JP2009123388A - Method of manufacturing display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method easily reducing manufacturing cost and achieving effective use of materials. <P>SOLUTION: When manufacturing the front substrate of a PDP, a separating step of separating a front mother substrate, and a non-defective unit screening step of screening non-defective units from the front substrates separated in the separating step are executed between a dielectric layer forming step and a protective layer forming step. In the protective layer forming step, a protective layer is formed for every front substrate screened as the non-defective unit in the non-defective unit screening step. Accordingly, since the front mother substrate is separated into two front substrates, and the protective layer is formed only for the front substrate screened as the non-defective unit, even if a defective front substrate exists in the front mother substrate, superposing work of the defective substrate is not executed. Also, since the protective layer is not formed for the defective front substrate, wasteful consumption of materials can be suppressed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a display panel.

  Conventionally, in manufacturing a display panel, a method of manufacturing a plurality of display panels by forming a plurality of display panel forming regions in one mother substrate, dividing the plurality of display panels, and bonding them together to reduce costs. Is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  The one described in Patent Document 1 is a surface of each of a large multi-chamber front substrate (hereinafter referred to as a front mother substrate) and a multi-chamber large rear substrate (hereinafter referred to as a back mother substrate). In addition, each structure is formed to have a plurality of panel regions, and defects in each panel region are inspected. Thereafter, the optimum combination of both mother boards is calculated based on the inspection result. And the structure which divides | segments into a panel unit is taken after bonding both mother board | substrates by this combination.

JP 2000-268726 A

  However, in the configuration described in Patent Document 1, even when there are many defective panel areas in one mother board, the mother boards are bonded together, so that the bonding operation for the defective panel areas is wasted. turn into. For this reason, the problem that there exists a possibility that reduction of manufacturing cost and effective utilization of the material for structure formation may not be aimed at is mentioned as an example.

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a display panel manufacturing method that can easily reduce manufacturing costs and effectively use materials.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a method for manufacturing a display panel in which a plurality of different structure formation processing steps are sequentially performed using a mother substrate having a plurality of display panel formation regions, wherein the first structure A first dividing step of dividing the mother substrate between the forming processing step and the second structure forming processing step performed after the first structure forming processing step; A non-defective product selecting step for selecting non-defective products from the substrate obtained by dividing after the dividing step, and the structure forming process after the non-defective product selecting step is performed for each substrate selected as the non-defective product. A display panel manufacturing method characterized by the above.

  The invention according to claim 3 is a method for manufacturing a display panel, in which a plurality of different structure forming processes are sequentially performed on each of the front mother substrate and the rear mother substrate, the front mother substrate and the rear mother substrate. A first dividing step of dividing the at least one mother substrate during the predetermined structure formation processing step for at least one of the mother substrates, and a substrate obtained by dividing in the first dividing step And a non-defective product sorting step for sorting non-defective products from the non-defective product, and the structure forming process after the non-defective product sorting step is performed for each substrate selected as the good product. .

Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, a plasma display panel is illustrated, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can also be applied to a liquid crystal display panel, a glass substrate of a display panel such as an organic EL panel, FED, and electrophoresis display panel. is there.

[Plasma display panel]
First, the configuration of a PDP (plasma display panel) manufactured by the manufacturing method of one embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a PDP.
As shown in FIG. 1, a PDP 100 as a display panel includes a front substrate 102 and a rear substrate 103 that are arranged to face each other with a discharge space 101 interposed therebetween.

On the inner surface side of the front substrate 102, a plurality of transparent electrodes 104 arranged in parallel to each other, a bus electrode (not shown) provided along the transparent electrodes 104, and a plurality of black stripes 105 made of a light-absorbing material, A dielectric layer 106, a protective layer 107, and the like are provided.
On the inner surface side of the back substrate 103, a plurality of address electrodes 108, an address electrode protection layer 109, a cross-shaped partition 110, and the like, which are arranged in parallel with each other, are provided.
The phosphor cells 112R, 112G, and 112B of the three primary colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) are respectively formed in the discharge cells 111 as the plurality of display cells formed by the barrier ribs 110. It is formed in order. The inside of the discharge space 101, that is, the inside of each discharge cell 111, is filled with a discharge gas such as neon gas and sealed with the outside air.

[Plasma display manufacturing method]
Next, the manufacturing method of PDP100 is demonstrated with reference to drawings.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a method for manufacturing a PDP.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, when manufacturing the PDP 100, a front substrate manufacturing process is performed.
In this front substrate manufacturing process, a front mother substrate having a size capable of taking two front substrates 102 is prepared and loaded into the manufacturing apparatus (step S1: front mother substrate loading process). Then, the front mother substrate is sufficiently washed to form a transparent electrode material layer on the inner surface thereof, and the transparent electrode 104 is patterned by photolithography or the like (step S2: transparent electrode forming step).

Next, a conductive paste pattern is formed on the transparent electrode 104 by screen printing or the like, and is fired to form a bus electrode (step S3: bus electrode forming step).
Further, after the bus electrode forming step, for example, a paste pattern of a black inorganic pigment is applied between the bus electrodes, and this is baked to form a plurality of black stripes 105. Next, a dielectric paste for forming the dielectric layer 106 is provided so as to cover the transparent electrode 104, the bus electrode, and the black stripe 105 by a die coater, a screen printing method, or the like. And this is baked and the dielectric material layer 106 as a structure is formed (step S4: dielectric material layer formation process (structure formation processing process of this invention)).
In each of these steps S2 to S4, the transparent electrode 104, the bus electrode, the black stripe 105, and the dielectric layer 106 corresponding to the two front substrates 102 are formed on one front mother substrate.

Then, the front mother substrate is divided into two front substrates 102 (step S5: dividing step (first dividing step of the present invention)). In this dividing step, any method capable of dividing the front mother substrate, such as cutting using a cutter or laser, or cutting using thermal stress, may be applied.
Next, the edge of the front substrate 102 obtained by cutting in this cutting process is chamfered (step S6: edge chamfering process).
Then, non-defective products are selected from the front substrate 102 having the chamfered edges (step S7: non-defective product selecting step). In the non-defective product selection process, whether or not the transparent electrode 104, the bus electrode, the black stripe 105, and the dielectric layer 106 are misaligned or deformed. Select non-defective products based on criteria such as whether or not.

  Next, a protective layer 107 as a structure is formed on the front substrate 102 selected as a non-defective product in the non-defective product selection process so as to cover the dielectric layer 106 (step S8: protective layer forming process (structure of the present invention) Formation processing step)). In this protective layer forming step, one protective substrate 107 is formed by putting one front substrate 102 in a vacuum apparatus and vacuum depositing MgO (magnesium oxide).

Here, when vacuum deposition is performed without dividing the front mother substrate, the vacuum chamber needs to be sized so that the two front substrates 102 can be loaded.
As the vacuum chamber becomes larger, it is necessary to increase the number of vapor deposition guns. If the number of vapor deposition guns increases, there may be a large variation in film formation in the substrate surface due to variation in performance. Moreover, with the increase in size of the vacuum chamber, there is a risk that the building will be increased in size or the equipment cost will increase. Furthermore, when the vacuum chamber becomes large, it takes time to depressurize the chamber, and the tact time may be prolonged.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the front mother substrate is divided and vacuum deposited, the vacuum chamber can be sized so that only one front substrate 102 can be charged. For this reason, the dispersion | variation in film-forming, the enlargement of a building, and the increase in equipment cost can be suppressed. Furthermore, the decompression time in the chamber can be shortened, and the tact time can be shortened.

Moreover, a back substrate manufacturing process is implemented in parallel with said front substrate manufacturing process.
In this rear substrate manufacturing process, a rear mother substrate having a size capable of taking two rear substrates 103 is prepared. Then, it is put into a manufacturing apparatus (step S9: back mother substrate loading process), the back mother substrate is sufficiently cleaned, an Al film is formed on the inner surface, and the address electrodes 108 are patterned by photolithography. (Step S10: Address electrode forming step).

Next, a dielectric material paste such as glass paste is applied onto the address electrode 108 by screen printing, photolithography, or other means, and dried. As a result, the address electrode protective layer 109 is formed and the address electrode 108 is covered (step S11: address electrode protective layer forming step).
Further, a partition wall forming material paste such as a glass paste is applied and dried to form a partition wall forming material layer. Then, the partition wall forming material layer is patterned and baked by sandblasting or the like to form the partition wall 110 as a structure (step S12: partition wall forming process (structure forming process process of the present invention)).
In each of these steps S10 to S12, the address electrode 108, the address electrode protective layer 109, and the partition 110 corresponding to the two back substrates 103 are formed on one back mother substrate.

Then, the rear mother substrate is divided into two rear substrates 103 (step S13: dividing step (first dividing step of the present invention)), and the edge of the rear substrate 103 obtained by dividing in this dividing step is chamfered. Processing (step S14: edge chamfering). Further, non-defective products are selected from the selected back substrate 103 (step S15: non-defective product selecting step). In steps S13 to S15, the same methods and standards as in steps S5 to S7 can be applied.
Next, a phosphor paste of the three primary colors red (R), green (G), and blue (B) is applied to the inside of the discharge cells 111 of the back substrate 103 selected as non-defective products by a screen printing method, a nozzle coater, etc. This is fired to form phosphor layers (112R, 112G, 112B) as structures (step S16: phosphor layer forming step (structure forming processing step of the present invention)). In this phosphor layer forming step, one back substrate 103 is put into a screen printer or a nozzle coater, and phosphor paste is applied and baked.

Here, when the phosphor layers 112R, 112G, and 112B are formed without dividing the rear mother substrate, it is necessary to use a screen printer, a nozzle coater, or a baking device that is sized so that the two rear substrates 103 can be loaded. There is a risk of increasing the size of the building and increasing the equipment cost. In addition, when the screen printing method is applied to the application of the phosphor paste, there may be a problem of pattern accuracy due to trapezoidal deformation of the substrate and positional accuracy due to distortion of the screen plate accompanying continuous printing. Furthermore, when the nozzle coater is applied, there is a possibility that a problem of pattern position accuracy may occur due to the trapezoidal deformation of the substrate and the movement accuracy of the nozzle.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the back mother substrate is divided to form the phosphor layers 112R, 112G, and 112B, a size capable of loading only one back substrate 103 as a screen printer, a nozzle coater, or a baking apparatus. Can be applied. Therefore, it is possible to suppress an increase in the size of the building and an increase in equipment costs. Further, when the screen printing method is applied, it is possible to suppress the influence of the positional deviation with respect to the screen plate and the distortion of the screen plate due to continuous printing. Furthermore, when a nozzle coater is applied, the influence of the trapezoidal deformation of the substrate and the movement accuracy of the nozzle can be suppressed.

  Then, after the phosphor layer forming step, for example, using a paste kneaded with a low melting point glass powder with a resin such as acrylic and a solvent such as terpineol, a seal frit (not shown) is brought into a state substantially along the periphery of the address electrode protective layer 109. Provided (step S17: seal frit forming step).

Next, the front substrate 102 manufactured in the front substrate manufacturing process in steps S1 to S8 and the back substrate 103 manufactured in the back substrate manufacturing process in steps S9 to S17 are superposed in a predetermined positional relationship (step S18). :Assembly process).
Then, the front substrate 102 and the back substrate 103 overlapped in this assembly process are heated at a predetermined temperature equal to or higher than the temperature at which the low melting glass in the seal frit is melted to soften and melt the low melting glass. Thereafter, the temperature is lowered to a temperature at which the low melting point glass is solidified, and the internal space between the front substrate 102 and the rear substrate 103 is sealed (step S19: sealing step). Thereby, a sealed space including the discharge space 101 is formed between the front substrate 102 and the rear substrate 103.

Thereafter, the front substrate 102 and the rear substrate 103 are cooled to a temperature at which the seal frit solidifies, and the gas in the sealed space formed in the sealing step is exhausted by a vacuum pump or the like through a tip tube (not shown). (Step S20: exhaust process). As a result, gas components such as resin and solvent contained in various structures are discharged from the sealed space, and the pressure in the sealed space is lower than the pressure outside the sealed space.
Further, a discharge gas is introduced into the above space through a tip tube (not shown) at a temperature lower than the maximum temperature in the sealing step, and the inside of the space is, for example, about 6.7 × 10 ⁴ Pa (500 Torr). Adjust the pressure so that Then, the tip of the tip tube is heated to melt the tip tube, and the tip tube itself is sealed (step S21: gas introduction step).
Then, a lighting inspection is performed (step S22: lighting inspection step), and the PDP 100 is completed.

[Effects of PDP manufacturing method]
According to the manufacturing method of the above PDP 100, the following effects can be expected.

(1) A dividing step of dividing the front mother substrate between the dielectric layer forming step of forming the dielectric layer 106 and the protective layer forming step of forming the protective layer 107 when the front substrate 102 of the PDP 100 is manufactured. To implement. Furthermore, in the non-defective product selection step, the non-defective product is selected from the front substrate 102 obtained by the division in the dividing step. In the protective layer forming step, the protective layer 107 is formed for each front substrate 102 that has been selected as a non-defective product in the non-defective product selecting step.
For this reason, the front mother substrate is divided into two front substrates 102, and the protective layer 107 is formed only on the front substrate 102 selected as a non-defective product. Even if it exists, the overlapping operation of the defective front substrate 102 is not performed. Further, since the protective layer 107 is not formed on the defective front substrate 102, consumption of useless materials can be suppressed. Furthermore, the processing time in the protective layer forming step can be shortened and the processing efficiency can be easily achieved. Therefore, it is possible to easily reduce the manufacturing cost and effectively use the material.
And since the size of the substrate to be processed in the protective layer forming step is made smaller than the substrate to be processed in the previous step, the size of the equipment used in the protective layer forming step is not increased, and the equipment cost is increased. The size of the building where the equipment is set can be suppressed. And since the board | substrate processed in a protective layer formation process does not enlarge, it can suppress that dispersion | variation arises in the formation state of the dielectric material layer 106 in the front substrate 102 surface.
Moreover, the choices of the processing process can be increased by downsizing the processing substrate in the steps after the dividing step. That is, when the substrate is enlarged, non-uniformity such as in-plane distribution becomes a problem, and a process that cannot be adopted appears. On the other hand, by providing a dividing step for reducing the substrate in the middle of the manufacturing process, the problem of non-uniformity such as in-plane distribution can be solved and the number of process options can be increased.
Furthermore, depending on the process, the processing tact time may be shorter when the number of front substrates 102 that can be taken from the front mother substrate is smaller (hereinafter referred to as a front mother substrate with a smaller number of chamfers). In addition, even if the same processing capability is provided, there is a facility in which the capital investment is cheaper if a plurality of facilities corresponding to the front mother substrate with a small number of chamfers are installed. By using the present invention, it is possible to flexibly correspond to the production process depending on the processing tact time and the equipment price.

(2) During manufacturing of the back substrate 103 of the PDP 100, a dividing step for dividing the back mother substrate between the partition wall forming step and the phosphor layer forming step, and a back substrate obtained by dividing in this dividing step And a non-defective product selection step of selecting non-defective products from 103. Then, in the phosphor layer forming step, the phosphor layers 112R, 112G, and 112B are formed for each rear substrate 103 that is selected as a non-defective product in the non-defective product selecting step.
For this reason, it is possible to achieve the same effects as those in the manufacturing of the front substrate 102 as shown in (1) above.
In particular, in the present embodiment, since the above-described separation process and non-defective product selection process are provided at the time of manufacturing each of the front substrate 102 and the rear substrate 103, further reduction in manufacturing cost of the PDP 100 and further effective utilization of materials are facilitated. be able to.

(3) A dividing step is performed before the protective layer forming step using a vacuum apparatus.
For this reason, the effect | action as mentioned above can suppress the dispersion | variation in film-forming, the enlargement of a building, and the increase in equipment cost. Furthermore, the decompression time in the chamber can be shortened, and the tact time can be shortened.

(4) After the dividing step, an edge chamfering step for chamfering the edges of the front substrate 102 and the back substrate 103 is performed.
For this reason, since the process after a cutting process can be implemented in the state where the edge of front substrate 102 was smooth, handling of a board can be made easier compared with the composition which implements each process with a sharp edge. Further, even when the substrate comes into contact, the equipment can be prevented from being damaged.

[Other Embodiments]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but includes modifications and improvements as long as the object of the present invention can be achieved.

That is, it is good also as a structure which implements a division | segmentation process and a quality-goods selection process only in a front substrate manufacturing process or a back substrate manufacturing process.
Further, the edge chamfering process may not be performed.
The dividing step and the non-defective product selecting step may be performed at a timing other than between the dielectric layer forming step and the protective layer forming step, and between the partition wall forming step and the phosphor layer forming step.

Furthermore, the dividing step may be performed a plurality of times in the front substrate manufacturing process and the back substrate manufacturing process.
Specifically, a front mother substrate capable of taking four front substrates 102 is prepared, and transparent electrodes 104 and bus electrodes corresponding to the four front substrates 102 are formed. Then, between the bus electrode forming step and the dielectric layer forming step, a first dividing step of dividing the front mother substrate into a size that can take two front substrates 102 is performed, Sort out. Further, a dielectric layer 106 corresponding to the two front substrates 102 is formed on the substrate selected as a non-defective product. And it is good also as a structure which obtains the front substrate 102 of 2 sheets by a 2nd division | segmentation process, sorts out a good product, and forms the protective layer 107 with respect to each of this sorted front substrate 102. FIG.
The non-defective product selection step may be performed at least once even if a plurality of division steps are performed, but from the viewpoint of reduction of manufacturing costs and effective use of materials, after all the division steps. Preferably, it is implemented.

In addition, the separation process and the non-defective product selection process may be performed after a process with a relatively low yield or before a process with a high material cost. According to such a configuration, the material cost can be easily reduced.
For example, in the process of using a photolithography method when forming one type of structure, in the exposure process and the development process, the front mother substrate is processed, and then the dividing process is performed. And in a baking process, you may implement the process with respect to each front substrate 102 parted by the parting process.
Furthermore, the present invention may be applied not only to a display panel in which a plurality of substrates are stacked, but also to a display panel using a single substrate.

  In addition, the specific structure and procedure for carrying out the present invention can be appropriately changed to other structures and the like within a range in which the object of the present invention can be achieved.

[Effects of Embodiment]
As described above, when the front substrate 102 of the PDP 100 is manufactured, the front mother substrate is divided between the dielectric layer forming step and the protective layer forming step, and the front mother substrate is divided in this dividing step. And a non-defective product selection step of selecting non-defective products from the front substrate 102. In the protective layer forming step, the protective layer 107 is formed for each front substrate 102 that has been selected as a non-defective product in the non-defective product selecting step.
For this reason, the front mother substrate is divided into two front substrates 102, and the protective layer 107 is formed only on the front substrate 102 selected as a non-defective product. Even if it exists, the overlapping operation of the defective front substrate 102 is not performed. Further, since the protective layer 107 is not formed on the defective front substrate 102, consumption of useless materials can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to easily reduce the manufacturing cost and effectively use the material.

It is the disassembled perspective view which showed PDP which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the manufacturing method of PDP in the said one Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

100 ... PDP as a display panel
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 106 ... Dielectric layer as a structure 107 ... Protective layer as a structure 110 ... Partition as a structure 112R, 112G, 112B ... Phosphor layer as a structure

Claims (7)

Using a mother substrate having a plurality of display panel formation regions, a display panel manufacturing method for sequentially performing a plurality of different structure formation processing steps,
A first dividing step of dividing the mother substrate between the first structure forming process and the second structure forming process performed after the first structure forming process. And a non-defective product selecting step of selecting non-defective products from the substrate obtained by dividing after the first dividing step,
The structure forming processing step after the non-defective product selection step is performed for each substrate selected as the non-defective product. In the manufacturing method of the display panel of Claim 1,
A third structure forming process performed after the second structure forming process and a fourth structure forming process performed after the third structure forming process; In the meantime, a second dividing step for further dividing the substrate obtained by dividing in the first dividing step is performed,
The method for manufacturing a display panel, wherein the structure forming process after the second dividing step is performed for each substrate obtained by the dividing. A method for manufacturing a display panel, in which a plurality of different structure formation processing steps are sequentially performed on each of a front mother substrate and a rear mother substrate,
A first dividing step of dividing the at least one mother substrate during the predetermined structure formation processing step for at least one of the front mother substrate and the rear mother substrate; and the first dividing step. A non-defective product selection process for selecting non-defective products from the substrate obtained by dividing,
The structure forming processing step after the non-defective product selection step is performed for each substrate selected as the non-defective product. In the manufacturing method of the display panel according to claim 3,
The display panel manufacturing method, wherein the first dividing step is performed during the predetermined structure formation processing step for both the front mother substrate and the rear mother substrate. In the manufacturing method of the display panel of Claim 3 or Claim 4,
After completion of the structure formation processing step after the first dividing step, a second dividing step of further dividing the substrate obtained by the dividing is performed,
The method for manufacturing a display panel, wherein the structure forming process after the second dividing step is performed for each substrate obtained by the dividing. In the manufacturing method of the display panel in any one of Claims 1-5,
In the said structure formation process process implemented after the said division | segmentation process, the process using a vacuum device is implemented. The manufacturing method of the display panel characterized by the above-mentioned. In the manufacturing method of the display panel in any one of Claims 1-6,
An edge chamfering step for chamfering the edge of the substrate obtained by the division is performed before the dividing step and the structure forming process performed after the dividing step. Panel manufacturing method.

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