JP3147099B2 - Liquid crystal panel manufacturing method - 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 for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel in which a pair of substrates is pressed and bonded with a sealant interposed therebetween.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 4, 1 is an upper jig,
2 is a liquid crystal substrate, 3 is a sealant, 6 is a lower jig, 8 is packing, 9 and 9 are vacuum holes, and 12 is a Teflon sheet. The Teflon sheet 12 has a planar shape and is attached to the upper jig 1. The liquid crystal substrate 2 is a TFT substrate (lower substrate) 2
-1 and an opposite substrate (upper substrate) 2-2, and a sealant 3 is formed as a predetermined plane pattern (seal pattern) PA between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2. . The packing 8 is provided on the lower jig 6. The vacuum holes 9 are formed in the lower jig 6. The upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6 constitute a seal firing jig.

In the liquid crystal panel manufacturing process (seal baking process), the liquid crystal substrate 2 is set at the center of the lower jig 6 and
Put the upper jig 1 on. Thereby, the packing 8 of the lower jig 6 is
The upper jig 1 comes into contact with the upper jig 1 to form a sealed space 13 having the Teflon sheet 12 as a component between the upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6 (see FIG. 5). Liquid crystal substrate 2
Is located. From such a state, the vacuum of the sealed space 13 is reduced through the vacuum holes 9 of the lower jig 6. As a result, the Teflon sheet 12 becomes the upper substrate 2-2 of the liquid crystal substrate 2.
And the liquid crystal substrate 2 is uniformly pressurized with the atmospheric pressure through the Teflon sheet 12 and the lower jig 6. This atmospheric pressure is applied for the purpose of making the gap between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2 uniform. Thereafter, in a high-temperature environment, the sealant 3 is cured and the lower substrate 2 is cured.
-1 and the upper substrate 2-2.

[0004]

However, according to such a conventional method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, the sealed space 1 is not provided.
The area of the Teflon sheet 12 that is not opposed to the seal pattern PA (particularly, the display section) during the vacuum depressurization of 3 tends to be in a concave state as shown by a broken line in FIG.
This causes the gap between the first substrate 1 and the upper substrate 2-2 to be non-uniform. This is because when the air in the sealed space 13 is depressurized at the time of vacuum decompression, the area facing the seal pattern PA and the area not facing the seal pattern PA are relatively crushed because there is no repulsive force by the sealant 3 in the area not facing the seal pattern PA. Because it is easy.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-15612,
A technique using an embossed sheet (a sheet having fine irregularities uniformly on the surface) instead of the Teflon sheet 12 is shown. When this embossed sheet is used, the embossed sheet and the upper substrate 2-
The air existing in the gap with the outer surface of the second 2 is quickly exhausted without remaining. However, even if such an embossed sheet is used, the seal pattern PA is used when the pressure in the sealed space 13 is reduced by vacuum as in the case of the Teflon sheet 12.
The area of the embossed sheet that is not opposed to the above tends to be in a concave state, which still causes the gap between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2 to be non-uniform.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-48644 discloses a technique for inserting a cushioning material on the lower surface side of the Teflon sheet 12. In this case, it is assumed that a paper material such as Kent paper, synthetic paper, and rasha paper is used as the cushioning material, and that a pattern corresponding to an area other than the seal pattern PA is deleted by a knife or other cutting device. When this buffer material is used, the gap between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2 can be made uniform by pressing only the appropriate position corresponding to the seal pattern PA on the outer surface of the upper substrate 2-2. It becomes possible to. Further, the load per unit area can be reduced, and the vacuum decompression force can be reduced.

However, when such a cushioning material is used, there are the following problems. Since a paper material such as Kent paper, synthetic paper, and rasha paper is used as the material of the buffer material, the buffer effect is not expected because the conditions (increase or decrease) of the thickness of the buffer material are limited.
That is, the thickness of the buffer material cannot be freely changed according to the buffer effect, and the expected buffer effect cannot be obtained. Since a paper material is used as the cushioning material, it is difficult to cope with a liquid crystal substrate having a complicated shape of a seal pattern or a complicated number of chamfers. That is, the liquid crystal substrate 2 shown in FIG. 4 has two chamfers, and is finally cut to obtain two liquid crystal substrates. Although FIG. 4 shows the case of two chamfers, the number of chamfers is actually more complicated, and it becomes more difficult to manufacture the cushioning material as the number of chamfers increases. FIG. 2 shows a simple seal pattern PA, but the more complicated the seal pattern, the more difficult it is to manufacture a cushioning material. In order to support complicated shapes of seal patterns and multi-faceted products, complicated notches are required.
I am worried about the strength of the cushioning material itself. In addition, the alignment accuracy with the seal pattern cannot be ensured.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is an object of the present invention to form a uniform gap between an upper substrate and a lower substrate and to reduce a vacuum pressure when manufacturing a liquid crystal panel. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel which can reduce the size of a liquid crystal panel, can obtain an expected buffer effect, and can cope with a variety of products having complicated shapes of seal patterns and complicated numbers of chamfers.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel as described above, wherein a projection having a substantially same planar pattern as that of a sealant is formed by photolithography. Light-curing tree
Formed on a buffer sheet made of oil, and the buffer sheet is formed on one or both outer surfaces of a pair of substrates in a state where the planar pattern of the projections and the planar pattern of the sealant are matched. It is arranged, and a pair of substrates is pressed by interposing a buffer sheet arranged on the outer surface. According to the present invention, the planar pattern of the projections formed on the buffer sheet by photolithography locally presses the planar pattern of the sealant sandwiched between the pair of substrates.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments. [Embodiment 1] A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel (Embodiment 1) according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
1 and 2, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 4 and 5 indicate the same or equivalent components.

In this embodiment, a buffer sheet (photocurable resin sheet) 5 made of photocurable resin is attached to the upper jig 1 instead of the Teflon sheet 12 shown in FIG. On the photocurable resin sheet 5, the projections 4 of the same planar pattern PB as the seal pattern PA are formed by photolithography. That is, the photocurable resin sheet 5 includes the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2 of the liquid crystal substrate 2.
-2 Seal pattern PA of sealant 3 sandwiched between
At the same position as above, a projection 4 having the same shape as the seal pattern PA is formed by photolithography.
In addition, as a material of the photocurable resin sheet 5, a fluorine-based resin, a Si-based resin, or the like may be used in addition to the epoxy-based resin.

Further, the lower jig 6 is provided with substrate positioning pins 7, 7 at four corners as a structure for preventing displacement when the liquid crystal substrate 2 is set on the lower jig 6. The lower jig 6 and the upper jig 1 each have a jig positioning pin 1 as a structure for preventing displacement when the upper jig 1 is set on the lower jig 6.
0, 10 and reference holes 11, 11 are provided. The upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6 constitute a seal firing jig.

In the liquid crystal panel manufacturing process (seal baking process), the liquid crystal substrate 2 is set on the lower jig 6 while being aligned with reference to the four reference positioning pins 7, 7 provided on the lower jig 6. I do. Next, the reference holes 1 of the upper jig 1 are inserted into the jig positioning pins 10 and 10 installed on the lower jig 6.
The upper jig 1 is put on while inserting 1,1. As a result, the packing 8 of the lower jig 6 and the upper jig 1 come into contact with each other, and a sealed space 13 including the photocurable resin sheet 5 as a component is formed between the upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6. The liquid crystal substrate 2 is located in the sealed space 13 (see FIG. 2).

From such a state, the vacuum of the sealed space 13 is reduced through the vacuum holes 9 and 9 of the lower jig 6. As a result, the photocurable resin sheet 5 is moved to the upper substrate 2-2 of the liquid crystal substrate 2.
The liquid crystal substrate 2 is uniformly pressurized with the atmospheric pressure through the photocurable resin sheet 5 and the lower jig 6 while being in close contact with the outer surface of the liquid crystal substrate 2. Thereafter, the sealing agent 3 is cured in a high temperature environment,
The lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2 are bonded.

In this embodiment, the planar pattern PB of the projections 4 formed on the photocurable resin sheet 5 by photolithography is a sealant sandwiched between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2. 3 is locally pressurized, so that the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-
2 can be formed uniformly.

Further, in this embodiment, the pressing area is limited to only the seal pattern PA, so that the pressure per unit area is smaller than the conventional method of pressing the entire surface of the substrate described with reference to FIGS. Less weight is required. Specifically, the vacuum depressurizing force can be reduced to half or less, and can be handled within the maximum vacuum degree of 760 mmHg (1 kg / cm ² ). As a result, the ability to handle large substrates can be increased.

Further, in this embodiment, since the buffer sheet 5 made of a photo-curable resin is used, there is no restriction on the plate thickness as when using a paper material such as Kent paper, synthetic paper, and rasha paper. The thickness of the buffer sheet 5 can be freely changed according to the effect, and an expected buffer effect can be obtained.

In this embodiment, the projections 4 are formed on the buffer sheet 5 made of a photocurable resin by photolithography.
Is formed, it is possible to easily cope with a seal pattern having a complicated shape. Further, a positional accuracy of ± 0.1 mm can be ensured as the planar pattern PB of the projection 4, and it is possible to cope with a variety of products having a complicated number of chamfers without any problem.

In this embodiment, the alignment accuracy (± 0.5 mm) between the flat pattern PB of the projection 4 of the photocurable resin sheet 5 and the seal pattern PA of the sealant 3 is used.
Position), but a structure for preventing displacement by the board positioning pins 7, 7 provided at the four corners of the lower jig 6, the jig positioning pins 10, 10 provided on the lower jig 6, and the upper jig The alignment accuracy is ensured by the misalignment preventing structure provided by the reference holes 11 provided in 1.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, the photocurable resin sheet 5 is provided on the upper jig 1. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the photocurable resin sheet 14 in which the projections 4 of the same planar pattern PB as the seal pattern PA are formed by photolithography is attached to the lower jig 6. In advance, the liquid crystal substrate 2 is set while positioning the liquid crystal substrate 2 on the basis of the substrate positioning pins 7 at the four corners.

Next, while inserting the reference holes 11, 11 of the upper jig 1 on which the Teflon sheet 12 is attached, into the jig positioning pins 10, 10 installed on the lower jig 6, Put on. As a result, the packing 8 of the lower jig 6 comes into contact with the upper jig 1, and a sealed space 15 having the photocurable resin sheet 14 as a component between the upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6.
Is formed, and the liquid crystal substrate 2 is located in the sealed space 15.

In this state, the pressure in the sealed space 15 is reduced through the vacuum holes 9 and 9 of the lower jig 6. As a result, the photocurable resin sheet 14 is moved to the lower substrate 2 of the liquid crystal substrate 2.
-1, the liquid crystal substrate 2 is evenly pressurized to atmospheric pressure with the photocurable resin sheet 14 and the Teflon sheet 12 interposed therebetween. Then, as a high temperature environment, the sealant 3
Is cured, and the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2 are bonded.

In this embodiment, the projections 4 formed on the photocurable resin sheet 14 by photolithography are used.
Is to locally press the seal pattern PA of the sealant 3 sandwiched between the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2-2, so that the lower substrate 2-1 and the upper substrate 2
-2 can be formed uniformly.

In the first embodiment, the photocurable resin sheet 5 is attached to the upper jig 1, and in the second embodiment, the photocurable resin sheet 14 is attached to the lower jig 6.
A photo-curable resin sheet 5 is provided on both the upper jig 1 and the lower jig 6.
And 14 may be attached. In Embodiments 1 and 2 described above, the sealant 3
Is cured, but the sealant may be cured by irradiating ultraviolet rays or the like.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the plane pattern of the projections formed on the buffer sheet is locally added to the plane pattern of the sealant sandwiched between a pair of substrates. Thus, in manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, it is possible to form a uniform gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate and reduce the vacuum pressure reduction force. In addition, since a buffer sheet made of a photo-curable resin is used, there is no limitation on the thickness of the sheet as when using paper materials such as Kent paper, synthetic paper, and rasha paper. It can be changed freely, and the expected buffer effect can be obtained. Further, since projections are formed by photolithography on a buffer sheet made of a photocurable resin, it is possible to easily cope with a seal pattern having a complicated shape. In addition, the position of the planar pattern of the projection can be secured with high accuracy, and it is possible to cope with a variety of products having a complicated number of chamfers without any problem.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for explaining a liquid crystal panel manufacturing method (Embodiment 1) according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel (Embodiment 1) according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel (Embodiment 2) according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining a conventional method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a conventional method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 upper jig 2 liquid crystal substrate 2-1 TFT substrate (lower substrate) 2-2 counter substrate (upper substrate) 3 sealant 4
... projections, 5 ... buffer sheets (photo-curable resin sheets), 6 ...
Lower jig, 7: board positioning pin, 8: packing, 9: vacuum hole, 10: jig positioning pin, 11: reference hole, 12 ...
Teflon sheet, 13: sealed space, 14: buffer sheet (photocurable resin sheet), 15: sealed space, PA: plane pattern of sealant 3 (seal pattern), PB: plane pattern of protrusion 4.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] In a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, a pair of substrates is pressurized and pressure-bonded with a sealant interposed therebetween, wherein a projection having a flat pattern substantially the same as the flat pattern of the sealant is formed by photolithography using a photocurable resin.
And forming the buffer sheet on one or both of the outer surfaces of the pair of substrates in a state where the planar pattern of the protrusions and the planar pattern of the sealant are matched. Process
When, through the buffer sheet disposed on the outer surface by this process
Method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel; and a Zaisa allowed step of pressing the pair of substrates. 2. A pressure / pressure system comprising a pair of substrates sandwiched by a sealant.
In the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel to be attached, a planar pattern substantially the same as the planar pattern of the sealant is provided.
Of the photo-curing resin by photolithography
Forming a pair of substrates sandwiching the sealant with a lower jig.
And placing the pair of substrates while inserting the reference holes into the positioning pins.
The buffer sheet is attached to the lower jig
By covering the jig, the protrusion of the buffer sheet
Align the surface pattern with the planar pattern of the sealant
Between the lower jig and the upper jig
The pair of substrates located at the interposition of the buffer sheet
Method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel; and a step of pressing by. 3. A pair of substrates is pressed and pressed with a sealant interposed therebetween.
In the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel to be attached, a planar pattern substantially the same as the planar pattern of the sealant is provided.
Of the photo-curing resin by photolithography
And forming the buffer sheet having the protrusions on a lower jig.
And a pair of substrates on which a sealant is sandwiched.
By setting the plate positioning pin to the reference, the slow
The planar pattern of projections on the opposing sheet and the planar pattern of the sealant
A step of aligning the turn with the pair of substrates while inserting a reference hole into a positioning pin.
A step of putting the upper jig on the set lower jig, and the step is located between the lower jig and the upper jig by this step.
Pressing the pair of substrates with the buffer sheet interposed
And a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel. 4. The method of claim 1, said buffer sheet their
Seals the space where the pair of substrates is located as a component of
Then, the buffer space is reduced by depressurizing the sealed space.
A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel, wherein the pair of substrates is pressurized at atmospheric pressure with a sheet interposed therebetween .