JP2004337704A - Droplet discharging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a droplet discharging apparatus which can form a pattern at a high speed. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus has a group 3 of discharge heads with nozzles for discharging droplets to a glass substrate 5 mounted on a stage 4. When the pattern formed on the glass substrate 5 has repeatability, data corresponding to a repeated one period portion is converted into a bitmap format. The converted data are read into a controller 2, and the discharge of the droplets from the discharge heads are controlled on the basis of discharge data prepared from the bitmap data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a droplet discharge device that discharges droplets toward a workpiece to form a desired pattern.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, liquid crystal devices, electroluminescent devices, and the like have been used as display units of electronic devices such as mobile phones and portable computers. For example, in a liquid crystal device, filter elements of red, green, and blue dot shapes are arranged in a predetermined arrangement such as a so-called stripe arrangement, delta arrangement, or mosaic arrangement on a surface of a substrate formed of glass, plastic, or the like. A color filter is formed.
[0003]
In addition, as a method of forming such a color filter, a droplet is ejected onto an acrylic resin applied on a glass substrate while scanning a dye droplet ejection head that ejects droplets of red, green, and blue pigments. Then, a method of fixing is known (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2-173703 (page 2, FIG. 1)
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, usually, in this type of manufacturing method, so-called multi-panning is performed such that a large number of patterns of the same type are formed on a single glass substrate. All data corresponding to one substrate is read by the control device. The data to be read by the control device is, for example, several gigabytes of data on a large substrate having a side of about 2 m, depending on the amount and formation density of the pattern. For this reason, the conventional method has a problem that a large-capacity memory is required for the control device and the data transfer time becomes long.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and enables high-speed data processing without increasing the amount of memory used. It is an object of the present invention to provide a droplet discharge device capable of forming a pattern at a high speed even in the case of forming.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention that solves the above-described problem controls reading timing of droplets by reading data on the patterns when discharging droplets and forming a plurality of patterns on the work surface. In a droplet ejection apparatus that creates ejection data and ejects droplets from an ejection head in accordance with the ejection data, the data about the pattern is data composed of pixels arranged in a grid pattern, A unit for acquiring unit data corresponding to one cycle of the pattern formed by repeating the above-described process, and arranging the unit data a predetermined number of times to create the ejection data. A droplet ejection device was used.
[0007]
When a plurality of patterns to be formed on a work have repetition, the droplet discharge apparatus acquires data corresponding to one cycle of repetition as unit data, and restores a pattern to be formed on the work from the unit data. To create ejection data. Note that the pattern here refers to a single unit or an aggregate manufactured to perform a predetermined function, such as a color filter or a circuit used for a display device.
[0008]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the droplet discharge device according to the first aspect, the unit data is data of one of the same patterns among a plurality of the same patterns formed and arranged on the work. And
[0009]
When the pattern is a repetition unit, the droplet ejection apparatus obtains data corresponding to one pattern as unit data, restores a pattern to be formed on a work from the unit data, and creates ejection data. I do.
[0010]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the droplet discharge device according to the first aspect, the unit data is data of a component repeatedly formed in the pattern.
[0011]
This droplet discharge device acquires data corresponding to one element as unit data when an element constituting a pattern is a repeating unit, and restores a pattern to be formed on a work from this unit data, Create ejection data.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an ink jet device which is a droplet discharge device. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control device.
[0013]
An ink jet apparatus 1 which is a droplet discharge apparatus of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 discharges droplets from a discharge head group 3 in response to a command from a control device 2 and is a glass substrate which is a work placed on a stage 4. A predetermined pattern is formed on the glass substrate 5, and the glass substrate 5 is transported in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the ejection head group 3 is arranged. In the following, the arrangement direction of the ejection head group 3 is the same as the arrangement direction of the nozzles that eject droplets, and this direction is the X direction. The transport direction of the glass substrate 5 is defined as a Y direction. The in-plane rotation direction in the XY plane is defined as the θ direction.
[0014]
The ejection head group 3 is fixed to an X-direction shaft 8 erected in parallel to the X-direction so as to straddle the stage 5 between columns 7 erected from a base 6. The ejection head group 3 has an elongated shape along the X-direction axis 8 and includes a plurality of ejection heads arranged in a line. The array length of the ejection heads is equal to or longer than the length of the pattern formed on the glass substrate 5 in the X direction. Each of the ejection heads is provided with a number of nozzles for ejecting liquid droplets in the X direction toward the glass substrate 5. As a mechanism for ejecting droplets, a chamber for storing the ink to be ejected is provided for each nozzle, a piezoelectric element constituting the wall surface of the chamber is deformed by voltage control, the volume of the chamber is changed, and a predetermined number of nozzles communicate with each other. Is discharged as droplets, but the configuration of the discharge head is not limited to this. For example, if the required resolution is half the interval (pitch) between the nozzles of each ejection head, two rows of ejection heads are shifted by 1/2 pitch in the X direction. . By arranging a large number of ejection heads in this way, the resolution can be increased. Here, the resolution corresponds to the amount of change in the size of the pattern formed on the glass substrate 5. That is, when the pattern has a line width of 50 μm and a line width of 60 μm, a resolution of 10 μm is required.
[0015]
The stage 4 on which the glass substrate 5 is mounted moves the mounting portion 41 on which the glass substrate 5 is positioned and mounted linearly in the X and Y directions with respect to the base portion 42, and rotates in-plane in the θ direction. Mounted as possible. In addition, an encoder 43 that reads the scale of the linear scale 15 attached to the base 6 along the Y axis is attached to the base section 42 in order to detect the position of the stage 4 in the Y direction. In addition, as a moving mechanism for linearly moving the mounting portion 41, a motor and a pusher pin that moves forward and backward in accordance with the rotation amount of the motor can be cited. As a rotation mechanism for rotating the mounting portion 41 in-plane, a supporting pin that supports the center of the mounting portion 41 and an end of the mounting portion 41 are pressed in the X direction or the Y direction to There are a pusher pin that rotates around the support pin and an actuator that moves the pusher pin forward and backward. Further, a motor for rotating the support pin itself may be used.
[0016]
Further, the stage 4 is configured to be movable along a Y-direction axis 9 laid so as to be orthogonal to the X direction. As a transport mechanism for moving the stage 4 in the Y direction, a permanent magnet 10 arranged on the Y direction axis 9 and a plate 11 fixed below the base portion 41 of the stage 4 are provided along the Y direction, and A linear motor including a plurality of coils (not shown) arranged in close proximity to the permanent magnet 10 is exemplified.
[0017]
The control device 2 has a configuration in which a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), an input / output interface, an oscillation circuit, and the like are bus-connected. Overall control. The data to be input to the control device 2 include data created by forming a pattern to be formed on the glass substrate 5 in a predetermined format such as a bitmap format, repetitive information such as a pattern, and position information of the stage 4. Can be The data output from the control device 7 includes a control signal of the coil of the stage 4, a control signal of the moving mechanism and the rotating mechanism of the stage 4, and a control signal of the ejection head group 3. Control signals for the ejection head group 3 include a clock signal formed by an oscillation circuit and ejection data that is data for controlling ejection timing for each nozzle.
[0018]
FIG. 2 shows the control device 2 divided into functional blocks. That is, the control device 2 includes an ejection data set value input unit 22 that receives an input of a set value of the ejection data, an ejection head set value input unit 23 that receives an input of a set value of the ejection head of the ejection head group 3, and a It has a correction operation unit 24 for calculating the drive amount of the rotating mechanism, an ejection data creation unit 25 for creating ejection data, and an input / output IF (Inter Face) 26 for controlling input and output with various external devices.
[0019]
Furthermore, the ejection data set value, ejection head set value, bitmap data, and ejection data that is output data from the control device 2 are data taken in by the control device 2 to form a pattern on the glass substrate 5. explain.
The ejection data set value is information such as a glass size, a pattern size, and a pattern formation pitch.
The ejection head setting value is information on the number of heads to be used, the number of nozzles, and the arrangement.
[0020]
The bitmap data is obtained by converting CAD (Computer Aided Design) data composed of vector data created when designing a pattern to be formed on the glass substrate 5 into a bitmap format having a data configuration in which many pixels are arranged in an XY lattice. This is unit data created by omitting duplicate data by repetition.
[0021]
For example, bitmap data for forming a liquid crystal color filter used for a display unit such as a display of a mobile phone will be described with reference to FIG. First, a shape C1 in which the same type of color filters 31 are arranged on the glass substrate 5 is designed by a CAD apparatus. Data giving such a shape corresponds to CAD data. In the shape C1, the same color filter 31 is repeatedly arranged, so that one color filter 31 can be regarded as a unit of repetition. That is, if there is information on the color filter 31, the shape C1 can be restored. Therefore, the bitmap data to be read by the control device 2 is data corresponding to the bitmap B1 of one color filter 31, and a portion overlapping with the unit data is omitted. Bitmap data for forming 25 color filters 31 from one glass substrate 5 has only a bitmap image of one color filter 31, and the data amount is 1/25. Further, the repetition information in this case is the number of repetitions N1 of the array = 25.
[0022]
Further, as shown in the shape C1, the color filter 31 is composed of three rectangular filter pieces R, G, and B of the same shape, so that the filter pieces R, G, and B, which are elements constituting the color filter 31, are formed. Can also be unit data composed of a bit map corresponding to one cycle of the repetition. The bitmap data in this case is data corresponding to a bitmap B2 composed of one filter piece R, G, B and its surrounding data, and data of the remaining filter pieces R, G, B overlapping the unit data. Is omitted. The data amount of the bitmap data can be reduced to 1/3 for one color filter 31. For example, in the case of a glass substrate 5 having 25 sheets, the data amount is reduced to 1/75. As for the repetition information, for one color filter 31, the number of repetitions N2 in the pattern is N2 = 3, and the number of repetitions N1 of the arrangement of the entire glass substrate 5 is 25.
[0023]
In the case of forming a circuit including a circuit element such as a resistor, a coil, a filter, or a combination thereof, a bit map corresponding to one of the circuits repeatedly formed on the glass substrate 5 is used. , Which is one cycle of unit data. Further, in the case where each circuit has the same circuit element or wiring repetition, a bit map corresponding to a repetition unit in the circuit may be used as unit data, and data overlapping with the unit data may be omitted. .
[0024]
On the other hand, the ejection data used for controlling the ejection head group 3 is data obtained by restoring the unit data in the control device 2 based on the number of repetitions set in advance at the time of design and the arrangement. FIG. 4 shows a data structure of ejection data when the pattern formed on the glass substrate 5 is the color filter 31. In the plurality of pixels arranged in the XY lattice shape, each pixel in the X direction indicates ON or OFF of the ejection of the liquid from each nozzle of the ejection head group 3, and the Y direction indicates the passage of time. Turning on or off the ejection of the liquid means that, for example, in the third column, the nozzles corresponding to the pixels p22 and p23 eject droplets (on), and the nozzles corresponding to the pixel p24 do not eject droplets (off). ) That is. The lapse of time in the Y direction means that at the start of ejection, data in the column of Y = 0 becomes a control signal for each nozzle of the ejection head group 3, and one pixel after ejection of the first droplet. After the stage 4 has moved by a predetermined distance corresponding to, the data in the column of Y = 1 becomes a control signal for each nozzle of the ejection head group 3. Further, each pixel contains information about the ink to be ejected. Accordingly, for example, at a position corresponding to a pixel of the filter piece R, ink containing a red dye is ejected, and ink containing another dye is not ejected.
[0025]
The number of repetitions N1 of the pattern arrangement and the number of repetitions N2 in the pattern, which are repetition information, may be input to the control device 2 from an input device (not shown) or may be input as a header file of bitmap data. May be. In addition, the pattern arrangement method (for example, 4 × 4 or 2 × 8) may be included in the information on repetition.
[0026]
Here, the glass substrate 5 of the present embodiment will be described.
As described above, the glass substrate 5 includes a color filter 31 such as a liquid crystal display device used for a display unit such as a display of a mobile phone, another circuit element such as a resistor, a coil, and a filter, or a combination thereof. A circuit can be formed. In the case of the color filter 31, a filter piece corresponding to one pixel is obtained by arranging a red filter piece R, a green filter piece G, and a blue filter piece B in parallel (stripe arrangement). A predetermined number of such filters are arranged in each of the X direction and the Y direction. Such a pattern can be formed in large numbers on one glass substrate 5, that is, so-called multi-paneling can be performed. Then, in order to form each pattern accurately, an alignment mark 21 (see FIG. 1) that can be used as a reference for positioning is formed on the glass substrate 5.
[0027]
Note that, in order to position the glass substrate 5 using the alignment marks 21, the inkjet apparatus 1 includes an imaging device 12 that is a position detection unit that images the alignment marks 21 of the glass substrate 5. The imaging device 12 is fixed to a predetermined position of an imaging shaft 14 erected on a column 13 erected from the base 6. The predetermined position is a position where the alignment mark 21 enters the field of view of each imaging device 12. Note that the position information of the stage 4 input to the control device 2 includes the information of the imaging device 12 and the information of the linear scale 15 read by the encoder 43 described above.
[0028]
Next, a procedure for forming a pattern on the glass substrate 5 will be described. Hereinafter, the inkjet apparatus 1 will be described as an apparatus for forming the color filter 31. Accordingly, the ejection head group 3 contains an ink containing a red dye forming the filter piece R, an ink containing a green dye forming the filter piece G, and a blue dye forming the filter piece B. And a nozzle for separately discharging the ink to be discharged. The nozzle pitch of the ejection head group 3 is equal to the resolution, and the color filters 31 can be formed in one pass.
[0029]
First, the glass substrate 5 for which the pre-processing step has been completed is transferred onto the empty stage 4 by a supply device (not shown) arranged before the inkjet apparatus 1.
The control device 2 applies a current to the coil of the stage 4 to move the stage 4 in the Y direction until the stage 4 reaches a predetermined position. Here, the predetermined position is a position where the alignment mark 21 of the glass substrate 5 enters the field of view of the imaging device 12.
[0030]
When the alignment mark 21 enters the field of view of the imaging device 12, the correction operation unit 24 performs image processing on the image of the alignment mark 21 acquired by the imaging device 12, and performs processing from the center of the field of view of the imaging device 12 to the center of the alignment mark 21. Calculate the shift amount. Further, the correction calculation unit 24 obtains an angle between a virtual line connecting the centers of the two alignment marks 21 and the X direction. Since this angle corresponds to the amount of displacement of the glass substrate 5 in the θ direction, a drive signal corresponding to this angle is created and transmitted from the input / output IF 26 to the rotating mechanism of the stage 4, and the rotating mechanism is operated to place The part 41 is rotated. Thereby, the angle of the glass substrate 5 in the θ direction is corrected. Further, after correcting the angle in the θ direction, the position of the alignment mark 21 in the field of view of the imaging device 12 is checked again, and the shift amount in the X direction and the Y direction is calculated by the correction calculation unit 24. A control signal is output from the control device 2 to the moving mechanism of the stage 4 in the X direction and the Y direction according to the calculation result, and the displacement of the glass substrate 5 is corrected.
[0031]
On the other hand, the ejection data creation unit 25 includes a bitmap format unit data previously converted from the color filter CAD data, information on repetition (N1, N2), and the ejection data setting value acquired from the ejection data setting value input unit 22. The values and the ejection head setting values acquired from the ejection head setting value input unit 23 are acquired and stored in the buffer memory, and ejection data is created from these information.
[0032]
For example, when the unit data is data corresponding to one of the patterns (data corresponding to the bitmap B1 in FIG. 3) and the number of repetitions of the array N1 = 12, the ejection data creation unit 25 uses the buffer memory The data of the bitmap B1 stored in the memory is allocated at predetermined intervals by the number N1 of arrangement repetitions, and ejection data having the configuration shown in FIG. 4 is created. At this time, the ejection data creation unit 25 creates ejection data of an arrangement suitable for the glass substrate 5 with reference to ejection data set values such as an arrangement method of a pattern that differs depending on the shape of the glass substrate 5 and an arrangement pitch. I do.
[0033]
Further, when the unit data is data corresponding to the components of the pattern (data corresponding to the bitmap B2 in FIG. 3) and the number of repetitions in the pattern N2 = 3 and the number of repetitions of the array N1 = 12, Means that the ejection data creation unit 25 creates bitmaps equivalent to one pattern by arranging bitmap data stored in the buffer memory at predetermined intervals by the number corresponding to the number of repetitions N2 in the pattern. (Note that this bitmap corresponds to the bitmap B1 shown in FIG. 3). In addition, bitmap data corresponding to one pattern is allocated at predetermined intervals by the number N1 of arrangement repetitions to create ejection data having the configuration shown in FIG. The arrangement method in the pattern, the arrangement pitch in the pattern, the pattern arrangement method, and the pattern arrangement pitch are set based on the ejection data set value.
[0034]
The controller 2 restores the data of the pattern to be formed on the entire glass substrate 5 from the unit data in the bitmap format edited to the minimum data size by paying attention to the repetition and creates the ejection data. Data is output from the input / output IF 26 to the ejection head group 3.
The nozzles of each of the ejection heads of the ejection head group 3 eject a predetermined amount of droplets toward the surface of the glass substrate 5 from the nozzles from which the droplets are to be ejected, according to the ejection data. Further, the control device 2 energizes the coil 11 of the stage 4 and discharges droplets discharged by one line of discharge data on the surface of the glass substrate 5 before discharging by the next one line of discharge data. The stage 4 is advanced by a distance corresponding to one pixel until the dropped droplet lands on the surface of the lath substrate 5. The ejection timing of the nozzle and the movement timing of the stage 4 can be synchronized by a clock signal generated by an oscillation circuit.
[0035]
Thereafter, while sequentially moving the stage 4, droplets are ejected from the ejection head group 3 based on all lines of ejection data, and filter pieces R, G, B are formed on the glass substrate 5 at a predetermined pitch. The glass substrate 5 on which the filter pieces R, G, and B have been formed is carried out of the inkjet device 1 and sent from a carrying-out device (not shown) to the next process such as a firing process. When the ink jet device 1 is a device that forms only the filter piece R, the glass substrate 5 carried out of the ink jet device 1 forms another ink jet device that forms the filter piece G or forms the filter piece B. Then, the color filters 31 are sequentially transferred to another inkjet device, and the color filters 31 are formed. The ejection data in this case is created for each device, that is, for each of the filter pieces R, G, and B.
[0036]
As described above, in the present embodiment, when forming a pattern on the fixed ejection head group 3 while moving the glass substrate 5, attention is paid to the repeatability of the pattern, and the data is taken into the control device 2 at the stage of taking in the data. In this case, the data is restored in the control device 2 by treating the data as unit data for one cycle in which overlapping repeated parts are omitted. Thereby, the data amount read by the control device can be reduced. Therefore, the amount of memory required for the control device can be reduced. Further, since the data reading time can be reduced, work efficiency is improved. Furthermore, the larger the number of patterns repeatedly formed on one glass substrate 5, the more the data amount can be reduced. If a single pattern includes a plurality of repeatedly formed elements, the data amount is further reduced. Can be reduced.
[0037]
The present invention can be widely applied without being limited to the above embodiment.
For example, the ejection head group 3 may be configured to scan the ejection head group with a smaller number of nozzles in the X direction instead of arranging the nozzles over the length of the glass substrate 5 in the X direction. good. In this case, it is necessary to provide a scanning means for reciprocating the ejection head group 3 along the X-axis 8. Examples of the scanning unit include a linear motor including a coil (not shown) disposed on the carriage of the ejection head group along the X direction and a permanent magnet disposed on the X-direction shaft 8 so as to be close to the coil. . Further, the X-direction axis 8 may be configured to be reciprocally movable in the Y direction, and the ejection head group 3 may be capable of scanning also in the Y direction.
[0038]
Further, a scanning means for moving the ejection head group 3 in the X direction and a transport mechanism for moving the stage 4 in the Y direction are engaged with a motor such as a stepping motor capable of controlling the rotation angle with high accuracy and this motor. You may comprise from a lead screw. In this case, a lead screw is installed in parallel in the X direction or the Y direction, and a nut for screwing with the lead screw is provided on the carriage or stage 4 of the ejection head group 3.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of an ink jet device that is a droplet discharge device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control device.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating data read by a control device.
FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing ejection data.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 inkjet device (droplet discharge device)
2 Controller 3 Discharge head group (discharge head)
5 Glass substrate (work)
25 Discharge data creation unit B1 Bitmap B2 Bitmap

Claims (3)

In forming a plurality of patterns on the work surface by discharging droplets, data on the pattern is read, discharge data for controlling the timing of discharging droplets is created, and droplets are discharged from a discharge head according to the discharge data. In the droplet discharge device to be
As the data on the pattern, unit data corresponding to one cycle of the pattern formed by repeating a predetermined number of times on the work, which is data configured from pixels arranged in a grid, is acquired. A droplet discharge device, comprising: a control device that creates the discharge data by arranging the discharge data a predetermined number of times. 2. The droplet discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the unit data is data of one of the same patterns formed and arranged on the workpiece. 3. 2. The droplet discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the unit data is data of a component repeatedly formed in the pattern.

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