JP2011215460A - Electro-optical device and electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent moisture from permeating an inside of an electronic apparatus such as a liquid crystal device.SOLUTION: The electronic apparatus includes a first substrate (10) and a second substrate (20) stuck together with a sealing material (52) so as to face each other, an electro-optical material (50) sandwiched between the first and second substrates inside the sealing material, a first electrode (9a) provided on the first substrate so as to face the electro-optical material, a first insulating film (210) formed so as to cover the first electrode, a second electrode (21) provided on the second substrate so as to face the electro-optical material, and a second insulating film (220) formed so as to cover the second electrode. The first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as to have a region which does not overlap with the sealing material.

Description

The present invention relates to a technical field of an electro-optical device such as a liquid crystal device and an electronic apparatus such as a liquid crystal projector including the electro-optical device.

As this type of electro-optical device, for example, an electro-optical material such as liquid crystal is sandwiched between a pair of substrates. In such an electro-optical device, an insulating film containing an insulating material may be provided so as to cover an electrode for applying a voltage to the electro-optical material. For example, in Patent Document 1, an insulating film is formed on the entire surface of the substrate so as to cover the electrodes.
A technique for suppressing asymmetry caused by different materials of the upper and lower electrodes is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-48626

However, when an insulating film is provided on the entire surface of the substrate as described above, due to the presence of the insulating film,
Water easily enters the inside of the apparatus from the side surface of the substrate. For example, moisture enters through an insulating film exposed on the side of the substrate. If moisture enters the inside of the apparatus, there is a risk of display failure. That is, the above-described technique has a technical problem that the reliability of the apparatus may be significantly reduced.

SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an electro-optical device and an electronic apparatus that can suitably prevent moisture from entering the inside of the device.

In order to solve the above-described problems, an electro-optical device according to an aspect of the invention includes a first substrate and a second substrate bonded with a sealant so as to face each other, and an inside of the sealant between the first and second substrates. An electro-optical material sandwiched between, a first electrode provided on the first substrate so as to face the electro-optical material, a first insulating film formed so as to cover the first electrode, A second electrode provided on the second substrate so as to face the electro-optic material;
A second insulating film formed to cover the second electrode, and the first insulating film and the second insulating film.
The insulating film is provided so that there is a region that does not at least partially overlap the sealing material.

According to the electro-optical device of the present invention, an electro-optical material such as liquid crystal is sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate and the second substrate are bonded to each other by a sealing material such as a thermosetting resin, and the electro-optical material is sealed inside the sealing material.

On the first substrate, a first electrode including, for example, ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is provided. The first electrode is provided for each pixel arranged in a display area for displaying an image. First
A first insulating film is provided on the electrode so as to cover the first electrode. The first insulating film includes an insulating material such as SiO ₂ .

On the second substrate, for example, a second electrode including ITO or the like is provided. The second electrode is provided in a solid shape in a display area for displaying an image. A second insulating film is provided on the second electrode so as to cover the second electrode. The second insulating film includes an insulating material such as SiO ₂ .

According to the research of the present inventor, for example, when an inorganic alignment film is used to define the alignment state of the electro-optical material, the region where the electro-optical material and the electrode existing in the gap portion of the inorganic alignment column can be in direct contact. , It has been found that charge transfer occurs at the interface between the electro-optic material and the electrode, and display defects such as flicker and display burn-in occur due to electrical asymmetry.

However, in the present invention, as described above, the first insulating film is provided so as to cover the first electrode, and the second insulating film is provided so as to cover the second electrode. For this reason, it can prevent easily and reliably that an electro-optical substance and a 1st electrode or a 2nd electrode contact directly.
Therefore, occurrence of display defects can be suitably suppressed.

According to the research of the inventors of the present application, when the first insulating film and the second insulating film are further provided on the entire surface of the substrate, moisture enters the inside of the device through the exposed first insulating film and second insulating film. It has been found that it becomes easy.

Here, in the present invention, in particular, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so that there is a region that does not at least partially overlap the sealing material. Specifically, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are not provided on the entire surface of the substrate, and have a missing portion in a region overlapping with the sealing material. Thereby, the first insulating film and the second insulating film have at least a portion that is not exposed outside the device. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent moisture from entering through the first insulating film and the second insulating film as described above.

Note that, from the viewpoint of preventing moisture from entering, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are preferably provided so as not to overlap with the sealing material as much as possible. That is, it is better to make the region that does not overlap with the sealing material as large as possible.

As described above, according to the electro-optical device of the present invention, since moisture can be prevented from entering the device, the reliability can be improved.

In one aspect of the electro-optical device of the present invention, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as not to overlap the sealing material.

According to this aspect, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided only inside the sealing material.
Therefore, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are not exposed outside the device. Accordingly, the first insulating film and the second insulating film
It becomes possible to more effectively prevent moisture from entering through the insulating film.

In another aspect of the electro-optical device of the present invention, the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as to overlap a pixel region contributing to display and a dummy pixel region located around the pixel region. Yes.

According to this aspect, the dummy pixel area is provided around the pixel area contributing to the image display area. The dummy pixel region has dummy pixels that simulate the configuration of each pixel in the pixel region.

The first insulating film and the second insulating film may be provided so as to functionally cover the pixel region. However, if the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided only in the pixel region, extremely high accuracy is required in the manufacturing process.

In this aspect, since the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as to overlap the dummy pixel region, it is possible to reliably cover the pixel region and to provide a manufacturing margin by the dummy pixel region. it can. Accordingly, it is possible to reliably prevent moisture from entering while preventing the manufacturing process from becoming complicated.

In order to solve the above problems, an electronic apparatus according to the present invention includes the above-described electro-optical device according to the present invention (including various aspects thereof).

According to the electronic apparatus of the present invention, since the electro-optical device according to the present invention described above is provided,
Various electronic devices such as a projection display device with high reliability, a television, a mobile phone, an electronic notebook, a word processor, a viewfinder type or a monitor direct-view type video tape recorder, a workstation, a video phone, a POS terminal, and a touch panel can be realized. In addition, as an electronic apparatus of the present invention, for example, an electrophoretic device such as electronic paper can be realized.

The effect | action and other gain of this invention are clarified from the form for implementing invention demonstrated below.

1 is a plan view illustrating an overall configuration of an electro-optical device according to an embodiment. It is the HH 'sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is a top view which shows the formation area of the insulating film which concerns on embodiment. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ in FIG. 3. It is a top view which shows the formation area of the insulating film which concerns on a comparative example. 6 is a graph showing a time until a display defect occurs in the electro-optical device according to the comparative example and the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a plan view illustrating a modification of the electro-optical device according to the embodiment. It is a top view which shows the structure of the projector which is an example of the electronic device to which the electro-optical apparatus is applied.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Electro-optical device>
An electro-optical device according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the following embodiments, a drive circuit built-in TFT (Thin Film) is shown as an example of the electro-optical device of the invention.
(Transistor) An active matrix driving type liquid crystal device will be described as an example.

First, the overall configuration of the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the overall configuration of the electro-optical device according to this embodiment.
2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line HH ′ of FIG.

1 and 2, in the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment, a TFT array substrate 10 and a counter substrate 20 are disposed to face each other. The TFT array substrate 10 is the “first substrate” of the present invention.
For example, a transparent substrate such as a quartz substrate or a glass substrate, a silicon substrate, or the like. The counter substrate 20 is an example of the “second substrate” in the present invention, and is a transparent substrate such as a quartz substrate or a glass substrate. Between the TFT array substrate 10 and the counter substrate 20, a liquid crystal layer 50, which is an example of the “electro-optical material” of the present invention, is sealed. The liquid crystal layer 50 is made of, for example, a liquid crystal in which one or several types of nematic liquid crystals are mixed, and takes a predetermined alignment state between a pair of alignment films.

The TFT array substrate 10 and the counter substrate 20 are bonded to each other by a sealing material 52 provided in a sealing region located around the image display region 10a provided with a plurality of pixel electrodes.

The sealing material 52 is made of, for example, an ultraviolet curable resin, a thermosetting resin, or the like for bonding the two substrates, and after being applied on the TFT array substrate 10 in the manufacturing process,
It is cured by heating or the like. In the sealing material 52, a gap material such as glass fiber or glass beads for dispersing the distance between the TFT array substrate 10 and the counter substrate 20 (that is, the inter-substrate gap) to a predetermined value is dispersed. The gap material is used as the sealing material 52.
In addition to or instead of those mixed in the image display area 10a or the image display area 10a
You may make it arrange | position to the peripheral region located in the periphery of.

A light-shielding frame light-shielding film 53 that defines the frame area of the image display area 10a is provided on the counter substrate 20 side in parallel with the inside of the seal area where the sealing material 52 is disposed. A part or all of the frame light shielding film 53 may be provided as a built-in light shielding film on the TFT array substrate 10 side.

A data line driving circuit 101 and an external circuit connection terminal 102 are provided along one side of the TFT array substrate 10 in a region located outside the sealing region in which the sealing material 52 is disposed in the peripheral region. The scanning line driving circuit 104 is provided along two sides adjacent to the one side so as to be covered with the frame light shielding film 53. Further, the image display area 10 is thus obtained.
In order to connect the two scanning line driving circuits 104 provided on both sides of a, the TFT array substrate 1
A plurality of wirings 105 are provided along one remaining side of 0 and so as to be covered with the frame light shielding film 53.

In a region facing the four corners of the counter substrate 20 on the TFT array substrate 10, vertical conduction terminals 106 for connecting the two substrates with a vertical conduction material are arranged. Thus, electrical conduction can be established between the TFT array substrate 10 and the counter substrate 20.

In FIG. 2, on the TFT array substrate 10, a pixel switching T as a driving element is formed.
A laminated structure in which wirings such as FT, scanning lines, and data lines are formed is formed. Although the detailed structure of this laminated structure is not shown in FIG. 2, pixel electrodes 9a made of a transparent material such as ITO are formed in an island shape in a predetermined pattern for each pixel on the laminated structure. Has been.

The pixel electrode 9 a is formed in the image display area 10 a on the TFT array substrate 10 so as to face the counter electrode 21. The pixel electrode 9a is an example of the “first electrode” in the present invention, and the counter electrode 21 is an example of the “second electrode” in the present invention. Although not shown here, a first insulating film 210 is provided on the pixel electrode 9a, and a second insulating film 220 is provided on the counter electrode 21 (see the drawings described later). 4).

On the surface of the TFT array substrate 10 facing the liquid crystal layer 50, that is, on the pixel electrode 9a, an alignment film 16 is formed so as to cover the pixel electrode 9a. An alignment film 22 is formed on the counter electrode 21 on the counter surface of the counter substrate 20. The alignment films 16 and 22 are formed as inorganic alignment films containing an inorganic material, for example.

A light shielding film 23 is formed on the surface of the counter substrate 20 facing the TFT array substrate 10. For example, the light shielding film 23 is formed in a lattice shape when viewed in plan on the facing surface of the facing substrate 20. In order to perform color display in the image display region 10a, a color filter (not shown in FIG. 2) may be formed on the light shielding film 23 in a region including a part of the opening region and the non-opening region. .

Note that the data line driving circuit 1 described above is provided on the TFT array substrate 10 shown in FIGS.
01, a sampling circuit that samples the image signal on the image signal line and supplies it to the data line in addition to the driving circuit such as the scanning line driving circuit 104, and a precharge signal having a predetermined voltage level precedes the image signal to a plurality of data lines In addition, a precharge circuit to be supplied, an inspection circuit for inspecting quality, defects, and the like of the electro-optical device during manufacture or shipment may be formed.

Next, regarding the configuration of the insulating film provided in the electro-optical device according to the embodiment and the effect thereof,
This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an insulating film formation region according to the embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a formation region of an insulating film according to a comparative example, and FIG. 6 is a graph showing a time until a display defect occurs in the electro-optical device according to the comparative example and the embodiment. . FIG. 7 is a plan view illustrating a modification of the electro-optical device according to the embodiment. In FIG. 3 and subsequent figures, the detailed members shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are appropriately omitted for convenience of explanation.

3 and 4, in the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 210 are covered so as to cover from the image display region 10a to the dummy pixel region 10b located around the image display region 10a. An insulating film 220 is provided. The first insulating film 210 is a pixel electrode 9a.
And the alignment film 16. The second insulating film 220 includes the counter electrode 21 and the alignment film 22.
Between. The first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are typically formed in the same region.

According to the research of the present inventor, for example, when the alignment films 16 and 22 are inorganic alignment films, the liquid crystal layer 50 and the pixel electrode 9a or the counter electrode 21 can be in direct contact with the gap portion of the inorganic alignment column. It has been found that there is a region, and display defects such as flicker and display burn-in occur due to the movement of electric charges at the interface between the electro-optic material and the electrode.

In contrast, in the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment, as described above, the first insulating film 210 is provided so as to cover the pixel electrode 9a, and the second insulating film 220 is provided so as to cover the counter electrode 21. ing. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the liquid crystal layer 50 and the pixel electrode 9a or the counter electrode 21 from being in direct contact. Therefore, the occurrence of display defects can be suppressed.

In addition, according to the research of the inventors of the present application, if the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are provided on the entire surface of the substrate, the exposed first insulating film and second insulating film are interposed, It has been found that moisture easily enters the inside of the apparatus.

Specifically, in the electro-optical device as shown in FIG. 5, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 2 are used.
20 is exposed outside the apparatus on the side of the apparatus. Therefore, the exposed first insulating film 210
In addition, moisture easily enters the inside of the apparatus through the second insulating film 220.

In contrast, in the electro-optical device according to this embodiment, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 22 are used.
0 is provided so as not to overlap with the sealing material 52. That is, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are provided only inside the sealing material 52. Therefore, the first insulating film 210
The second insulating film 220 is not exposed to the outside of the device as in the comparative example shown in FIG. Further, the interface between the sealing material 52 and the alignment films 16 and 22 has a structure in which moisture hardly enters due to the reaction between the components. Accordingly, it is possible to effectively prevent moisture from entering through the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220.

In FIG. 6, according to the inventor's research, the electro-optical device according to the comparative example shown in FIG.
With the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, it is found that there is a difference of about twice in the time until display failure occurs under the conditions of a temperature of 60 ° C. and a humidity of 90%. is doing. That is, according to the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment, the time until a display defect occurs can be increased by about twice.

Returning to FIG. 3, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are functionally composed of the image display region 10.
It is sufficient if it is provided so as to cover a, but the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are sufficient.
If only the image display area 10a is provided, extremely high accuracy is required in the manufacturing process. That is, the end portions of the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are connected to the image display area 10.
It is required to match the boundary around a with high accuracy.

On the other hand, in the electro-optical device according to this embodiment, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 2 are used.
20 is provided so as to overlap with the dummy pixel region 10b.
It is possible to reliably cover 0a and to provide a manufacturing margin by the dummy pixel region 10b. Accordingly, it is possible to reliably prevent moisture from entering while preventing the manufacturing process from becoming complicated.

As shown in FIG. 7, the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 may be provided up to a region overlapping the sealing material 52. Even in the case of such a configuration, the first insulating film 21
The 0 and the second insulating film 220 are not exposed outside the device on the side surface. Therefore, similarly to the configuration shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, it is possible to prevent moisture from entering the apparatus.

Even if the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are exposed to the outside of the apparatus, if there is a portion that is not partially exposed, it is possible to suppress the ingress of moisture accordingly. It is. That is, as long as the first insulating film 210 and the second insulating film 220 are not provided so as to overlap the entire sealing material 52 (in other words, unless configured as shown in FIG. 5), the above-described effects can be obtained accordingly. However, the first insulating film 2 is also used to reliably prevent moisture from entering the apparatus.
It is preferable that the portions where the 10 and the second insulating film 220 are exposed to the outside of the device are as few as possible.

As described above, according to the electro-optical device according to the present embodiment, moisture can be prevented from entering the device, so that reliability can be improved.

<Electronic equipment>
Next, the case where the liquid crystal device which is the above-described electro-optical device is applied to various electronic devices will be described. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a configuration example of the projector. Hereinafter, a projector using the liquid crystal device as a light valve will be described.

As shown in FIG. 8, a lamp unit 1102 made of a white light source such as a halogen lamp is provided inside the projector 1100. The projection light emitted from the lamp unit 1102 is divided into four mirrors 1106 and 2 arranged in the light guide 1104.
The light is separated into three primary colors of RGB by a single dichroic mirror 1108 and is incident on liquid crystal panels 1110R, 1110B and 1110G as light valves corresponding to the respective primary colors.

The configurations of the liquid crystal panels 1110R, 1110B, and 1110G are the same as those of the liquid crystal device described above, and are driven by R, G, and B primary color signals supplied from the image signal processing circuit. The light modulated by these liquid crystal panels enters the dichroic prism 1112 from three directions. In this dichroic prism 1112,
While the R and B light is refracted at 90 degrees, the G light goes straight. Therefore, as a result of the synthesis of the images of the respective colors, a color image is projected onto the screen or the like via the projection lens 1114.

Here, paying attention to the display images by the liquid crystal panels 1110R, 1110B, and 1110G, the display image by the liquid crystal panel 1110G needs to be horizontally reversed with respect to the display images by the liquid crystal panels 1110R and 1110B.

The liquid crystal panels 1110R, 1110B and 1110G include a dichroic mirror 1
Since light corresponding to the primary colors of R, G, and B is incident by 108, it is not necessary to provide a color filter.

In addition to the electronic device described with reference to FIG. 8, a mobile personal computer, a mobile phone, an LCD TV, a viewfinder type, a monitor direct-view type video tape recorder, a car navigation device, a pager, an electronic device Notebook, calculator, word processor,
Examples include a workstation, a videophone, a POS terminal, and a device equipped with a touch panel. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to these various electronic devices.

In addition to the liquid crystal devices described in the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to a reflective liquid crystal device (LCO).
S), plasma display (PDP), field emission display (FED, SED),
The present invention can also be applied to an organic EL display, a digital micromirror device (DMD), an electrophoresis apparatus, and the like.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the spirit or idea of the invention that can be read from the claims and the entire specification, and an electro-optical device with such a change. In addition, an electronic apparatus including the electro-optical device is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

9a ... pixel electrode, 10 ... TFT array substrate, 10a ... image display area, 10b ... dummy pixel area, 16 ... alignment film, 20 ... counter substrate, 21 ... counter electrode, 22 ... alignment film, 50 ... liquid crystal layer, 52 ... Seal material 101... Data line driving circuit 102. External circuit connection terminal 104. Scanning line driving circuit 210 210 first insulating film 220 220 second insulating film

Claims (4)

A first substrate and a second substrate bonded with a sealing material so as to face each other;
An electro-optic material sandwiched between the first and second substrates inside the sealing material;
A first electrode provided on the first substrate so as to face the electro-optic material;
A first insulating film formed to cover the first electrode;
A second electrode provided on the second substrate so as to face the electro-optic material;
A second insulating film formed to cover the second electrode,
The electro-optical device, wherein the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so that there is a region that does not at least partially overlap the sealing material. The electro-optical device according to claim 1, wherein the first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as not to overlap the sealing material. The first insulating film and the second insulating film are provided so as to overlap a pixel region contributing to display and a dummy pixel region positioned around the pixel region. The electro-optical device described. An electronic apparatus comprising the electro-optical device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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