JP2006126236A - Reflector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a reflector which produces less loss, conventionally produced due to foreign matter contamination or sticking together at the time of manufacturing than the conventional reflectors, and which can be manufactured easily and which has high total reflectivity and high specular reflectivity. <P>SOLUTION: The reflector is constituted, by laminating at least a metallic vapor-deposition layer of a metal or a metal oxide on the surface of a base material film obtained by high surface smoothing treatment. In this reflector, the base material film has a total reflectivity of ≥80% and specular reflectivity of ≥80% due to high surface smoothing treatment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a reflector used for reflecting a light beam from a light source, and specifically to a reflector formed by vapor deposition of a metal for light beam reflection in a liquid crystal display device or a lighting fixture.

  Recently, the use of liquid crystal display devices in mobile phones, computers, televisions and the like has increased rapidly. It is said that one of the reasons for this rapid spread is that it has the advantage that it can be made much thinner than conventional so-called cathode ray tube displays and can be easily reduced in size. In particular, it can be said that the demand for the use of this liquid crystal display device is rapidly increasing with the increasing demand for lightness, thinness and miniaturization, which has been noticeable recently.

  Now, in such a liquid crystal display device, a backlight is usually provided so that the liquid crystal display portion can be clearly seen. However, the light emitted from the light source in the backlight is finally efficiently liquid crystal. A mechanism to reach the display element is required. This is because in the liquid crystal display device, the liquid crystal display portion becomes clearer by illuminating the display portion more strongly from the back.

  However, if the quality of the reflection of the light beam by this reflector is not good, the above-described efficient use cannot be realized. That is, it is necessary that the total reflectivity of the reflector is high, and that the specular reflection (also referred to as specular reflection) ratio is also high, and in this state, the quality of light reflection is high. Is good. There is a strong demand for the development of a reflector that emits high-quality reflected light that meets the above-mentioned purpose and satisfies the above-mentioned conditions.

  Therefore, for example, a reflector as described in Patent Document 1 has been proposed. The reflector described in Patent Document 1 is formed by laminating a light reflector having a metal thin film layer on the surface of a synthetic resin film and a light confusion film obtained by stretching a synthetic resin film containing a filler in a uniaxial direction. It is.

  And by using two types of films together, the light reflection efficiency is higher than that of conventional light reflectors, high brightness is obtained, and a brighter backlight than ever can be obtained. The effect that becomes.

JP-A-5-229053

  However, if it is a reflector described in patent document 1, it is necessary to laminate | stack a light reflector and a light confusion film, that is, when laminating | stacking, these are overlap | superposed, it adheres partially, and the whole surface adhere | attaches However, there is a problem that foreign matter is mixed in at that time. In addition, in order to attach two films having different properties, there is a problem that the film curls when performing the bonding process, and loss occurs during processing adjustment. Due to such problems, various difficulties have occurred in actually using the reflector described in Patent Document 1.

  Further, if used in a liquid crystal display device, a certain degree of concealment is required because it is necessary to prevent external light from entering from an irrelevant and unnecessary part. In the reflector described in Patent Document 1, If this is the case, it cannot be said that the concealment is necessarily ensured.

  Then, in order to obtain a desired reflector without executing such a bonding step, it is conceivable to directly laminate a metal thin film layer on the base film. In that case, it is considered and studied to use a so-called white base film. It is conceivable to use a white polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film (hereinafter also simply referred to as “white PET”) as the white base film. This white PET film is, for example, white by comparison with a conventional colorless PET film by forming a film in a state in which a resin as a raw material is foamed or by mixing a white pigment with a resin as a raw material. This is a PET film exhibiting

  If the white PET film thus obtained is used as a substrate, it is considered that the concealability of the substrate film itself is ensured, and if a metal thin film layer is directly laminated thereon, a desired reflector can be obtained. It was.

  However, in reality, when a white PET film is used as a base material, a desired level of total reflectivity can be obtained, but the regular reflectivity is inevitably low, in other words, it becomes a reflector with high diffuse reflectivity. Even if such a reflector is used, it has not been possible to achieve a clear liquid crystal display element, which is the original purpose. This is because the surface of the white PET film is fine, but there are innumerable irregularities, so even if a metal vapor deposition layer is laminated along the irregularities, the surface of the white PET film is uneven on the surface of the metal vapor deposition layer obtained. This is because the same unevenness is generated, and this unevenness is present, so that diffuse reflection occurs on the surface of the metal deposition layer.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to reduce the loss that has conventionally occurred due to foreign matter mixing or pasting at the time of manufacture compared to conventional reflectors. It is an object of the present invention to provide a reflector having high total reflectance and high regular reflectance, which does not occur and is easy to manufacture, ensuring concealability.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is formed by laminating at least a metal vapor-deposited layer of metal or metal oxide on the surface of a base film obtained by highly smoothing the surface. It is a reflector, The total light transmittance of the said base film is 50% or less, The arithmetic mean roughness Ra of the surface of the said base film is 50 nm or less, The total reflectance of the said reflector is 80% or more And the regular reflectance is 80% or more.

  The invention according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that, in the reflector according to claim 1, an undercoat layer is provided between the surface of the base film and the metal vapor-deposited layer. .

  The invention according to claim 3 of the present invention is characterized in that, in the reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 4, an overcoat layer is provided on a surface of the metal deposition layer. To do.

  Invention of Claim 4 of this invention is the reflector of Claim 2 or Claim 3, The said undercoat layer or / and the said overcoat layer are a metal oxide, an acrylic resin, a polyester resin, or It is characterized by being based on one or a plurality of melamine resins.

  The invention according to claim 5 of the present invention is the reflector according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the undercoat layer and / or the overcoat layer is formed by a vacuum deposition method or a sputtering method. Or a wet coating method.

  The invention according to claim 6 of the present invention is the reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the metal vapor deposition layer is made of one or more of silver and aluminum, It is characterized by.

  The invention according to claim 7 of the present invention is the reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the metal vapor deposition layer is formed by any one of a sputtering method and a vacuum vapor deposition method. It is characterized by being laminated.

  As described above, in the reflector according to the present invention, the outermost surface is subjected to a so-called high smoothing process so that the total reflectance of the obtained reflector is 80% or more and the regular reflectance is 80% or more. Therefore, by using this in a liquid crystal display device, for example, it becomes possible to more efficiently use light rays generated from the light source, and as a result, the reflector according to the present invention can be used in the liquid crystal display device. As a result, a clearer image than before can be obtained. Further, even if it is used other than a liquid crystal display device, for example, in a general lighting fixture, the reflection efficiency is very excellent, so that the illumination effect can be further enhanced.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The embodiment shown here is merely an example, and is not necessarily limited to this embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
A reflector according to the present invention will be described as a first embodiment.

  The reflector according to the present embodiment is a reflector obtained by laminating at least a metal vapor-deposited layer of metal or metal oxide on the surface of a base film obtained by highly smoothing the surface, The total light transmittance of the film is 50% or less, the arithmetic average roughness Ra of the surface of the base film is 50 nm or less, the total reflectance of the reflector is 80% or more, and the regular reflectance is 80% or more. It is characterized by being.

Hereinafter, this reflector will be further described.
First, regarding the base film, the base film in the present embodiment is not particularly limited. However, it must be not transparent for the reasons described below. From the viewpoints of convenience, ease of handling, etc., for example, white PET film, white polypropylene film, etc. are preferable, and it can be said that it is preferable to use PET film. Therefore, in this embodiment, a white PET film is used as the base film, but the present invention is not limited to this. In the following description, a white PET film is used. However, any non-transparent film may be used as long as it satisfies the above-described conditions. It doesn't matter.

  In the present embodiment, the surface of the white PET film is smoothed, but this is not just smooth, but needs to be further smoothed. The reason for high smoothing will be described later, but the method is not particularly limited, and high smoothing may be realized by a known method. What is important is that the condition that the arithmetic average roughness Ra is 50 nm or less is achieved by performing a high smoothing process. The reason why the conditions required for the base film are as described above will be described later.

  In addition, the white PET film in the present embodiment is the same as the coating described in the above-described prior art, and is formed into a film in a state where the resin that is the raw material of the PET film is foamed, or the raw material of the PET film It is obtained by a technique of forming a film in a state where a white pigment is mixed with a resin to be obtained, but it should be noted in advance that it may be obtained by a technique other than this.

  Thus, when a white PET film having a highly smooth surface is prepared as a substrate, a metal thin film layer made of metal or metal oxide is laminated on the surface. What is important here is that the reflector according to the present invention is of course intended to reflect light rays. Therefore, the metal thin film layer to be laminated must also reflect light rays. It is necessary to obtain a metal thin film layer that can be obtained. In the reflector according to the present embodiment, the metal thin film layer is assumed to be silver or aluminum. However, the metal thin film layer is not necessarily limited thereto, and may be, for example, gold. In addition, any layer may be used as long as it can reflect incident light when it is laminated as a metal thin film layer.

  This metal thin film layer is laminated on a highly smooth surface of a PET film whose surface is highly smoothed by a conventionally known technique. For example, sputtering, vacuum deposition, high frequency resistance heating, etc. It is conceivable to use a technique such as vapor deposition or electron beam. In this embodiment mode, the layers are stacked by a sputtering method.

  The conditions for this sputtering method are not particularly special, and may be conventionally known condition settings.

  And as mentioned above, since the surface of the white PET film used as the base material is highly smoothed, it is not that there are innumerable irregularities although it is fine as before. When a metal thin film layer is laminated on the treated surface by a conventionally known method, the outermost surface of the obtained metal thin film layer is also in a very smooth state.

  In order to achieve the object of the present invention, it is necessary that the total light reflectance in this very smooth state is 80% or more and the regular reflectance is 80% or more. That is, the surface of the metal vapor deposition layer only needs to be highly smoothed to satisfy this numerical condition. In order to smooth the surface of the metal vapor deposition layer so far, the surface of the white PET film as the base material is highly It is necessary to smooth the surface.

  To further explain this point, the light beam that has reached the surface of the reflector according to the present embodiment contacts the surface of the metal deposition layer that has been subjected to a high smoothing process. Here, if the determination is made based only on the total reflectivity, the condition of the total reflectivity can be satisfied by reflecting a certain amount of light regardless of the direction of the reflected light, but the direction of reflection varies. Then, it is impossible to effectively use the light beam by reflecting the light beam in substantially the same direction, which is the object of the present invention. Therefore, by smoothing the reflecting surface so that the regular reflectance is 80% or more, it is possible to reflect the incident light beam in substantially the same direction, that is, the light beam can be used effectively. is there.

  That is, if the direction of the reflected light beam is not aligned in one direction, the reflected light beam cannot be used effectively, and the incident light beam cannot be used as efficiently as possible. For this reason, it is necessary to suppress the occurrence of irregular reflection due to surface irregularities by eliminating the irregularities on the surface and smoothing the surface to the highest possible level. The smoothing process, which is not a simple one, is required to be highly smoothed. In this embodiment, the specular reflectance is assumed to be 80% or more in order to determine how advanced the smoothing process is. This is because it can be said that the higher the regular reflectance, the greater the number of incident rays that can be reflected in substantially the same direction.

  As described above, the reflector according to the present embodiment has silver on the surface of the base film having a highly smoothed surface having a total reflectance of 80% or more and a regular reflectance of 80%. And a metal vapor-deposited layer made of a metal such as aluminum, which makes it possible to efficiently reflect incident light in almost one direction. Therefore, a liquid crystal display device having a clear image can be obtained.

  The basic structure of the reflector according to the present invention has been described above. For example, in order to further improve the interlayer adhesion between the base film and the metal vapor deposition layer, for example, a high smoothing treatment of the base film It is conceivable that an undercoat layer is laminated on the surface subjected to the process before the metal vapor deposition layer is laminated.

  The raw material for forming the undercoat layer may be selected in consideration of the compatibility between the resin as the raw material of the base film and the metal or metal oxide constituting the metal vapor deposition layer. For example, the present embodiment Then, it is conceivable to use any one or a plurality of metal oxides, acrylic resins, polyester resins, melamine resins, and the like.

  The technique for laminating the undercoat layer may be a conventionally known technique, and in the present embodiment, it can be said that it is preferable to use a vacuum deposition method. It is also possible to use a technique such as a wet coating method.

  Furthermore, it is conceivable that an overcoat layer is laminated on the surface of the obtained reflector to protect the metal vapor deposition layer. The raw material used for the overcoat layer may be the same as that of the above-described undercoat layer, but is not necessarily limited thereto. The method of laminating this overcoat layer may also be the same as that of the above-described undercoat layer.

  Needless to say, the above-described undercoat layer and overcoat layer should not disturb the light reflection as the reflector described above, that is, a corresponding light transmittance is required. However, this is not described in detail here.

  Thus, the reflector according to the present invention basically has the structure of the base film / metal vapor deposition layer, but other layers may also be provided depending on the purpose and use situation, for example, It is also conceivable that the substrate film / undercoat layer / metal deposited layer, substrate film / metal deposited layer / overcoat layer, substrate film / undercoat layer / metal deposited layer / overcoat layer, etc.

  In any case, in the reflector according to the present invention, it is important that the surface of the film as the base material is smoothed to a certain level or more. It can be used for the purpose.

  In actual use, it may be possible to apply some kind of lamination to the surface of the base film opposite to where the metal vapor deposition layer is laminated. For example, by providing an adhesive layer, the reflector according to the present invention is provided. For example, it can be easily installed at a desired location such as an umbrella in the lighting fixture or around the lighting fixture itself, but the detailed description thereof is also omitted here.

Claims (7)

On the surface of the base film formed by highly smoothing the surface,
A reflector formed by laminating at least a metal vapor-deposited layer of metal or metal oxide,
The total light transmittance of the base film is 50% or less,
The arithmetic average roughness Ra of the surface of the base film is 50 nm or less,
The total reflectance of the reflector is 80% or more and the regular reflectance is 80% or more;
A reflector characterized by. The reflector according to claim 1,
An undercoat layer is provided between the surface of the base film and the metal deposition layer,
A reflector characterized by. The reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An overcoat layer is provided on the surface of the metal deposition layer,
A reflector characterized by. In the reflector according to claim 2 or 3,
The undercoat layer or / and the overcoat layer is made of one or more of metal oxide, acrylic resin, polyester resin, or melamine resin,
A reflector characterized by. The reflector according to any one of claims 2 to 4,
The undercoat layer or / and the overcoat layer are laminated by any one of vacuum deposition, sputtering, or wet coating;
A reflector characterized by. The reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The metal deposition layer is made of one or more of silver and aluminum,
A reflector characterized by. The reflector according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
The metal vapor deposition layer is formed by a sputtering method or a vacuum vapor deposition method,
A reflector characterized by.