JP4752834B2 - Weight measuring method, electro-optical device manufacturing method, and semiconductor device manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a weight measuring device, a weight measuring method, and a coating device.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, coating apparatuses using an inkjet method (droplet discharge method) (hereinafter referred to as inkjet apparatuses) are not only ordinary printers, but also semiconductor devices, liquid crystal display devices, or organic electroluminescence (organic EL) devices. In many manufacturing processes of thin film devices employed in electro-optical devices such as the above. Among them, the accurate discharge amount of the liquid material discharged from the ink jet head, that is, the weight of the liquid material is not only inspecting whether the ink jet head is functioning normally, but also in the desired liquid material. It is also very important to determine an appropriate voltage to be applied to the ink jet head in order to obtain a discharge amount of 2.
As described above, as an apparatus for measuring the weight of a liquid having a very small amount, in particular, a liquid having high volatility, for example, a volatile solvent is used in a non-volatile solvent having a low specific gravity compared to the volatile solvent. A weight measuring device or the like that accurately measures the weight of the volatile solvent by preventing the volatilization of the volatile solvent by discharging and interposing it has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-317452

However, the above prior art has the following problems.
The liquid material employed in the ink jet apparatus is generally highly volatile, and starts to volatilize in a short time after ejection due to the extremely small amount of ejection at one time.
Therefore, when a certain amount of time is required from the time when the liquid material is discharged to the time when the weight is measured, there is a problem that the liquid material volatilizes and an accurate weight value cannot be obtained. Furthermore, when the weight measuring apparatus as described above is installed in the coating apparatus, there is a problem that safety and maintainability are lacking.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances , and a weight measurement method for accurately measuring the weight of a very small amount of a volatile liquid , and a method for manufacturing an electro-optical device using the weight measurement method It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device .

In order to solve the above problems, the weight measuring method of the present invention includes a step of discharging a liquid material to a receiving member of a weight measuring device, and a step of measuring the weight of the discharged liquid material, The step of measuring the weight is performed in an enclosed space .
According to the above-described weight measurement method, after the liquid material is discharged to the receiving member, the surrounding area of the receiving member is set as a closed space, so that the volatilized amount of the discharged liquid material can be minimized and the weight measurement is performed. It is possible to stabilize the numerical values measured by the instrument.

In the weight measuring method of the present invention, the step of discharging the liquid material is performed by an ink jet method .
According to this, it is possible to measure the weight of a small amount of liquid ejected using the inkjet method.

The weight measuring method of the present invention is characterized in that the liquid material is discharged at a constant interval between the discharge surface for discharging the liquid material and the surface portion of the receiving member .
According to this, it becomes possible to land the discharged liquid material on the receiving member efficiently.

In the weight measuring method of the present invention, the fixed interval is 2 mm or less .
According to this, it becomes possible to land on the receiving member without making the discharged liquid material spray.

In the gravimetric method of the present invention, the weight of the receiving member prior to ejecting the liquid material, based on the difference between the weight of the receiving member after ejecting the liquid material, the weight of the liquid material It is characterized by measuring .
According to this, it is possible to accurately measure the weight of the liquid material , and to continuously measure the liquid material without performing operations such as replacement of the receiving member and cleaning one by one.

The weight measuring method of the present invention is characterized in that an absorbing member is used as the receiving member .
According to this, since the absorbing member is employed as the receiving member, volatilization of the discharged liquid material can be suppressed and the liquid material can be secured efficiently.

The method for manufacturing an electro-optical device according to the present invention is a method for manufacturing an electro-optical device using an inkjet method in a coating process for manufacturing the electro-optical device, and is characterized by using the above-described weight measurement method in the coating process . .
According to this, based on the measured weight, an appropriate voltage to be applied to the ink jet head when the liquid material is ejected by the ink jet method is accurately calculated, and the liquid material is applied based on the appropriate voltage to manufacture the electro-optical device. Can do.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the present invention is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device using an inkjet method in a coating process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, wherein the weight measuring method described above is used in the coating process .
According to this, it is possible to accurately calculate an appropriate voltage to be applied to the ink jet head when the liquid material is discharged by the ink jet method based on the measured weight, and to apply the liquid material based on the appropriate voltage to manufacture the semiconductor device. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a weight measuring device, a weight measuring method, and a coating device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. Each of these drawings is a schematic diagram, and each member has a different scale so that each member has a size that can be recognized on the drawing.

As a first embodiment, a weight measuring device and a weight measuring method of the present invention will be described.
In addition, the weight measuring apparatus in this embodiment is demonstrated as what measures the weight of the liquid material with the very minute quantity discharged by the inkjet application | coating mechanism and high volatility. The liquid that can be used in the weight measuring device is not particularly limited.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a weight measuring device of the present invention and a weight measuring method using the weight measuring device.
The weight measuring device 1 is mounted on a high-precision electronic balance (weight measuring device) 2 capable of measuring to a very small unit, and a mounting portion 3 of a member to be measured of the electronic balance 2 via a tray 4, and is liquid. And an absorbing member (receiving member) 5 from which the body L is discharged. Further, when the weight of the liquid L is measured, a sealing mechanism 10 is provided in which the periphery of the absorbing member 5 is a closed space. .

The absorbing member 5 is a member that quickly absorbs the liquid L, and is preferably a material that has little shape change such as expansion of the shape of the entire member when the liquid L is absorbed.
In particular, as the material of the absorbing member 5, for example, a polyolefin functional material is preferably used.

  The sealing mechanism 10 surrounds the electronic balance 2 including the absorbing member 5, and includes a cover (covering member) 12 having an opening 11 that opens a surface portion 5 a that receives the liquid L in the absorbing member 5, and the opening 11. It is comprised from the shield (lid body) 13 which can be opened and closed freely. As shown in FIG. 1, the shield 13 opens and closes the opening 11 in a sliding manner, and is opened and closed by a drive mechanism (not shown). As the drive mechanism, an air actuator, a linear motor, or the like can be employed, and is not particularly limited. In the present embodiment, the cover 12 is configured to surround the entire electronic balance 2 including the absorbing member 5. However, since the periphery of the absorbing member 5 may be a closed space, for example, as shown in FIG. In addition, a configuration (cover 15) that covers only the mounting portion 3 of the member to be measured of the electronic balance 2 including the absorbing member 5 may be employed.

Hereinafter, a weight measuring method using the weight measuring apparatus will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1A, first, the shield 13 of the sealing mechanism 10 is opened to open the opening 11, and the liquid L is discharged onto the surface portion 5 a of the absorbing member 5 that appears from the opening 11. An ejection unit 20 (for example, an ink jet head) is disposed. A storage tank 21 for temporarily storing the liquid L is connected to the discharge unit 20. And in order to extract | collect the liquid L efficiently, the discharge part 20 is moved so that the distance of the discharge surface of the discharge part 20 and the surface part 5a of the absorption member 5 may become the fixed space | interval d. Here, when the ejection unit 20 is an inkjet head, it is desirable that the dimension of the constant interval d is within 2 mm. As a result, the discharged liquid L can be landed on the absorbing member 5 without spraying.
After the adjustment of the constant interval d is completed, before the liquid L is discharged, the weight of the absorbing member 5 including the receiving tray 4 is measured in advance with the electronic balance 2 to obtain a measured value of the weight W1 (g).

Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, the liquid L is discharged to the absorbing member 5 while maintaining the predetermined interval d. After the desired liquid L is discharged, as shown in FIG. 1C, the discharge portion 20 is quickly raised and separated from the absorbing member 5, and the shield 13 is quickly slid to open the opening portion 11. Close. Thereby, the inside of the cover 12 becomes a closed space.
After the opening 11 is closed, the weight of the absorbing member 5 including the receiving tray 4 and further absorbing the liquid L is immediately measured with the electronic balance 2 to obtain a measured value of the weight W2 (g).

  Accordingly, by calculating the difference between the weight W1 and the weight W2, it is possible to accurately obtain the weight W3 (= W2−W1) (g) of the discharged liquid L.

As described above, according to the weight measuring device and the weight measuring method of the present invention, after the liquid L is ejected to the adsorbing member 5, the periphery of the adsorbing member 5 is instantaneously set as a closed space. The amount of volatilization of L can be minimized, and the numerical value measured by the electronic balance 2 can be stabilized.
Further, since the absorbing member 5 is employed as a receiving member that receives the liquid L, volatilization of the discharged liquid L can be suppressed and the liquid L can be efficiently secured. Furthermore, since the absorbing member 5 is made of a material that hardly changes the shape of the entire member when the liquid L is absorbed, a certain distance between the discharging surface of the discharging portion 20 and the surface portion 5a of the absorbing member 5 is adopted. Even when d is small, it is possible to avoid the absorbing member 5 from coming into contact with the discharge portion 20 by the absorbing member 5 absorbing the liquid L.
Furthermore, since the desired weight value W3 is calculated by comparing the weight value W1 immediately before the discharge of the liquid L and the weight value W2 immediately after the discharge, operations such as replacement and cleaning of the absorbing member 5 are performed one by one. Therefore, it is possible to continuously measure the liquid material L.

As a second embodiment, a coating apparatus of the present invention will be described.
Note that the coating apparatus in the present embodiment will be described as an inkjet apparatus. The ink jet device can be employed in, for example, a coating process when forming an organic EL device. In this case, the ink jet device performs patterning on the transparent electrode by discharging an ink composition (liquid material) in which a hole injection layer material made of an organic material forming a pixel and a light emitting material are dissolved or dispersed in a solvent from the ink jet head. The device is applied to form a hole injection / transport layer and a light emitting layer. For example, when the hole injection layer is formed by the coating apparatus of the present embodiment, the material contained in the solvent as the ink composition includes, for example, a polythiophene derivative, a polypyrrole derivative, or a doped body thereof. Can be adopted. In particular, as a polythiophene derivative, PEDOT: PSS in which PSS is doped with PSS (polystyrene sulfonic acid) can be employed. As a more specific example, Vitron-P (Bytron-P: manufactured by Bayer), which is a kind thereof, can be preferably used.

FIG. 3 is a schematic external perspective view of the ink jet apparatus 30.
The ink jet device 30 includes a head unit 56 including an ink jet head 52, a head position control device 47 that controls the position of the ink jet head 52, a substrate position control device 48 that controls the position of the substrate P, and the ink jet head 52 as a substrate. A main scanning driving device 49 that moves the main scanning with respect to P and a sub-scanning driving device 51 that moves the inkjet head 52 with respect to the substrate P by sub-scanning are provided.
The head position control device 47, the substrate position control device 48, the main scanning drive device 49, and the sub-scanning drive device 51 are installed on the base 39.

  The ink-jet head 52 performs main scanning on the substrate P by moving in parallel in the X direction. During this main scanning, the ink composition is selectively ejected from a plurality of nozzles provided in the ink-jet head 52, whereby the substrate is scanned. The ink composition is attached to a predetermined position in 2.

  The head position controller 47 mainly includes an α motor 74 that rotates the inkjet head 52 in-plane, a β motor 76 that swings and rotates the inkjet head 52 about an axis parallel to the sub-scanning direction Y, and the inkjet head 52. A γ motor 77 that swings and rotates about an axis parallel to the scanning direction X and a Z motor 78 that translates the inkjet head 52 in the vertical direction are included.

  Further, the substrate position control device 48 includes a table 79 on which the substrate P is placed, and a θ motor 81 that rotates the table 79 in-plane as indicated by an arrow θ. The main scanning driving device 49 includes a guide rail 82 extending in the main scanning direction X and a slider 83 incorporating a pulse-driven linear motor. The slider 83 translates in the main scanning direction along the guide rail 82 when the built-in linear motor operates. Further, the sub-scanning drive device 51 has a guide rail 84 extending in the sub-scanning direction Y and a slider 86 incorporating a pulse-driven linear motor. The slider 86 translates in the sub-scanning direction Y along the guide rail 84 when the built-in linear motor operates.

The linear motor that is pulse-driven in the slider 83 and the slider 86 can finely control the rotation angle of the output shaft by the pulse signal supplied to the motor. Therefore, the main motor of the inkjet head 52 supported by the slider 83 can be controlled. The position in the scanning direction X, the position in the sub-scanning direction Y of the table 79, etc. can be controlled with high definition.
The position control of the inkjet head 52 and the table 79 is not limited to the position control using the pulse motor, and can be realized by feedback control using a servo motor or any other control method.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a weight measuring device 100 is installed at one side position of the sub-scanning driving device 51 under the trajectory of the inkjet head 52 driven by the main scanning driving device 49 and moving in the main scanning. ing.
Although the basic structure of the weight measuring device 100 in this embodiment is the same as that of the weight measuring device 1 shown in the first embodiment, the operation of the shield 13 constituting the sealing mechanism 10 and the inkjet head 52 are the same. It is characterized by having an opening / closing mechanism (not shown) for interlocking with the operation.

Hereinafter, a weight measuring method in the weight measuring apparatus 100 will be described.
The weight measurement of the ink composition by the weight measuring apparatus 100 is mainly applied when the ink composition is discharged before the ink composition is applied to the normal discharge region on the substrate P from the inkjet head 52. This operation is performed to set the voltage to an appropriate value. The configuration of the weight measuring device 100 is the same as the configuration of the weight measuring device 1 shown in FIG.

  First, after the shield 13 of the sealing mechanism 10 is opened to open the opening 11, the head position control device 47 and the main scanning drive device 49 are operated so that the surface 11 a appears on the surface of the absorbing member 5. An ink jet head 52 for discharging the ink composition is disposed. In this case, the inkjet head 52 is moved so that the distance between the ejection surface of the inkjet head 52 and the surface portion 5a of the absorbing member 5 is within 2 mm. Thereafter, before discharging the ink composition, the weight of the absorbing member 5 including the tray 4 is measured in advance with the electronic balance 2 to obtain a measured value of the weight W1 (g).

  Next, the ink composition is ejected from the inkjet head 52 to the absorbing member 5. After the desired ink composition is ejected, the ink jet head 52 is quickly raised and separated from the absorbing member 5 by the opening / closing mechanism, and the shield 13 is quickly slid to close the opening 11. Thereby, the inside of the cover 12 becomes a closed space. Thereafter, after the opening 11 is closed, the weight of the absorbing member 5 including the receiving tray 4 and further absorbing the ink composition is immediately measured with the electronic balance 2 to obtain a measured value of the weight W2 (g).

  As a result, the difference between the weight W1 and the weight W2 is calculated, and the weight W3 (= W2−W1) (g) of the discharged liquid L can be accurately obtained. Based on the value of the weight W3, the inkjet head 52 can be obtained. The appropriate voltage is set. Thereafter, the ink composition is applied to the ejection region on the substrate P based on the appropriate voltage.

  As described above, according to the above-described coating apparatus, as in the first embodiment, the volatilization amount of the ejected ink composition can be minimized, and further, the numerical value measured by the electronic balance 2 can be stabilized. It becomes possible. Accordingly, it is possible to accurately calculate the appropriate voltage applied to the inkjet head 52.

  The weight measuring device, the weight measuring method, and the coating device according to the embodiment of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be freely changed within the scope of the present invention.

It is sectional drawing which shows the weight measuring apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the other weight measuring apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the coating device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Weight measuring apparatus, 2 ... Electronic balance (weight measuring device), 3 ... Mounting part, 5 ... Absorbing member (receiving member), 5a ... Surface part, 10 ... Sealing mechanism, 11 ... opening, 12 ... cover (covering member), 13 ... shield (cover), 20, 52 ... inkjet head (head), 47 ... head position control Device (drive mechanism), 48... Substrate position control device (drive mechanism), 49... Main scan drive device (drive mechanism), 51 .. sub-scan drive device (drive mechanism)

Claims (8)

Discharging the liquid material to the receiving member of the weight measuring device;
Measuring the weight of the discharged liquid material,
The weight measuring method is characterized in that the step of measuring the weight is performed while covering the receiving member . The weight measuring method according to claim 1, wherein the step of discharging the liquid material is performed by an inkjet method. 3. The weight measuring method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid material is discharged at a constant interval between a discharge surface for discharging the liquid material and a surface portion of the receiving member. The weight measuring method according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined interval is 2 mm or less. Claims and the weight of the receiving member prior to ejecting the liquid material, based on the difference between the weight of the receiving member after ejecting the liquid material, and measuring the weight of the liquid material 5. The weight measurement method according to any one of 1 to 4 . The weight measuring method according to claim 1, wherein an absorbing member is used as the receiving member. An electro-optical device manufacturing method using an inkjet method in a coating process for manufacturing an electro-optical device, wherein the weight measuring method according to claim 1 is used in the coating step. A method for manufacturing an electro-optical device. A semiconductor device manufacturing method using an inkjet method in a coating process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, wherein the weight measuring method according to claim 1 is used in the coating process. Device manufacturing method.