JP4324805B2 - Pattern forming device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a pattern forming apparatus for forming a conductive pattern on a substrate.

  Conventionally, a method as disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a method for forming a conductive pattern such as an electrode or a wiring at a predetermined position on a solar cell substrate or an electronic circuit substrate.

In this method, as shown in the explanatory diagram of FIG. 5, the position of the substrate 100 fixed to the support base 101 is detected by a position detection device 102 such as a CCD camera disposed above the support base 101, and the detected substrate 100 is detected. Based on the amount of deviation between the position and the predetermined position of the substrate set in advance, the support base 101 is moved, and after aligning the position of the substrate 100 at the predetermined position set in advance, printing is performed. The machine 103 is operated to print a predetermined conductive pattern on the substrate.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-315430

  However, when a conductive pattern such as an electrode or a wiring is formed on the substrate by the above-described method, the conductive pattern is printed after the alignment of the substrate, so that the conductive pattern is often formed on the substrate. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to quickly form a conductive pattern.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and an object thereof is to provide a pattern forming apparatus capable of efficiently forming a conductive pattern on a substrate.

The object of the present invention is a pattern forming apparatus that prints a conductive pattern on a substrate, and includes a support base having two mounting portions to which the substrate is attached, and position correction for correcting the position of each substrate attached to the mounting portion. An apparatus, a position detection device that detects a position of a substrate attached to the mounting portion, and a printing device that prints a conductive pattern on the substrate. In one of the mounting portions, the position correction device is the position detection device. Based on the detected position of the substrate, the position of the substrate can be corrected, and in the other mounting portion, the printing device prints the conductive pattern on the substrate whose position has been corrected by the position correction device. It is configured to be in a printable state, and while correcting the position of the substrate attached to either one of the two mounting portions, As can the printing device printing a conductive pattern on a substrate mounted towards, the printing device and the support table is relatively movable structure, the position detecting apparatus, on both sides of the printing device The support is achieved by a pattern forming apparatus configured to reciprocate in the horizontal direction .

  Moreover, it is preferable to provide the conveyor which transfers a board | substrate, and the transfer arm which replaces | exchanges a board | substrate between the said mounting part in which the said position correction is possible on the conveyor.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the pattern formation apparatus which can form a conductive pattern in a board | substrate efficiently can be provided.

  Hereinafter, a pattern forming apparatus for printing a conductive pattern on a substrate according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a pattern forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. FIG. 3 is a side view in the direction of arrow B in FIG. In each figure, in order to facilitate the understanding of the configuration, enlargement or reduction is partially performed instead of the actual size ratio. In FIG. 3, the printing apparatus 21 shown in FIG. 1 is omitted.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the pattern forming apparatus 1 includes a conveyor 10, a first transfer arm 11, a second transfer arm 12, and a pattern forming apparatus main body 20. The conveyor 10 is a device for transferring a substrate, and various types such as a belt conveyor, a roller conveyor, and a chain conveyor can be employed.

  The 1st conveyance arm 11 is an apparatus which replaces | exchanges a board | substrate between the conveyor 10 and the mounting part 35a of the 1st support stand 35 mentioned later, and as shown in FIG. It is arranged above. The first transfer arm 11 includes a support arm 11a extending in the horizontal direction, and a rotating shaft 11b extending in the vertical direction is provided at the center of the support arm 11a. A motor 11c is connected to the upper end of the rotating shaft 11b, so that the support arm 11a can rotate on a horizontal plane. The rotating shaft 11b is connected to a moving shaft 11d that moves in the vertical direction via a motor 11c, whereby the support arm 11a is configured to move in the vertical direction. A plurality of suction pads 11e for sucking and holding the upper surface of the substrate are provided on the lower surfaces of both ends of the support arm 11a.

  The 2nd conveyance arm 12 is an apparatus which replaces | exchanges a board | substrate between the conveyor 10 and the mounting part 37a of the 2nd support stand 37 mentioned later. Since the configuration of the second transfer arm 12 is the same as that of the first transfer arm 11 described above, detailed description thereof is omitted. The first transport arm 11 and the second transport arm 12 are arranged on both sides of a printing device 21 described later.

  The pattern forming apparatus main body 20 includes a printing device 21, a substrate support device 25, a first position detection device 51, and a second position detection device 52. The printing device 21 is a device that forms a conductive pattern by applying a conductive paste on a substrate. For example, a screen printer can be exemplified.

  The substrate support device 25 includes a slide base 26, a first substrate positioning device 27, and a second substrate positioning device 28. The slide table 26 is a device that reciprocates horizontally along the conveying direction of the conveyor 10 below the printing device 21. The slide base 26 includes a base body 30 on which the first substrate positioning device 27 and the second substrate positioning device 28 are placed on the upper surface, and a rail member on which the base body 30 is placed and the base body 30 slides in the horizontal direction. 31 and a base body drive unit 32 that can move the base body 30 on the rail member 31 and can be disposed at a predetermined position. As the pedestal main body drive unit 32, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to use a servo mechanism composed of a ball screw 32a inserted through the pedestal main body 30 and a motor 32b that rotates the ball screw 32a. This is preferable from the viewpoint of increasing the positional accuracy. The rail member 31 is provided with stoppers 31a and 31b so that the amount of reciprocation of the base body 30 on the rail member 31 can be regulated. The first substrate positioning device 27 and the second substrate positioning device 28 are respectively arranged along the reciprocating direction of the slide table 26 (the left-right direction in FIG. 1).

  With such a configuration, it is possible to alternately print the conductive pattern by the printing device 21 on the substrates respectively supported by the first substrate positioning device 27 and the second substrate positioning device 28.

  The first substrate positioning device 27 is a device that supports the substrate loaded from the conveyor 10 by the first transfer arm 11 and aligns the substrate, and includes a first support base 35 that supports the substrate, and a first support. A first position correcting device 36 that corrects the position of the substrate supported by the table 35 to a predetermined position set in advance and aligns the substrate is provided. The first support base 35 is placed on top of the first position correction device 36. A mounting portion 35 a for attaching a substrate is provided on the upper surface of the first support base 35. As a configuration for attaching the substrate to the mounting portion 35a, for example, a configuration in which the substrate is sucked through a suction hole (not shown) provided in the first support base 35 can be exemplified.

  The first position correction device 36 calculates a deviation amount between the position of the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a detected by the first position detection device 51 described later and a predetermined position of the substrate set in advance. By moving the first support base 35 by a predetermined amount based on the deviation amount, the substrate supported by the first support base 35 can be arranged at a predetermined position of the preset substrate. As a configuration for moving the first support base 35 by a predetermined amount, the first support base 35 is moved with respect to the base body 30 of the slide base 26 in the left-right direction (arrow X direction in FIG. 2) and the front-back direction (indicated by arrows in FIG. A three-axis motor mechanism that moves in the horizontal rotation direction (the arrow θ direction in FIG. 2) can be exemplified.

  With such a configuration, the first position correcting device 36 can adjust the position of the substrate supported by the first support base 35 to a predetermined position set in advance, and can efficiently place the conductive pattern at a predetermined position on the substrate. It becomes possible to print.

  The second substrate positioning device 28 is a device that supports the substrate loaded from the conveyor 10 by the second transfer arm 12 and aligns the substrate, and includes a second support 37 that supports the substrate, and a second support. A second position correction device 38 that corrects the position of the substrate supported by the table 37 to a predetermined position set in advance is the same as the configuration of the first substrate positioning device 27 described above. Description is omitted.

  The first position detection device 51 and the second position detection device 52 are printed in advance on a part of the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 and the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37, respectively. The apparatus is configured to be able to detect the position of the substrate by reading the position of the registered mark, and is provided on both sides of the printing apparatus 21. Examples of the first position detection device 51 and the second position detection device 52 include imaging means such as a CCD camera and a microscope. In FIG. 1, the first position detection device 51 and the second position detection device 52 are illustrated as having a configuration including two imaging units 51a and 51b (52a and 52b), respectively. The configuration is not particularly limited, and a configuration including three or more imaging units may be employed. Further, each of the first position detection device 51 and the second position detection device 52 has one imaging unit, and is configured to detect the positions of the substrates attached to the first mounting portion and the second mounting portion. Also good.

  The positional relationship among the first substrate positioning device 27 and the second substrate positioning device 28, the printing device 21, the first position detecting device 51, and the second position detecting device 52 placed on the slide table 26 is as follows. It is configured as follows. That is, when the slide base 26 is operated and the base body 30 is arranged as shown in FIG. 4A, the first position detection device 51 determines the position of the substrate in the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35. Based on the detected position of the substrate, the first position correcting device 36 is in a position correcting state where the substrate position can be corrected, and the second position correction is performed in the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37. The printing apparatus 21 is configured to be in a printable state in which the conductive pattern can be printed on the substrate whose position has been corrected by the apparatus 38. Further, when the base body 30 of the slide base 26 is arranged as shown in FIG. 4B, the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 is based on the position of the substrate detected by the second position detection device 52. The second position correcting device 38 is in a position correctable state in which the substrate position can be corrected, and the printing device 21 can print the conductive pattern on the substrate in the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35. It is comprised so that it may be in a state.

  A method for efficiently forming a conductive pattern on a substrate using the pattern forming apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described below.

  First, the base body 30 of the slide base 26 is slid leftward as shown in FIG. 4A so that the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 is in a position correctable state in which the position of the substrate can be corrected. Let At this time, the first support base 35 is disposed so as to be positioned below the first position detection device 51 and the first transfer arm 11. And the board | substrate which prints a conductive pattern by operating the conveyor 10 is conveyed. When the substrate reaches the lower side of the first transfer arm 11, the conveyor 10 is temporarily stopped, the first transfer arm 11 is moved downward, and the conveyor is moved by the suction pad 11e attached to the tip of the support arm 11a. The substrate on 10 is sucked and held. Then, the support arm 11a is rotated 180 ° while the first transfer arm 11 is moved upward, and the first transfer arm 11 is moved downward again to set the substrate on the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35. . The substrate set in the mounting portion 35a is fixed by being sucked through a suction hole (not shown).

  Next, the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 is aligned. More specifically, first, the position of the substrate on the mounting portion 35 a is detected by the first position detection device 51. And the deviation | shift amount of the position of the detected board | substrate and the predetermined position of the board | substrate set beforehand is calculated. Thereafter, based on the calculated shift amount, the first position correction device 36 is operated to move the first support base 35 in a direction to absorb the shift of the substrate. Thereby, the board | substrate on the mounting part 35a can be arrange | positioned in the predetermined position currently set beforehand.

  Thereafter, the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 is in a printable state in which the conductive pattern can be printed by the printing device 21, and the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 is positioned at the position of the substrate. The base body 30 of the slide base 26 is slid rightward as shown in FIG. 4B so that the position can be corrected. Then, the conductive pattern is printed by the printing device 21 on the substrate that is attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 and whose position has been corrected.

  In the middle of printing the conductive pattern on the substrate on the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35, the substrate is put into the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 from the conveyor 10, and the substrate is aligned in advance. deep. That is, the operation of the conveyor 10 is resumed, and the operation of the conveyor 10 is stopped again when the substrate on which the conductive pattern on the conveyor 10 is not printed reaches the lower side of the second transfer arm 12. Then, the second transfer arm 12 is operated to set the substrate on the conveyor 10 on the mounting portion 37 a of the second support base 37. After that, the position of the substrate on the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 is detected by the second position detection device 52 in the same manner as the alignment of the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 described above. The deviation is corrected by calculating a deviation amount with respect to a predetermined position of the substrate set in advance, and operating the second position correcting device 38 based on the deviation amount to move the second support base 37 by a predetermined amount. Then, the position of the substrate is adjusted to a predetermined position set in advance.

  When the printing of the conductive pattern on the substrate on the first support base 35 is completed, the base body 30 of the slide base 26 is slid again leftward as shown in FIG. At this time, the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 is in a position-correctable state, and the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 is in a printable state.

  Next, the printing device 21 prints the conductive pattern on the substrate that is attached on the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 and has already been aligned. In the middle of printing the conductive pattern on the substrate on the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37, the first transport arm 11 is operated and attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 in which the position can be corrected. The substrate on which the conductive pattern is printed and the substrate on the conveyor 10 are exchanged. That is, the substrate on which the conductive pattern is printed is returned to the conveyor 10, and the substrate on which the conductive pattern on the conveyor 10 is not printed is loaded on the mounting portion 35 a of the first support base 35. Thereafter, alignment of the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 is performed in advance by the same method as described above, and printing of the conductive pattern on the substrate on the second support base 37 is completed. Thereafter, the base body 30 of the slide base 26 is slid rightward as shown in FIG. Then, the conductive pattern is printed on the substrate on the first support base 35, the substrate on the second support base 37 and the substrate on the conveyor 10 are exchanged, and the position of the substrate supported by the second support base 37 is changed. Align. By repeating such steps, the conductive pattern is printed on the substrate supported by the first support base 35 and the second support base 37.

  As described above, according to the pattern forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the position correction (with respect to the substrate attached to either the mounting portion 35a (37a) of the first support base 35 or the second support base 37 ( Since the conductive pattern can be printed on the substrate attached to the other mounting portion 37a (35a) while performing the alignment), the time for performing the alignment of the substrate and the printing device 21 is the substrate. It is possible to overlap the time for printing the conductive pattern thereon. As a result, the conductive pattern can be formed on the substrate efficiently and quickly.

  Moreover, since the structure which reciprocates horizontally the base main body 30 in which the 1st support stand 35 and the 2nd support stand 37 are mounted is employ | adopted as a 1st support stand 35 or a 1st with a compact structure. It is possible to print the conductive pattern on the substrate supported on the other side while correcting the position on the substrate supported on one of the two support bases 37.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the substrate 10 is provided between the conveyor 10 for transferring the substrate and the mounting portion of the first support base 35 or the second support base 37 in which the position can be corrected. Since the first transfer arm 11 and the second transfer arm 12 are provided, the conductive pattern can be continuously printed on the substrate in the pattern forming apparatus main body 20.

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, the specific aspect of this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. In the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the substrate support device 25 includes the slide base 26 and is configured to be able to reciprocate in the horizontal direction. However, the present invention is particularly limited to such a configuration. For example, the substrate support device 25 may be configured as a fixed mold, and the printing device 21 may be configured to reciprocate in the horizontal direction. Even in such a configuration, the time for the printing device 21 to print the conductive pattern on the substrate and the time for aligning the substrate can be overlapped, so that the substrate can be efficiently and quickly applied. A conductive pattern can be formed. Further, when adopting such a configuration, in order to prevent the printing device 21 from interfering with the first position detection device 51, the second position detection device 52, the first transfer arm 11, and the second transfer arm 12, For example, the first position detection device 51, the second position detection device 52, the first transfer arm 11, and the second transfer arm 12 are preferably configured to reciprocate in the horizontal direction integrally with the printing device 21. .

  Moreover, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the structure which mounts the 1st board | substrate positioning apparatus 27 and the 2nd board | substrate positioning apparatus 28 on the slide stand 26 which can reciprocate in a horizontal direction, Although it is configured so that the conductive pattern can be printed on the other while correcting the position of the substrate on one of the substrates supported by the first support base 35 and the second support base 37, for example, It is also possible to employ a configuration in which the first substrate positioning device 27 and the second substrate positioning device 28 are placed on a turntable that can be rotated horizontally. Even with such a configuration, the conductive pattern can be printed on the other of the substrates fixed to the first support base 35 and the second support base 37 while correcting the position of the substrate. Therefore, it is possible to overlap the time for aligning the substrate and the time for the printing device 21 to print the conductive pattern on the substrate.

  In the present embodiment, the first support base 35 and the second support base 37 are moved by the first position correction device 36 and the second position correction device 38, respectively. Although it is configured to correct the position of the substrate attached to each mounting portion 35a, 37a of the support base 37, it is not particularly limited to such a configuration, for example, the mounting portion of the first support base 35 It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the positions of the substrates attached to the mounting portions 37a of the 35a and the second support base 37 are corrected by moving directly on the mounting portions 35a and 37a.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, although the support stand is comprised by two separated members like the 1st support stand 35 and the 2nd support stand 37, in such a structure, It is not specifically limited, For example, it can also comprise with a single support stand. When such a configuration is adopted, two mountings for mounting the substrate are provided on the support base, and each substrate on the mounting unit is directly moved as a configuration for correcting the position of each substrate mounted on the mounting unit. A configuration that corrects the position is adopted.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the configuration in which the first position detection device 51 and the second position detection device 52 are provided on both sides of the printing device 21 is employed. However, for example, a movable single position detection device is used. A configuration is employed in which the position of the substrate attached to the mounting portion 35a of the first support base 35 and the substrate attached to the mounting portion 37a of the second support base 37 is detected by the single position detection device. You can also

  Moreover, in this embodiment, although it comprises so that the base body 30 of the slide stand 26 may slide on the rail member 31, a wheel is provided in the bottom face of the base body 30, for example, via the said wheel, A configuration in which the base body 30 moves on the rail member 31 can also be adopted.

It is a schematic structure front view of the pattern formation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is AA sectional drawing of FIG. It is a side view of the pattern formation apparatus seen from the arrow B direction of FIG. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the action | operation of the pattern formation apparatus shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the printing method of the conductive pattern to the conventional board | substrate.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pattern formation apparatus 10 Board | substrate transfer apparatus 11 Conveyor 12 1st conveyance arm 13 2nd conveyance arm 20 Printing apparatus 21 Board | substrate support apparatus 22 Slide stand 23 1st board | substrate positioning apparatus 24 2nd board | substrate positioning apparatus 25 Stand main body 26 Wheel 27 Rail member 28 Stopper 29 1st support stand 30 1st position correction device 31 2nd support stand 32 1st position correction device 40 Printing machine 50 1st position detection device 51 2nd position detection device

Claims (2)

A pattern forming apparatus for printing a conductive pattern on a substrate,
A support base having two mounting portions to which a substrate is attached;
A position correcting device for correcting the position of each substrate attached to the mounting portion;
A position detection device for detecting a position of a substrate attached to the mounting portion;
A printing device for printing a conductive pattern on a substrate,
In one of the mounting portions, the position correction device is in a position correctable state in which the position correction device can correct the position of the substrate based on the position of the substrate detected by the position detection device,
In the other mounting portion, the printing device is configured to be in a printable state in which a conductive pattern can be printed on the substrate whose position has been corrected by the position correction device.
The printing device and the support base can be moved relative to each other so that the printing device can print the conductive pattern on the substrate attached to the other while correcting the position of the substrate attached to one of the two mounting portions. is configured to,
The position detection device is provided on both sides of the printing device,
The pattern forming apparatus , wherein the support base is configured to reciprocate in the horizontal direction . A conveyor for transferring the substrate, and
The pattern formation apparatus of Claim 1 provided with the conveyance arm which replaces | exchanges a board | substrate between the said mounting part used as the said position correction possible state on the said conveyor.

Images