropping substrate inspection process is performed (step 105). Hereinafter, the process of inspecting the liquid crystal dropping substrate will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, first, the inspection position data stored in advance in the storage unit in the initial setting step (step 102) is corrected based on the mounting error data calculated in step 104. The linear actuators 4a, 4b, 5 are operated at the obtained image pickup positions to position the image recognition camera 6 (step 20).
1) After completion of this positioning, an image of the liquid crystal panel substrate is taken (step 202). Here, the image data obtained by the image capturing is stored in the storage unit of the control unit 12 and is subjected to image processing (for example, conversion processing into a binary image,
Position measurement processing by detecting the center of gravity from the binary image or area measurement processing by extracting the number of pixels) is performed, and the image processing data obtained as a result is also stored in the storage unit (step 2).
03). Next, the inspection condition data such as liquid crystal dropping position data and shape data stored in advance in the storage unit in the initial setting step (step 102) is compared with the image processing data obtained in step 203 (step 204). ), The liquid crystal dropping state is determined (step 205).

Here, step 204 and step 20
A method of comparing and determining liquid crystal dropping states using the image processing data in No. 5 will be described as a specific example with reference to FIG. 7. In order to determine the quality of the dropped state based on the shape of the liquid crystal dropped on the substrate 10, the sealant, the substrate 10 is used from the image obtained by directly capturing the image with the image recognition camera 6.
It is difficult to make the electrode pattern formed above and the liquid crystal drop portion clearly identifiable. Therefore, with the inspection apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 7B, the liquid crystal part can be imaged in white, and the other parts can be imaged in black regardless of the presence or absence of the sealant or the wiring pattern. The liquid crystal part can be binarized, and as a result, the liquid crystal drop part can be identified. Less than,
A method of determining the liquid crystal dropping state of each pattern of FIGS. 7B-1 to 7B-4 will be described with reference to FIG. 7B as an example. Figure 7
7B is the binarized image data in each panel of FIG. 7A obtained in step 203.

[0034]

[Table 3]

The liquid crystal of the panel PA of FIG. 7 has a proper liquid crystal dropping amount, but the dropping position is deviated from the normal position. The deviation of the dropping position is caused by, for example, the liquid crystal dropping nozzle of the liquid crystal dropping device being eccentric,
This is because some of the nozzles are missing. If the dropping position is misaligned in this way, the spread of the liquid crystal may be biased in the bonding process, causing the liquid crystal to overflow the sealant and overflow, or not spread to the position of the sealant. Will end up. The quality of the liquid crystal drop state in such a state is determined by the center of gravity position of the drop liquid crystal in the normal drop state in the preset feature amount data as shown in Table 3 and the center of gravity position of the drop liquid crystal obtained from the inspection result by the image processing. The amount of deviation from the position deviation threshold value (for example, set position ± 50μ
It is determined by comparing whether it is within m).
If the displacement amount is within the positional displacement threshold value, the liquid crystal dropping state is determined to be "good", and if it is equal to or greater than the positional displacement threshold value, the liquid crystal dropping state is determined to be "defective". .

The liquid crystal of the panel PB is normal in both the drop amount and the drop position, but the perimeter is in a state different from the set perimeter. In such a state, the liquid crystal dropping device is operating normally, but the state of the alignment film formed on the substrate is changed, the cleaning failure in the previous process, and the gap between the substrates after bonding are kept constant. This occurs when there is a change in the formation (dispersion) of spacers for maintaining In the case of such a result, defective display unevenness occurs in the assembled liquid crystal panel. Regarding the quality of the liquid crystal dropping state in such a state, the perimeter length deviation amount (error) between the perimeter length data in the feature amount data of Table 3 and the perimeter length data obtained from the inspection result by the image processing is an allowable threshold. It is determined by comparing whether or not it is within a value (for example, perimeter of feature amount ± 15%). If the perimeter is within the permissible threshold, the liquid crystal drop state is determined to be “good”, and if the perimeter is greater than or equal to the permissible threshold value, the liquid crystal drop state is determined to be “poor”.

Further, in the panel PC, although the dropping amount and the dropping position are normal, the existence of another liquid crystal can be confirmed in the vicinity of the sealant in the visual field range. This phenomenon occurs when the liquid crystal drips from the tip of the liquid crystal dropping nozzle of the liquid crystal dropping device during the dropping operation. If such adhesion occurs, there is a risk of defective adhesion when the substrates are bonded together, or a defective liquid crystal dropping amount on another panel. The quality of such a dropping state is shown in Table 3.
It is determined by comparing the number of objects in the feature amount data of 1 with the number of objects obtained from the inspection result by the image processing. If the number of objects of the characteristic amount and the number of objects of the inspection result match, the dropped state of the liquid crystal is determined as “good”, and if they do not match, the dropped state of the liquid crystal is determined as “defective”.

The liquid crystal of the panel PD is in a state in which the dropping amount is small. In such a state, a defect such as deterioration of the liquid crystal agent over time is expected. This can be confirmed by area determination. The quality of the liquid crystal dropping state in such a state is determined by the error between the area data in the feature amount data in Table 3 and the area data obtained from the inspection result by the image processing. % Etc.) and is determined by comparing. If the area data is within the permissible threshold, the liquid crystal is in a drop state of "good".
If it is determined that the liquid crystal dropping state is equal to or more than the allowable threshold, the liquid crystal dropping state is determined to be “defective”.

As described above, the respective item data corresponding to the feature amount data and the inspection result data are compared (step 2
04), it is judged whether the liquid crystal dropping state is good or bad by using the threshold value inputted in advance (step 205). If there is no dropping defect, the inspection result writing data in the storage unit of the control unit 12 is flagged as OK. It is set (step 206), and conversely, if a defective portion is detected, the NG flag is set (step 207). Then, when these determination processes are completed, it is determined whether or not the inspection is completed at all the points to be inspected (step 208). If there is an uninspected part, the process is repeated from step 201, and if the inspection of all parts is completed, the liquid crystal dropping state inspection process step in step 105 is completed.

Returning to FIG. 3, step 10 as described above.
When the liquid crystal inspection step in 5 is completed, the holding of the substrate 10 is released, and the substrate 10 is carried out of the device by a carrying device (not shown) (step 106). Here, by transmitting the OK flag or the NG flag of the inspection result data obtained in the liquid crystal inspection process to the control unit (not shown) of the transfer device, the substrate on which the OK flag is set is bonded on the downstream side. The defective detection substrate that has been conveyed to the apparatus (not shown) and has the NG flag set is conveyed to a defective substrate collection cassette (not shown) or the like (step 107).

Then, it is judged whether or not all the above steps are stopped (step 108), and when the same inspection process is performed on a plurality of substrates, the substrate mounting process (step) is performed on each substrate. When the processing operations from 103) onward are repeated and a series of processing is completed for all the substrates, all the work is completed.

Here, considering the wettability between the substrate 10 and the liquid crystal 11 in this embodiment, this wettability is
It is determined by the state of the alignment film formed on the substrate 10 and the liquid crystal 11, and does not vary greatly. In a liquid crystal panel that is mass-produced by strictly controlling production conditions, wettability does not change. Also, if the wettability varies, it can be inferred that some process has a failure.Therefore, if the inspection device is configured to issue an alarm to confirm the failure, a large number of failures will occur. The situation of producing panels can be avoided.

Further, the surface tension generated at the interface of the liquid crystal 11 is determined as a characteristic value depending on the surface energy of the alignment film and the roughness state by the rubbing treatment. Here, it is known that the surface tension of the liquid crystal 11 changes depending on the type, concentration, temperature, and pressure of the liquid crystal 11, but this is also strictly controlled, so the surface tension of the liquid crystal 11 is constant. . Therefore, under the production conditions of the liquid crystal panel, the wettability determined by the physical properties of the surface of the substrate 10 and the liquid crystal 11 is substantially constant. In other words, the contact angle θ between the surface of the substrate 10 and the liquid crystal 11 as shown in FIG. 8 is substantially constant regardless of the dropping amount. Therefore,
In the inspection device of the present embodiment, the amount of the dropped liquid can be accurately obtained by measuring the spread area of the liquid crystal after the dropping. Further, since the wettability is constant, for example, the liquid crystal 1
Even when 1 is applied to the substrate 10 by drawing, it is possible to confirm the application amount by inspecting the line width and the application area in the same manner as the above-mentioned method.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above configuration. For example, in the inspection apparatus of the present invention, the image recognition camera 6 is moved to take an image of each liquid crystal panel, but the image recognition camera is fixed while the substrate on which the liquid crystal is dropped is conveyed to the bonding step of the next step, and The image may be taken by the image recognition camera when the substrate passes through the fixed position of the image recognition camera by mounting the substrate on a carrying table equipped with a polarizing plate and a backlight and carrying the substrate. .

For a substrate in which the entire liquid crystal application range cannot be imaged by one image pickup, inspection position data in which image pickup positions are overlapped is created, and while moving the image recognition camera by each linear actuator, The control unit may be configured to control the liquid crystal image capturing process of FIG. 5 repeatedly. As another method, a plurality of image recognition cameras may be installed to perform the liquid crystal image capturing process. Further, a line sensor may be used as the image recognition camera, and the camera support frame 2 may be moved at a constant speed to capture an image of the entire surface, and then the image processing may be performed.

Further, the crossed Nicols formed by the two polarizing plates need not be limited to be orthogonal to each other in correspondence with the X and Y directions of the substrate table. It suffices if a mechanism capable of adjusting the angle to be easily detected is provided. Further, in this embodiment, 2
Although the value image processing is used, the image processing method may be any method as long as it can measure the position and area of the liquid crystal.

Further, according to the inspection apparatus and the inspection method of the present invention, the substrate on which the liquid crystal is dropped is inspected before the substrates are bonded,
Although the dropping position and the dropping amount are inspected, the above-described inspecting apparatus and inspecting method can also be used for a shortage inspection and a protrusion inspection of the liquid crystal enclosed in the bonded substrates.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By inspecting the dropping state of the liquid crystal dropped on the substrate, it is possible to detect the liquid crystal dropping defect, so it is possible to prevent production defects in the substrate bonding process due to excess or deficiency of the liquid crystal or protrusion of the liquid crystal panel. Productivity can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an overall configuration of a liquid crystal inspection device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged configuration diagram of an image recognition camera and a substrate table in the inspection device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an inspection processing operation of a liquid crystal panel substrate by the inspection device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an inspection processing step of a liquid crystal dropping substrate in the inspection processing operation of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a state in which liquid crystal is normally dropped on each liquid crystal panel.

6 is a diagram showing an inspection position of the image recognition camera when capturing an image of the substrate shown in FIG. 5 and a recognizable range of the image recognition camera.

FIG. 7 shows a state of the dropped liquid crystal, and FIG.
Shows an example of a state where liquid crystal is dropped on each panel, as shown in FIG.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an image obtained by binarizing the image of each panel in FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between a liquid crystal dropped on a substrate and the substrate.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Frame, 2 ... Camera support frame, 3 ... Substrate table, 4
a, 4b ... First linear actuator, 5 ... Second linear actuator, 6 ... Image recognition camera, 7 ... Lens barrel, 8 ...
Lens, 9 ... Backlight, 10 ... Substrate, 11 ... Liquid crystal agent (liquid crystal), 20 ... Polarizing plate, 21 ... Polarizing plate.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Junichi Matsui             Hitachi-te, 5-2 Koyodai, Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Development Laboratory, Kuno Engineering Co., Ltd.             Within (72) Inventor Masatomo Endo             Hitachi-te, 5-2 Koyodai, Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Kuno Engineering Co., Ltd. Ryugasaki Factory             Within (72) Inventor Shigeru Ishida             Hitachi-te, 5-2 Koyodai, Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Development Laboratory, Kuno Engineering Co., Ltd.             Within (72) Inventor Yoshinori Tokuyasu             Hitachi-te, 5-2 Koyodai, Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Development Laboratory, Kuno Engineering Co., Ltd.             Within F term (reference) 2G051 AA73 AA88 AB02 BA11 CA04                       CB02                 2G086 EE10                 2H088 FA09 FA11 FA16 FA17 FA18                       FA24 FA30 HA02 HA03 HA18                       HA28 MA17 MA18                 5C094 AA43 BA43 EB02                 5G435 AA17 BB12 EE33 KK05 KK10

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A hollow substrate table on which a substrate to which liquid crystal is supplied is placed, an image pickup means movable above the substrate table by a movable means, and the substrate table and the image pickup means are controlled. A backlight unit and a polarizing plate are provided on the substrate table, and a polarizing plate is provided on a lens portion of the imaging unit in the imaging unit; An inspection device for a liquid crystal panel substrate, wherein the polarizing plate of the image pickup means is arranged so as to be in a crossed Nicols state. 2. The control means has a storage section for storing data, and is connected to a display section for displaying data and images and an input section for inputting data from the outside. A movement control function for controlling the movement operation of the image pickup means, an image processing function for performing image processing of image data picked up by the image pickup means, and input data input from the input section and previously stored in the storage section. And a display function of comparing the image processed image data with the image data to determine whether the liquid crystal supply state is good or not, and a display function of displaying the determination result data obtained by the determination on the display unit. The liquid crystal panel substrate inspection device according to claim 1. 3. The liquid crystal panel substrate inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit has a transmission function of transmitting the determination result data obtained by the determination to another device. 4. An image processing step of performing image processing on the image data of the liquid crystal taken by the image pickup means, and a preset feature quantity relating to the number of objects of the liquid crystal in a normal supply state, the position of the center of gravity, the object area and the perimeter A determination step of comparing the data with the image processing data relating to the number of objects of the liquid crystal subjected to the image processing, the position of the center of gravity, the object area, and the perimeter to determine whether the liquid crystal supply state is good or bad. LCD panel substrate inspection method.