JP2008249781A - Pattern forming method and manufacturing method of optical device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method of optical devices such as a color filter, which is capable of manufacturing elements of high quality by suppressing color unevenness in joint parts of images without increasing a scanning frequency and uses an ink jet device. <P>SOLUTION: In a pattern forming method, in a step wherein a substrate is divided into a plurality of scan regions parallel with the substrate movement direction and an ink jet head is moved to an adjacent scan region relatively to the substrate per scanning to print an overall surface of the substrate by a plurality of times of scan, nozzles which discharge ink are determined so that a pixel corresponding to a boundary part of a scan region may be placed in a pixel column in the substrate movement direction, which is different from pixel columns of other pixels which correspond to the boundary part and are placed in at least adjacent pixel columns in a vertical direction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for producing an optical element having an ink film using an ink jet printing apparatus having an ink jet head. Examples of the optical element mainly include a color filter and an organic electroluminescence element.

For example, a photolithography method, an etching method, and the like are known as a color filter manufacturing method. A method for producing a color filter by a photolithography method is to form a coating film of a photosensitive resin layer of each color on the entire substrate, and after exposing in a pattern, remove unnecessary portions of the coating film, and use the remaining pattern as each pixel. . In this method, a large amount of material is wasted because most of the coating film is developed and removed. Further, since the exposure and development processes are performed for each pixel, the number of processes increases. This photolithography method is used not only for color filters but also for manufacturing various optical elements and electric elements such as organic electroluminescence elements.

However, the substrate size of color filters is increasing year by year. In order to reduce the cost of the color filter, in recent years, a manufacturing method using an ink-jet head, in which the number of steps is small and each colored layer of the color filter can be formed at the same time, has been studied.

The ink jet printing apparatus includes an ink jet head in which a plurality of nozzles are aligned. When applying a color filter or the like by the inkjet method, an image is formed by placing a substrate such as glass on a flat bed stage and discharging the coating solution directly from the head unit holding the inkjet head onto the substrate.

The ink jet head used in the ink jet printing apparatus is roughly classified as follows.
・ Continuous injection method (also called continuous method)
・ Drop-on-demand method (commonly called DOD)
However, in the continuous injection method, the landing system is generally poor, the drop particles are large, the charging performance is imparted to the ink, and the use of color materials such as pigments is limited. It is considered disadvantageous for applications in which the purity and coating amount management for coating films such as filters and organic electroluminescence are severe.

Accordingly, a drop-on-demand method (DOD method) in which ink droplets are ejected from nozzles is used only in the case of forming an image in precision pattern coating. In a drop-on-demand ink jet head, a pressure generating member for ejecting ink as droplets is provided in a pressure chamber communicated with each of nozzles arranged in an array. The drop-on-demand system is roughly divided into two types according to the pressure generating member. The first method is a method having a plurality of piezo elements that press ink and ejecting ink as droplets by the pressure generated during deformation. The second method is a method in which a heater that instantaneously vaporizes ink is provided at the tip of the nozzle, and ink is ejected as droplets by the expansion pressure during vaporization.

The amount of ink ejected from the nozzles of the inkjet head varies for each inkjet head, and also varies for each nozzle in the same inkjet. This is due to the difference in the shape and wettability of the open ends of the nozzles disclosed in Patent Document 1, the variation in the processing state and the fixed state of the pressure generating member disclosed in Patent Document 2, and the like.

In particular, the nozzles at the end of the head have a larger variation in the ink ejection amount than the other nozzles. This is because the ink supply speed is different between the nozzles near the center of the head and the nozzles near both ends, as disclosed in Patent Document 3. Further, in the first method of the drop-on-demand method, as shown in Patent Document 4, the flow path unit including the pressure chamber communicating with the nozzle and the pressure generating member are held by a common case constituent member. Therefore, the rigidity on the end side of the flow path unit is increased, and the displacement characteristics are greatly different between the pressure generating member disposed in the central region and the pressure generating member disposed at the end. As a result, the discharge characteristics of the end nozzles are significantly different from those in the vicinity of the center. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 4, the pixel 20a applied by the nozzle 19a near the end of the inkjet head has a different density from the pixel applied by the nozzle 19b near the center, and is on a straight line parallel to the scanning direction. As a result, the color filter quality and yield are reduced.

As means for suppressing the color unevenness generated at the boundary portion of the scanning region, that is, the connecting portion of the image among the color unevenness due to the end nozzles, in Patent Document 5, the coloring process of the scanning region is performed by a plurality of times of scanning. A method has been proposed in which the inkjet head is slightly shifted each time, and adjacent scanning regions are partially overlapped to disperse the influence of the boundary portion.

JP 2006-142203 A JP-A-5-246025 JP-A-8-207282 Japanese Patent No. 3246517 JP 2000-89017 A

However, in the above method in which the coloring process of one scanning region is divided into a plurality of scans, the number of scans increases in proportion to the number of divisions, and thus the manufacturing process, which is an advantage of the ink jet system, cannot be simplified.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problem, such as a color filter using an ink jet device that can manufacture a high-quality element by suppressing color unevenness in a connected portion of an image without increasing the number of scans. It is an object to provide a method for manufacturing an optical element.

The invention according to claim 1, which has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, includes arranging a substrate, partition walls provided so as to partition regions on the substrate in a lattice pattern, and a plurality of pixels partitioned by the partition walls. In forming and printing a pixel pattern configured for each pixel using an inkjet head, a plurality of nozzles are arranged in the inkjet head, and the plurality of nozzles eject ink for each nozzle, and the substrate In this pattern forming method, ink is ejected from at least some of the plurality of nozzles while moving the ink jet head relative to the inkjet head, and a plurality of lines are printed in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the substrate. The substrate is divided into a plurality of scanning regions parallel to the substrate moving direction, and an inkjet head is placed on the substrate in an adjacent scanning region for each scanning. In the process of moving to the opposite and printing on the entire surface of the substrate by a plurality of scans, the pixel corresponding to the boundary portion of the scanning region corresponds to the other boundary portion located at least in the adjacent vertical pixel row In the pattern forming method, the nozzles to be ejected are determined so as to be positioned in the pixel rows in the different substrate moving directions with respect to the pixels to be performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the discharge nozzle is determined so that the position of the scanning direction line of the pixel corresponding to the boundary portion is different for each type of pixel pattern to be formed. This is a pattern forming method.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the average discharge amount discharged from each nozzle of the ink jet head is measured, and the portion of the ink jet head in which the nozzle having a small variation in the discharge amount is disposed corresponds to the boundary portion. The pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the pattern forming method is used for pixel formation.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when a certain number of variations in the average discharge amount of each nozzle are continuously included in an allowable range starting from the nozzle at the end of the inkjet head, the nozzle is moved to the boundary. The pattern forming method according to claim 3, wherein the pattern forming method is used for discharging a portion.

The invention according to claim 5 is the pattern forming method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the inkjet head divides and discharges into two or more discharge phases.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing an optical element, wherein a pixel is formed using the pattern forming method according to any one of the first to fifth aspects. Examples of the optical element include a color filter and an organic EL element.

A seventh aspect of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a color filter, wherein a colored ink layer is formed on a substrate by the method for manufacturing an optical element according to the sixth aspect.

The invention according to claim 8 is characterized in that the nozzles in the boundary portion are determined so as to be positioned in the pixel rows in the different substrate movement directions for each color type pixel of the colored layer. It is a manufacturing method of a color filter. Each color type is, for example, three colors of Red, Green, and Blue.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the color unevenness generated in the pixels at the boundary portion of the scanning area of the ink jet head is not arranged in a line but is dispersed to form a pattern in which the color unevenness is visually suppressed. I was able to.

Further, according to the invention of claim 2, by determining the discharge nozzle at the boundary for each type of pixel pattern to be formed, linear color unevenness does not occur in the same type of pixel, so that the color is visually A pattern in which unevenness was suppressed could be formed effectively.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, since the variation in the discharge amount of the boundary pixel can be reduced, the color unevenness can be effectively suppressed in the boundary portion, and a high quality pattern is obtained. Furthermore, in the invention of claim 4, since the scanning area can be made as large as possible, the pattern can be formed efficiently.

According to the invention of claim 5, a high-definition pattern can be formed in order to obtain a higher-density ink jet head.

A high-quality optical element in which the influence of color unevenness in the discharge boundary region is reduced by forming the optical element by the pattern forming method of the present invention according to the first to fifth aspects of the present invention. It became possible to manufacture.

In particular, according to the color filter, since the color unevenness of the visual pixels can be reduced by dispersing the color unevenness positions of the pixels in the boundary region, a high-quality color filter is provided. I was able to manufacture it. Further, according to the invention of claim 8, by determining the nozzle position to be ejected for each color of the colored layer and making the pixel position of the boundary region different, the overall color unevenness can be efficiently suppressed. .

As a discharge method in the pattern forming method of the present invention, in FIG. 1, a partition wall 1 formed in advance on a substrate 5 is used as a partition wall, and an ink droplet 3 is discharged from an ink jet head 4 to the inside (opening portion). The method of obtaining 2 is presented. The pixel portion can be a component of an optical element formed by using the pattern forming method of the present invention, for example, a colored layer in the case of a color filter, or an organic light emitting medium layer in the case of an organic EL element. . Hereinafter, in the description, a color filter will be described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this.

The inkjet head and the nozzle for ejecting ink used in the present invention are applicable as long as a plurality of nozzles are arranged in the inkjet head and ink is ejected from the plurality of inkjet heads to a target pixel area. It is. In FIG. 1, the inkjet head 4 moves relative to the substrate in the scanning direction indicated by S, and ink made of the material of the colored layer is ejected to each opening.

As the nozzle arrangement of the ink jet head, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of phases of nozzles arranged in a row are combined, and the nozzle 6 of each phase is configured to eject ink at different timings. be able to. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a cross-sectional view of the inkjet head. The timing at which ink is ejected from the same row of the A phase, the B phase, and the C phase is shifted in the order of A, B, and C. The ink jet head having this configuration can be made into a high density ink jet head by narrowing the intervals between the nozzles, and thus is suitable for a color filter or the like that requires high-definition ejection pattern formation.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure and operation of the element of the ink jet head having the above configuration. FIG. 3A shows an example of an element for processing piezoelectric ceramics into a comb-like shape and pasting them up and down to form a piezoelectric ceramic groove with a fine pitch and discharging the ink filled therein. ing. Each ink chamber corresponding to each layer is provided in the ink jet head. Here, attention is paid to the ejection operation when the A phase of the piezo element 3 operates. When ink is ejected from the piezo element 7, first, a voltage is applied to the piezo element. This is called an active state. Then, the inside of the ink liquid chamber of the piezo element expands and is filled with ink. Subsequently, when a reverse voltage is applied to the piezo element, the inside of the ink liquid chamber of the piezo element contracts, pressure is applied to the ink, and ink is ejected from a nozzle (not shown) of the piezo element 7. Since each ink chamber shares a wall, adjacent ink chambers do not become active at the same time. FIG. 3B shows a state in which the piezoelectric elements corresponding to the A phase, the B phase, and the B phase operate in order.

Further, in the present invention, by using a piezoelectric element such as a piezoelectric ceramic as an ejection actuator for an ink jet head, it is possible to eject a minute amount of ink droplets. It is also possible to adjust the total amount of ink discharged to the pixels.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the perspective view of FIG. 1 with the ink injection surface of the partition wall as the top surface. FIG. 4 shows the partition wall 1 and ink droplets 3 ejected from each nozzle. Here, for the sake of explanation, the ink is ejected from a plurality of nozzles and their respective nozzles from one inkjet head. The relationship between an ink droplet and a pattern formation position is shown. The discharge amount in the table represents a discharge amount serving as a reference for each nozzle. However, as will be described later, the actual discharge amount deviates from the reference discharge amount and varies.

In FIG. 4, one pixel is coated with five ink droplets ejected from five nozzles having nozzle numbers 26 to 30. However, the nozzles with nozzle numbers 25 and 31 are unused nozzles that do not eject ink because they interfere with the partition walls. In practice, the positional relationship is often not such that the nozzle pitch and the partition wall pitch overlap, but here they are written in an overlapping form for simplicity.

As described above, based on the actual position of the inkjet head, ejection pattern information is generated and applied such that ejection is effective only when the ink ejected from the nozzle does not hit the partition wall of the substrate, and ejection is not performed when the ink hits the partition wall. By reflecting the process, a pixel pattern according to the partition pattern can be formed.

When the pixel at the position corresponding to the discharge nozzle is formed as described above in one pattern formation process, the inkjet head moves relative to the next pattern formation position on the substrate, and the same discharge operation is performed. I do. FIG. 5 shows a process of forming each color layer of R, G, and B of a color filter as a configuration example of a pattern forming method when forming different types of pixel patterns. In (a), inkjet heads 9a, 9b, 9c corresponding to RGB colors are arranged in parallel to constitute an inkjet head unit. This inkjet head unit is scanned in the direction indicated by 14 in the figure to form each pixel. Each ink jet head ejects ink from the used nozzles in the corresponding pixel region. Since the scanning region (13a to 13c) in which the colored layer can be formed by one scanning is limited to a range narrower than the head width 11, the substrate is relative to the inkjet head in the shift direction indicated by 15 in the figure. The pixel pattern can be formed on the entire substrate by repeating the above steps by moving the optically and scanning the adjacent scanning region.

Further, as shown in (b), it is also possible to arrange a plurality of ink jet heads of each color substantially in series to form a head unit, and to widen the area to be scanned in one scanning process. While the head units 10a, 10b, and 10c are scanned in the scanning direction 14, a colored portion is formed by ejecting ink from each nozzle to a predetermined pixel shape position. As in the case of (a), when the width of the entire coloring area is larger than the width 11 of the head unit, the coloring area is divided into scanning areas having a smaller width, and the head unit is shifted for each scanning. A large-scale color filter can be manufactured by shifting in the direction 15 and coating.

FIG. 6 shows how the pixel pattern is formed in the partition opening by ejecting ink from each nozzle of one inkjet head 16 in the pixel pattern forming process as described above. As shown in the drawing, among the substantially arranged discharge nozzles, the nozzle 18 near the center discharges ink with an average discharge amount, so that the color layer has little color unevenness. Since the discharge amount varies, color unevenness occurs in the formed colored layer. As a result, color unevenness occurs linearly at the boundary of the scanning region in FIG. 5, and the color unevenness portion stands out.

Therefore, in the present invention, when creating discharge mapping data for discharging from the ink jet head of the ink jet coating machine, the nozzle used in the ink jet head that coats the boundary portion of each scanning region is set perpendicular to the scanning direction of the ink jet head. By changing for each pixel line in the direction, the boundary portion of the adjacent scanning region is shifted for each pixel line to define different connecting portions, and the nozzle to be ejected is determined. As a result, the connecting portion of the image is not connected on a straight line with respect to the scanning direction, and the influence of the boundary portion can be dispersed. In the present invention, this is referred to as scanning linkage shift. In the following description, the pixel position corresponding to the boundary portion is referred to as a connection position.

An example of this coating operation is shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, 21 is an inkjet head, 22 is an ink droplet, 23 is a substrate, 24 is a partition, 25a to 25d are pixel lines perpendicular to the substrate transport direction, 26 is a scanning direction of the inkjet head, and 27 is an inkjet. The head shift direction, 28 is a pixel at the boundary in the first scan, 29a is a used nozzle, and 29b is an unused nozzle.

In FIG. 7, in order to simplify the description, it is assumed that the ink ejected from all the nozzles does not hit the partition walls of the substrate and the ejection is effective. By ejecting ink droplets 22 while scanning the inkjet head 21 in the scanning direction 26, the pixel lines 25a to 25d are printed in order. At this time, by changing the number of used nozzles 29a and non-used nozzles 29b for each pixel line, the position of the pixel 28 that becomes the boundary portion of the first scan, that is, the pixel 28 that becomes the connecting portion of the image is changed for each pixel line. Shift. As the number of used nozzles 29a and unused nozzles 29b, the ejection nozzles that form the pixels at the boundary are selected so that the pixels 28 that serve as the boundary are shifted at least for adjacent pixel lines. In the example of FIG. 5, it is the pixel line 25b that has the pixel 28 at the leftmost side among the pixel lines 25a to 25b, and the inkjet head 21 is shifted to a position (next scanning region) connecting this portion. After that, all the pixels are coated by selecting and scanning the used nozzles and the unused nozzles so that the scanning areas do not overlap. Accordingly, the pixels that are the boundary portions are prevented from being aligned on the straight line with respect to the scanning direction of the substrate, and the influence of the boundary portions can be dispersed to suppress the color unevenness of the connecting portions of the pixel patterns.

In addition, by changing the connection position of the scanning connection shift for each type of pixel pattern that forms the number of nozzles used in the inkjet head that scans the boundary, for example, in the case of a color filter, the same type can be obtained. In these pixels, the connecting position is not connected on a straight line with respect to the scanning direction, so that the influence of the boundary portion can be effectively dispersed.

FIG. 8 shows an example of forming a color filter coloring layer when three colors R, G, and B are used as color types. In FIG. 8, 30a to 30c are R, G, and B ink jet heads, 31 is an opening partition, and 32a to 32c are pixels in a direction perpendicular to the substrate transport direction for ejecting R, G, and B inks, respectively. Line 33, the shift direction of the head unit, 34a, a used nozzle, 34b, a non-use nozzle, and 35a-35c, respectively, connecting portions of R, G, B images. In the case of FIG. 6, B is connected at a conventional connecting portion, and the connecting portion is changed for each color by reducing the number of used R and G nozzles. After scanning, the scanning unit of all colors can be connected by shifting the head unit to the boundary portion 35a of R and scanning the adjacent portion. In the example of FIG. 8, B is used as a reference for connection, but other colors may be used as a reference. The same applies when color types other than R, G, and B are used. As a result, it is possible to manufacture a color filter that shifts the boundary portion of the adjacent scanning region for each color type to disperse the influence of the boundary portion and suppress the color unevenness of the connecting portion of the image.

Further, the connecting position of the scanning connection shift by each inkjet head measures the difference in the average ejection amount of ink ejected from each nozzle of the inkjet head, and nozzles with small variations in the ejection amount of adjacent nozzles are arranged. By using the head portion for ejection at the boundary portion, it is possible to manufacture the color filter in which the above-described scanning linkage shift is more effectively performed and the color unevenness of the joint portion of the image is suppressed. In the present invention, the portion of the head in which nozzles with small variations in the discharge amount are arranged is called a stable discharge region.

Specifically, the average value of the discharge amount for each nozzle is obtained for the entire head, and when the discharge amount of continuous a nozzles or more is included in the range of the average value ± b%, this is set as a stable discharge region. . “a” and “b” are parameters that can be arbitrarily set when determining the portion of the head to which the connecting portion of the image is applied. The stable discharge area may be selected from any part of the head, but the nozzles at the end of the head are used as starting points, and the discharge amount of a or more nozzles continuously satisfies the above condition. In some cases, this portion is used for coating the connecting portion of the image, so that the head width used for the coating can be increased.

An example of coating in this case is shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, the hatched portion 36 indicates a stable ejection region. Reference numerals 37a to 37c denote connecting portions of R, G, and B images, respectively. In the first scan, scanning is performed using all the nozzles in the stable ejection region, and then the head unit is shifted to the adjacent scanning region. The stable region here means a region where the amount of ink discharged from the nozzles is smaller than a certain variation in the amount of discharge. Since there is less variation in the center compared to the end of the inkjet head, a pixel pattern with less color unevenness in the pixel line in the boundary area by making the nozzle at the end where the discharge amount variation more than a certain amount is a non-use nozzle Can be formed.

When the stable ejection areas of two or more colors among R, G, and B coincide, it is preferable to change the scanning connection position for each color type of each colored layer as described above. In order to scan all the pixels with the nozzles of the stable ejection region, the boundaries 38a to 38c of the stable ejection region at the left end of the head unit in the next scanning are respectively set with respect to the image connection positions 36a to 36c determined by the first scanning. Must be in the same or left position. Thereby, the shift amount of the head unit for moving to the next scanning is determined. As a result, the boundary portion of the adjacent scanning region is shifted for each color type to disperse the influence of the boundary portion, and since there is little variation, a color filter that suppresses color unevenness in the connecting portion of the image in the stable region is manufactured. be able to.

In addition, as a method for determining the boundary of the stable region, that is, the nozzle that discharges the boundary portion, for example, starting from the end portion of the target inkjet head, the number of nozzles designated from here is continuously included in the allowable range. Sometimes, the nozzle portion can be used for discharging the boundary portion.

As described above, the scan stitch shift according to the present invention provides a method capable of obtaining the shift amount of the nozzle used and the head unit for suppressing the color unevenness in the stitched portion of the image and reflecting / generating it in the discharge mapping data. The above-mentioned problems are solved.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.
FIG. 10 is an outline view showing an example of the overall configuration of the used inkjet coating apparatus.

The ink jet head unit 40 of the ink jet coating machine of the present invention has a plurality of ink jet heads 39 arranged in a line. In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to generate a color filter composed of three colors of R, G, and B, a plurality of the above-described combinations of the inkjet heads arranged in each color are arranged. The ink jet head moves in the main scanning direction and performs image drawing.

The substrate platform 41 of the ink jet coating machine of the present invention is movable in the sub-scanning direction and further rotatable in the θ direction. Since it can rotate in the θ direction, the partition wall of the substrate placed on the substrate mounting table and the inkjet head unit can be aligned in parallel, and image drawing can be performed by operating in the sub-scanning direction. Further, although not shown in the figure, the substrate table is provided with a suction mechanism, and the substrate placed on the substrate table can be fixed.

The ink jet head 39 of the ink jet coating machine according to the present invention is an ink jet head having a piezoelectric element as a discharge actuator, and is a row of three-phase ink discharge ports arranged in a plurality of rows as shown in FIG. The columns are referred to as A phase, B phase, and C phase).

This ink jet head includes buffers (hereinafter referred to as line buffers) corresponding to A phase, B phase, and C phase, and the line buffers of the respective phases can transfer information to each other. A simple operation flow until the ink jet head discharges is shown in FIG. First, the A-phase line buffer receives the ejection pattern information, and starts ejection from the A-phase ink ejection port based on the information related to the A phase in the transferred information. Simultaneously with the start of ejection from the A-phase ink ejection port, ejection pattern information is transferred from the A-phase line buffer to the B-phase line buffer. After completion of ejection from the A-phase ink ejection port, the B-phase ink ejection port starts ejection based on the information regarding the B phase in the transferred ejection pattern information. Simultaneously with the start of ejection from the B-phase ink ejection port, ejection pattern information is transferred from the B-phase line buffer to the C-phase line buffer. After completion of ejection from the B-phase ink ejection port, the C-phase ink ejection port starts ejection based on the information regarding the C phase in the transferred ejection pattern information. After completion of ejection from the C-phase ink ejection port, it is determined whether or not the line counter has been ejected for a set number of times, and if the set number of ejections has not been performed, the ejection pattern information is transferred to the A-phase line buffer. Again, the A-phase ink discharge port starts to discharge based on the discharge pattern information. Thereafter, the above-described operation is repeated for the number of lines to create a desired print pattern.

As the control means for discharging ink from the nozzles of the ink jet head based on the discharge pattern information of the present invention, the ink jet head controller 42 of FIG. 10 can be mentioned. The inkjet head controller 42 drives the inkjet head and stores inkjet head parameter information and a discharge pattern. The inkjet head parameter information is information for driving the inkjet head. In the ejection pattern information, information on ejection of a specific nozzle is stored with the positional information of the inkjet head as an argument. When coating is performed, ejection pattern information is transferred from the inkjet head controller to each nozzle, and drawing can be performed.

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

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

And the actual position of each inkjet head is assumed from these parameter information. When generating ejection pattern information, based on the actual inkjet head position, ejection pattern information is generated so that ejection is effective only when the ink ejected from the nozzle does not hit the partition wall of the substrate, and not when it hits the partition wall. To do. Further, when there is a non-ejection nozzle, if it is arranged at a position that does not hit the partition wall according to the position information of the non-ejection nozzle, it is determined that ejection is not effective, and ejection pattern information is generated.

The nozzle determined to be effective has information on the amount discharged from the nozzle so that the liquid amount in the substrate becomes uniform. With respect to the amount of the liquid droplets, the target coordinates can be arbitrarily designated, and the liquid amount can be increased or decreased for each nozzle, and the total liquid amount for each partition can be made uniform.

FIG. 12 shows an example in which the ejection amount per drop is measured for each nozzle of an inkjet head having 309 used nozzles mounted on the inkjet coating machine of the present invention. In addition to the weight measurement, the discharge amount for each nozzle is determined by the method of performing optical measurement such as chromaticity and density by discharging to a predetermined measurement cell, or the dot diameter by discharging to a receiving substrate with uniform permeability. It can be obtained by a measuring method or the like. As shown in FIG. 12, since the variation in the discharge amount is large at the end of the head, when this is used for coating the joint portion of the image, the color unevenness of the joint portion increases.

A hatched area 43 in FIG. 12 represents the average discharge amount 5.86 pl of this head, and 44a and 44b have an average discharge amount of 10 or more continuous nozzles starting from the left end and right end of the head, respectively. The stable discharge region portion is shown when the condition of .86 pl ± 3% is set as the condition of the stable discharge region.

Use the nozzle in the stable area as the discharge nozzle, determine the shift amount between the nozzle and head unit that coats the boundary area and the discharge nozzle that corresponds to the boundary area, and reflect this in the generation of the discharge pattern information. Thus, it was possible to obtain a highly accurate printed matter that suppresses unevenness of the images without increasing the number of manufacturing steps.

Shooting map of ink-jet coating Schematic diagram of inkjet head with multiple phases Schematic diagram showing an example of operation of an inkjet head Positional diagram of nozzles and pixels of inkjet head Schematic diagram showing scanning area and pattern formation direction of inkjet head Schematic diagram of uneven color caused by coating with end nozzles Schematic diagram showing an example of scanning linkage shift Schematic diagram showing the boundary when the connected part of the image is shifted for each color Schematic diagram showing the boundary when the connected part of the image is shifted for each color based on the stable region Outline drawing showing example of overall configuration of coating apparatus of embodiment Flow chart until the ink jet head of the embodiment discharges The figure which shows the boundary position of the nozzle discharge amount distribution of the inkjet head of an Example, and the stable discharge area | region and an unstable coating area | region.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Partition 2 ... Pixel part 3 ... Ink droplet 4 ... Inkjet head 5 ... Substrate 6 ... Nozzle 7 ... ··· Piezo element 8 · · · Non-ink ejection portions 9a to 9c · · · Inkjet heads 10a to 10c · · · Head unit 11 · · · Head unit width 12 ··· Whole colored region 13a to 13c... Divided scanning region 14... Inkjet head scanning direction 15... Inkjet head shift direction 16... Inkjet head 17. -Nozzle 18 near the end ... Nozzle 19 near the center ... Pixel 20 applied by 17 ... Pixel 21 applied by 18 ... Inkjet head 22 ・··· Ink droplet 23 ··· substrate 24 ··· partition walls 25a to 25d · · · pixel portion 26 · · · ink jet head scanning direction 27 · · · ink jet head Shift direction 28... Pixel 29 a at the boundary in the first scan... Used nozzle 29 b... Non-use nozzles 30 a to 30 c. Partition walls 32a, 32b, 32c... R, G, B pixel lines 33... Inkjet head shift direction 34a... Used nozzle 34b. 35b, 35c ... R, G, B pixel connection position 36 ... Stable ejection regions 37a, 37b, 37c ... R, G, B image connection parts 38a-38c・ ・..A boundary 39 between the stable ejection region and the non-stable coating region... Inkjet head 40... Head unit 41. ... Average values 44a and 44b of discharge amount for each nozzle ... Boundary position between stable discharge area and unstable coating area

Claims (8)

A substrate, a partition provided so as to partition the region on the substrate in a grid pattern, and a pixel pattern configured by arranging a large number of pixels partitioned by the partition are arranged for each pixel using an inkjet head. In forming the print,
A plurality of nozzles are arranged in the ink jet head, and the plurality of nozzles eject ink from each nozzle and move the substrate relative to the ink jet head while moving the ink from at least some of the plurality of nozzles. A pattern forming method for printing a plurality of lines in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the substrate,
In the process of dividing the substrate into a plurality of scanning regions parallel to the substrate moving direction, moving the inkjet head relative to the substrate in the adjacent scanning region for each scan, and printing the entire surface of the substrate by a plurality of scans. The pixels corresponding to the boundary portion of the scanning region are positioned in the pixel column in the substrate moving direction different from the pixels corresponding to the other boundary portion, which are positioned in at least the adjacent pixel column in the vertical direction. A pattern forming method, wherein a nozzle to be discharged is determined.   The pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the discharge nozzle is determined so that a position of a scanning direction line of a pixel corresponding to the boundary portion is different for each type of pixel pattern to be formed. The average ejection amount ejected from each nozzle of the inkjet head is measured, and the portion of the inkjet head in which nozzles with small variations in ejection amount are arranged is used for pixel formation corresponding to the boundary portion. The pattern forming method according to claim 1 or 2. Starting from the nozzles at the end of the inkjet head, when a certain number of variations in the average discharge amount of each nozzle are continuously included in the allowable range, these nozzles are used for discharging the boundary portion. The pattern forming method according to claim 3. The pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the inkjet head divides and discharges into two or more discharge phases. 6. A method of manufacturing an optical element, wherein a pixel is formed using the pattern forming method according to claim 1. A method for producing a color filter, wherein a colored ink layer is formed on a substrate by the method for producing an optical element according to claim 6.   8. The method of manufacturing a color filter according to claim 7, wherein the nozzles at the boundary are determined so as to be located in different pixel rows in the substrate movement direction for each color type pixel of the coloring layer.