JP3306408B2 - Liquid crystal display device manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus used in a liquid crystal display element manufacturing process, and more particularly to a resist coating device, an exposure device, an alignment film coating device, a printing machine, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a liquid crystal display device has, for example, 300
A glass substrate having a size of about 300 mm x 300 mm x a thickness of about 1.0 mm is mainly used.
Larger glass substrates with a size of 00 mm have also been used.

[0003] Such a glass substrate is used during the manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display element, for example, in a resist coating apparatus, an exposure apparatus,
The glass substrate 11 is sequentially conveyed through an alignment film coating device, a printing machine, etc., and during a processing operation in each device, as shown in FIG. The upper part is fixed by vacuum suction. That is, the stage 12 is provided with a plurality of suction holes 13 having a diameter of about 0.5 to 1.0 mm.
The suction holes 13 are provided in a grid pattern at intervals of mm.
Is connected to a vacuum pump 15 provided below the stage 12 via a communication path 14. Glass substrate 11
Is absorbed over almost the entire surface by the vacuum suction force acting through each suction hole 13 and is fixed on the stage 12.

A glass substrate 11 manufactured in a flat shape
Has excellent flatness and high rigidity,
Even if the suction force is applied discretely through the suction holes 13 as described above, no deformation such as warpage occurs in the glass substrate 11 as shown in FIG. At this time, as shown in FIG. 8, the resist film 16 is uniformly applied by, for example, a resist coating process, and the finished state does not have irregularities.

On the other hand, in recent years, a flexible substrate made of plastic or the like has been adopted as the liquid crystal display element has become thinner, and is being put to practical use. Conventionally, even when such a flexible substrate is positioned and fixed in each manufacturing apparatus, the same suction hole 1 as described above is used.
A method of adsorbing and fixing through 3 is adopted.

[0006]

[SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, when applying the conventional same adsorption fixation to the flexible substrate as described above, flexibility or found with the material itself, as shown in FIG. 9, from the suction hole 13 The flexible substrate 21 is fixed in a state in which undulations corresponding to the distance between the suction holes 13 are generated as shown in the drawing, as a result, a portion directly above the suction substrate 13 is locally deformed according to the suction force. It has become something. That is, when the action of suction force through the suction holes 13 open to each other spaced locations as described above, the entire flexible substrate 21 despite being fabricated in a planar shape, flexibility or al local materials Thus, a stable state is generated, and the flatness is conversely impaired, and the state is a fixed state.

As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, the thickness of the resist film 22 after the resist coating process becomes non-uniform, resulting in unevenness in the finished state. For this reason, there is a problem that the display quality of the liquid crystal display element becomes uneven.

The present invention has been made in view of the conventional problems described above, frame made of plastic or the like
It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display element manufacturing apparatus capable of obtaining a liquid crystal display element having excellent display quality even when a xivable substrate is used.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus comprising: a mounting table having a flat mounting surface on which a flexible substrate is mounted; A plurality of suction holes provided on the mounting surface and spaced apart from each other and opened, and the flexible substrate is fixed by applying suction force through the suction holes,
Resist coating, exposure, alignment film coating on the flexible substrate
Cloth, the liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus that performs printing or liquid crystal alignment treatment, through the suction hole placement surface has a larger area than the flexible board located on the periphery except the effective range of use of the flexible substrate In the peripheral suction state where the suction force is applied, the flexible substrate is fixed and the resist coating, exposure, alignment film coating, printing or liquid
It is characterized by performing a crystal orientation treatment .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus.
2. The liquid crystal display element manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction hole is provided only in the peripheral portion.

According to the liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus of the present invention,
Mounting surface has a larger area than the flexible substrate, off
In peripheral adsorption state where the action of the suction force through the suction hole located on the periphery except the effective range of use of Rekishiburu substrate, off
Fixing the flexible substrate , resist coating, exposure, alignment film
By applying, printing or liquid crystal alignment treatment , the area where local deformation occurs due to the suction force acting on each of the suction holes separated from each other is limited to only the peripheral part excluding the display range as the effective use range on the flexible substrate And fixed on the mounting table. Therefore, in the display range, frame
The flatness of the kibble substrate itself is maintained. As a result, it is possible to make the thickness of the resist or the like applied to the surface of the flexible substrate substantially uniform within the display range. As a result, a liquid crystal display element with improved display characteristics can be manufactured.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a resist coating apparatus in a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display element has a stage (mounting table) 2 having a flat mounting surface on an upper surface.
Is provided. This stage 2 has a diameter of 0.5 to
A plurality of 1.0 mm suction holes 3 and 7
The openings are in a grid pattern at 0 mm intervals. Of these suction holes 3 and 7, the outermost peripheral side suction hole 3 is connected to a first communication path 5 provided horizontally inside the stage 2. The first communication path 5 is connected to the vacuum pump 4 via a switching valve 6. Further, the central suction holes 7 inside the peripheral suction holes 3 are connected to second communication passages 8 formed in the stage 2 separately from the first communication passages 5, respectively. Is connected to the switching valve 6.

A state in which the vacuum suction force when the vacuum pump 4 is operated by the switching valve 6 is applied from the first communication path 5 and the second communication path 8 through all the suction holes 3 and 7 (hereinafter, the entire suction operation). The state is switched between a state in which the first communication path 5 operates only through the peripheral suction holes 3 (hereinafter, referred to as a peripheral suction operation state).

[0015] resist coating apparatus including a stage 2 as described above, when the flat flexible substrate 1 made of a material such as plastic is placed In example embodiment, the flexible substrate based on the following Procedure 1 Is fixed by suction. The flexible substrate 1 in this case has a square shape as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that two stages of display areas 1a and 1b are set as shown in the figure in an area as an effective use area on the center side except the peripheral side. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the mounting surface of the stage 2 is a flexible substrate 1 mounted thereon.
Has a larger area than

First, when the flexible substrate 1 is conveyed from outside the apparatus onto the stage 2 and positioning is performed, the switching valve 6 is operated as shown in FIG. Both of the two communication paths 8 are connected to the vacuum pump 4. As a result, the flexible substrate 1 is positioned in such a manner that the center of the flexible substrate 1 is aligned with the center of the stage 2 and all the suction holes 3
Through which the entire surface is adsorbed and adsorbed and fixed.

Next, the switching operation of the switching valve 6 is performed, whereby the connection state of the second communication path 8 with the vacuum pump 4 is maintained while the connection state of the first communication path 5 with the vacuum pump 4 is maintained. And the vacuum suction force through the central suction hole 7 is released. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1, the peripheral edge on which the vacuum suction force acts only through the peripheral side suction holes 3 located in the peripheral side area (the shaded area in the figure) except the display range on the flexible substrate 1. The mode is switched to the fixed state in the suction operation state.

Thereafter, a resist is applied to the surface of the flexible substrate 1, and when the processing in this apparatus is completed, the switching valve 6 is further switched to release the suction force through the peripheral suction holes 3, and the next step is performed from this apparatus. It is carried out to.

Hereinafter, the flexible substrate 1 is also used in other manufacturing processes such as resist coating, exposure, alignment film coating, offset printing, and screen printing.
Is fixed by suction in the same manner as described above, and each process is performed to manufacture a liquid crystal display element.

As described above, in the above-described embodiment, when the flexible substrate 1 is suction-fixed on the stage 2 in each manufacturing apparatus and a process such as resist coating is performed, the flexible substrate 1 is used. The operation of applying the suction force is performed only through the peripheral side suction holes 3 located corresponding to the peripheral side excluding the display range of 1. Therefore, the region where local deformation occurs due to the suction force acting on each of the suction holes 3 separated from each other is limited to only the peripheral portion of the flexible substrate 1 excluding the display range, and is fixed on the stage 2.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the flatness of the flexible substrate 1 itself is maintained at least in the display range. As a result, for example, the thickness of the resist applied to the surface of the flexible substrate 1 can be made substantially uniform within the display range. Similarly, in other devices, uniform processing is performed over the entire surface within the display range, so that a liquid crystal display element with improved display characteristics can be manufactured.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, prior to the predetermined processing in each device, the flexible substrate 1 is conveyed into these devices, and when the flexible substrate 1 is positioned, the peripheral side suction holes 3 and the central side suction holes 3 are positioned. The fixing of the flexible substrate 1 is performed in a state where the suction force is applied to all the holes 7 in the entire surface suction operation state. That is, the suction force acts on almost the entire surface of the flexible substrate 1 in a positioning state where the center is aligned with the stage 2. At this time, the suction holes 3,
7 is undulated locally corresponding to each of the intervals of the suction holes 7, for example, when it is placed on the stage 2 with a large curvature deformation exceeding the interval between the suction holes 3 and 7. However, as a whole, it is corrected into a substantially flat shape along the upper surface of the stage 2 and is accurately fixed while maintaining the positioning position. In addition, since the suction force acts on the entire surface, the above-mentioned suction fixed state can be quickly obtained. After such a suction-fixed state, the state is switched to the peripheral suction state, thereby returning to the flat state of the flexible substrate 1 itself within the display range, and thereafter, each of the above-described processes is performed. It has become. As a result, uniform processing is performed in a state where the fixed position on the stage 2 is more accurately held, so that a liquid crystal display element with further improved display characteristics can be manufactured.

In particular, as described above, temporarily bringing the entire surface into the suction state is effective when the size of the flexible substrate 1 is relatively large, for example, about 200 to 500 mm. In other words, in this case, in a state where the flexible substrate 1 is mounted on the stage 2 as described above and is to be immediately fixed in the peripheral suction state, for example, the flexible substrate 1
The air layer between the lower surface and the upper surface of the stage 2 does not immediately escape from the peripheral side, and it takes some time for the entire surface to be flat along the stage 2. Further, in this case, there is a possibility that the center side is in a fixed state in which large undulation is generated, or a deviation from the positioning position is caused to be fixed. So, as mentioned above,
Once the entire surface is adsorbed, it is possible to quickly fix it in a state where it is fixed at the positioning position.

As described above, according to the present invention, the flexible
A uniform processing can be performed on the display substrate within the display range, and a liquid crystal display element with improved display characteristics can be manufactured. Such a liquid crystal display element has a TN
(Twisted Nematic), STN (Sup
er Twisted Nematic), and FST
N (Film-compensated Super T)
There is a drive type such as "wisted Nematic".
A drive type such as TN or FSTN is used. In particular, the liquid crystal alignment control of the liquid crystal display device of this type requires a strict control than conventional, Furekishibu
When a liquid crystal substrate is used in these types of liquid crystal display devices, it is extremely important to maintain the flatness of the flexible substrate during the liquid crystal alignment process, and in this case, by applying the method described above, The characteristics can be improved.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the entire surface suction and the peripheral edge suction are sequentially switched has been described. However, when an accurate suction-fixed state can be obtained only by the peripheral edge suction, the stage is provided with: provided suction holes at positions corresponding only to the peripheral edge of the flexible substrate, it is also possible to immediately perform a peripheral side suction the flexible substrate positioned on the stage.

Although the description has been made mainly on the resist coating apparatus in the liquid crystal display element manufacturing process, the present invention can be applied to other manufacturing apparatuses.

[0026]

As the above description, according to the liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the mounting surface has a larger area than the flexible substrate, located at the periphery except for the effective use range of the flexible substrate in peripheral adsorption state where the action of the suction force through the suction hole, registration and fixing the flexible substrate
In the display range, flexible coating can be performed by applying a strike coating, exposure, coating of an alignment film, printing, or liquid crystal alignment processing.
The flatness of the plate itself is maintained, and the thickness of the resist or the like can be made substantially uniform within the display range,
A liquid crystal display element with improved display characteristics can be manufactured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a relationship between a stage and a flexible substrate used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a stage.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a flexible substrate is fixed by suction on a stage.

FIG. 4 is a plan view for explaining a display range on a flexible substrate.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart when the flexible substrate is fixed by a two-stage suction operation.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional stage and a glass substrate mounted on the stage.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state in which a glass substrate is fixed by suction to a conventional stage.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a glass substrate to which a resist film has been applied.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state in which a flexible substrate is suction-fixed by a conventional stage.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a flexible substrate after a resist is applied in a conventional suction-fixed state.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Flexible board 2 Stage (mounting table) 3 Peripheral side suction hole 4 Vacuum pump 5 1st communication path 6 Switching valve 7 Central side suction hole 8 2nd communication path 11 Glass substrate 12 Stage (mounting table) 13 Suction hole 14 Communication path 15 vacuum pump 16 resist film 21 flexible substrate 22 resist film

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-1-94969 (JP, A) JP-A-1-281190 (JP, A) JP-A-10-73796 (JP, A) JP-A-10- 68921 (JP, A) JP-A-4-324818 (JP, A) JP-A-3-21843 (JP, U) JP-A-2-137029 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02F 1/13 101 G02F 1/1333

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] And a mounting table having a flat mounting surface on which the flexible substrate is mounted, and a plurality of suction holes provided on the mounting surface and spaced apart from each other and opened. The flexible substrate is fixed by applying an attraction force, and the flexible substrate is coated with a resist and exposed.
Light, the alignment film application, a liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus that performs printing or liquid crystal alignment treatment, the mounting surface has a larger area than the flexible board located on the periphery except the effective range of use of the flexible substrate in peripheral adsorption state where the action of the suction force through the suction hole, Regis to fix the flexible substrate
A liquid crystal display element manufacturing apparatus, which performs coating, exposure, alignment film coating, printing or liquid crystal alignment processing . 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction hole is provided only in the peripheral portion.