JP2007225798A - Discharge pattern producing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a discharge pattern producing device which is used in, for example, manufacture of a color filter of a film base or manufacture of a color filter of a glass base, the device being capable of producing discharge pattern data of a coating method which causes no irregularity. <P>SOLUTION: In the discharge pattern producing device, an ink pattern is discharged to a substrate from a head unit 102 made by assembling a plurality of inkjet heads 101 having ink discharge parts 101A on which a large number of nozzles are juxtaposed, positional information of the plurality of inkjet heads 101 is measured and, on the basis of the positional information, discharge pattern information of the plurality of inkjet heads 101 is automatically produced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an ejection pattern generation apparatus for ejecting a high-definition pattern, and more particularly to an ejection pattern generation apparatus used for manufacturing a film-based color filter or a glass-based color filter.

Conventionally, the substrate size of color filters has been increasing year by year. In order to reduce the cost of the color filter, a conventional pigment dispersion method that repeats the photolithography process has been used, but recently, a method using an ink jet apparatus has been studied.
For example, with the increase in the size of the substrate, considering the yield, a plurality of inkjet heads are arranged in an aligned manner, and discharge pattern data is created so that the discharge liquid amount is uniform (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ).

By the way, as an inkjet discharge method, a method called a tilt method has been generally used.
However, when a plurality of ink jet heads are arranged, in order to perform ink jet ejection onto a substrate having a different image pitch, it is necessary to first match the nozzle angle and the main scanning direction of the head. As the number of ink jet heads increases, the adjustment time takes an enormous amount of time, and there is a problem that the productivity is greatly affected.
Moreover, since the number of nozzles that can be used is reduced depending on the image pitch, there is a problem that the ejection operation must be repeated a plurality of times, and the tact time increases.

  Therefore, an ink jet discharge parallel scanning method has been proposed as an alternative to the tilt method. In this case, it is possible to reduce the adjustment time of the ink jet head because the nozzle angle which is a problem in the tilt method is not considered. Further, the problem of repeating the discharge operation a plurality of times has an advantage that the tact time is shortened because the number of nozzles that can be used is overwhelmingly increased in the parallel scanning method.

  In addition, with the recent increase in size, there is a demand for production of a high-resolution color filter, so that the number of nozzles that fit in one pixel is reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the nozzle resolution of the head or perform the operation a plurality of times in order to obtain a necessary liquid amount.

Increasing the nozzle resolution of the head increases the number of nozzles of the head. Re-development of a new head can be very expensive and time consuming, so the current approach is to place the nozzles at a half-pitch offset in the main scanning direction to increase the resolution. ing.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of noise arrangement when the ink jet heads are arranged shifted in the main scanning direction.
In the illustrated example, two inkjet heads 1 and 2 are arranged in parallel, and 100 nozzles are provided in each head 1 and 2. As shown in the figure, the nozzles of the heads 1 and 2 are arranged in combination so that the nozzles of the heads 1 and 2 are located between the nozzles of the heads 1 and 2 to increase the resolution.
JP 2003-172814 A

However, when drawing is performed with the inkjet head arranged as shown in FIG. 2, the nozzles ejected to the partition walls of the substrate are regarded as one inkjet head because the inkjet heads are arranged side by side. When used, the nozzles of the front and rear inkjet heads are alternately used in order.
Therefore, the number of nozzles used for one partition is not always the same depending on the partition size of the substrate. In addition, since the size of the partition and the interval between the nozzles do not always coincide with each other, the number of nozzles of one of the inkjet heads does not necessarily increase within one partition, and the number of nozzles used for each partition changes. there is a possibility.

In addition, the inkjet head arranged as shown in FIG. 2 starts to discharge from the head that is in front with respect to the transport direction of the substrate table, and then the head that is in the back discharges. Therefore, an ink droplet enters from the nozzle in front of the partition wall.
When this is seen in the X-axis direction, the number of nozzles of the ink jet head before being used in the partition may change, so the amount of liquid ejected first differs for each partition. And since the liquid amount discharged previously differs, density | concentration nonuniformity generate | occur | produces and this will be seen as nonuniformity.

In addition, it is conceivable that, after coating the pixels once with one inkjet head without increasing the inkjet head, the same head is moved to a position shifted by a half pitch, and the head is doubled in a pseudo manner. In this case, the density unevenness is similarly generated and appears as unevenness.
Furthermore, if the coating is repeated at the same position by multiple operations without increasing the head, the landing positions will overlap, so the leveling property of the ink will deteriorate, and the overlapping hit position will appear as uneven density End up.

  In the present invention, in view of the above situation, when creating ejection pattern data for ejection from an inkjet head of an ink jet coating machine, a plurality of ink jet heads arranged in parameter settings for creating ejection pattern data It is an object of the present invention to provide a discharge pattern generation apparatus capable of generating discharge pattern data of a coating method that does not cause unevenness by giving position information of the above and position information to be landed on a substrate opening.

The present invention relates to an ejection pattern generation device that ejects an ink pattern onto a substrate from a head unit that is a combination of a plurality of inkjet heads having an ink ejection section in which a large number of nozzles are arranged in parallel, and the position of the plurality of inkjet heads It has a measuring means for measuring information, and a control means for automatically generating ejection pattern information of the plurality of inkjet heads based on position information measured by the measuring means.
Further, the substrate has partition walls provided in a pattern on the substrate, and the plurality of inkjet heads discharge the ink so that the total amount of ink is equal to the openings of the substrate including the substrate and the partition walls. And Further, in the plurality of ink jet heads, the liquid amount from the nozzle ejected first is equal to the opening of the substrate including the substrate and the partition wall, and the total amount is adjusted by the nozzle ejected later. . Further, in the plurality of ink jet heads, the nozzles that include the substrate and the partition walls are allotted to the nozzles that can be applied so that the amount of liquid entering the openings is equalized by the nozzles that are discharged first, The total amount is adjusted by the nozzle to be discharged.

  According to the present invention, by reflecting the position information of the ink jet head and the position information to be landed on the substrate opening in the discharge pattern data, it is possible to suppress unevenness caused by the difference in the number of nozzles used, and in the substrate. There is an effect that the liquid amount can be filled uniformly within the pixel without riding on the partition wall.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an overall configuration example of an ink jet coating apparatus in which a discharge pattern generating apparatus according to the present embodiment is implemented.
In the inkjet head unit 102 of the inkjet coating machine of this example, a plurality of inkjet heads 101 are arranged side by side. Note that in order to generate a color filter, it is necessary to discharge R, G, and B colors. Therefore, the combination of the plurality of inkjet heads 101 described above is arranged for each color. The ink jet head moves in the main scanning direction and performs image drawing.

  In addition, the substrate platform 103 of the ink jet coating machine can move in the sub-scanning direction and can further rotate in the θ-axis direction. Thus, since it can rotate in the θ-axis direction, the partition wall of the substrate placed on the substrate mounting table 103 and the inkjet head unit 102 can be aligned in parallel, and image drawing can be performed by operating in the sub-scanning direction. It can be carried out. Further, although not shown in the figure, the substrate table 103 is provided with a suction mechanism, and the substrate placed on the substrate table 103 can be fixed.

In addition, an inkjet head controller 104 is provided as control means for ejecting ink from the nozzles of the inkjet head 101 based on the ejection pattern information. The storage device of the inkjet head controller 4 stores inkjet head parameter information and an ejection pattern for driving and controlling the inkjet head.
The inkjet head parameter information is information for driving the inkjet head 101. In the discharge pattern information, information about the discharge of a specific nozzle is stored with the position information of the inkjet head 101 as an argument.
When coating is performed, ejection pattern information is transferred from the inkjet head controller 104 to each nozzle, and drawing can be performed.

  Further, in the inkjet head parameter information for driving the inkjet head 101 of the inkjet head controller 104, an optimum voltage value parameter can be set for each inkjet head 101. If the same value is set for the drive voltages of all the ink jet heads, the amount of liquid droplets ejected from the ink jet heads varies depending on individual differences, so that the inside of the substrate cannot be drawn uniformly.

As the discharge pattern information for drawing, a discharge pattern for obtaining a desired print pattern is calculated from the arrangement position of the inkjet head 101 and converted into discharge pattern information.
The ejection pattern information includes an image arrangement (including an information arrangement pattern indicating whether the arrangement is a stripe arrangement, a cell arrangement, or a mosaic arrangement), and the inkjet head 101 uses information obtained from the ejection pattern information. The desired image arrangement can be discharged without causing a shift.
In the ejection pattern information, information on the number of substrate surfaces, substrate dimensions, image dimensions, partition wall dimensions, and positional information of the inkjet head 101 (including head positional deviation information) are set as parameter information.

And the actual position of each inkjet head 101 is assumed from these parameter information. Based on the actual position of the inkjet head 101, when generating the discharge pattern information, the discharge pattern information is such that the discharge is effective only when the ink discharged from the nozzle does not hit the partition wall of the substrate and is not discharged when the ink hits the partition wall. Generate.
In this case, the nozzle determined to be effective has information on the amount discharged from the nozzle so that the amount of liquid in the substrate becomes uniform. With respect to the amount of the droplets, the target coordinates can be arbitrarily designated, and the amount of liquid can be increased or decreased for each nozzle, and the total amount of liquid can be made uniform.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the number of nozzles used first and the number of nozzles used later for a certain partition wall.
In FIG. 3, the number of nozzles used in the head 1 is 4 and the number of nozzles used in the head 2 is 5 for the partitions 1 to 10. On the other hand, the number of nozzles used in the head 1 is 5 and the number of nozzles used in the head 2 is 4 for the partition walls 11 to 20. It is assumed that an equal amount of liquid is discharged from one nozzle and 10 pl is discharged from one nozzle. Then, 40 pl enters the partition walls 1 to 10 from the nozzle of the head 1, and 50 pl enters the partition walls 11 to 20 from the nozzle of the head 1. Thereby, in the head 1, since the liquid amount of 10 pl differs depending on the partition wall, unevenness occurs in this liquid amount.

  Next, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which the number of nozzles used in the head 1 is aligned. Here, if all of the partitions 1 to 20 have 4 nozzles in the head 1, the amount of liquid discharged into the partition is 40 pl. Therefore, it can be applied without unevenness.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the case where the number of nozzles used in the head 1 is kept as it is, and the amount of liquid discharged first is made uniform. The partition walls 1 to 10 use five nozzles, and the partition walls 11 to 20 use four heads. In order to adjust the amount of liquid with the same number of nozzles, when adjusting the one with the larger number of nozzles, assuming that the amount of liquid is 10 pl from one nozzle, the number of four is 40 pl. In order to make it even 40 pl, the discharge amount from each nozzle is changed to 8 pl.
In this case, the amount of liquid ejected from the five nozzles does not need to be the same, and may be different. On the other hand, when adjusting the smaller number of nozzles, the position of five nozzles is 50 pl, so that the four nozzles are aligned to 50 pl. As a result, since the liquid amount is uniform at the first time, coating can be performed without unevenness.

In addition, the inkjet head 101 of the inkjet coating machine can use a shear wave mode ink discharge unit 101A as shown in FIG. In this case, ink discharge ports (nozzles) 101B arranged in a plurality of rows are provided. Then, the ejection is sequentially repeated for each row.
Hereinafter, as shown in FIG. 6, an ink jet head composed of three layers of ink ejection openings (hereinafter, each row is referred to as an A layer, a B layer, and a C layer) will be described as an example.

The inkjet head 101 includes buffers (hereinafter referred to as line buffers) corresponding to the A layer, the B layer, and the C layer, and the line buffers of the respective layers can transfer information to each other.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a simple operation until the ink jet head discharges.
First, the A layer line buffer receives the ejection pattern information (step S1), and starts ejection from the A layer ink ejection port based on the information related to the A layer among the transferred information (step S2). Simultaneously with the start of ejection from the A layer ink ejection port, ejection pattern information is transferred from the A layer line buffer to the B layer line buffer (step S3).

After the completion of the discharge from the A layer ink discharge port, the B layer ink discharge port starts discharging based on the information regarding the B layer in the transferred discharge pattern information (step S4). Simultaneously with the start of ejection from the B layer ink ejection port, the ejection pattern information is transferred from the B layer line buffer to the C layer line buffer (step S5).
After the completion of ejection from the B layer ink ejection port, the C layer ink ejection port starts ejection based on the information regarding the C layer in the transferred ejection pattern information (step S6).
After completion of the ejection from the C layer ink ejection port, it is determined whether or not the line ejection has been performed a set number of times by the line counter (step S7). If the set number of ejections has not been performed, the ejection pattern information is stored in the A layer line buffer. Forward to.
Again, the A layer ink discharge port starts to discharge based on the discharge pattern information. Thereafter, the above-described operation is repeated for the number of lines to create a desired print pattern.

  In this way, the discharge pattern information is created based on the positional information of the inkjet head and the information on the number of nozzles of each head used for the partition wall, and the result of printing with the inkjet coating machine using this discharge pattern information, Conventionally, unevenness was generated depending on the number of nozzles used in the partition walls, but liquid droplets were uniformly discharged in the substrate, and as a result, a highly accurate printed material could be obtained.

It is an external appearance perspective view which shows the example of whole structure figure of the coating device concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the arrangement | sequence of the conventional inkjet head. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the number of nozzles used for every head with respect to a partition. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of what equalized the number of nozzles and liquid amount which are used for every head with respect to a partition. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of what arranged the liquid quantity with respect to the number of nozzles for every head with respect to a partition. It is explanatory drawing which shows the nozzle structure of the inkjet head of a share wave mode. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement until it discharges from an inkjet head.

Explanation of symbols

101... Inkjet head, 102... Head unit, 103.

Claims (4)

A discharge pattern generation device that discharges an ink pattern to a substrate from a head unit that combines a plurality of inkjet heads having an ink discharge portion in which a large number of nozzles are arranged in parallel,
Measuring means for measuring position information of the plurality of inkjet heads;
Control means for automatically generating ejection pattern information of the plurality of inkjet heads based on position information measured by the measurement means;
A discharge pattern generation apparatus comprising:   The substrate has a partition wall provided in a pattern on the substrate, and the plurality of inkjet heads discharge the ink so that the total amount of ink is equal to the opening of the substrate including the substrate and the partition wall. The ejection pattern generation device according to claim 1.   The plurality of ink jet heads, wherein the liquid amount from the nozzle ejected first is equal to the opening of the substrate including the substrate and the partition wall, and the total amount is adjusted by the nozzle ejected later. 3. The discharge pattern generation device according to 2.   In the plurality of inkjet heads, the nozzles that are applied to the openings of the substrate including the substrate and the partition walls so that the amount of liquid entering the openings can be equalized with the nozzles that are discharged first are discharged later. The discharge pattern generating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the total amount is adjusted by a nozzle.

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