JP2809134B2 - Defect repair method and apparatus for color filter for liquid crystal display - 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 and an apparatus for repairing a defect of a color filter for a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display for correcting a defect of an ultraviolet color filter by irradiating the defect with an ultraviolet laser beam. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for correcting a defect of a color filter for use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional method of repairing a defect in a color filter for a liquid crystal display, first, an operator observes with a microscope or the like and inspects a color filter for the presence or absence of a partially generated defect. The shape of the ultraviolet laser light to be irradiated is appropriately changed in accordance with the size of the found defect, the irradiation position is adjusted, the ultraviolet laser light is emitted, and the defect is removed. That is, a skilled person manually changes the shape of the ultraviolet laser light and adjusts the irradiation position.

[0003]

Usually, defects such as protrusions due to the attachment of foreign matter to a color filter have an unspecified shape, and may be larger than the maximum shape of ultraviolet laser light. In order to correct such a defect, it is necessary to repeat a series of operations such as changing the shape of the ultraviolet laser light, moving the irradiation position, positioning and emitting the ultraviolet laser light several times until the defect is completely removed. The work efficiency was extremely poor.

Furthermore, the thickness of the defect may vary greatly over the entire region, and the defect cannot be corrected to a flat surface simply by adjusting the shape and irradiation position of the ultraviolet laser beam. Modification quality was degraded.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a means for irradiating a defective portion of a liquid crystal display color filter with ultraviolet laser light, and a means for imaging a region including the defective portion. Means for extracting an outline of a defective portion based on image data obtained by imaging, means for dividing a defect region formed by the extracted outline of the defective portion into rectangles of an arbitrary size, Means for changing the cross-sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser light in accordance with the size of the rectangle thus formed, and means for positioning the irradiation position of the ultraviolet laser light in accordance with the above-mentioned rectangular division position.

Further, the present invention provides a means for irradiating a defect with an ultraviolet laser beam, a means for measuring the height of a defect, and a method for determining a defect area to be removed based on the measured height of the defect. Means for detecting, means for dividing the defective area into rectangular parallelepiped blocks of an arbitrary size, means for changing the cross-sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser beam according to the size of the divided rectangular parallelepiped blocks, and division positions of the rectangular parallelepiped blocks And means for setting the irradiation condition of the ultraviolet laser light according to the height of the rectangular parallelepiped block. The irradiation conditions include the number of irradiations of the ultraviolet laser light and the irradiation energy density.

[0007]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, a defective part is extracted based on an image obtained by imaging the defective part, and the defective area is divided into rectangles of an appropriate size. Then, the ultraviolet laser light is appropriately changed into a shape corresponding to the rectangular size, and the irradiation position is adjusted to a position where the rectangle is divided, and the defective portion is irradiated with the ultraviolet laser light.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the first embodiment.

An ultraviolet laser oscillator 1 (for example, a pulse-pumped Q-switched Nd: the fourth harmonic of a YAG laser;
226 μm), the irradiation energy density is adjusted by the attenuator 2, the diameter is expanded by the expander 3, the intensity is made uniform, the light is reflected by the mirror 4, and is incident on the variable rectangular opening 5. I do. The variable rectangular opening 5 is an opening in which two movable knife edges arranged opposite to each other are vertically and horizontally combined, and by opening and closing the opening, the cross-sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser beam 100 is formed into a rectangle of a desired size. Can be shaped. The ultraviolet laser light 100 shaped into a desired shape by the variable rectangular aperture 5 is supplied to a mirror 6, an imaging lens 7 for processing, and a dichroic mirror 8.
Then, the light is irradiated onto a work 11 placed on an XY stage 10 via an objective lens 9. Defects generated in the work 11 are removed by irradiating the ultraviolet laser light 100. Here, the number of times of irradiation of the ultraviolet laser beam 100, the irradiation energy density, and the change setting of the cross-sectional shape are set by driving the ultraviolet laser oscillator 1, the attenuator 2, and the variable rectangular aperture 5 by a signal from the driving unit 17, respectively. Will be

Next, based on an image obtained by imaging the work 11 with the CCD camera 12, the ultraviolet laser light
A method for automatically controlling the shape and the irradiation position of 0 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

After performing pre-processing (S101) such as setting of R / G / B level and setting of binarization level, the CCD camera 12 sets the objective lens 9, the dichroic mirror 8 and the imaging lens 13 for observation. The work 11 is imaged via the camera and a multi-value two-dimensional image is captured (S102). The captured image data is supplied to the image processing unit 14 and binarized at a preset threshold level (S103). By binarizing the image data, a defective area 301 on the work 11 can be extracted. Next, as shown in FIG. 3A, the inclination θ of the extracted defect area 301 in the longitudinal direction is calculated, and the inclination is corrected (S104). next,
As shown in FIG. 3B, a defect area 301 is formed by using a plurality of minimum processing rectangles 302 each having a size obtained by dividing one side of the maximum rectangular shape among the shapes of the ultraviolet laser light 100 by an integer.
The processing area 303 is set by covering the whole. That is, the processing area 303 including the defect area 301 is divided by the minimum processing rectangle 301 (S105). Minimum machining rectangle 30
For 1, a size close to the minimum unit of the region irradiated by the ultraviolet laser light 100 can be used. Then, with respect to the processing area 303, from the upper left, the maximum processing rectangle 304
(In the case of FIG. 3C, the size of 3 × 3 of the minimum processing rectangle 302) to the minimum processing rectangle 302 are sequentially applied, so that the processing rectangle 3 for processing the defective area 301 is obtained.
05 is set (S106). The maximum machining rectangle 304 is
A size close to the maximum region that can be irradiated by the ultraviolet laser light 100 can be used. At this time, as the processing rectangle 305 to be set, a rectangular shape having a large size is given priority in order to speed up the processing. The above processing (S
101 to S106) are the image processing unit 14 and the control unit 1
5 is performed. The data processed by the image processing unit 14 can be monitored by the monitor 16.

The machining rectangle 305 thus set
The information indicating the shape and the position of the is transmitted from the control unit 15 to the drive unit 17. The drive unit 17 drives the variable rectangular opening 5 to change the shape of the ultraviolet laser light 100 based on the transmitted information, and drives the XY stage 10 to position the irradiation position of the ultraviolet laser light 100. Perform (S107). Then, the work 11 is irradiated with the ultraviolet laser light 100 according to preset irradiation conditions (for example, irradiation time, irradiation frequency, irradiation energy density, etc.) (S108). By executing the process of S107 for each set processing rectangle and repeating the irradiation of the ultraviolet laser light 100, a defective portion can be removed and corrected. Here, in the processing rectangle set as shown in FIG. 3C, an overlap having a width sufficient to cover the positioning accuracy of the ultraviolet laser light 100 is provided between adjacent processing rectangles.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

In this embodiment, a defective area is extracted by measuring the height of a defective portion on a work. The shape of the ultraviolet laser beam irradiated to the extracted defect region and the positioning of the irradiation position are the same as those in the first embodiment described above, but in this embodiment, particularly, from the height information of the defect region, Then, the irradiation condition of the ultraviolet laser light is calculated, and the work is irradiated with the ultraviolet laser light in accordance with the calculated condition. In the present embodiment, since the ultraviolet laser light is irradiated in consideration of the height of the defect region, the repair quality of the defective portion can be significantly improved.

Referring to FIG. 4, an ultraviolet laser beam 100 emitted from an ultraviolet laser oscillator 1
Is the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 1, and the description of the overlapping portions will be omitted. In this embodiment, the laser scanning including the objective lens 9, the Z stage 18, the galvanometer 20, the scanning mirror 19, the CCD image sensor 22, the acousto-optic (AO) element 23, the scanning laser oscillator 24, and the laser scanning microscope control unit 25 is performed. The height of the defect on the work 11 is measured by a microscope. Specifically, the laser beam emitted from the scanning laser oscillator 24 is scanned in a uniaxial direction by the AO element while the work 11 is moved through the dichroic mirror 21, the scanning mirror 19, the mirror 18, the dichroic mirror 8, and the objective lens 9.
Irradiation. The reflected light is transmitted to the CCD image sensor 22.
, Photoelectrically converted and detected by the laser scanning microscope controller 2
5 is output. Since the output of the CCD image sensor 22 indicates the maximum value when the captured image is focused, the CCD image sensor 2 is moved while the objective lens 9 is moved up and down by small steps by the Z stage 18.
By monitoring the output of No. 2 and storing the height of the Z stage 18 when the output indicates the maximum value, the height of the defective portion can be measured. On the other hand, by driving the scanning mirror 19 by the galvanometer 20,
The height of the defective portion is measured by scanning the laser beam in another uniaxial direction. This makes it possible to measure the height of the defective portion two-dimensionally. Here, galvanometer 2
The drive control and height measurement of the 0 and Z stages 18 and the like are executed by the laser scanning microscope controller 25. The result measured by the laser scanning microscope controller 25 is displayed on a monitor 26.
Can be monitored.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and the schematic diagram shown in FIG.

The work 1 is obtained by the laser scanning microscope described above.
1 is measured (S201). A defective portion is detected based on the measured height (S202). As a detection method, for example, as shown in FIG. 6A, a portion where the measured height exceeds a preset threshold
There is a method of extracting as 01. Next, inclination correction is performed on the defective portion 601 in the same manner as in the first embodiment (S
203), as shown in FIG. 6A, the defective portion 601 is divided by the minimum processing rectangular block 602 (S204). This minimum processing rectangle block 602 is a minimum processing rectangle (FIG. 3).
It is a rectangular parallelepiped with the minimum processing depth. The minimum processing depth indicates a minimum unit depth at which a defective portion is removed by irradiation with ultraviolet laser light. Next, the divided minimum processing rectangular blocks 602 are combined into a rectangular parallelepiped having a cross-sectional area as large as possible, which can be irradiated with ultraviolet laser light.
A processing rectangular block 603 as shown in FIG. 6B is set (S205). The processing rectangular block 603 determines the processing area and the number of irradiations (irradiation energy density) by the ultraviolet laser light 100. Here, in setting the processing rectangular block 603, if necessary, an additional block 604 having the same size as the minimum processing rectangular block 602 divided first is added, and a larger processing rectangular block 603 is set. You may do so. By setting the processing rectangular block 603 using the additional block 604, processing efficiency can be improved.

Based on the set processing rectangular block,
The irradiation condition of the ultraviolet laser beam 100 is calculated (S20).
6). That is, the number of irradiations of the ultraviolet laser light required to remove the defective portion having the processing depth specified by the processing rectangular block is calculated. By increasing the energy density per irradiation, the number of irradiations can be reduced and the processing time can be shortened. As above, S202
The processing from S206 to S206 is executed by the control unit 15.

Further, the drive section 17 changes the shape of the ultraviolet laser beam 100 and positions its irradiation position in accordance with the set processing rectangular block (S20).
7). After the various conditions are set in this manner, the ultraviolet laser beam 100 is irradiated on the defective portion on the work 11 (S2).
08). By executing the process of S208 for each set processing rectangular block and repeating the irradiation of the ultraviolet laser light 100, a defective portion can be removed and corrected.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Irrespective of the skill level of the operator, the shape of the ultraviolet laser beam can be automatically changed and the irradiation position can be accurately positioned, so that the working efficiency and the working accuracy can be improved. .

Further, since the number of irradiations of the ultraviolet laser beam and the irradiation energy density are calculated based on the height of the defective portion, the defective portion can be corrected flat, and the quality of the correction can be improved. Can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method of setting a processing rectangle according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a method for setting a second processed rectangular block according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 ultraviolet laser oscillator 2 attenuator 3 expander 4, 6 mirror 5 variable rectangular aperture 7 processing imaging lens 8, 21 dichroic mirror 9 objective lens 10 XY stage 12 CCD camera 13 observation imaging lens 14 image processing unit 15 control unit 16, 26 Monitor 17 Drive unit 18 Z stage 19 Scanning mirror 20 Galvanometer 22 CCD image sensor 23 AO element 24 Scanning laser oscillator 25 Laser scanning microscope control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G02F 1/1335 500-505 G02B 5/20 101

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A defect correcting method for a liquid crystal display color filter, comprising irradiating a defect portion of a liquid crystal display color filter with an ultraviolet laser beam, and decomposing and evaporating the defect portion to remove the defect portion. A first step of extracting an outline of a defective portion based on image data obtained by imaging an area including the defect, and dividing a defect region formed by the extracted outline of the defective portion into rectangles of an arbitrary size A second step of changing the sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser beam according to the size and division position of the divided rectangle, and positioning the irradiation position thereof; and a sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser beam. A step of irradiating an ultraviolet laser beam to remove the defective portion after the change of the position and the positioning of the irradiation position are completed. Defect correction method of. 2. The method according to claim 2, wherein the second step is a step of dividing the defect area into a minimum rectangular size that can be processed by the ultraviolet laser light, and appropriately combining the minimum rectangle. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of setting a rectangle as large as possible up to a maximum rectangle size that can be processed. 3. A defect correction method for a liquid crystal display color filter, wherein a defect portion of the liquid crystal display color filter is irradiated with ultraviolet laser light, and the defect portion is decomposed and evaporated to remove the defect portion. A first step of measuring a height, a second step of detecting a defect area to be removed based on the measured height of the defect , and converting the defect area into a rectangular parallelepiped block of an arbitrary size. Split
That a third step, according to the size of the divided rectangular blocks, a fourth step and defect correction method for a color liquid crystal display filter comprising a setting the irradiation conditions of the ultraviolet laser beam . 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the fourth step is performed by dividing the divided rectangular shape.
Depending on the size of the body block, the cross section of the ultraviolet laser light
Changing the shape and the number of irradiations or irradiation energy density of the ultraviolet laser light.
4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of setting both of them . 5. A defect repairing apparatus for a liquid crystal display color filter for irradiating a defect portion of a liquid crystal display color filter with an ultraviolet laser beam to decompose and evaporate and remove the defect portion, Means for irradiating an ultraviolet laser beam, means for imaging an area including the defect, means for extracting an outline of the defect based on image data obtained by imaging, and an outline of the extracted defect Means for dividing the defect region formed by the above into rectangles of an arbitrary size; means for changing the cross-sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser light according to the size of the divided rectangle; and Means for positioning the irradiation position of the ultraviolet laser light. 6. A defect correction device for a liquid crystal display color filter, wherein a defect portion of the liquid crystal display color filter is irradiated with an ultraviolet laser beam to decompose and evaporate and remove the defect portion. Means for irradiating ultraviolet laser light; means for measuring the height of the defect; means for detecting a defect area to be removed based on the measured height of the defect; Means for dividing into rectangular parallelepiped blocks of a size, means for changing the cross-sectional shape of the ultraviolet laser light according to the size of the divided rectangular parallelepiped blocks, and the ultraviolet laser according to the division position of the rectangular parallelepiped blocks A means for positioning a light irradiation position, and a means for setting the irradiation condition of the ultraviolet laser light according to the height of the rectangular parallelepiped block. Recessed correction device.