JP2009192801A - Method of charging display medium particle group for information display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of charging a display medium particle group in the manufacture of an information display panel by which even when the display medium particle group is continuously charged, no particle sticks on a stage mechanism section and a surface of a conductive mask on a side coming into contact with a substrate to cause no defect of stage driving operation, and a defect in charging of the display medium particle group can be prevented. <P>SOLUTION: In the method of charging the display medium particle group, by which a second substrate having cells are installed at a low part in a charging tank and a display medium is made to fall from above the charging tank to charge a display medium particle group in each cell, the conductive mask 14 is provided at a charging unnecessary part of the display medium particle group, a bottom surface 18a of the charging tank 18 is held in level with the conductive mask, and the charging tank is provided with a cleaning mechanism 21 which cleans a conductive mask surface. Then the cleaning mechanism cleans the surface of the conductive mask between charging operations. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention includes a first substrate having an electrode portion formed on a surface thereof and a second substrate formed with a partition wall forming a cell while forming an electrode portion on the surface, the substrate being at least one of which is transparent and opposing. In the method of manufacturing an information display panel having a structure in which a display medium configured as a particle group including a chargeable particle in a cell between them is overlapped so that the electrode parts face each other, the display medium particle group filling The present invention relates to a display medium particle group filling method in which a second substrate having cells is installed in the lower part of the tank, the display medium particle groups are dropped from the upper part of the filling tank, and the display medium particle groups are filled in each cell. It is.

  Conventionally, at least one of the substrates is a transparent opposing substrate, and a first substrate having an electrode portion formed on the surface and a second substrate having an electrode portion formed on the surface and a partition wall forming a cell are mutually connected. In the method of manufacturing an information display panel having a structure in which a display medium configured as a group of particles including a chargeable particle is sealed in a cell therebetween, the electrode portion of the second substrate Filling the display medium particle group with the required amount of display medium particle group in the cell on the second substrate by spraying the particle group containing the chargeable particles in the cell in the state of the equipotential A method is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-25824

  In the conventional method of filling the display medium particle group described above, the conductive mask and the filling device stage mechanism exist inside the filling tank, so that the inside of the filling tank flies when the filling process of the display medium particle group is continuously performed. There is a problem that the chargeable particles constituting the display medium particle group that is attached to the charging device stage mechanism driving unit gradually cause a stage driving operation failure. When the conductive mask is removed and the substrate is taken out, aggregates of the charged particles adhering to the end of the conductive mask opening and the region where the substrate is not in contact are dropped, causing a display defect defect. There were some problems.

  The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even if the filling process is continuously performed, particles do not adhere to the surface of the conductive mask on the side contacting the stage mechanism and the substrate, and the stage driving operation failure is prevented. An object of the present invention is to provide a display medium particle group filling method capable of filling the display medium particle group without causing it, and to provide a method for manufacturing an information display panel that does not cause a display defect defect.

  The display medium particle group filling method according to the present invention includes a first substrate having at least one transparent substrate, a first substrate having an electrode portion formed on the surface, and a partition wall forming an electrode portion and a cell. Manufacturing the information display panel having a structure in which the formed second substrate is overlapped so that the electrode portions face each other, and a display medium configured as a particle group including a chargeable particle in a cell therebetween is sealed. In the method, a display is provided in which a second substrate having a cell is installed at a lower part in a display medium particle group filling tank, and the display medium particle group is dropped from the upper part of the filling tank to fill the display medium particle group in each cell. A method of filling a medium particle group, wherein a conductive mask is provided in an unnecessary portion of the display medium particle group, a bottom surface of the filling tank is made the same as the conductive mask, and a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the surface of the conductive mask in the filling tank is provided. Setting It is characterized in that the.

  Further, as a preferable example of the method for filling the display medium particle group of the present invention, the display medium in which the electrode portion of the second substrate and the conductive mask are in an electrically equipotential state and the potential should be filled. A voltage of the opposite polarity to the charged polarity of the chargeable particles constituting the particle group is applied, or the polarity is reversed or the potential is zero, and a cleaning mechanism is provided at the bottom of the filling tank And a vacuum cleaner nozzle that can be inserted into the filling tank through the open / close door.

  According to the present invention, the conductive mask is provided in the unnecessary portion of the display medium particle group, the bottom surface of the filling tank is made the same as the conductive mask, and the cleaning mechanism for cleaning the surface of the conductive mask is provided in the filling tank. Even when the display medium particle group filling process is continuously performed, the particles do not adhere to the surface of the stage mechanism and the conductive mask on the side in contact with the substrate, and the display medium particle group is filled without causing a stage drive malfunction. An information display panel that does not cause defective display defects can be obtained.

<Description of Information Display Panel Targeted by Manufacturing Method of the Present Invention>
First, a basic configuration of an information display panel using a particle group including a chargeable particle as an object of the present invention as a display medium will be described. In the information display panel, an electric field is applied to a display medium configured as a particle group including a chargeable particle sealed between two opposing substrates. In accordance with the applied electric field direction, the display medium is attracted by an electric field force or a Coulomb force, and the display medium is moved by a change in the electric field direction, whereby information such as an image is displayed. Therefore, it is necessary to design the information display panel so that the display medium can move uniformly and maintain stability when rewriting the display repeatedly or when displaying the display information continuously. Here, the force applied to the particles constituting the display medium particle group is considered to be the electric mirror image force between the electrode and the substrate, intermolecular force, liquid cross-linking force, gravity, etc., in addition to the force attracted by the Coulomb force between the particles. It is done.

  An example of an information display panel using a particle group including a chargeable particle as an object of the present invention as a display medium will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 (a), (b) to 2 (a), (b). . Here, an example is shown in which an image is displayed in a dot matrix by moving a display medium with an electric field formed between opposing electrodes, using a particle group including a chargeable particle as a display medium.

  In the example shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, at least two types of display media that include particles having at least optical reflectivity and chargeability and different from each other in optical reflectivity and charge characteristics are used. As described above, the white display medium 3W configured as a particle group including the chargeable white particles 3Wa and the black display medium 3B configured as a particle group including the chargeable black particles 3Ba are shown between the substrates. In each of the cells 7 formed by the above method, the substrate is formed according to the electric field generated by applying a voltage between the electrode 5 (individual electrode) provided on the substrate 1 and the electrode 6 (individual electrode) provided on the substrate 2. Move vertically to 1 and 2. Then, as shown in FIG. 1A, the white display medium 3W is visually recognized by the observer and white dot display is performed, or as shown in FIG. 1B, the black display medium 3B is visually recognized by the observer. Black dots are displayed. In addition, in FIG. 1 (a), (b), the partition in front is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the example shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), two or more kinds of display media each including a particle group including particles having at least optical reflectance and chargeability, and having different optical reflectance and charging characteristics from each other. (Here, a white display medium 3W configured as a particle group including the chargeable white particles 3Wa and a black display medium 3B configured as a particle group including the chargeable black particles 3Ba are shown). In each formed cell 7, the substrate 1 corresponds to the electric field generated by applying a voltage between the electrode 5 (line electrode) provided on the substrate 1 and the electrode 6 (line electrode) provided on the substrate 2. 2 and move vertically. Then, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), the white display medium 3W is visually recognized by the observer and white dot display is performed, or as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the black display medium 3B is visually recognized by the observer. Black dots are displayed. In addition, in FIG. 2 (a), (b), the partition in front is abbreviate | omitted.

<Description of Method for Manufacturing Information Display Panel of the Present Invention>
FIGS. 3A to 3D are views for explaining an example of a substrate disposed in the filling tank in the method of filling the display medium particle group of the present invention. First, as shown in FIG. 3A, a substrate in which cells are formed by forming partition walls 12 in six panel display regions on a substrate 11 provided with indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes in advance, and FIG. As shown in b), a conductive mask 14 having six mask openings 13 corresponding to the panel display region is prepared. Then, as shown in FIG. 3 (c), a front view thereof and in FIG. 3 (d), a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3 (c), a mask is formed below the conductive mask 14. The opening 13 and the panel display area of the substrate 11 on which the partition wall 12 is formed are aligned, and the substrate 11 is overlaid. Further, the substrate 11 on which the conductive mask 14 is superimposed is placed on the filling device stage 15. At that time, the ITO electrode on the substrate 11 and the conductive mask 14 are in contact with each other by the conductive protrusion 16 and are equipotential.

  FIG. 4 is a view for explaining an example of the filling of the display medium particle group using the filling tank in the display medium particle group filling method of the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the substrate 11 having cells formed by the partition walls 12 in the lower part of the filling tank 18 having the nozzles 17 at the upper part, together with the conductive mask 14, as shown in FIG. 15 is installed in the state provided on the top. At that time, the bottom surface 18 a of the filling tank 18 is configured to be the same as the conductive mask 14. Further, a voltage having the same charging polarity as that of the chargeable particles constituting the display medium particle group is applied to the inner wall of the filling tank 18. In this state, the display medium particle group is sprayed from the nozzle 17 to fill the display medium particle group in each cell through the mask opening 13 of the conductive mask 14.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, in addition to the above configuration, the filling tank 18 is provided with a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the surface of the conductive mask 14. In FIG. 4, the cleaning mechanism 21 includes an opening / closing door 22 provided in the lower portion of the filling tank 18 and a cleaner nozzle 23 that can be inserted into the filling tank 18 through the opening / closing door 22. Further, an exhaust port 24 is formed in the upper part of the filling tank 18 so that the atmosphere in the filling tank 18 can be exhausted through a filter unit (not shown). The surface of the conductive mask 14 can be cleaned between filling operations by opening the open / close door 22 and inserting the cleaner nozzle 23 into the filling tank 18 by using the cleaning mechanism 21.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, the bottom surface 18 a of the filling tank 18 is configured to be the same as the conductive mask 14, and the surface of the conductive mask 14 is continuously cleaned by the cleaning mechanism 21 between filling operations. Even when the display medium particle group is filled, no particles adhere to the surface of the conductive mask 14 on the side in contact with the filling device stage 15 and the substrate 11. As a result, stage drive operation failure does not occur, and unnecessary particles do not fall on the substrate when the conductive mask 14 is removed. This prevents non-uniform filling of the display medium particles and causes display defect failure. An information display panel without any problem can be obtained.

  There are also methods using screens and screens to drop display media particle groups other than the spraying method, and the screens and screen particle groups are dropped by filling the screen or screen with vibration. You can also

  Hereinafter, an actual example will be described.

  According to the example using the spray nozzle shown in FIG. 4, the display medium particle group was actually filled. In that case, the filling tank comprised with the stainless steel plate (SUS304) comprised all the inner walls other than the bottom face same as a conductive mask with the vinyl chloride board. The bottom surface of the filling tank is a stainless steel plate (SUS304) in which the opening coincides with a glass substrate on which 28 cm × 30 cm ITO electrodes and partition walls are formed, with six panel substrates having a display screen area of 10 cm × 7 cm. By using a made conductive mask (32 cm × 35 cm conductive mask having 6 openings of 10 cm × 7 cm), the display screen area of the glass substrate and the opening of the bottom of the filling tank are brought into contact with each other, The conductive mask on the bottom of the filling tank and the glass substrate electrode were equipotential. In addition, the surface of the conductive mask was periodically cleaned by a cleaning mechanism between filling operations.

  The particle group was filled, and the stage drive operation failure when continuously manufactured and the occurrence of the particle group filling defect on the substrate after the particle group filling was observed were observed. As a result, there is no particle leakage from the bottom of the filling tank to which the glass substrate is in close contact, and no particles adhere to the stage drive unit and the conductive mask end, and the display medium particle group filling step is performed continuously for 100 sheets. Even if it performed, the stage drive operation | movement malfunction did not occur and the filling defect of the display medium particle group did not occur.

  An information display panel manufactured according to the method of the present invention includes display devices for mobile devices such as notebook computers, PDAs, mobile phones, and handy terminals, electronic paper such as electronic books, electronic newspapers, and electronic manuals (instruction manuals), Billboards such as billboards, posters, blackboards, calculators, home appliances, automotive supplies, point displays, card displays such as IC cards, electronic advertising, electronic point of purchase (POP), electronic price tags In addition to an electronic shelf label, an electronic score, and a display unit of an RF-ID device, it is also suitably used as a rewritable paper for driving a display medium using an external display rewriting forming unit.

(A), (b) is a figure for demonstrating an example of the information display panel manufactured using this invention, respectively. (A), (b) is a figure for demonstrating the other example of the panel for information displays manufactured using this invention, respectively. (A)-(d) is a figure for demonstrating an example of the board | substrate arrange | positioned in a filling tank in this invention, respectively. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the filling method of the display medium particle group of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 2 Substrate 3W White display medium 3Wa Chargeable white particle 3B Black display medium 3Ba Chargeable black particle 4 Partition 5, 6 Electrode 7 Cell 11 Substrate 12 Partition 13 Mask opening 14 Conductive mask 15 Filler stage 16 Conductive protrusion 17 Nozzle 18 Filling tank 18a Bottom 21 Cleaning mechanism 22 Open / close door 23 Vacuum cleaner nozzle 24 Exhaust port

Claims (3)

At least one is a transparent opposing substrate, and a first substrate having an electrode portion formed on the surface and a second substrate having an electrode portion formed on the surface and a partition that forms a cell are formed on each other. In a method for manufacturing an information display panel having a structure in which a display medium configured as a particle group including a chargeable particle in a cell between them is overlapped with each other, a lower part in a display medium particle group filling tank In addition, a display medium particle group filling method in which a second substrate having a cell is installed, the display medium particle group is dropped from the upper part of the filling tank, and the display medium particle group is filled in each cell,
Display medium particles characterized in that a conductive mask is provided in a portion of the display medium particle group that does not require filling, a bottom surface of the filling tank is the same as the conductive mask, and a cleaning mechanism for cleaning the surface of the conductive mask is provided in the filling tank Group filling method.   When the electrode portion of the second substrate and the conductive mask are in an electrically equipotential state, a voltage having a polarity opposite to the charging polarity of the charging particles constituting the display medium particle group to be filled is applied. The display medium particle group filling method according to claim 1, wherein the display medium particle group is charged by applying a reverse polarity or by grounding to make the potential zero.   The display according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cleaning mechanism includes an opening / closing door provided at a lower portion of the filling tank, and a cleaner nozzle that can be inserted into the filling tank through the opening / closing door. Filling method of medium particle group.

Images