JP2784283B2 - Manufacturing method of liquid crystal display element - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly, to a method of interposing a spacer material and a seal pattern in manufacturing an empty cell container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, after an upper electrode substrate and a lower electrode substrate on which transparent electrodes are formed, a cell gap is regulated on a transparent electrode forming surface of one of the electrode substrates. In addition to forming a seal pattern by using a resin sealant in which a glass spacer for mixing and stirring is prepared, low-temperature bubbles are prevented from being generated in the liquid crystal over the entire surface of the other electrode substrate on which the transparent electrode is formed. In this case, a resin cell spacer is evenly distributed, and then the transparent electrode forming surfaces of the two electrode substrates are attached to each other to obtain an empty cell container. The liquid crystal display element is obtained by enclosing liquid crystal in the cell gap of the empty cell container thus manufactured, and further by attaching an upper polarizing plate and a lower polarizing plate to the outer surfaces of the upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate, respectively. It is made.

[0003]

However, the sealing agent in which the glass spacer has been prepared and agitated contains bubbles at the time of agitation, and thus cannot normally be used for forming a seal pattern in this state. Therefore, in order to put this into practical use, some kind of defoaming treatment is required, such as exposing the sealant in a vacuum atmosphere or exposing the sealant in a heated atmosphere. Since bubbles remain in the pattern, high sealing properties cannot be exhibited, and mechanical reliability such as moisture resistance is reduced. Conversely, if the defoaming is too intense, the solvent in the sealant volatilizes and the viscosity changes, and the printability deteriorates, making it difficult to print the desired seal pattern. The boiling point component is decomposed and volatilized to change the composition and lose the properties as a sealant, and the mechanical and chemical reliability is reduced.

As described above, in the conventional method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display element in which a seal pattern is formed by printing using a sealant in which a glass spacer is prepared and agitated, the manufacturing process and manufacturing equipment are complicated, and the liquid crystal display element is complicated. In addition to increasing the cost, it is difficult to optimally control the defoaming treatment of the sealant, so that it is difficult to manufacture a liquid crystal display element having excellent durability and to improve the yield of good products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned deficiencies of the prior art, and has as its object to provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device which is inexpensive and has excellent durability with good yield. It is in.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, an upper electrode substrate and a lower electrode substrate having a transparent electrode formed thereon are disposed such that the transparent electrode is on the inner side and the electrode substrate is disposed between the upper and lower electrode substrates. In a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display element, the method includes a step of forming an empty cell container by interposing a spacer material and a seal pattern, after manufacturing the upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate, A seal pattern is printed and formed on the electrode forming surface using a desired resin material, and then glass spacers are sprayed on the seal pattern to remove excess glass spacers on the one electrode substrate and to remove the other electrode substrate. The resin spacers are evenly spread on the transparent electrode forming surfaces of the two substrates, and thereafter, the transparent electrode forming surfaces of these two electrode substrates are attached to each other to obtain an empty cell container. .

[0007]

According to the above-mentioned means, since the glass spacer is not mixed and stirred in the sealing agent, no bubbles are trapped in the sealing agent. Therefore, no special defoaming device or defoaming step is required for manufacturing the liquid crystal display element, and the liquid crystal display element can be manufactured at low cost. Further, since the sealant is not defoamed, the physical and chemical properties of the sealant do not change, and the desired printability and sealability can be easily obtained. Therefore, a liquid crystal display element having excellent durability can be manufactured with high yield.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 is an explanatory view showing a flow of a liquid crystal cell manufacturing process, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the liquid crystal cell, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a cell gap adjusting method.

First, in step S1, a first electrode substrate formed by patterning a transparent electrode on a polished and cleaned glass plate and a second electrode formed by patterning a transparent electrode on a similar glass plate. An electrode substrate is prepared.

Next, in step S2, an alignment film is formed on the transparent electrode forming surfaces of the first and second electrode substrates, and a rubbing alignment process is performed on the alignment film. The steps up to this point are the same as the conventional liquid crystal display element manufacturing method.

In step S3, a desired seal pattern is formed on a transparent electrode forming surface of one of the first and second electrode substrates by using a sealant such as an epoxy resin or an ultraviolet curable resin. Is formed by printing.
As a method for forming the seal pattern, screen printing is particularly preferable.

Next, in step S4, glass spacers having a diameter necessary to regulate a desired cell gap are evenly sprayed on the seal pattern, and then in step S5, the electrode substrate on which the glass spacers are sprayed is turned upside down. Turn over and remove excess glass spacers.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the electrode substrate 3 on which the glass spacers 2 are uniformly dispersed only on the seal pattern 1 is formed.
Is formed. In this figure, reference numeral 4 indicates a transparent electrode, and reference numeral 5 indicates an alignment film.

On the other hand, in step S6 parallel to steps S3 to S5, the transparent electrode forming surface of the other electrode substrate is elastically deformed in accordance with the expansion and contraction of the liquid crystal, and the liquid crystal contracts at a low temperature to generate bubbles. (Low-temperature bubbles in the liquid crystal) Evenly disperse resin spacers for preventing the generation. The application of the resin spacer can be performed by spraying a mixed solution of Freon and isopropyl alcohol to which a resin spacer material is added with nitrogen gas. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 3, the electrode substrate 7 on which the resin spacers 6 are uniformly dispersed is formed. Note that, in this figure, the same reference numerals are displayed on portions corresponding to FIG. 2 described above.

Next, in step S7, the two types of electrode substrates 3 and 7 produced as described above are
Are placed inside each other, the two electrode substrates 3 and 7 are pressed inward to adjust the cell gap to a predetermined value, and then the sealing agent is cured to bond the two electrode substrates 3 and 7 together. At the stage where the glass spacers 2 are scattered on the seal pattern 1 (step S4), a plurality of glass spacers 2 may be scattered and overlapped as shown in FIG. At the stage where the substrate is pressed inward (step S7), as shown in FIG. 4, the overlapped glass spacers 2 are shifted in the left-right direction and are lined up on the inner surfaces of the electrode substrates 3 and 7 one by one. A desired cell gap G can be provided between 3 and 7.

Hereinafter, in step S8, after cutting the above-mentioned joined body to take a number of empty cell containers,
In step S9, the liquid crystal 9 is sealed in the cell gap G of the empty cell container. Finally, in step S10, a polarizing plate is attached to the outer surfaces of the electrode substrates 3 and 7 to obtain a desired liquid crystal display device. The steps S8 to S10 are also the same as the conventional liquid crystal display element manufacturing method.

In the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display element according to the embodiment, the seal spacer 1 is formed by printing the seal pattern 1 and then the glass spacers 2 are dispersed on the seal pattern 1. There is no need to mix and stir, and no bubbles are trapped in the sealant. Therefore, no special defoaming device or defoaming step is required for manufacturing the liquid crystal display element, and the liquid crystal display element can be manufactured at low cost. Further, since the sealant is not defoamed, the physical and chemical properties of the sealant do not change, and the desired printability and sealability can be easily obtained. Therefore, a liquid crystal display element having excellent durability can be manufactured with high yield.

It should be noted that the present invention has a feature that the glass spacer 2 is sprayed on the seal pattern 1 after the seal pattern 1 is formed by printing the sealant alone. Regarding the above, irrespective of the above-described embodiment, any known technique can be selected and applied. For example, in the above embodiment, the alignment treatment method by the rubbing method is described, but other methods such as the oblique deposition method can be applied.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since no special defoaming device or defoaming step is required for manufacturing the liquid crystal display element, the liquid crystal display element can be manufactured at low cost, and the physical and chemical properties of the sealing agent do not change, so that the desired printability and A liquid crystal display element having excellent sealing properties and excellent durability can be manufactured with high yield.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a manufacturing process explanatory diagram showing a flow of a liquid crystal cell manufacturing process.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a main part of one electrode substrate.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part of the other electrode substrate.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state in which an electrode substrate is attached.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Seal pattern 2 Glass spacer 3, 7 Electrode substrate 4 Transparent electrode 5 Alignment film 6 Resin spacer G Cell gap

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An empty cell container comprising: an upper electrode substrate and a lower electrode substrate having a transparent electrode formed thereon, the transparent electrode being inside, and a spacer material and a seal pattern interposed between the two electrode substrates; In a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display element including a manufacturing step, after forming the upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate, a seal pattern is formed by printing using a desired resin material on a transparent electrode forming surface of one of the electrode substrates. Then, a glass spacer is sprinkled on the seal pattern to remove the excess glass spacer on the one electrode substrate, and a resin spacer is evenly sprinkled on the transparent electrode forming surface of the other electrode substrate. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, characterized in that the transparent electrode forming surfaces of both electrode substrates are bonded to each other to obtain an empty cell container.