JP2007264525A - Display device and method of manufacturing display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a theoretical yield when manufacturing a plurality of display devices from a pair of substrates. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of display areas 11 are formed on a first substrate 10, and adhesive partition patterns 12 are applied to peripheries of display areas 11 on the first substrate 10, and the first substrate 10 and a second substrate 20 are put one over the other with the adhesive partition patterns 12 between them, and the adhesive partition patterns 12 are hardened by radiation of light, and the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20 are divided by display areas 11, whereby display devices are manufactured. In this manufacturing, the adhesive partition patterns 12 are applied to areas including division lines for division, and the light is radiated to portions of the adhesive partition patterns 12 except the division lines to harden only these portions, and non-hardened portions of the adhesive partition patterns 12 are divided when the substrates are divided by display areas 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a display device in which two substrates are overlapped to form a display region, and a display device manufacturing method in which a plurality of display regions are collectively formed on the substrate and the individual devices are formed by division. About.

  The liquid crystal display device has a structure in which at least one substrate on one side is transparent and a substrate on which two electrodes are arranged is arranged oppositely, and liquid crystal is sealed between the two substrates. In recent years, in order to increase the production efficiency of liquid crystal display devices, a plurality of display areas are formed on a single substrate in advance, and a plurality of substrates are simultaneously divided in a state where other substrates are superimposed on the substrate. A manufacturing method is also applied (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 11 is a schematic plan view for explaining a conventional method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device. That is, each of the plurality of display areas 11 formed on the substrate 10 has an independent adhesive partition wall pattern 12, and the adhesive partition wall patterns 12 are arranged apart from each other by a scribe street of 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm. ing.

  That is, in the example shown in FIG. 11A, a total of eight display areas 11 of 2 × 4 are formed on one substrate 10 and surround the periphery of each display area 11 as shown in FIG. An adhesive partition wall pattern 12 made of a sealing agent is formed by a technique such as dispensing. At this time, the space between the adjacent adhesive partition wall patterns 12 becomes a dividing line for subsequent substrate division.

International Publication No. WO 2004/083950 Pamphlet

  Here, as a method of dividing the substrate, the surface of the substrate is scratched and scratched, and mechanical stress is applied along the scratch (mechanical scribe & break), and the heat is generated by converging the laser beam. There is a method (laser scribing) and a method of cutting with a rotating blade (dicing), but it is difficult to cut the cured sealant with either method, so along the cutting line (scribe street) as the cutting margin It is necessary to form a part without adhesive.

  Scribe Street is a part that originally does not function as a display device, and in order to waste the effective area on the board, the number of display devices that can be harvested from one board (reason) is reduced and production efficiency is reduced. Cause it.

  In actual manufacturing, the drawn adhesive partition wall pattern is pushed out in the horizontal direction when two opposing substrates are bonded together, and the line width is widened. In order to ensure that the adjacent adhesive barrier rib patterns after being spread do not touch each other and maintain the necessary scribe street gaps, the adhesive barrier rib patterns are drawn with a sufficient margin in advance. There is a need to. As a result, it becomes necessary to increase the arrangement interval between the display devices, resulting in a decrease in the number of harvestable items from a set of substrates. The reduction in the number of harvests becomes significant when manufacturing a small display device that can take a large number from a set of substrates.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems. That is, according to the present invention, in a display device in which at least one substrate is transparent and pasted together with a light irradiation curable sealant to form a display region between the substrates, the transparent substrate is transparent. A mask for blocking the transmission of light for curing the sealant is provided in a part of the substrate corresponding to the sealant.

  The present invention also includes a step of forming a plurality of display regions on one substrate, a step of applying a sealant around the display region on one substrate, and one substrate and the other substrate via the sealant. In the process of applying the sealing agent in the method of manufacturing a display device, comprising the step of superimposing, the step of irradiating the sealing agent with light and curing, and the step of dividing one substrate and the other substrate into display regions. In the step of applying to the region including the dividing line at the time of division and curing the sealing agent, the portion other than the dividing line in the sealing agent is irradiated with light to cure only that portion, and divided into display regions. In the process, it is a method of dividing an uncured portion of the sealant.

  Here, the transparent substrate used as at least one of the two substrates to be bonded together is a substrate having translucency that can sufficiently transmit light for curing the sealant.

  In such a present invention, after the two substrates are overlapped via the sealant, the sealant corresponding to the dividing line is not irradiated with light in the step of curing the sealant. When the substrate is divided, the uncured portion can be divided. For this reason, it is possible to share the sealant of adjacent display areas, and it is possible to arrange a plurality of display areas without waste.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to provide a scribe street between the sealants of the display areas adjacent on the substrate, and the arrangement interval of the display areas adjacent on the substrate is minimized, so It is possible to increase the number of display devices that can be harvested.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 to 6 are schematic views for sequentially explaining the manufacturing method of the display device according to the present embodiment. In the display device manufacturing method according to the present embodiment, from the viewpoint of manufacturing a large number of display devices from a set of substrates, an adhesive that forms a large number of display regions on one substrate and is applied to the periphery of the display regions. This is a manufacturing method in which the other substrate is bonded through a partition pattern, divided into display areas, and cut into individual display devices. The feature is that the interval between the plurality of display areas formed on one of the substrates can be narrowed. There is.

  First, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of display areas 11 are formed on the first substrate 10. In the present embodiment, a silicon substrate is used as the first substrate 10. In the example shown in FIG. 1, a total of eight display areas 11 of 2 × 4 are formed on one substrate 10. When the display device to be manufactured is a liquid crystal display device, TFTs (Thin Film Transistors) that can be driven for each pixel are formed in a matrix as the display region 11 and a wiring pattern for driving these TFTs is formed. Is done.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 2, an adhesive partition wall pattern 12 that is a sealing agent is applied in a state of surrounding the periphery of the display region 11 formed on the first substrate 10. In the present embodiment, the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 applied between the adjacent display areas 11 is applied in a shared manner. That is, as shown in FIG. 11B, in the conventional application of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12, the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is separately applied around each display region 11, and between the adjacent adhesive partition wall patterns 12. Has a gap to become a scribe street. In the present embodiment, the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 between the display areas 11 is applied integrally so as to include a scribe street (see the alternate long and short dash line in the figure) without providing this gap.

  The coating width of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is determined by the nozzle hole diameter and the nozzle outer diameter of the dispenser used for dispensing application. In the current nozzle, since the hole diameter is 0.1 mm and the outer diameter is 0.25 mm, it is generally difficult to realize a coating width of 0.1 mm or less. In the conventional example shown in FIG. 11B, when the width of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is about 1 mm, which is 10 times after the substrate is overlapped (after being crushed by the overlap), the width of the scribe street is about 0.00. Since it is necessary to provide 3 mm to 0.5 mm, the distance between the left and right ends of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is at least about 2.3 mm to 2.5 mm in total. In order to obtain this dimension, it is necessary to form a width of 0.1 mm at the time of application, and there is a high possibility that the current nozzle will be rubbed.

  On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is shared (one) between the display areas 11, the width of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is about 1 even if the width necessary for the subsequent scribe street is included. .3mm is enough. In order to obtain a width of about 1.3 mm, which is 10 times the width after superimposing the substrates, the width is 0.13 mm at the time of coating, and the current nozzle can be used sufficiently.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20 are bonded to each other through the applied adhesive partition wall pattern 12. In the present embodiment, a glass substrate is used as the second substrate 20. Note that FIG. 3 shows a partial cross-section in a state where two substrates are bonded together for easy understanding. By this bonding, the distance between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20 is set to about 2 mm, for example. At the time of bonding, the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is crushed by the distance between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20, and the width is increased. Accordingly, when the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is applied, an application width in consideration of this spread is set.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays using an ultraviolet exposure machine 100 to cure the adhesive partition wall pattern 12. When performing this ultraviolet irradiation, in the present embodiment, part of the ultraviolet rays is shielded using the mask M so that the ultraviolet rays do not hit a part of the substantially central portion of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 between the adjacent display regions 11. To do. As a result, only part of the substantially central portion of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is uncured, and the other part (part irradiated with ultraviolet rays) is cured.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the uncured portion 12 b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is scribed as a scribe street with the dicer D along the scribe street, and division (break) is performed. Since this scribing and breaking is performed along the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12, even if there is the cured adhesive partition wall pattern 12, it can be divided without any problem. That is, since there are hardened portions 12a on both sides of the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 that becomes a scribe street, the hardened portion 12a becomes a wall along the uncured portion 12b when scribing and breaking. Can be divided.

  Here, a method (mechanical scribe and break) in which the surface of the first substrate 10 is scratched and scratched and mechanical stress is applied along the scratch is used, but the laser beam is converged to generate heat. (Laser scribe) may be used.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 6, the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 remaining on the divided end face of the display device 1 formed by the division is cured. In order to perform this curing, ultraviolet rays may be separately radiated. Usually, a heat treatment for stabilizing the cured state is performed on the cured portion 12a of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12, but the curing is performed simultaneously with the heat treatment. You may let them. In the case of the display device 1 composed of a liquid crystal display device, the liquid crystal is sealed in the display region 11 between the two substrates 10 and 20 after the above division.

  If scribing and breaking is performed with a part of the substantially central portion of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 provided between the display regions 11 being uncured as in the present embodiment, the space between the adhesive partition wall patterns 12 in the adjacent display regions 11 is determined. There is no need to provide a gap, and the intervals between the plurality of display areas 11 formed on the first substrate 10 can be arranged narrowly. As a result, the number of display devices 1 that can be taken from a set of substrates can be increased.

  7 to 10 are schematic diagrams for explaining other embodiments. In this embodiment, the processes up to the formation of the display region 11 on the first substrate 10 and the application of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 are the same as those in the previous embodiment shown in FIGS. Thereafter, when the second substrate 20 is overlaid, as shown in FIG. 7, a substrate provided with a light shielding pattern P in a portion corresponding to the scribe street in the second substrate 20 is used. The light shielding pattern P is a material (for example, chrome or aluminum) that serves as a mask for shielding the light irradiated to harden the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 thereafter, and is adjacent to the first substrate 10 when the light shielding pattern P is overlapped with the first substrate 10. The adhesive partition wall pattern 12 applied between the display areas 11 is arranged so as to cover a part of the center.

  The light shielding pattern P is preferably provided on the surface of the second substrate 20 on the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 side. This is to improve the light shielding property by the light shielding pattern P when irradiating light for curing the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 in a later step. That is, when the light shielding pattern P is on the side (surface side) opposite to the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 of the second substrate 20, the light shielding pattern P is easily affected by light refraction due to the thickness of the second substrate 20. Therefore, in order not to be affected by this, the light-shielding pattern P is disposed on the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 side of the second substrate 20 so as to be in close contact with the adhesive partition wall pattern 12.

  Next, in this state, the entire surface of the substrate is irradiated with ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet exposure device 100 as shown in FIG. The ultraviolet rays irradiated on the entire surface of the substrate are irradiated on the portions other than the portion of the light shielding pattern P provided on the second substrate 20, and become the cured portion 12 a of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 in the portion irradiated with the ultraviolet rays. On the other hand, the portion corresponding to the light shielding pattern P is not irradiated with ultraviolet rays, and the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is formed.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9, the uncured portion 12 b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is scribed as a scribe street with a dicer D along the scribe street, and division (break) is performed. Since this scribing and breaking is performed along the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12, even if the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is present, division can be performed without any problem. That is, since there are hardened portions 12a on both sides of the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 that becomes a scribe street, the hardened portion 12a becomes a wall along the uncured portion 12b when scribing and breaking. Can be divided.

  In this embodiment, since the light shielding pattern P described above is provided on the second substrate 20, the light shielding pattern P can be used as a mark for scribing. Since the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 is uncured in the portion of the light shielding pattern P, the scribing along the portion may be performed along the light shielding pattern P.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 10, the uncured portion 12b of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 remaining on the divided end face of the display device 1 formed by the division is cured. In order to perform this curing, ultraviolet rays may be separately irradiated. Usually, a heat treatment for stabilizing the cured state is performed on the cured portion 12a of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12, but the curing is performed simultaneously with the heat treatment. You may let them. In the case of the display device 1 composed of a liquid crystal display device, the liquid crystal is sealed in the display region 11 between the two substrates 10 and 20 after the above division.

  If scribing and breaking is performed with a part of the substantially central portion of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 provided between the display regions 11 being uncured as in the present embodiment, the space between the adhesive partition wall patterns 12 in the adjacent display regions 11 is determined. It is not necessary to provide a gap, and the interval between the display areas 11 can be arranged narrowly. As a result, the number of display devices 1 that can be taken from a set of substrates can be increased. Further, in the display device 1 formed as described above, the light shielding pattern P remains in the divided end portion of the second substrate 20.

  In any of the above embodiments, the width of the adhesive partition wall pattern 12 in the divided display device 1 is 0.3 mm to 0.7 mm when the gap between the substrates is 2 mm. The adhesive partition wall pattern 12 having such a width cannot be formed by conventional dispensing. Further, in any of the above embodiments, the arrangement interval of the display areas on the first substrate 10 is reduced by about 0.3 mm per row as compared with the arrangement of the conventional display area 11 as shown in FIG. It becomes possible to do. Such shortening is very effective especially when a large number of small display devices are cut out from one substrate, and the yield can be increased.

It is a schematic diagram (the 1) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device concerning this embodiment in order. It is a schematic diagram (the 2) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on this embodiment in order. It is a schematic diagram (the 3) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device concerning this embodiment in order. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram (part 4) for sequentially explaining the method of manufacturing the display device according to the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram (part 5) for sequentially explaining the method for manufacturing the display device according to the embodiment. It is a schematic diagram (the 6) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on this embodiment in order. It is the schematic diagram (the 1) explaining in order the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on other embodiment. It is the schematic diagram (the 2) explaining in order the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on other embodiment. It is a schematic diagram (the 3) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on other embodiment in order. It is a schematic diagram (the 4) explaining the manufacturing method of the display device which concerns on other embodiment in order. It is a schematic plan view explaining the manufacturing method of the conventional liquid crystal display device.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Display device, 10 ... 1st board | substrate, 11 ... Display area, 12 ... Adhesive partition pattern, 20 ... 2nd board | substrate

Claims (9)

In a display device in which at least one of the substrates is transparent and bonded together with a light irradiation curing type sealant, and a display region is configured between the substrates,
A display device characterized in that a mask that blocks transmission of light for curing the sealing agent is provided in a part of the transparent substrate of the two substrates corresponding to the sealing agent. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the mask is provided on a peripheral edge of the transparent substrate. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the mask is provided on the sealing agent side of the transparent substrate. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising a liquid crystal sealed between the two substrates. Forming a plurality of display areas on one substrate;
Applying a sealant around the display area of the one substrate;
A step of superimposing the one substrate and the other substrate through the sealing agent;
Irradiating the sealant with light and curing;
In the method for manufacturing a display device, comprising the step of dividing the one substrate and the other substrate into the display regions,
In the step of applying the sealing agent, it is applied to a region including a dividing line at the time of the dividing,
In the step of curing the sealing agent, the portion other than the dividing line in the sealing agent is irradiated with the light to cure only the portion,
In the step of dividing the display area, the display device is divided along a portion where the sealant is not cured. The method for manufacturing a display device according to claim 5, wherein in the step of irradiating the sealant with light and curing, the light is irradiated through an exposure mask that shields the portion of the dividing line. A light shielding pattern is formed in advance in a portion corresponding to the dividing line in the other substrate,
The method for manufacturing a display device according to claim 5, wherein in the step of irradiating the sealant with light, the entire surface of the other substrate is irradiated with light. The method for manufacturing a display device according to claim 5, wherein a light shielding pattern is formed in advance on a surface on the sealant side at a portion corresponding to the dividing line in the other substrate. The method for manufacturing a display device according to claim 5, further comprising a step of curing an uncured sealant remaining along the dividing line after performing the step of dividing the display region.

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