JP2006245227A - Uniform illuminator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a simple, small, and inexpensive illuminator requiring a small installation area. <P>SOLUTION: An illumination unit A is constituted by arranging light source units 6, 6, each consisting of an elliptical reflector provided with an LED on the inside through a portion 8 for making the light uniform composed of solid glass, on the opposite sides of an exit tube 9 having a rectangular hole 10 provided below. An aperture 12 provided with a rectangular hole 11 oppositely to the rectangular hole 10 is arranged between the exit tube 9 and a liquid crystal substrate (not shown) below the exit tube 9. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid crystal substrate exposure apparatus, a UV bonding apparatus, or a uniform illumination apparatus that requires less installation space and can be provided at a low cost.

  FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway side view showing a conventional UV exposure apparatus for a liquid crystal substrate. 1 is a main body of the UV exposure apparatus, 2 is a light source comprising an ultrahigh pressure mercury lamp provided with an elliptical reflecting mirror 3, and 4 is light. The uniform illumination rod lens 5 is a duct with a fan, and the UV light emitted from the ultra-high pressure mercury lamp 2 as a light source is collected by the elliptical reflector 3 at the second focal point of the elliptical reflector 3. The light passes through the uniform illumination rod lens 4 to become uniform light and is emitted downward.

  Such a UV exposure apparatus includes a fan-equipped duct 5 for discharging the internal heat in order to lower the temperature in the main body 1 against the heat of the ultra-high pressure mercury lamp 2 that generates high heat, and high heat. Since an elliptical reflecting mirror 3 using heat-resistant glass that does not deform and an expensive super high pressure mercury lamp 2 and a mechanism (not shown) for adjusting the amount of UV light to be irradiated are necessary, it is expensive and large.

However, in recent years, as the size of the liquid crystal substrate increases, the resist in the peripheral portion of the liquid crystal substrate is exposed, so the amount of movement of the UV exposure device along the liquid crystal substrate increases, and the UV exposure device itself is large and heavy. In order to move the image sensor along the liquid crystal substrate, a large motor and a large linear guide called by a trade name such as LM Guide (registered trademark) are necessary. I needed it.
JP 2003-309060 A

  Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide a simple, small and inexpensive uniform illumination device that requires a small installation area for device installation.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems. The first invention makes the emitted light of the light source incident on the uniform lightizing portion to make the intensity of the light uniform, and the emitted light is emitted in an arbitrary shape. A uniform illuminating device that emits light in a direction perpendicular to the incident light of the uniform lightizing portion from an emitting portion provided with a hole.

  A second invention is a uniform illumination device according to the first invention, wherein the light source is a blue or ultraviolet light emitting diode.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the uniform illumination device according to the first aspect, wherein an aperture having a hole similar to the emission hole is disposed between the emission hole and the portion to be illuminated.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is small and the height can be made lower than that of the conventional device. As a result, a small installation space is required, and a wide illumination can be performed.

  According to the second aspect of the invention, high heat is not generated unlike a conventional heat source such as an ultra-high pressure mercury lamp, so that an expensive and large elliptical reflecting mirror is not required, and instead of an expensive uniform illumination rod lens. Since a simple uniform lightization device can be used, a small and inexpensive device can be configured.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to clean the exposure shape by properly regulating the illumination unit.

  FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view of the first embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 6 denotes a light source unit composed of an ellipsoidal mirror that internally holds a plurality of LEDs 7 and reflects the LED light. It is a uniform lightization part for making intensity | strength uniform. Reference numeral 9 denotes a cylindrical emission part (hereinafter referred to as an emission cylinder), which emits uniform light whose intensity has been made uniform by the uniform lightization part 8 from a hole 10 at the bottom of the figure.

  In this embodiment, the light source unit 6 is provided on both sides of the emission tube 9 via the uniform lightization unit 8 and is not shown, but the emission tube 9, the uniform lightization units 8 and 8, and the light source unit are not shown. 6 is formed integrally with a holding member provided on the outside.

  The uniform lightizing portion 8 is formed of a hollow transparent glass or a hollow cylinder whose inner surface is internally reflected by mirror finishing, and incident light is emitted with uniform light intensity.

  The uniform lightizing portion 8 requires a certain length to make the light intensity uniform, and generally requires a length L that the maximum number of reflections R in the uniform lightizing portion 8 is 3 or more.

  Here, when the uniform lightizing portion 8 is made of transparent glass, the refractive index of the glass is N (N = 1 in the case of a hollow tube), the length of the uniform lightizing portion is L, and the width of the glass is W. When the incident angle of the light beam incident on the uniform illuminating unit 8 made of glass or a hollow cylinder from the light source is θ, and the NA called the numerical aperture represented by sin θ in the air is A, the maximum number of reflections R is It is expressed by the following formula.

  The light emitted from the LEDs in the light source units 6 and 6 is reflected by the inner mirrors of the light source units 6 and 6, that is, the elliptical reflecting mirrors, and is focused at the second focal points a and a to the uniform lightizing portions 8 and 8. When incident, the intensity of the light is made uniform, and the light is emitted from the lower hole 10 of the emission tube 9 in a direction perpendicular to the incident light of the uniform lightizing portions 8 and 8.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, a rectangular hole 10 is formed in the lower part of the emission tube 9, and light whose light intensity is made uniform in a rectangular shape approximate to the shape of the hole is emitted, and the liquid crystal substrate Is exposed to a rectangle.

  In the first embodiment, the columnar irradiation unit A is used. However, it may be a quadrangular prism having a rectangular hole 10 on the lower surface. Moreover, although the shape of the hole 10 is a rectangle for exposure to a rectangle, it is needless to say that the shape of the hole 10 can be a circle or a square.

  Further, in this embodiment 1, in order to obtain a clear exposure shape, a rectangular hole 11 is provided between the liquid crystal substrate (not shown) below the irradiation unit A, which is a uniform illumination device, as shown in FIG. Aperture 12 was placed.

  FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which a reflection mirror 14 is disposed obliquely in the emission tube 9 in order to irradiate the uniform illumination light downward.

  FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. In this case, the light source unit 6 and the uniform lightizing portion 8 are provided only on one side of the emission tube 9 '.

The partial cutaway side view of the conventional liquid crystal substrate UV exposure apparatus. 1 is a longitudinal side view of Example 1. FIG. The perspective view seen from diagonally downward of Example 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a longitudinal side view of the second embodiment. FIG. 5 is a vertical side view of Example 3.

Explanation of symbols

A Irradiation unit 1 Body 2 Light source 3 Elliptical mirror 4 Rod lens 5 Duct with fan 6 Light source unit 7 LED
8 Uniform light generation part 9 Output tube 10, 11 Hole 12 Aperture

Claims (3)

The light emitted from the light source is incident on the uniform lightizing portion to make the intensity of the light uniform, and the emitted light is emitted in a direction perpendicular to the incident light of the uniform lightizing portion from the light emitting portion provided with an emission hole of an arbitrary shape. A uniform illumination device characterized in that 2. The uniform illumination device according to claim 1, wherein the light source is a blue or ultraviolet light emitting diode. The uniform illumination device according to claim 1, wherein an aperture having a hole similar to the emission hole is disposed between the emission hole and the portion to be illuminated.

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