JP2007289884A - Liquid droplet discharge device and liquid droplet discharge method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve impact accuracy, realize an inexpensive manufacture by simplifying constitution and efficiently discharge liquid droplets. <P>SOLUTION: The liquid droplet discharge device is provided with a discharge target body support means 2 for supporting a discharge target body 10, a plurality of liquid droplet discharge means 4 for discharging the liquid droplets to the discharge target plane of the discharge target body 10, a first support means 5 for reciprocably supporting each liquid droplet discharge means 4 individually toward a first direction B of the discharge target plane of the discharge target body 10, a second support means 3 for reciprocably supporting the first support means 5 in a second direction A orthogonal to the first direction B, and a drive control means 6 which relatively moves the liquid droplet discharge means 4 relative to the support means 2 and locates them at predetermined positions relative to the discharge target body 10 and allows them to discharge the liquid droplets. When the liquid droplets are discharged to the discharge target body 10 by one of the liquid droplet discharge means 4, the drive control means 6 limits a movement range of the other liquid droplet discharge means 4 to a stable movement area to make the liquid droplet position by the liquid droplet discharge means 4 to fall within an allowable range. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge device and a droplet discharge method, and more particularly to a droplet discharge device and a droplet discharge method for applying droplets to the surface of a liquid crystal display or the like.

  In recent years, inkjet technology is expected to be used not only as a printer device for forming an image on a paper medium but also as a manufacturing device for a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, a plasma display, an electron-emitting device, an electrophoretic display device, and the like. .

  When the inkjet technology is employed in a manufacturing apparatus, it is necessary to improve the landing accuracy of droplets, unlike conventional printing on paper. In the printer device, the landing accuracy was 10 to 20 μm, but in the manufacturing device, the landing accuracy is required to be 10 μm or less, and in some cases, several μm or less. Moreover, since it is necessary to eject droplets to a substrate with a much larger area than the conventional paper, the entire device is made highly rigid, variation in ejection position due to vibration is suppressed, and droplets are ejected from the nozzle holes. It is necessary to make the flight distance to the substrate as small as possible.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a stage for transporting a substrate in the same direction and a carriage mechanism for moving an inkjet head in a direction orthogonal to the stage traveling direction are directly connected to a stone surface plate. Has been.

  In Patent Document 2, as a device for applying droplets to almost the entire area of a substrate, a line head is configured by arranging a plurality of heads in one direction, and relative to the substrate in a direction substantially orthogonal to the head arrangement. For example, a substrate for manufacturing a color filter substrate used for a liquid crystal panel is disclosed.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 3 discloses an apparatus including a line head for applying to the entire surface of a substrate and a repair head for repairing a portion where the application failure has occurred in the line head.

JP 2003-191462 A JP 2002-82216 A JP 2004-337707 A

  However, Patent Document 1 only mentions that the apparatus base is a stone surface plate in order to achieve high landing accuracy as a manufacturing apparatus, and it is assumed that this alone is insufficient. For this reason, it is indispensable to make the whole apparatus highly rigid and to be configured with high accuracy, and it is inevitable that the apparatus becomes large, increases in weight, and becomes expensive.

  In Patent Document 2, a mechanism for adjusting the head position is provided for each head, and after adjusting the positional relationship between each head, the positional relationship between the heads must be fixed and moved relative to the substrate in a reciprocal manner. I must. In other words, the configuration is inevitable and expensive.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 3 eliminates line-like color loss caused by non-ejection nozzles that may occur when a substrate having a pattern arranged regularly, such as a color filter for a liquid crystal panel, is manufactured by an inkjet method. Can only do.

  As described above, in any of the above-described devices, colored spots (for example, defects caused by dust on the substrate surface during the manufacturing process of a color filter, an organic EL panel, etc.) scattered randomly on a large-area substrate. It is unsuitable for applying efficiently to a substrate having it.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a droplet discharge device that can be manufactured at low cost by improving the landing accuracy, and that can efficiently perform droplet discharge.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide a droplet discharge method capable of efficiently discharging droplets while improving landing accuracy.

  According to the present invention, as means for solving the above-described problems, a droplet discharge device includes a discharge target support unit that supports a discharge target having a discharge target plane, and discharges a droplet onto the discharge target plane of the discharge target. A plurality of droplet discharge means, and a drive control means for individually controlling and moving the plurality of droplet discharge means. The plurality of droplet discharge means and the discharge target are relatively The drive control unit is configured to be movable, and when the droplet discharge unit discharges a droplet to the discharge target, the droplet control unit causes the droplet position to be within an allowable range. The movement range of the other droplet discharge means is limited to the stable movement region.

  Here, the discharge target is a concept including various substrates and elements for obtaining a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, a plasma display, an electron-emitting device, an electrophoretic display device, and the like. Various droplets can be used depending on the type of the discharge target. The permissible range means a range that is considered to be appropriate for the product obtained as a result of performing droplet discharge on the discharge target body to have a predetermined quality.

  With the above configuration, when droplets are ejected from the droplet ejecting means to the substrate, even if other droplet ejecting means are reciprocated, the range is limited to the stable movement region. Never give. This makes it possible to increase the landing accuracy without complicating the configuration and making it expensive. Further, since the movement of the other droplet discharge means can be started during the droplet discharge by a certain droplet discharge means, the droplet discharge can be performed very efficiently. In particular, if the droplet discharge means is increased in weight, vibrations and the like due to movement are likely to occur, and thus the effect of adopting the above configuration is enormous.

  The relative movement of the plurality of droplet discharge means and the discharge target is determined by moving each droplet discharge means individually with respect to the discharge target support means toward the first direction of the discharge plane of the discharge target. A first support means for reciprocally supporting the first support means, and the first support means relative to the discharged object support means in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; What is necessary is just to carry out by the 2nd support means supported so that reciprocation is possible.

  The first support means is configured to support each droplet discharge means so as to cover the entire area of the discharge target body in the first direction within a reciprocating range of all the droplet discharge means. And it is sufficient.

  The dimension S of the stable movement region of the droplet discharge means is assumed to satisfy 0.1 ≦ S / L ≦ 0.4, where L is the dimension of the discharge target in the first direction. That's fine.

  It is preferable that the droplet discharge means can be moved by the second support means while moving the first support means at a constant speed, so that the droplet discharge can be performed more efficiently.

  The first support means supports the liquid droplet ejection means capable of ejecting liquid droplets to adjacent areas of the ejection target body so as to be capable of reciprocating at positions where physical interference is not possible. It is preferable to do this.

  With this configuration, even if a malfunction occurs, it is possible to reliably prevent the droplet discharge means from interfering with each other, and thus it is possible to achieve high reliability. In particular, when the droplet discharge unit is increased in weight, the impact at the time of collision is enormous, but it is effective because it can be surely avoided by the above configuration.

  The first support means supports the droplet discharge means so as to be able to reciprocate on different straight lines, so that even if the discharge areas in the first direction partially overlap, It is preferable to be able to avoid interference.

  With this configuration, it is possible to reliably perform the liquid droplet ejection onto the ejection target body without leaking while reliably avoiding the interference between the liquid droplet ejection means.

  The first support means includes a beam portion that translates along the upper surface of the discharge target support means, and the droplet discharge means is at least two members that are supported so as to be reciprocally movable on both sides of the beam portion. It is preferable to configure.

  With this configuration, the plurality of droplet discharge means can be overlapped by the single first support means without interfering with each other, so that the liquid to the discharge target body is simple despite the simple structure. It becomes possible to perform droplet discharge without leakage.

  In this case, it is preferable that the total values of the weights of the droplet discharge means provided on both sides of the beam portion are substantially equal. For example, in the case where one droplet is provided on one side of the beam and two droplet discharge means are provided on the remaining one side, the weight of each of the two droplet discharge means is set small, and the total value is almost equal to that of one droplet discharge means. What is necessary is just to make it equal. As a result, even when the droplet discharge unit performs droplet discharge while moving the first support unit at a constant speed, a stable movement state can be maintained and desired landing accuracy can be obtained.

  By providing a plurality of the second support means, it may be possible to avoid physical interference even when the ejection regions in the first direction partially overlap.

  It is preferable that 50 ≦ M / m ≦ 200 is satisfied, where m is the weight of the droplet discharge means and M is the total weight of the first support means and the droplet discharge means.

  With this configuration, it is possible to suppress the weight of the droplet discharge means with respect to the entire moving part, and to reliably prevent the change in the center of gravity accompanying the movement of the droplet discharge means and the occurrence of vibrations when changing the movement direction Become.

  Further, according to the present invention, as means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a plurality of droplet discharge means are individually moved with respect to the surface of the discharge target body and positioned at a predetermined position, and the droplets are directed toward the discharge target body. In the case of discharging a droplet onto an object to be discharged by any one of the above-described droplet discharge means, the other method is used so that the position of the droplet by the droplet discharge means is within an allowable range. The movement range of the droplet discharge means is limited to a stable movement region.

  In the case where droplets are discharged onto the discharge target body by any one of the droplet discharge means, the droplet discharge means may be moved at a constant speed.

  According to the present invention, since the movement range of the droplet discharge means is only limited to the stable movement area, it is possible to produce at low cost while improving the landing accuracy without complicating the configuration. In addition, since the movement of the other droplet discharge means can be started during the droplet discharge by a certain droplet discharge means, it is possible to realize efficient droplet application.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Overall configuration>
1 and 2 show a droplet discharge device 1 according to the present embodiment. The apparatus 1 is generally configured such that a gantry 3 as a second support means, a droplet discharge unit 4 as a droplet discharge means, and a slide mechanism 5 as a first support means are placed on a mounting table 2 as a discharge target support means. Etc., and a control device 6 (see FIG. 5) as drive control means. The horizontal width (the horizontal dimension in FIG. 1) of the device 1 is 3.5 m, and the vertical width (the vertical dimension in FIG. 1) is 5 m.

<Mounting table>
The mounting table 2 is provided with a main stage 7 that is located in the center and supports the substrate 10 that is a discharge target, and a substage 8 that is provided on one side of the mounting table 2 and that maintains the droplet discharge unit 4. ing.

  Gantry rails 9 for supporting the gantry 3 so as to be movable in the direction of arrow A are provided on both sides of the upper surface of the mounting table 2.

  The main stage 7 is made of granite, and the upper surface has a flatness of 0.5 mm or less and is formed with high accuracy so as to be located in the same horizontal plane (higher horizontality). A plurality of suction holes (not shown) are formed on the upper surface of the main stage 7. All the suction holes are connected to a suction / air blowing mechanism (not shown). The substrate 10 mounted on the mounting table 2 is sucked and fixed through the suction holes by the suction / blow mechanism, and the positional deviation at the time of droplet discharge is prevented. Further, air is blown out from the suction holes by the air blowing drive of the suction / air blowing mechanism, and the substrate 10 is easily removed from the mounting table 2. Note that a substrate 10 having a lateral width of 2.2 m and a vertical width of 2.8 m can be placed on the mounting table 2.

  A maintenance unit 13 for performing maintenance of the droplet discharge unit 4 is mounted on the substage 8. The maintenance unit 13 has various functions such as capping the ejection surface when not in use and detecting and recovering a defective ejection port when the droplet ejection unit 4 is not used. The droplet discharge unit 4 is subjected to maintenance processing at a facing position in which the discharge port surface is relatively close to the maintenance unit 13.

  Detection of a defective discharge port of the droplet discharge unit 4 is performed by a non-discharge detection mechanism including a laser light emitting element 11 and a laser light receiving element 12. A non-ejection detection mechanism is provided for each droplet ejection unit 4. A schematic diagram of the non-ejection detection mechanism is shown in FIG. 14A is a view of the droplet discharge element 19 and the non-discharge detection mechanism as viewed from the side, and FIG. 14B is a view as viewed from the lower side of the apparatus. The diameter of the laser beam used here is 1 mm, and the droplets ejected from all the nozzle holes 26 of one droplet ejection unit 4 are arranged so as to pass through the laser optical axis L. The positions of the laser light emitting element 11 and the laser light receiving element 12 are adjusted by a fine movement mechanism (not shown). If a droplet does not pass through the laser optical axis L, it can be adjusted by a fine movement mechanism. The amount of light received by the laser light receiving element 12 is stored in a received light amount measuring means (not shown) connected thereto.

<Gantry>
The gantry 3 has a portal shape, and includes a central beam portion 13 and both end support portions 14. The total length L of the gantry 3 is 3.5 m, and the length T of the central beam portion 13 located on the substrate 10 is 2.5 m.

  Both end support portions 14 are each configured by a block having a substantially L-shaped cross section, and are slidably supported by each gantry rail 9 provided on the mounting table 2. Thereby, the gantry 3 can reciprocate the mounting table 2 in the second direction, that is, in the direction of arrow A in FIG. As the support structure of the gantry 3 by the gantry rail 9, it is possible to adopt a structure in which air is levitated and reciprocated by linear drive control.

  The central beam portion 13 includes a first slide mechanism 5 that supports a later-described droplet discharge unit 4 so as to be reciprocally movable, and a second slide mechanism (not shown) that supports an observation camera unit 18 that is described later so as to be reciprocally movable. And are provided respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 3, each of the first slide mechanism 5 and the second slide mechanism is composed of two rows of LM guides 15 (manufactured by THK) and a linear guide 16 installed between these rows. . The slide mechanism 5 drives and controls the linear drive mechanism 17 attached to the droplet discharge unit 4, and moves the droplet discharge unit 4 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. The linear guide 16 is a series of small permanent magnets arranged in a row so that the N-pole and S-pole pole faces are alternately positioned. The linear drive mechanism 17 can freely generate N and S poles by AC control. The position of the droplet discharge unit 4 provided on the slide mechanism 5 or the observation camera unit 18 described later can be controlled by the magnetic force of the linear guide 16 and the linear drive mechanism 17. However, the movement range of the droplet discharge unit 4 is formed at a physically separated position so that adjacent ones do not interfere with each other. As a result, even if the first slide mechanism 5 malfunctions and the droplet discharge unit 4 moves to an unexpected position, it does not interfere with other droplet discharge units 4 and the occurrence of defects such as damage is ensured. Can be prevented.

  The effective movement stroke of the LM guide 15 is 0.5 m for the droplet discharge unit 4B, 0.9 m for the droplet discharge units 4A and 4C, and 2.5 m for the observation camera. It is possible. Further, the moving range of the droplet discharge means is 0.2 m or more. This makes it possible to easily replace the droplet discharge means. In particular, this value is indispensable in the case of the apparatus 1 having the above-described size when the entire surface of the substrate 10 can be applied by adjoining the plurality of slide mechanisms 5.

<Droplet discharge unit>
As shown in the schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 4, the droplet discharge unit 4 has a configuration in which a discharge element 19, a drive control circuit 20, an electrical connection cable 21, an ink tank 22, and an ink pipe 23 are accommodated in a housing 24. is there. The housing 24 also stores a fine adjustment mechanism (for example, an X, Y, Z, and Θ stage) (not shown) for adjusting the position of the ejection element 19. A total of three droplet discharge units 4 are mounted on a first slide mechanism 5 installed on the gantry 3 (4A, 4B, 4C). The droplet discharge units 4A, 4B, and 4C can independently reciprocate in the direction of arrow B, which is the first direction. The total weight of the droplet discharge unit 4 is 5 kg to 30 kg.

  The droplet discharge unit 4 needs to be highly reliable for a manufacturing apparatus and is formed with high rigidity. In addition, it is necessary to form a material that is not corroded by the ink material used. For this reason, the housing | casing 24 is formed with the thick stainless steel material. The ejection element 19 is a known element in which a plurality of ink chambers are formed in the piezoelectric substrate 10 and then an electrode is formed on a part of the side wall of the partition wall. In the ejection element 19, when an electric field is applied between both side surfaces of the partition wall, the partition wall itself undergoes shear deformation, and ink in the ink chamber is ejected. The ejection surface of the ejection element 19 is formed in parallel with the upper surface of the main stage 7, and a nozzle plate 25 is bonded thereto. A plurality of nozzle holes 26 having a diameter of 10 to 30 μm are formed in the nozzle plate 25. In a state where the substrate 10 is mounted on the main stage 7, the distance between the droplet discharge surface which is the lowermost surface of the nozzle plate 25 and the upper surface of the substrate 10 is adjusted in advance to be 0.2 to 0.5 mm. . The discharge element 19 can be arbitrarily used as long as it has a mechanism capable of selectively discharging droplets, in addition to a known inkjet method such as a thermal method, a laminated piezoelectric method, and an electrostatic method. . The drive control circuit 20 is connected to a drive control system (both not shown) via a cable, and drives and controls the ejection element 19. A large capacity (for example, a total weight of 2 kg) is used for the ink tank 22 in order to reduce the number of ink replenishments.

  The movement range S of each droplet discharge unit 4 is a stable movement region satisfying 0.1 ≦ S / L ≦ 0.4, where L is the dimension (width) of the substrate 10 in the direction of arrow B. Designed. The weight m of each droplet discharge unit 4 is designed to satisfy 50 ≦ M / m ≦ 200, where M is the total weight of the gantry 3 and the droplet discharge unit 4. These values are determined based on the results of the following experiment.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an experimental apparatus for acquiring experimental data. This experimental apparatus has substantially the same configuration as the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, but differs in the following points. Two droplet discharge units 4 are mounted on the gantry 3. One droplet discharge unit 4D is fixed to the slide mechanism 5, and the other droplet discharge unit 4E moves over the entire width of the substrate and does not discharge droplets.

  While moving the droplet discharge unit 4E at a constant speed, droplets are discharged from the droplet discharge unit 4D and the landing accuracy is measured. Here, an experiment was performed using the slide width S of the other unit when one of the units is discharging and the weight of the other unit as parameters. The first parameter was the slide width S of the droplet discharge unit 4E, and was varied between S / L = 0.1 and 0.9 with respect to the entire substrate width L (= 2.5 m). The second parameter was set such that the weight of the droplet discharge unit 4E was m (= 5 to 100 kg), and varied between M / m = 20 to 500 with respect to the total gantry weight M (= 2000 kg and 1000 kg). As the total weight of the gantry, a value including the weight of the mounted droplet discharge units 4D and 4E and the slide mechanism 5 was used. Since the droplet discharge unit 4E does not need to discharge droplets, a dummy heavy object with only the weight adjusted was used, and the weight was changed between 4 and 100 kg. The landing accuracy is proportional to the distance (flying distance) between the droplet discharge surface and the substrate surface. For example, when the landing position is shifted by 5 μm at a flight distance of 0.5 mm, the deviation of the landing position is about 3 μm at a flight distance of 0.3 mm. However, when the flight distance is 0.5 mm or more, the displacement increases because of the influence of the air flow generated in the substrate surface direction. On the other hand, if the flight distance is 0.2 mm or less, the droplets that bounce off after landing will adhere to the nozzle surface, resulting in a decrease in landing accuracy. Therefore, practically, the flying distance of 0.2 to 0.5 mm is almost always adopted.

The acceleration / deceleration speed of the droplet discharge unit 4E is 4 (m / s ² ), the constant speed is 0.3 (m / s), and the stabilization time (static) is set after the acceleration operation of the droplet discharge unit 4E. After a long time, droplets were dropped from the droplet discharge unit 4D onto the substrate 10 with a flight distance of 0.3 mm, and the landing accuracy was confirmed. The landing accuracy was detected by dropping 30 drops on the substrate 10 and plotting the deviation from the ideal landing position (see FIG. 7).

  FIG. 8 shows the experimental results when the total gantry weight M = 2000 kg, and FIG. 9 shows the experimental results when the total gantry weight M = 1000 kg. In FIGS. 8 and 9, evaluation is made by assuming that the deviation amount of the landing position is 3 μm or less, ◎, 5 μ or less is ◯, 10 μ or less is Δ, and more is X In FIG. 8, when M / m is 20 or less, it becomes x when the slide ratio is 0.2 or more. When M / m was 50 or more, all showed good results with ◎ at a slide ratio of 0.4 or less. Furthermore, when M / m was 250 or more, it became ◎ with a slide ratio of 0.6 or less. The deviation amount of 3 μm is not always determined as ◎, and the landing deviation amount of the droplet discharge unit 4D is the landing position when the droplet discharge unit 4 is discharged in a state where the droplet discharge unit 4E is stopped. There is no problem even if it is determined as ◎ if it is approximately equal to the amount of deviation. That is, the droplet discharge unit is not necessarily moved over the entire width of the substrate, but can be moved individually by making the movement region of the droplet discharge unit within the stable movement region associated with the allowable landing position deviation. In addition, it is possible to improve the landing position accuracy of the liquid droplets in the manufacturing apparatus having the heavy liquid droplet discharge unit. In FIG. 8, when M / m is 20 or less, the weight of the droplet discharge unit 4E is 100 kg, the rigidity of the slide mechanism 5 is insufficient, and good results cannot be obtained. In FIG. 9, when M / m is 50 or more, all the results are excellent and excellent with a slide ratio of 0.4 or less.

  The reason why the landing accuracy deteriorates when the slide ratio increases as described above is that the movement of the center of gravity increases as the width of movement of the droplet discharge unit 4 on the gantry 3 increases, and as shown in FIG. It is considered that a deviation occurs between the mobility a and the right mobility b, and the gantry 3 cannot be stably moved.

  From the above results, by limiting to a stable movement region with a slide ratio of 0.1 to 0.6, preferably 0.1 to 0.4, even if other units are moving at a constant speed, It became clear that it was possible to ensure the landing accuracy with high accuracy. Also, at 0.1 or less, the slide area is only about 20 cm, and most of the slide area is accelerated and decelerated. Therefore, when the droplet discharge unit 4E moves at a constant speed, it is not possible to discharge the droplet from the droplet discharge unit 4D. Impossible. Furthermore, when the weight of the droplet discharge unit 4 is 5 kg or more, this effect is greatly exhibited. Moreover, it has been found that it is impossible to manufacture the liquid droplet ejection unit 4 having high rigidity by other verification when the unit weight is 5 kg or less. That is, when the M / m, which is the ratio between the total weight of the gantry 3 and the unit weight, is 50 to 200, the above effect was clear.

<Array of nozzle rows>
The arrangement of the nozzle holes 26 in the droplet discharge unit 4 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the droplet discharge unit 4 and a part of the gantry 3 as viewed upward from the mounting table 2 side.

  In the apparatus shown in FIG. 11A, a droplet discharge unit 4 that discharges one type of droplet material is mounted. A droplet discharge unit 46 is attached to the gantry 3 so as to be movable in the direction of arrow B via the first slide mechanism 5. The nozzle holes 26 on the droplet discharge surface are arranged in a line and are inclined several degrees from the direction orthogonal to the direction B.

  In the apparatus shown in FIG. 11B, a droplet discharge unit 4 for discharging three types of droplet materials is mounted. The droplet discharge unit 46 includes a row of nozzle holes 26A that discharge the first droplet material, a row of nozzle holes 26B that discharge the second droplet material, and a nozzle hole 26C that discharges the third droplet material. Each column is provided. Each nozzle hole 26 row is inclined several degrees from the direction orthogonal to the direction B, and the projection areas in the direction of the arrow B substantially coincide. Each row of nozzle holes 26 may be slightly movable in the direction of arrow B within the droplet discharge unit 4.

<Observation camera unit>
The observation camera unit 18 (FIG. 5) includes an image sensor such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Devices), a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), and an image processing unit that processes image information obtained there. The observation camera unit 18 observes a defect or alignment mark on the substrate 10 or a landing image landed on the substrate 10 by the droplet discharge unit 4, and a defect position or a landing position address (defect) with reference to the alignment mark. Position coordinates or landing position coordinates). As described above, the observation camera unit 18 acquires information for correcting the landing position by exchanging the droplet discharge elements 19 of the droplet discharge unit 4, or rechecking the landing position in use. Used for. The observation camera unit 18 may be provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the direction of arrow B on the bottom surface, side surface of the central beam portion 13 of the gantry 3 or another gantry 3 provided separately.

<Control device>
As shown in FIG. 5, the control device 6 is configured to identify the droplet discharge location information (defect position coordinates) obtained by the observation camera unit 18 or another defect location identification device before the substrate 10 is mounted on the device 1. The operation state determination unit 27 that determines the operation state of each droplet discharge unit 4 based on the droplet discharge location information (defect position coordinates) obtained by the above, and each droplet based on the output from the operation state determination unit 27 And a drive control unit 28 for determining the discharge timing of the discharge unit.

  The operation state determination unit 27 includes an operation timing calculation unit 29 that calculates acceleration / deceleration and droplet discharge timing based on the droplet discharge location information to be circulated by each droplet discharge unit 4, and the operation timing calculation unit 29. Based on the output operation timing information, it is determined whether or not another droplet discharge unit 4 is in the acceleration / deceleration timing at the time when droplets are discharged from a certain droplet discharge unit 4, and the operation timing is adjusted. And an operation timing adjustment unit 30 to be performed.

  The operation timing adjustment unit 30 adjusts the acceleration / deceleration timing of each droplet discharge unit 4 and, if the adjustment cannot be dealt with only by adjusting the acceleration / deceleration timing, the droplet discharge portion to be circulated for each droplet discharge unit 4 Or a recalculation command is output to the operation time calculation unit 29.

  Note that the control device 6 performs the following correction based on the amount of deviation between the ideal landing position and the actual landing position obtained in advance by the dummy substrate. That is, the ejection timing is corrected for the arrow A direction, and the movement amount of the slide mechanism 5 is corrected for the arrow B direction. Thereby, a droplet can be landed on a desired position (defect position) on the substrate 10.

  The correction amount determination method using a dummy substrate is as follows. That is, a dummy substrate having alignment marks formed at two predetermined positions is set on the mounting table 2 in the same manner as the normal substrate 10. Then, the observation camera unit 18 images both the alignment marks, and acquires position information thereof. Subsequently, the gantry 3 is moved to a preset landing position, and droplets are discharged from the nozzle holes 26 of the droplet discharge unit 4 toward the dummy substrate. At this time, droplets may be discharged from all the nozzle holes 26. Next, the observation camera unit 18 is moved, the droplet landing positions are sequentially imaged, and the actual landing position from the alignment mark is determined. Then, the difference between the virtual landing position and the actual landing position is decomposed and stored in the arrow A direction and the arrow B direction as correction data of each droplet discharge unit 4. The amount of deviation in the direction of arrow A is corrected by adjusting the timing of ejection from the droplet ejection unit 4. The amount of deviation in the direction of arrow B is corrected by offsetting the amount of movement of the droplet discharge unit 4 by the slide mechanism 5. These series of operations are also performed to detect non-ejection for each nozzle.

<Operation>
Next, the operation of the droplet discharge device 1 having the above configuration will be described.

  First, the substrate 10 to be repaired is transported by a transport robot (not shown) and placed on the mounting table 2. At this time, the position of the substrate 10 is adjusted by a conventionally known method. The substrate 10 to be repaired removes a predetermined region including a defective portion by laser processing or the like on a portion where dust is mixed in a manufacturing process or a portion where a blank recess is formed on an upper surface which is a discharge target plane. This corresponds to a case where a concave portion having a predetermined shape is formed. The recess is formed, for example, to a depth of about 2 μm, and the opening has a rectangular shape of about 200 × 70 μm. For the position of the concave portion, the position data registered by the laser processing or the like registered as the repaired portion data is used. However, the position of the recess may be specified by the observation camera unit 18 after being placed on the placing table 2. In the mounting table 2, the suction / air blowing mechanism is driven to adsorb and position the substrate 10 through the suction holes.

  Subsequently, the gantry 3 located on the substage 8 is moved to the main stage 7. In the main stage 7, the gantry 3 is moved at a constant speed from one end (position ST in FIG. 1) to the other end (position EN in FIG. 1) of the substrate 10. The reason why the gantry 3 is moved at a constant speed is to prevent the ink in the ink tank of the droplet discharge unit from receiving an inertial force due to the acceleration / deceleration movement and to stabilize the droplet discharge.

  Further, while the gantry 3 is moving at a constant speed, the droplet discharge units 4A, 4B, and 4C are moved to the corresponding locations based on the repair location data. In this case, the droplet discharge unit 4A is individually reciprocated within the range of the region 10A, the droplet discharge unit 4B is the region 10B, and the droplet discharge unit 4C is individually moved within the range of the region 10C.

At this time, the following cases occur by individually moving, stopping, and discharging the droplets of the plurality of droplet discharge units 4. That is, the timing for ejecting droplets from any of the droplet ejection units 4,
(1) When performed while the other droplet discharge unit is moving at a constant speed (A mode)
(2) When performed immediately after completion of acceleration / deceleration of another droplet discharge unit (B mode)
(3) When performed during acceleration / deceleration movement of another droplet discharge unit (C mode)
(4) When performed while other droplet discharge units are stopped (D mode)

  Droplet discharge from any one of the droplet discharge units is performed only when the other droplet discharge unit 4 is in constant speed movement (A mode) or stopped state (D mode) based on the following experimental results. Set the time to do.

  As the experimental apparatus, an apparatus having the same configuration as that shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 6 was used. Then, the droplet discharge unit 4E is discharged in the direction of arrow B while moving the droplet discharge unit 4D at a constant speed in the direction of arrow A while repeating acceleration movement, constant speed movement, deceleration movement, and stop. The landing accuracy was measured. Here, the stop means a state after stopping from the deceleration operation and after the stabilization time has elapsed. The constant speed movement means a state after the transition from the acceleration operation to the constant speed movement and the stabilization time has elapsed. In the experiment, since it is not necessary to discharge droplets from the droplet discharge unit 4E, a dummy heavy object in which only the weight is adjusted was used, and was varied between 5 and 50 kg.

  FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating the moving speed of the droplet discharge unit 4E on the slide mechanism 5 on the horizontal axis and the discharge timing of the droplet discharge unit 4D on the lower stage, with time as the horizontal axis.

  For the droplet discharge unit 4E, after the stop time (stop step S300) has elapsed, for each movement stop operation, the acceleration time (acceleration move step S301), and the stabilization time (stabilized while moving at a constant speed after acceleration ( First stabilization step S302), constant speed operation time (constant speed movement step: S303), deceleration operation time (deceleration movement step S304), stabilization time for stopping while decelerating (second stabilization step) S305) and the stop time (stop step S306). During the movement operation of the droplet discharge unit 4E, droplets were dropped from the droplet discharge unit 4D onto the substrate 10, and the landing accuracy was confirmed. The landing accuracy is determined from the amount of deviation from the ideal position by measuring the shape of the round residue of the landing droplet obtained by landing the droplet on the liquid-treated substrate and heating and curing it with a non-contact three-dimensional measuring instrument. Calculated.

  20, the discharge operation S400 of the droplet discharge unit 4D is D mode, the discharge operation S401 is C mode, the discharge operation S402 is B mode, the discharge operation S403 is A mode, the discharge operation S404 is C mode, The operation S405 is the B mode, and the discharge operation S406 is the D mode.

  In the D mode (corresponding to the discharge operations S400 and S406 in FIG. 20), it was found that the landing accuracy was all within ± 2 μm (for example, see FIG. 7A). That is, the D mode is not affected by the other droplet discharge unit 4E, and becomes the original performance of the droplet discharge unit 4D itself.

  In the A mode (corresponding to the discharge operation S403 in FIG. 20), the landing accuracy was all within ± 2 μm, and the same result as in the D mode was obtained (for example, see FIG. 7A). Therefore, it has been found that even if another droplet discharge unit 4E discharges a droplet while moving at a constant speed, the landing accuracy is not affected.

  In the B mode, the landing position accuracy is slightly worse than in the A or D mode, and is within ± 3 ± 5 μm (for example, see FIG. 21). The difference in landing accuracy is caused by the elapsed time after completion of the acceleration / deceleration operation, and it has been found that the landing position accuracy is improved as the elapsed time from completion to ejection is longer. The reason why the landing position system slightly deteriorates in the B mode is considered to be because it takes a certain time for the vibration generated during the acceleration / deceleration operation to converge.

  In the C mode, the landing accuracy may be ± 5 μm or more (for example, see FIG. 7B). When droplets were dropped on the substrate 10 in this state, the liquid material flowed out of the region to be coated, resulting in a defective product. The reason why the landing position accuracy is deteriorated in the C mode compared to the A mode and the D mode is that the other droplet discharge unit 4E which is a heavy object performs the acceleration / deceleration operation during the discharge of the droplet discharge unit 4D. It is considered that the inertial reaction force is applied to the gantry 3 and the vibration adversely affects the droplet discharge unit 4D during discharge.

  Based on the above results, in the apparatus configured such that the plurality of droplet discharge units 4 are individually movable, the other droplet discharge units 4E are accelerated / decelerated during the droplet discharge from any one of the droplet discharge units 4D. It was found that the landing accuracy deteriorates. It was also found that the landing accuracy is slightly deteriorated even if the ejection operation is performed when there is residual vibration immediately after the acceleration / deceleration operation. In the experiment, two droplet discharge units 4D and 4E were used. However, even if the configuration includes two or more droplet discharge units 4, droplets are discharged from any one of the droplet discharge units 4. In this case, it is obvious that it is essential to improve the landing accuracy that all the other droplet discharge units 4 are in a constant speed movement or stopped state.

In addition, when the weight of the droplet discharge unit 4 is 10 kg, the time until the residual vibration is settled is measured by using an acceleration pickup device and is 0.1 s. After this time, the landing accuracy deteriorates. There was no. The time for this residual vibration to settle depends on the rigidity of the device, the weight of the droplet discharge unit, and the acceleration / deceleration of the droplet discharge unit 4, but it is necessary by measuring the vibration using a vibration detection means such as an acceleration pickup device. The stabilization time can be determined. However, when the acceleration / deceleration speed was 0.5 m / s ² or less, the landing position accuracy was not deteriorated even during acceleration / deceleration. Therefore, in the present invention, gentle acceleration / deceleration that does not deteriorate the landing position accuracy, as exemplified by acceleration / deceleration of 0.5 m / s ² or less, can be regarded as constant-velocity movement according to the claims. . Further, the acceleration / deceleration operation due to the speed fluctuation during the constant speed operation can be regarded as the constant speed movement described in the claims.

  Next, the operation of each of the droplet discharge units 4A, 4B, and 4C when the substrate 10 has the defective portion 100 as shown in FIG. 12 will be described. In the example of FIG. 12, there are a total of eight defective portions 100 on the surface of the substrate 10.

  The droplet discharge unit 4A moves and stops on the substrate 10 as indicated by arrows in FIG. 12, and discharges droplets in the order of “defective portion 100A1 → defective portion 100A2 → defective portion 100A3”. When moving the droplet discharge unit 4A, the droplet discharge unit 4A is stopped at a position where the addresses in the B direction match, and waits until the gantry 3 moves in the A direction and the addresses in the A direction match. Thereafter, if the addresses in the A direction match, the droplet discharge unit 4 is driven to discharge the droplets from the discharge port to a desired position on the processing substrate 10. Similarly, the droplet discharge unit 4B moves and stops individually in the order of “defective portion 100B1 → defective portion 100B2 → defective portion 100B3”, and the droplet discharge unit 4C moves in the order of “defective portion 100C1 → defective portion 100C2”. Repeat discharge.

  In this case, if the drive control of each droplet discharge unit 4 is performed without considering the relationship between the timing of the discharge operation of a certain droplet discharge unit 4 and the timing of the movement operation of another droplet discharge unit 4, For example, when the defect portion exists in the pattern shown in FIG. 12, the driving state of each droplet discharge unit 4 is as shown in FIG. Since each droplet discharge unit 4 is moved at an individual timing, in A in the figure, when the droplet discharge unit 4B is in the discharge state, the droplet discharge unit 4C is accelerated. In B in the figure, when the droplet discharge unit 4A is in the discharge state, the droplet discharge unit 4B is accelerated.

  As described above, if the discharge operation of a certain droplet discharge unit 4 is performed at the time of acceleration / deceleration of other droplet discharge units 4, as shown in the above experimental results, the droplet discharge has an adverse effect such as vibration, and the landing accuracy is reduced. Will drop. However, in the configuration in which a plurality of droplet discharge units 4 are mounted on the gantry 3 and the droplets are discharged while the gantry 3 and the substrate 10 to be repaired are moved relatively at a constant speed, the timing of the discharge operation is adjusted. Difficult to do. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 13B, the timing of movement of the droplet discharge unit 4 is adjusted. Specifically, if the correction is made in the direction of the broken arrow in FIG. 13A and a certain droplet discharge unit 4 is in the droplet discharge operation, the remaining droplet discharge units 4 are put into the accelerated state and the decelerated state. Avoid any state immediately after acceleration / deceleration.

  In addition, when the movement timing of the droplet discharge unit 4 cannot be individually adjusted, it is sufficient to review the circulation order of defective portions. This makes it possible to repair defects efficiently.

  For example, it is preferable to gently change the velocity curve so that the acceleration of the droplet discharge unit 4 does not change abruptly. When the speed curve is changed as shown in FIG. 22A, the acceleration curve becomes as shown in FIG. 22B, and the stabilization time after the acceleration / deceleration operation can be shortened.

<Maintenance>
A maintenance operation is performed on the droplet discharge unit 4 while the substrate 10 is being carried out and loaded, or when the droplet discharge operation to the substrate 10 is not performed for a long period of time. In the maintenance operation, non-discharge detection, cap, suction purge in the cap, and wiping are performed.

  When the next substrate 10 is processed immediately after the previous substrate 10 is processed, a maintenance operation is performed on the gantry 3 on which the droplet discharge unit 4 is mounted at the same time when a command for carrying out the previous substrate 10 is output. The move command to 13 is output.

  A laser emission circuit (not shown) continuously irradiates a laser from the laser light emitting element 11 toward the laser light receiving element 12 when receiving a non-ejection detection command. As shown in FIG. 14, the laser irradiation direction is substantially parallel to the substrate surface and substantially parallel to the nozzle hole array. If the droplet does not pass through the laser optical axis, the position is adjusted by a fine movement mechanism (not shown).

  When the irradiation of the laser 82 is started, a droplet is ejected from the first nozzle hole 26 for a predetermined time. Then, the amount of light shielded is measured by reading the amount of light from the received light amount measuring means and comparing it with the normal received light amount. Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the value of the light shielding amount is within a preset set value range. If it is within the set value range, it is regarded as normal ejection, and otherwise it is regarded as ejection failure. Sequentially, ejection control and light shielding amount measurement similar to those of the second and third are performed, and the presence or absence of ejection failure is confirmed for all the nozzle holes 26 of the droplet ejection unit 4.

  If there is no ejection failure, the droplet ejection unit 4 is moved to the cap position and capping is performed until just before the substrate carrying-in operation is completed. When there is a discharge failure, the recovery operation performed in the prior art, for example, “moving the droplet discharge unit 4 to the cap position → capping → pulling the cap to negative pressure and forcibly discharging from the nozzle hole 26 → cap release → wiping And non-ejection detection is performed again. Non-ejection detection and recovery operations are executed up to several times until ejection failure is eliminated. If the ejection failure does not recover, a message to that effect is output.

  In addition, when the last non-discharge detection result immediately before processing the previous target substrate 10 is compared with the first non-discharge detection result performed while the previous target substrate 10 is being unloaded, a change is recognized in the discharge state. The processing of the target substrate 10 may be discarded as inappropriate, or may be sent to a repair process.

<Other embodiments>
In the embodiment, three droplet discharge units 4 are provided in one gantry 3, but four or more droplet discharge units 4 may be provided. If the gantry 3 has the dimensions according to the embodiment, 3 to 12 droplet discharge units 4 can be provided. FIG. 15 shows an example in which nine droplet discharge units 4 are provided in one gantry 3.

  The slide mechanism 5 is arranged in a staggered manner on both sides of the gantry 3, and four on one side and five on the other side are functionally independent. A droplet discharge unit 4 is attached to each slide mechanism 5 so as to be able to reciprocate. Therefore, the other droplet discharge unit 4 does not move on the slide mechanism 5 of a certain droplet discharge unit 4.

  The reciprocating range of each droplet discharge unit 4 is set so as to overlap in the moving direction between the one disposed on one side surface of the gantry 3 and the one disposed on the other side surface. . The larger the overlapping range is, the better, and it is desirable that the overlapping range is 1/3 or more. However, if it overlaps 1/2 or more, the movement range of the adjacent droplet discharge unit 4 on each side surface of the gantry 3 interferes, so it is set to less than 1/2. Therefore, it is possible to reliably discharge droplets over the entire range of the substrate. Further, even in the case of a failure or malfunction of the apparatus, the droplet discharge units 4 do not collide with each other, and the apparatus can be made highly reliable.

  As described above, since four or more droplet discharge units 4 are provided in a staggered arrangement in one gantry 3, the droplet discharge units 4 can be arranged with high density, and the droplet discharge efficiency is improved. Is possible. In addition, since the amount of movement of each droplet discharge unit 4 can be suppressed, it is easy to prevent the occurrence of vibration associated with the movement of the droplet discharge unit 4, and the landing accuracy by other droplet discharge units 4 is further increased. It becomes possible.

<Other embodiments>
In the above-described embodiment, the mounting table 2 is fixed. However, for example, as shown in FIG.

  That is, the mounting table 2 may be mounted on the apparatus base 27 so that it can be moved when the substrate 10 is carried in and when it is carried. The upper surface of the apparatus base 27 is formed with high accuracy in flatness and horizontality, like the mounting table 2. Slide rails 28 are provided on both sides of the upper surface of the apparatus base 27, and the mounting table 2 is supported so as to be able to reciprocate. The mounting table 2 is provided with a θ rotation mechanism (not shown). By the linear motor control of the θ rotation mechanism, the mounting table 2 reciprocates on the slide rail 28 to rotate the mounted substrate 10 in the same plane. The mounting table 2 can be finely adjusted in a direction orthogonal to the slide rail 28. A pair of gantry 3 is supported on the slide rail 28 via a slide member 29 so as to be reciprocally movable. The gantry 3 is mutually connected and reciprocates integrally. The slide member 29 is maintained in a state of constantly floating on the slide rail 28 by air, and reciprocates along the slide rail 28 by linear motor control.

  When the substrate 10 is mounted on the mounting table 2, the mounting table 2 is moved with respect to the apparatus base 27, and the target substrate 10 is mounted by the transfer robot. The substrate 10 is formed with two alignment marks 10a for correcting the in-plane rotation direction. The alignment mark 10a is a concentric mark, and the pitch shift (shift amount from the normal position) of the two alignment marks 10a on the substrate 10 is within 2 μm. The droplet discharge position on the substrate 10 is determined based on the alignment mark 10a.

  As shown in FIG. 17, two alignment cameras 30 are fixed to both ends of one gantry 3A. The alignment camera 30 has a plurality of wide-field modes and narrow-field modes. After alignment by the θ rotation mechanism and fine movement mechanism in the wide-field mode, the alignment operation is performed again in the narrow-field mode. The alignment camera 30 is moved integrally with the gantry 3 from the position shown in FIG. 17A to the position shown in FIG. 17B, and the deviation from the reference position R of the substrate 10 is determined based on the image information of the alignment camera 30. Then, the posture of the substrate 10 is corrected in the direction of the dotted rotation arrow in FIG. 17B by the θ rotation mechanism of the mounting table 2 and the fine movement mechanism in the arrow B direction. Moreover, the observation camera unit 18 is attached to the other gantry 3B through the slide mechanism 5 so as to be able to reciprocate similarly to the above-described embodiment.

  FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of an image captured by the alignment camera 30 in the wide-field mode. FIG. 18A is an image by the alignment camera, and FIG. 18B is an image by the alignment camera 90B.

  The wide-field mode is designed to have a field of view that is greater than the placement accuracy of the substrate 10 on the mounting table 2 of the transfer robot. In the wide-field mode, first, the outer circle side of the concentric alignment mark 10a is used to measure the deviation between the alignment mark 10a and the reference position R, and the θ rotation mechanism so that the alignment mark 10a and the reference position R coincide with each other. And the mounting table 2 is adjusted by the fine adjustment mechanism, and the posture of the substrate 10 is controlled.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 19, the alignment camera 30 is switched to the narrow-field mode, the deviation between the alignment mark 10 a and the reference position R is measured using an inner circle of concentric circles, and the alignment mark 10 a and the reference position R match. As described above, the mounting table 2 is adjusted by the θ rotation mechanism and the fine adjustment mechanism, and the posture of the substrate 10 is controlled.

  Further, the observation position by the alignment camera 30 and the droplet discharge position of the droplet discharge unit 4 are measured in advance in an adjustment process after the droplet discharge unit 4 is attached.

  According to the said structure, when carrying in the board | substrate 10 with the conveyance robot which is not shown in figure, the mounting base 2 can be moved to the position where the board | substrate 10 to carry in is easy to mount. Further, the mounting table 2 on which the substrate 10 is mounted can be moved to the original position, that is, a droplet discharge position for discharging droplets, and the position of the substrate 10 can be adjusted by the alignment camera 30.

  In the above embodiment, one or two gantry 3 are used, but three or more can be used.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the liquid droplet application apparatus 1 that can be used for repair when the defective portion 100 is found after applying liquid droplets to the entire surface of the substrate 10 has been described. The device 1 can also be used for other purposes. That is, it is possible to discharge droplets to desired locations scattered on the substrate. It can also be used to repair color filter substrates.

  In the above embodiment, a color filter substrate used in a liquid crystal display device or the like is used as a device for repairing a defective portion generated in a manufacturing process. However, the device can perform high-speed ejection at desired locations scattered on the substrate. This is merely an example for explaining the above.

For example,
-A device that draws a wiring pattern by discharging conductive ink on the substrate-A device that manufactures an organic EL display unit by discharging a material that forms organic EL (Electro Luminescence) on the substrate-Defects in the organic EL display unit It is obvious that the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus for repairing a part, an apparatus for printing an image on a large signboard, etc., an apparatus for repairing an image, or a manufacturing apparatus to which other inkjet technology is applied.

  In particular, in the case of a substrate where thickness uniformity, such as pixels on a color filter substrate, has a large effect on performance, the discharge amount from all nozzle holes is measured outside the device in advance and discharged while correcting the discharge amount. Need to do. For example, in the case where a droplet having a solid content of 10% is discharged into the above-described recess of 200 × 70 × 2 μm in depth, approximately 300 pL is required. Here, when the ejection amount correction is performed by increasing / decreasing the number of droplets, the smaller the droplet amount, the more accurate the correction can be. However, it is necessary to increase the number of droplets accordingly. Therefore, as in the present embodiment, when the nozzle rows are arranged substantially parallel to the substrate transport direction and droplets are ejected using a plurality of nozzles, the amount of droplets that one nozzle is responsible for is approximately 300 / ( The number of nozzles) can be divided, so that it is not necessary to decrease the processing speed (substrate transport speed) while discharging a small volume droplet and performing highly accurate discharge amount correction. In addition, it is also effective when processing is to be performed at a higher speed regardless of the ejection amount correction.

  Further, in each of the embodiments, the droplet discharge unit 4 side is moved with respect to the substrate 10, but the substrate 10 side, that is, the mounting table 2 is moved, or both are moved relatively. Any movable configuration may be used.

  Furthermore, in each said embodiment, although it was set as the structure which moves the gantry 3 on the mounting base 2, if it is large sized, it is good also as a structure directly installed on the ground.

It is a perspective view which shows the outline of the droplet discharge apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the droplet discharge device shown in FIG. 1. It is a schematic side view which shows the slide mechanism of FIG. It is a schematic sectional drawing of the droplet discharge unit shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram related to a control device mounted on the droplet discharge device shown in FIG. 1. It is a schematic plan view of the droplet discharge device used in the experiment. FIG. 7 is a distribution diagram of landing by the droplet discharge device of FIG. 6, (a) shows an example with high landing accuracy and (b) shows an example with low landing accuracy. FIG. 7 is a chart showing experimental results when the total weight of the gantry is 2000 kg in the droplet discharge device shown in FIG. 6. 7 is a chart showing experimental results when the total weight of the gantry is 1000 kg in the droplet discharge device shown in FIG. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which the shift | offset | difference produced in the movement amount in the both ends of the gantry. Schematic views of the droplet discharge unit and a part of the gantry as viewed from the mounting table upward, (a) for one color and (b) for three colors. It is a top view which shows the example of distribution of the defect part formed in a board | substrate. It is a graph which shows the relationship between the elapsed time for every droplet discharge unit, and a moving speed, (a) shows before correction | amendment, (b) shows after correction | amendment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the irradiation state of the laser in a maintenance part, (a) is a front view, (b) shows a bottom view. It is a schematic plan view of a droplet discharge device according to another embodiment. It is a schematic perspective view of the droplet discharge apparatus which concerns on other embodiment. FIG. 17A is a schematic plan view of the droplet discharge device of FIG. 16, and FIG. It is a schematic diagram explaining the detection method of an alignment mark by a wide visual field mode. It is a schematic diagram explaining the detection method of an alignment mark in a narrow visual field mode. 7 is a graph showing the relationship between the elapsed time, the movement time of each droplet discharge unit, and the timing of droplet discharge in the droplet discharge by the droplet discharge unit shown in FIG. 6. It is a figure which shows the impact distribution by the droplet discharge unit shown in FIG. (A) is a graph which shows the relationship between elapsed time and the moving speed of a droplet discharge unit, (b) is a graph which shows the relationship between elapsed time and the acceleration of a droplet discharge unit.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Droplet discharge apparatus 2 ... Mounting stage 3 ... Gantry 4 ... Droplet discharge unit 5 ... Slide mechanism 6 ... Control apparatus 7 ... Main stage 8 ... Substage 9 ... Gantry rail 10 ... Substrate 11 ... Laser light emitting element 12 ... Laser Light receiving element 13 ... Central beam part 14 ... Both ends support part 15 ... LM guide 16 ... Linear guide 17 ... Linear drive mechanism 18 ... Observation camera unit 19 ... Discharge element 20 ... Drive control circuit 21 ... Electric connection cable 22 ... Ink tank 23 ... Ink pipe 24 ... Housing 25 ... Nozzle plate 26 ... Nozzle hole

Claims (13)

A discharged body support means for supporting a discharged body having a discharged plane;
A plurality of droplet ejection means for ejecting droplets onto the ejection plane of the ejection target;
Drive control means for individually controlling discharge and movement of the plurality of droplet discharge means,
The plurality of droplet discharge means and the discharge target are configured to be relatively movable,
In the case where any one of the droplet discharge means discharges droplets onto the discharge target, the drive control means is configured to use another droplet discharge means so that the droplet position by the droplet discharge means falls within an allowable range. A droplet discharge device characterized in that the movement range of the liquid crystal is limited to a stable movement region. The relative movement of the plurality of droplet discharge means and the discharge target is:
First support means for individually supporting the droplet discharge means so as to be reciprocally movable relative to the discharge target support means toward a first direction of a discharge target plane of the discharge target;
The first support means is configured to be performed by second support means that is supported so as to be capable of reciprocating relative to the discharged object support means in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The liquid droplet ejection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein   The first support means is configured to support each droplet discharge means so as to cover the entire area of the discharge target body in the first direction within the reciprocal movement range of all the droplet discharge means. The droplet discharge device according to claim 2, wherein   The dimension S of the stable movement region of the droplet discharge means satisfies 0.1 ≦ S / L ≦ 0.4, where L is the dimension of the discharge target in the first direction. The droplet discharge device according to claim 2.   The first support means supports, among the droplet discharge means, those capable of discharging droplets to adjacent areas of the discharge target body so as to be capable of reciprocating at positions where physical interference is not possible. The droplet discharge device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the droplet discharge device is characterized in that:   The first support means supports the droplet discharge means so as to be capable of reciprocating on different straight lines, so that even if the discharge areas in the first direction partially overlap, The droplet discharge device according to claim 2, wherein interference can be avoided. The first support means includes a beam portion that translates along the upper surface of the discharge target support means,
6. The liquid droplet ejection apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the liquid droplet ejection means is composed of at least two members supported so as to be reciprocally movable on both sides of the beam portion.   6. A plurality of the second support means are provided, so that physical interference can be avoided even when the ejection regions in the first direction partially overlap. The droplet discharge device according to any one of the above.   7. The relationship of 50 ≦ M / m ≦ 200 is satisfied, where m is the weight of the droplet discharge means and M is the total weight of the first support means and the droplet discharge means. The droplet discharge device according to any one of the above. A droplet discharge method in which a plurality of droplet discharge means are individually moved with respect to the surface of an object to be discharged, positioned at a predetermined position, and a droplet is discharged toward the object to be discharged,
When one of the droplet discharge means discharges a droplet onto the discharge target, the movement range of the other droplet discharge means is stably moved so that the position of the droplet by the droplet discharge means is within the allowable range. A droplet discharge method characterized by being limited to a region.   11. The droplet discharge method according to claim 10, wherein when the droplet is discharged onto the discharge target by any one of the droplet discharge units, the droplet discharge unit moves at a constant speed.   The dimension S of the stable movement region of the droplet discharge means satisfies 0.1 ≦ S / L ≦ 0.4, where L is the dimension of the discharge target in the first direction. The droplet discharge method according to claim 10 or 11.   13. The relationship of 50 ≦ M / m ≦ 200 is satisfied, where m is the weight of the droplet discharge means and M is the total weight of the first support means and the droplet discharge means. The droplet discharge method according to any one of the above.

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