JP2006301493A - Thin film device and electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress deformation of a plastic substrate etc., when a device is formed on the plastic substrate etc. <P>SOLUTION: A thin film device comprises the flexible substrate (10), a conductive film (14) which is patterned in a specified shape and disposed on one surface side of the substrate, and a hard film (16) which has higher hardness than the conductive film and is provided covering the conductive film. The conductive film 14 is, for example, an aluminum film. The hard film is, for example, an ITO film. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a thin film device such as a thin film element or a thin film circuit.

  In recent years, the development of foldable displays and other electronic devices has been actively promoted. As an important element technology for realizing such electronic devices, thin film elements such as thin film transistors on plastic substrates and film-like substrates are used. Development and improvement of the technology for forming the film are desired. A technique using a transfer technique is known as one of the techniques for realizing such elemental technology. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-125929 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-125930 (Patent Document 2), a transfer body such as a thin film transistor is previously formed on a transfer source substrate via a release layer. A method is disclosed in which the transfer target is transferred to the transfer destination substrate by bonding the transfer target to the transfer destination substrate and then irradiating the release layer with light or the like to cause peeling. According to these methods, a desired electronic device can be manufactured by forming multiple types of thin film elements and thin film circuits with different manufacturing conditions on the transfer source substrate under optimum conditions and then moving them to the transfer destination substrate. can do.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-125929 JP-A-10-125930

  When a device is formed on a relatively soft and flexible substrate such as a plastic substrate, deformation such as undulation is likely to occur in the substrate mainly at a site such as a metal wiring film. Such deformation of the substrate is considered to be caused by the deformation of the metal wiring film or the like due to its own residual stress. Such an inconvenience becomes remarkable in an electrode formed as a relatively large area such as an electrode functioning as an external connection terminal.

  Then, an object of this invention is to provide the technique which can suppress the deformation | transformation of the said board | substrate at the time of forming a device on a plastic substrate etc.

  The first aspect of the present invention is a substrate having flexibility, patterned in a predetermined shape, a conductive film provided on one side of the substrate, a hardness higher than that of the conductive film, and the conductive film And a hard film provided so as to cover the thin film device. Here, “high hardness” means that the amount of deformation caused by stress is small.

  According to such a configuration, since the deformation of the conductive film due to the residual stress is suppressed by the hard film, it is possible to suppress the deformation of the substrate when a flexible substrate such as a plastic substrate is used.

  In the case where the conductive film described above functions as an electrode responsible for electrical connection with the outside, the hard film may be formed using a conductive material.

  Thereby, a deformation | transformation of a board | substrate can be suppressed, without impairing the function as an electrode of a electrically conductive film.

  In addition, when the conductive film functions as an electrode as described above and the conductive film includes a plurality of electrode pieces separated from each other, the hard film is attached to each of the electrode pieces. It is good to provide by patterning in one-to-one correspondence.

  Thereby, a deformation | transformation of a board | substrate can be suppressed, without impairing the electrical insulation state between each electrode piece.

  The second aspect of the present invention is an electronic apparatus including the thin film device manufactured by the manufacturing method described above. Here, the “electronic device” means a general device having a circuit board and other elements and having a certain function, and there is no particular limitation on its configuration. Such electronic devices include, for example, IC cards, mobile phones, video cameras, personal computers, head mounted displays, rear or front projectors, televisions, roll-up televisions, fax machines with display functions, and digital cameras. Finder, portable TV, DSP device, PDA, electronic notebook, electric bulletin board, display for advertisement announcement, and the like.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view schematically illustrating the configuration of a thin film device according to an embodiment. A thin film device 100 shown in FIG. 1 is used for image display, and includes a display unit 101, driver units 102 and 103, and an external connection terminal 104. The thin film device 100 of this embodiment is formed on a flexible substrate made of a plastic film or the like.

  The display unit 101 is configured by arranging a plurality of pixel units in a matrix, and is used to display an image by controlling the lighting state of each pixel. The display unit 101 is composed of a liquid crystal display panel, for example.

  Each of the driver units 102 and 103 is for supplying a control signal for driving the display unit 101, and includes a thin film circuit.

  The external connection terminal 104 is composed of a plurality of electrode pieces that are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance, and is electrically connected to each of the driver units 102 and 103 described above via wiring. It is used to supply signals to the drivers 102 and 103 from an external circuit (not shown).

  FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining the detailed structure of the external connection terminal 104, and corresponds to the cross section in the II-II line direction shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the external connection terminal 104 is provided with an insulating film 12 made of silicon oxide or the like on a flexible substrate 10, and a conductive film 14 and a hard film 16 are stacked on the insulating film 12. Configured.

  The conductive film 14 has a predetermined shape suitable for functioning as an electrode piece, specifically, each electrode piece has a long rectangular shape and is patterned so as to be separated from each other. (In this example, it is provided above the insulating film 12). The conductive film 14 is made of a metal such as aluminum, tantalum, tungsten, gold, molybdenum, chromium, or titanium. Note that the constituent material of the conductive film 14 is not limited to metal, and any material having conductivity can be used.

  The hard film 16 is made of a material having a hardness higher than that of the conductive film 14 and is provided so as to cover the conductive film 14. The hard film 16 is made of a conductive ceramic material such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide). Further, the hard film 16 is provided by patterning in a one-to-one correspondence with each electrode piece constituting the conductive film 14.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the deformation of the conductive film 14 due to the residual stress is suppressed by the hard film 16, so that the deformation of the substrate when the flexible substrate 10 such as a plastic substrate is used is suppressed. It becomes possible to do.

  Next, an example of an electronic apparatus including the above-described thin film device 100 will be described. The thin film device according to the present embodiment can be used as a display unit in various electronic devices.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view illustrating an example of an electronic apparatus. FIG. 3A illustrates an application example to a mobile phone, and the mobile phone 530 includes an antenna portion 531, an audio output portion 532, an audio input portion 533, an operation portion 534, and a display portion 535. FIG. 3B shows an application example to a video camera. The video camera 540 includes an image receiving unit 541, an operation unit 542, an audio input unit 543, and a display unit 544. FIG. 3C illustrates an example of application to a television device, and the television device 550 includes a display portion 551. FIG. 3D illustrates an application example to a roll-up television device, and the roll-up television device 560 includes a display portion 561. Further, the thin film device according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described example, and can be applied to various electronic devices. For example, in addition to these, it can also be used for a fax machine with a display function, a finder for a digital camera, a portable TV, an electronic notebook, an electric bulletin board, a display for advertisements, and the like.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the present invention is applied to the portion of the external connection terminal 104 of the thin film device 100 has been described, but the scope of the present invention is not limited to this, and other portions It can also be applied to (for example, a pixel portion of the display portion 101, a metal wiring, or the like). Further, the application range of the present invention is not limited to a display device such as the thin film device 100 described above.

  In the above-described embodiment, the hard film 16 has conductivity so that the function as the electrode of the conductive film constituting the external connection terminal 104 is not impaired. If there is no particular need to ensure the electrical connection, a hard film having no electrical conductivity may be used. Moreover, when using the hard film | membrane which does not have electroconductivity in this way, you may provide a hard film | membrane so that the whole several electrode piece may be covered.

It is a schematic plan view explaining the structure of the thin film device of one Embodiment. It is a fragmentary sectional view for demonstrating the detailed structure of an external connection terminal. It is a schematic perspective view which shows the example of an electronic device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Board | substrate, 12 ... Insulating film, 14 ... Conductive film, 16 ... Hard film, 100 ... Thin film device, 101 ... Display part, 102, 103 ... Driver part, 104 ... External connection terminal

Claims (4)

A flexible substrate;
A conductive film patterned in a predetermined shape and provided on one side of the substrate;
A hard film that is higher in hardness than the conductive film and is provided so as to cover the conductive film;
A thin film device. The conductive film functions as an electrode responsible for electrical connection with the outside,
The thin film device according to claim 1, wherein the hard film is formed using a conductive material. The conductive film includes a plurality of electrode pieces separated from each other,
The thin film device according to claim 2, wherein the hard film is provided by patterning in a one-to-one correspondence with each of the electrode pieces. An electronic apparatus comprising the thin film device according to claim 1.

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