JP2010243538A - Droplet ejection apparatus and method for manufacturing color filter - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a degradation in product quality by stabilizing an amount of ejection of a functional liquid ejected from a droplet ejection head. <P>SOLUTION: A droplet ejection apparatus includes the droplet ejection head 5 having a nozzle for ejecting the functional liquid, is exposed to an airflow Y supplied from an airflow supply means 200 and includes a heat generation part 11 which generates heat by operating. The heat generation part 11 is disposed so as not to be between the airflow supply means 200 and the droplet ejection head 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge device and a color filter manufacturing method.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, full-color display has been performed on electro-optical devices such as liquid crystal devices and electroluminescence devices on display units of electronic devices such as mobile phones and portable computers. For example, full color display by a liquid crystal device is displayed by passing light modulated by a liquid crystal layer through a color filter. Such a color filter is formed by discharging a filter element material in the form of dots onto the surface of a substrate formed of glass, plastic or the like by a droplet discharge device.

  And not only the droplet discharge apparatus which discharges a color filter material but generally the droplet discharge apparatus is provided with the several droplet discharge head, and discharges a functional liquid from each droplet discharge head.

JP 2004-209429 A JP 2004-261647 A

By the way, since the viscosity of the functional liquid changes depending on the temperature, the viscosity changes according to the temperature of the droplet discharge head. When the viscosity of the functional liquid decreases, the discharge amount of the functional liquid of the droplet discharge head increases. When the viscosity of the functional liquid increases, the discharge amount of the functional liquid of the droplet discharge head decreases. To do.
On the other hand, the droplet discharge head is designed to optimally discharge droplets at a temperature that assumes the discharge state.

However, as shown in Patent Documents 1 and 2, a control device or the like for controlling the discharge of the functional liquid from the droplet discharge head is arranged above the droplet discharge head. On the other hand, the normal droplet discharge device is installed in a chamber in which a downflow is formed, and is disposed so as to be exposed to an air flow from the upper side to the lower side.
For this reason, the droplet discharge head is exposed to the airflow heated by the heat of the control device, and is heated by the airflow.

The amount of heat generated from the control device is not constant, and the flow rate of the downflow is not controlled to be constant in all regions. As described above, when the air flow supplied to the droplet discharge head is heated by the heat generating portion, the heating state of the droplet discharge head always changes. Therefore, the temperature of the droplet discharge head becomes unstable, and the discharge amount of the functional liquid varies.
In addition, when a plurality of droplet discharge heads are provided, the temperature rise varies due to individual positions of the droplet discharge heads and temperature rise characteristics, and the amount of functional liquid discharged from each droplet discharge head varies. Occurs.

  Thus, when the discharge amount of the functional liquid from the droplet discharge head varies, the discharge amount of the functional liquid changes with respect to a desired amount, which leads to a reduction in product quality.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to stabilize the discharge amount of the functional liquid discharged from the droplet discharge head and prevent the product quality from being deteriorated.

  As means for solving the above problems, the present invention adopts the following configuration.

  A first aspect of the present invention is a droplet discharge device that includes a droplet discharge head having a nozzle that discharges a functional liquid and is exposed to an air flow supplied from an air flow supply means, and has a heat generating portion that generates heat when operated. And a configuration is adopted in which the heat generating portion is arranged so as to avoid a space between the airflow supply means and the droplet discharge head.

According to the present invention employing such a configuration, the heat generating portion that generates heat when operated is arranged avoiding the space between the air flow supply means that supplies the air flow toward the droplet discharge device and the droplet discharge head. Therefore, the air flow ejected from the air flow supplying means is supplied to the droplet discharge head without passing through the heat generating portion.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the airflow ejected from the airflow supply means from being heated by the heat of the heat generating portion, and it is possible to prevent the droplet discharge head from being heated by being exposed to the airflow.
Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to stabilize the discharge amount of the functional liquid discharged from the droplet discharge head and prevent the product quality from being deteriorated.

  Further, the second invention employs a configuration in which, in the first invention, the heat generating part is installed on the outer wall of the thermal chamber while being surrounded by a thermal chamber that supports the air flow supplying means.

According to the present invention adopting such a configuration, the droplet discharge device is surrounded by a thermal chamber whose temperature is controlled inside, and the air flow supply means is supported by the thermal chamber and is attached to the outer wall of the thermal chamber. A heating part is installed. For this reason, it is possible to reliably arrange the heat generating portion while avoiding the space between the air flow supply means and the droplet discharge head.
Further, since the heat generating part is installed on the outer wall of the thermal chamber, it is possible to reliably prevent the heat of the heat generating part from being transmitted to the droplet discharge head.

  The third invention adopts a configuration in the first or second invention, wherein the air flow supply means is a jetting device that jets downflow as the airflow.

  According to the present invention employing such a configuration, since the heat generating portion is disposed between the ejection device that ejects the down flow and the droplet discharge head, the down flow is heated by the heat of the heat generating portion. And the droplet discharge head exposed to the downflow can be prevented from being heated.

  Moreover, 4th invention employ | adopts the structure that the said heat-emitting part is a control apparatus in any one of the said 1st-3rd invention.

  According to the present invention employing such a configuration, it is possible to prevent heat from the control device from being transmitted to the droplet discharge head.

  A fifth invention is a method for producing a color filter, wherein the functional liquid is applied to a predetermined region provided on a substrate using the droplet discharge device according to any one of the first to fourth inventions. A configuration is adopted in which a color filter is formed by arranging the.

  According to the present invention adopting such a configuration, a uniform color filter can be formed, and an excellent quality color filter can be obtained.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a schematic configuration of a droplet discharge device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is the schematic block diagram which looked at the droplet discharge apparatus in 1st Embodiment of this invention from the horizontal direction. It is the schematic block diagram which looked at the droplet discharge apparatus in 2nd Embodiment of this invention from the horizontal direction.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a droplet discharge device, a droplet discharge method, and a color filter manufacturing method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the scale of each member is appropriately changed in order to make each member a recognizable size. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, an XYZ rectangular coordinate system is set, and each member will be described with reference to the XYZ rectangular coordinate system. The XYZ orthogonal coordinate system is set so that the X axis and the Y axis are parallel to the work stage 2, and the Z axis is set in a direction orthogonal to the work stage 2. In the XYZ coordinate system in FIG. 1, the XY plane is actually set to a plane parallel to the horizontal plane, and the Z axis is set to the vertically upward direction.

1 and 2 are schematic configuration diagrams of a droplet discharge device IJ according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing only the droplet discharge device IJ according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a view of the droplet discharge device IJ according to the present embodiment as viewed from the horizontal direction (X direction), and includes the periphery of the droplet discharge device IJ.
The droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment is a device that forms a color filter by discharging droplets of a color filter material (functional liquid) onto a predetermined region of a color filter substrate (base material) by, for example, an inkjet method. The droplet discharge method of this embodiment is also performed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment is accommodated in the thermal chamber 100. That is, the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment is surrounded by the thermal chamber 100.
The inside of the thermal chamber 100 is managed at a constant temperature. The ceiling of the thermal chamber 100 supports an ejection device 200 (airflow supply means) that ejects the downflow Y into the thermal chamber 100. In addition, a suction device 300 for sucking the downflow Y is installed on the floor of the thermal chamber 100.
Then, the downflow Y is ejected from the ejection device 200 and the downflow Y is sucked by the suction device 300, thereby forming the downflow Y from the upper side to the lower side in the thermal chamber 100.
That is, the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment is disposed in the thermal chamber 100 so as to be exposed to the downflow Y.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment includes an apparatus mount 1, a work stage 2, a stage moving device 3, a carriage 4, a droplet discharge head 5, a carriage moving device 6, a tube 7, and a first. A tank 8, a second tank 9, a third tank 10, a control device 11, and a temperature control gas supply device 12 (temperature control gas supply means) are provided.

  The device mount 1 is a support for the work stage 2 and the stage moving device 3. The work stage 2 is installed on the apparatus base 1 so as to be movable in the X-axis direction by the stage moving device 3, and a color filter substrate (base material) P transported from an upstream transport device (not shown) is placed on the work stage 2. And held on the XY plane by a vacuum suction mechanism. The stage moving device 3 includes a bearing mechanism such as a ball screw or a linear guide, and moves the work stage 2 in the X-axis direction based on a stage position control signal indicating the X coordinate of the work stage 2 input from the control device 11. Let

The carriage 4 holds the droplet discharge head 5 and is provided so as to be movable in the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction by the carriage moving device 6.
The droplet discharge head 5 includes a plurality of nozzles, and discharges droplets of a color filter material based on drawing data and drive control signals input from the control device 11. A plurality of droplet discharge heads 5 are provided corresponding to the color filter materials R (red), G (green), and B (blue). Each droplet discharge head 5 is a tube via a carriage 4. 7 is connected. The droplet discharge head 5 corresponding to R (red) receives the supply of the color filter material for R (red) from the first tank 8 via the tube 7, and the droplet discharge head corresponding to G (green). 5 is supplied with a color filter material for G (green) from the second tank 9 via the tube 7, and the droplet discharge head 5 corresponding to B (blue) is supplied to the third tank 10 via the tube 7. Is supplied with a color filter material for B (blue).

  The carriage moving device 6 has a bridge structure straddling the device mount 1, and includes a bearing mechanism such as a ball screw or a linear guide in the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction, and is input from the control device 11. Based on the carriage position control signal indicating the Y coordinate and the Z coordinate, the carriage 4 is moved in the Y axis direction and the Z axis direction.

The tube 7 is a color filter material supply tube that connects the first tank 8, the second tank 9, the third tank 10 and the carriage 4 (droplet discharge head 5). The first tank 8 stores the color filter material for R (red) and supplies the color filter material to the droplet discharge head 5 corresponding to R (red) via the tube 7. The second tank 9 stores the color filter material for G (green) and supplies the color filter material to the droplet discharge head 5 corresponding to G (green) via the tube 7. The third tank 10 stores the color filter material for B (blue) and supplies the color filter material to the droplet discharge head 5 corresponding to B (blue) via the tube 7.
Note that the tube 7, the first tank 8, the second tank 9, and the third tank 10 are not shown in FIG.

The control device 11 outputs a stage position control signal to the stage moving device 3, outputs a carriage position control signal to the carriage moving device 6, and outputs drawing data and a drive control signal to the drive circuit board of the droplet discharge head 5. By performing synchronous control of the droplet discharge operation by the droplet discharge head 5, the positioning operation of the color filter substrate P by the movement of the work stage 2, and the positioning operation of the droplet discharge head 5 by the movement of the carriage 4, A droplet of the color filter material is discharged to a predetermined position on the filter substrate P. Further, the control device 11 generates a drive signal to be output to the droplet discharge head 5.
Such a control device 11 includes an arithmetic processing circuit for generating a stage position control signal and a carriage position control signal, a drive signal generation circuit for generating a drive signal, and the like, and performs processing (that is, operation). Doing so generates heat. That is, in the present embodiment, the control device 11 is a heat generating portion of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, in the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, the control device 11 is installed on the outer wall (outer wall of the ceiling) of the thermal chamber 100, whereby the control device 11 is ejected from the ejection device 200. And the droplet discharge head 5 are disposed so as to be avoided.

The droplet discharge device IJ of this embodiment having such a configuration is operated (in the case of manufacturing a color filter, the ejection device 200 and the suction device 300 are operated, and the downflow Y is generated in the thermal chamber 100. It is formed.
Then, the control device 11 discharges the color filter material by the droplet discharge head 5 while moving the carriage 4. As a result, the color filter material is disposed on the substrate P to manufacture the color filter.

Here, in the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, the control device 11 is disposed so as to avoid the space between the ejection device 200 and the droplet discharge head 5.
That is, since the control device 11 that generates heat by operation is arranged so as to avoid the space between the ejection device 200 that supplies the downflow Y toward the droplet ejection device IJ and the droplet ejection head 5, the ejection device The downflow Y ejected from 200 is supplied to the droplet discharge head 5 without passing through the control device 11.
Therefore, the downflow Y ejected from the ejection device 200 is prevented from being heated by the heat of the control device 11, and the droplet discharge head 5 is prevented from being heated by being exposed to the downflow Y. Can do.
Therefore, according to the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, it is possible to stabilize the discharge amount of the functional liquid discharged from the droplet discharge head and prevent the product quality from being deteriorated.

In the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, the control device 11 is installed on the outer wall of the thermal chamber 100.
For this reason, it is possible to reliably arrange the control device 11 while avoiding the space between the ejection device 200 and the droplet discharge head 5.
Further, since the control device 11 is installed on the outer wall of the thermal chamber 100, it is possible to prevent the heat of the control device 11 from being transmitted into the thermal chamber 100. For this reason, temperature control in the thermal chamber 100 becomes easy, and energy used for temperature control is reduced. Therefore, the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment is suitable for the environment.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same parts as those of the first embodiment is omitted or simplified.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram including the droplet discharge device IJ of this embodiment and its surroundings. As shown in this figure, in the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, the control device 11 is located inside the thermal chamber 100 at a position avoiding the space between the ejection device 200 and the droplet discharge head 5. Is arranged. More specifically, the control device 11 is installed on the inner surface of the side wall of the thermal chamber 100.

Also in the droplet discharge device IJ of this embodiment having such a configuration, as in the first embodiment, the control device 11 that generates heat when operated operates the downflow Y toward the droplet discharge device IJ. Since the jetting device 200 and the droplet discharge head 5 are arranged so as to avoid the supply, the downflow Y ejected from the jetting device 200 is supplied to the droplet discharge head 5 without passing through the control device 11. Is done.
Therefore, the downflow Y ejected from the ejection device 200 is prevented from being heated by the heat of the control device 11, and the droplet discharge head 5 is prevented from being heated by being exposed to the downflow Y. Can do.
Therefore, according to the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, it is possible to stabilize the discharge amount of the functional liquid discharged from the droplet discharge head and prevent the product quality from being deteriorated.

Further, in the droplet discharge device IJ of the present embodiment, the control device 11 is installed inside the thermal chamber 100.
Therefore, the control device 11 can be arranged closer to the stage moving device 3, the droplet discharging head 5, and the carriage moving device 6 as compared with the droplet discharging device IJ of the first embodiment. Accordingly, it is possible to shorten the length of the transmission path connecting the control device 11 to the stage moving device 3, the droplet discharge head 5, and the carriage moving device 6, and it is possible to reduce signal transmission loss.

  The preferred embodiments according to the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to such examples, and the above embodiments may be combined. It is obvious for those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications can be conceived within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. It is understood that it belongs to.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which the airflow supply unit of the present invention is the ejection device 200 that ejects the downflow Y has been described.
However, the present embodiment is not limited to this, and any airflow supply means of the present invention can be used as long as it is an apparatus that ejects an airflow toward the droplet discharge head.

In the above embodiment, the configuration in which the droplet discharge device IJ is surrounded by the thermal chamber 100 has been described.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration in which the droplet discharge device IJ is not surrounded by the thermal chamber 100 can also be adopted. For example, a configuration in which the droplet discharge device IJ is accommodated in a room that does not have a heat insulating function may be employed.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, the structure which the heat generating part of this invention is the control apparatus 11 was demonstrated.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the heat generating unit is not limited to the control device 11.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, the structure in which the control apparatus 11 was installed in the wall surface of the thermal chamber 100 was demonstrated.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be installed at a place other than the wall surface of the thermal chamber 100.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the droplet discharge device IJ that can discharge a color filter material as a functional liquid and the method for manufacturing a color filter using the droplet discharge device IJ have been described.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can also be applied to a droplet discharge device that discharges another functional liquid.

  IJ: Droplet discharge device, Y: Down flow (airflow), 5 ... Droplet discharge head, 11 ... Control device (heat generating part), 100 ... Thermal chamber, 200 ... Ejection device (airflow supply means) )

Claims (5)

A droplet discharge device including a droplet discharge head having a nozzle for discharging a functional liquid and exposed to an air flow supplied from an air flow supply unit,
A droplet discharge apparatus comprising a heat generating portion that generates heat when operated, and the heat generating portion is disposed so as to avoid a space between the air flow supply means and the droplet discharge head.   2. The droplet discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the droplet discharge device is surrounded by a thermal chamber that supports the air flow supply means, and the heat generating portion is installed on an outer wall of the thermal chamber.   The droplet discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the airflow supply unit is a jetting device that jets downflow as the airflow.   The droplet discharge device according to claim 1, wherein the heat generating unit is a control device.   A method for producing a color filter, comprising: using the droplet discharge device according to claim 1 to form a color filter by arranging the functional liquid in a predetermined region provided on a substrate. .

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