JP6506446B2 - Thin film forming apparatus and thin film forming method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an inkjet thin film forming apparatus and a thin film forming method.

  The ink jet method is a method of discharging ink droplets as a coating material little by little with high accuracy from an ink jet coating head using a bubble as a coating head or a piezoelectric element. An inkjet coating apparatus is a system in which the processing for applying the ink droplets to the member to be coated by the highly accurate discharge of the ink droplets is realized. This has attracted attention in recent years as a device capable of achieving high-definition application of ink, and is not limited to printing on paper, and its applicability has been explored in all industrial fields, and some that have already been put to practical use is there.

  At the lower end of the coating head, a plurality of nozzles are provided at a predetermined pitch, and the pitch of the nozzles determines the discharge interval of droplets as the coating material. Since the pitch of the nozzles is small, and the presence or absence of discharge can be individually controlled for each nozzle, it becomes possible to apply a free shape in a plane without requiring a plate type such as the flexographic printing method.

  On the other hand, since the viscosity of the coating material is adjusted so that droplets can be discharged from the nozzle, wetting and spreading of the coating material occurs on the substrate after the discharge. For this reason, the stability of the surface shape formed by one droplet and one adjacent droplet is a problem, and in particular, the line shape at the outermost periphery of the surface shape greatly affects the quality of the manufactured product.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, an alignment film material is discharged by an ink jet head to be attached on a substrate. In the method of drying and solidifying to form an alignment film, a solvent for adjusting surface tension and a degassing solvent to be added to the alignment film material for achieving a viscosity suitable for ejection by ink jet are shown. This is intended to improve the discharge operation of the ink jet and the leveling property on the substrate after the discharge, and the drying and solidification are transferred to the next drying apparatus as a separate step (see Non-Patent Document 1). ).

Patent No. 3073493 gazette

Yoshihiro Iwai and Kenji Koishi, "Comprehensive Comparison of Liquid Crystal, PDP and Organic EL", First Edition, Industrial Research Institute, Inc., July 2004, p. 50-58

Heretofore, in order to obtain high application position accuracy and film thickness uniformity in the application of the inkjet method, attention has mainly been focused on the relative positional relationship between the target application interval and the nozzle pitch of the application head.
However, in addition to the operation at the time of application, it is also important how to control from drying immediately after application to adhesion to the substrate in order to utilize the application of the ink jet system in various fields.

In particular, in the case applied to the manufacture of a liquid crystal glass substrate, as the size of the substrate increases, it becomes extremely important what kind of adhering state will be. For this reason, it is desirable that the position be managed and applied by the ink jet method, and the coating be rapidly dried so that the managed position can be held.
However, in the conventional method as shown in Non-Patent Document 1, the drying process is performed after the series of application processes are completed. Therefore, the drying process is not performed between the start of the coating process and the setting of the drying device to the start of the drying process. For this reason, the droplets applied to the glass substrate may move during the start of the drying process, or leveling due to overlap between droplets may be generated in an unintended state in a chained manner.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a thin film forming apparatus and a thin film forming method capable of highly accurate and uniform coating.

In order to solve such a subject, in the present invention, an adsorption table for adsorbing and holding an application object, and a thin film while discharging a coating material from an ink jet type nozzle onto the surface of the application object adsorbed and held by the adsorption table A plurality of coating heads for forming, a gantry for moving the coating head at a position above the application object, and a heat source apparatus including infrared radiation, visible light or ultraviolet radiation for heating the surface of the application object to the gantry And the suction table includes a θ rotation mechanism that rotates the rotational axis about the axis in the Z axis direction by a rotational angle θ, and the application head passes through the area where the outer frame pattern is to be formed. While moving the gantry in a predetermined direction, and discharging a coating material from the nozzle of the coating head, and The discharged coating material is dried using the heat source device disposed in the direction opposite to the moving direction to form an outer frame pattern, and after the outer frame pattern is formed, the coating head is subjected to the inkjet type nozzle The coating material is applied to the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern N times while being moved 1 / N (N is a predetermined number of times of application) of the nozzle pitch of It is characterized by comprising a head recovery device provided with a suction port disposed so as to correspond in position to the application head when viewed in a direction.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a thin film forming apparatus and a thin film forming method capable of highly accurate and uniform coating.

It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the thin film forming apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is a structural schematic diagram explaining the structure of the back side of a gantry. It is an enlarged view of a head recovery device. It is a schematic diagram explaining operation | movement of a head recovery device. It is a functional block diagram explaining the function of a control part. It is a flowchart explaining the thin film forming method of the thin film forming apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining an outer frame application process. It is a flow chart explaining an inside application process. It is a schematic diagram explaining the outer frame application | coating process of the thin film forming apparatus which concerns on this embodiment, (a) shows the time of going forward, and (b) shows the time of returning. It is a structure schematic diagram explaining the structure of the gantry of the thin film forming apparatus which concerns on a modification. It is a schematic diagram explaining the outer frame application | coating process of the thin film forming apparatus which concerns on a modification, (a) shows the time of going-forward, (b) shows the time of returning.

  Hereinafter, modes for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as “embodiments”) will be described in detail with reference to the drawings as appropriate. In each of the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the common parts, and the duplicated explanation is omitted.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.
The thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment has various applications such as a flat panel display and a flexible display which is called a flexible display to which an electrophoresis method or the like is applied. In the following description, the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described as forming (applying) a thin film of polyimide on a glass substrate 100 used for a flat panel display. The polyimide thin film formed (coated) on the glass substrate 100 by the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is to be an alignment film by being subjected to the main drying process and the alignment process (rubbing). However, in the present description, the thin film before the main drying process / alignment process is also referred to as an “alignment film”.

  The thin film forming apparatus 1 includes a gantry 2, a gantry 3, a coating head unit 5 having a plurality of coating heads 4, an X-axis moving mechanism 6, a Y-axis moving mechanism 7, a Z-axis moving mechanism 8, and an alignment film. , The head recovery device 10, the heat source device 31, the alignment camera 32 (see FIG. 2), and the alignment camera moving mechanism 33. (Refer FIG. 2) and the control part 50 (refer FIG. 5).

  In the following description, as shown in FIG. 1, the longitudinal direction of the gantry 2 (moving direction of the gantry 3) is taken as the X axis, and the width direction of the gantry 2 (direction orthogonal to the X axis on the horizontal surface) is taken as the Y axis It is assumed that the vertical direction is the Z axis. The movement of the gantry 3 in the positive direction of the X axis will be described as the forward path, and the movement in the negative direction of the X axis will be described as the return path.

The gantry 3 is a portal gantry having an opening 3 a between itself and the gantry 2, and is provided on the gantry 2 via the X-axis moving mechanism 6.
An application head unit 5 having a plurality of application heads 4 is provided on the return path side of the gantry 3 via the Y-axis moving mechanism 7 and the Z-axis moving mechanism 8.
A heat source device 31 is provided on the forward path side of the gantry 3. Further, on the forward path side of the gantry 3, an alignment camera 32 (see FIG. 2) is provided via an alignment camera moving mechanism 33 (see FIG. 2).

The X-axis moving mechanism 6 is a linear motor actuator composed of a stator (magnet plate) 6 a provided on the gantry 2 and a mover (coil) 6 b provided on the gantry 3. Can be moved in the X-axis direction.
The Y-axis moving mechanism 7 is a linear motor actuator composed of a stator (magnet plate) 7 a provided on the gantry 3 and a mover (coil) 7 b provided on the application head unit 5. The coating head unit 5 can be moved in the Y-axis direction.
The Z-axis moving mechanism 8 is composed of a servomotor, and can move the coating head unit 5 in the Z-axis direction with respect to the gantry 3.
That is, the coating head unit 5 (coating head 4, nozzles 4a described later) can be moved in the X axis direction by the X axis moving mechanism 6, and is moved in the Y axis direction by the Y axis moving mechanism 7. And can be moved in the Z-axis direction by the Z-axis moving mechanism 8.
The X-axis moving mechanism 6, the Y-axis moving mechanism 7 and the Z-axis moving mechanism 8 are controlled by the control unit 50.

A coating head unit 5 having a plurality of coating heads 4 is provided. A plurality of coating heads 4 are provided to ensure continuity of the pitch of the nozzles for discharging the alignment film material. In the example shown in FIG. 1, in the coating head unit 5, four coating heads 4 are arranged in a row along the Y-axis direction, and three rows of the coating heads 4 are arranged in the X-axis direction. It is illustrated.
Further, a plurality of nozzles (not shown) for discharging the alignment film material to one application head 4 are arranged in one row along the Y-axis direction, and a plurality of rows of the nozzles are arranged (not shown) ). The coating head 4 is an inkjet head that discharges a small amount of droplets from the nozzles with high accuracy using a piezoelectric element or the like.
The control unit 50 can control, for each nozzle of the coating head 4, the presence or absence and timing of discharge of the alignment film material, and the amount of alignment film material to be discharged.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view for explaining the structure on the back side of the gantry 3. In FIG. 2, the mover 6 b of the X-axis moving mechanism 6, the Y-axis moving mechanism 7, and the Z-axis moving mechanism 8 are not shown.
As shown in FIG. 2, the heat source device 31 disposed on the forward path side (rear side in FIG. 1) of the gantry 3 is, for example, an infrared lamp and can emit infrared light in a substantially vertical direction. ing. That is, it is possible to irradiate an infrared ray to an object (glass substrate 100) which has passed through the opening 3a (see FIG. 1) of the gantry 3 when the gantry 3 is returned.
The heat source device 31 is controlled to be turned on / off by the control unit 50.

In addition, although the thin film forming apparatus 1 which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated as what uses an infrared lamp as the heat-source apparatus 31, it is not restricted to this, It is a visible ray lamp (not shown) which irradiates a visible ray. It may be an ultraviolet lamp (not shown) that emits ultraviolet light, as long as it can heat the alignment film material applied to the glass substrate 100.
Incidentally, when an ultraviolet lamp (not shown) is used as the heat source device 31, it takes time for the intensity of the ultraviolet light to be stabilized after turning on the power of the ultraviolet lamp, so a shutter (not shown) is provided to Instead of controlling the lighting and extinguishing of the lamp, it is preferable to control the start and stop of irradiation by opening and closing the shutter.
The heat source device 31 may be a hot-air blower (not shown) that heats clean air (clean air) that does not contain dust and the like and blows it to an object (glass substrate 100). The object (glass substrate 100) can be further heated by blowing the heated clean air as a heat medium onto the object. In addition, a combination of a hot air blower and an infrared lamp (visible light lamp, ultraviolet lamp) may be used.

The alignment camera 32 is used for positioning with the glass substrate 100 adsorbed to the suction table 9 and is a camera for observing the alignment film material discharged from the application head 4 and applied to the glass substrate 100. .
The alignment camera moving mechanism 33 can move the alignment camera 32 in the Y-axis direction with respect to the gantry 3. That is, the alignment camera 32 can be moved in the X-axis direction by the X-axis moving mechanism 6, and can be moved in the Y-axis direction by the alignment camera moving mechanism 33.
The X-axis moving mechanism 6 and the alignment camera moving mechanism 33 are controlled by the control unit 50. Further, the image captured by the alignment camera 32 is transmitted to the control unit 50 and used for position correction of the application head 4.

Returning to FIG. 1, the suction table 9 is configured to be able to vacuum-suck and fix the glass substrate 100. Further, the suction table 9 is provided with a θ rotation mechanism (not shown) composed of a servomotor, and can be rotated by a rotation angle θ with an axis in the Z axis direction as a rotation axis.
In addition, attachment and detachment of the glass substrate 100 and the rotation angle θ are controlled by the control unit 50 of the suction table 9.

Next, the head recovery device 10 will be further described using FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the head recovery device 10.
The head recovery device 10 is a device that discharges from the nozzle of the coating head 4 to prevent clogging of the nozzle and detect the recovery of the clogging.
The head recovery device 10 moves the suction port 11, the LED (Light Emitting Diode; light emitting diode) 12, the camera 13, the LED moving mechanism 12A for moving the LED 12 in the Y axis direction, and the camera 13 in the Y axis direction. The camera moving mechanism 13A and the electronic balance 14 are provided. In the electronic balance 14, the alignment film material is discharged from the nozzle of the coating head 4, and the discharge amount per application between the coating heads 4 is adjusted.

  The suction port 11 is connected to a vacuum chamber (not shown) or the like, and is disposed so as to correspond in position to the plurality of coating heads 4 provided in the coating head unit 5 when viewed in the Z-axis direction. That is, corresponding to the coating head unit 5 shown in FIG. 1, four suction ports 11 are arranged in a line along the Y-axis direction, and the suction port 11 is arranged in three lines in the X-axis direction .

The LEDs 12 are arranged such that the positions correspond to the coating heads 4 arranged in a line along the Y-axis direction provided in the coating head unit 5. That is, four LEDs 12 are arranged in a line along the Y-axis direction corresponding to the coating head unit 5 shown in FIG. Further, the LED 12 can be moved in the Y-axis direction by the LED moving mechanism 12A.
The control of the LED 12 is controlled by the control unit 50.

The camera 13 is disposed so that the position corresponds to that of the coating heads 4 arranged in a line along the Y-axis direction provided in the coating head unit 5. That is, four cameras 13 are arranged in a line along the Y-axis direction corresponding to the coating head unit 5 shown in FIG. Also, the camera 13 can be moved in the Y-axis direction by the camera moving mechanism 13A.
The image captured by the camera 13 is transmitted to the control unit 50.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic view for explaining the operation of the head recovery device 10. As shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic view seen from the XZ plane of FIG. Further, in FIG. 1, although a plurality of application heads 4 and suction ports 11 are disposed in the X-axis direction, those other than the application heads 4 and suction ports 11 corresponding to the nozzles to be inspected are illustrated in FIG. Is omitted.

  First, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51 described later) controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 and the Y-axis moving mechanism 7 to move the application head 4 so as to correspond to the suction port 11. Further, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51) controls the LED moving mechanism 12A and the camera moving mechanism 13A so that the Y-axis coordinates of the LED 12 and the camera 13 coincide with the Y-axis coordinates of the nozzle 4a to be inspected. Move to The camera 13 also has a moving mechanism (not shown) in the X-axis direction, and moves the focal position of imaging so as to coincide with the X-axis coordinates of the nozzle 4a to be inspected.

Next, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51) controls the coating head 4 to perform recovery operation for discharging the droplets 4b of the alignment film material from the nozzles 4a. The discharged droplets 4 b of the alignment film material enter the suction port 11.
At this time, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51) turns on the LED 12 and causes the camera 13 to capture an image. The droplets 4 b of the ejected alignment film material are imaged as shadows in the image imaged by the camera 13. Thereby, the recovery of the clogging of the nozzle 4a can be detected.

  The clogging of the nozzle 4a is eliminated by discharging the droplet 4b of the alignment film material, but when the clogging can not be eliminated only by the discharge control, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51) performs the Z axis. The transfer mechanism 8 (see FIG. 1) may be controlled to lower the application head 4 so as to come in contact with the suction port 11 to perform suction recovery. Then, the control unit 50 (head recovery control unit 51) controls the Z-axis moving mechanism 8 (see FIG. 1) to return it to a predetermined height, and discharges droplets 4b of alignment film material from the nozzle 4a. Image at 13 to confirm recovery.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram for explaining the function of the control unit 50. As shown in FIG.
The control unit 50 can control the moving positions of the X-axis moving mechanism 6, the Y-axis moving mechanism 7, the Z-axis moving mechanism 8, the LED moving mechanism 12A, the camera moving mechanism 13A, and the alignment camera moving mechanism 33. ing.
Further, the control unit 50 is configured to be able to control the attachment / detachment of the glass substrate 100 and the rotation angle θ in the suction table 9.
Further, the control unit 50 can control turning on / off of the LED 12 and the heat source device 31.
Further, the control unit 50 can control the presence or absence and timing of discharge of the alignment film material for each nozzle of the plurality of application heads 4.
Further, the control unit 50 is configured to receive an image captured by the camera 13 and the alignment camera 32.

The control unit 50 includes a head recovery control unit 51, an outer frame application process control unit 52, and an inner surface application process control unit 53.
The head recovery control unit 51 performs control to recover the nozzle of the application head 4.
The outer frame coating process control unit 52 is configured to perform control to form an outer frame of the alignment film applied to the glass substrate 100.
The inner surface coating process control unit 53 performs control of coating the alignment film material on the inside of the outer frame of the alignment film formed by the outer frame coating process control unit 52.

  Next, a thin film forming method of the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described using FIGS. 6 to 8.

In step S1, the head recovery control unit 51 of the control unit 50 confirms whether or not the alignment film material can be normally dropped from the nozzle of the application head 4. Further, the discharge amount of the alignment film material from the nozzle of the coating head 4 is adjusted using the electronic balance 14.
Specifically, the head recovery control unit 51 controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 and the Y-axis moving mechanism 7 to move the application head 4 so as to correspond to the suction port 11. Further, the LED movement mechanism 12A and the camera movement mechanism 13A are controlled to move the Y-axis coordinates of the LED 12 and the camera 13 so as to coincide with the Y-axis coordinates of the nozzle to be inspected.
Then, the head recovery control unit 51 controls the coating head 4 to eject the alignment film material from the nozzles, and images and checks the droplets of the discharged alignment film material with the camera 13.
When the nozzle is clogged and is not dropped, the suction recovery described above is performed.
If it is confirmed that the droplet can be normally dropped from the nozzle of the coating head 4, the process proceeds to step S2.

  In step S2, the control unit 50 controls the suction table 9 to suction the glass substrate 100 disposed on the suction table 9 by an external substrate loading mechanism (not shown) (substrate load). Further, the control unit 50 controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 and the alignment camera moving mechanism 33 to move the alignment camera 32, and the glass substrate 100 is attracted to the suction table 9 based on the image captured by the alignment camera 32. Check the position of. The control unit 50 controls the movement of the application head 4 described later, based on the position information of the glass substrate 100 confirmed here.

In step S <b> 3, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 of the control unit 50 coats and forms the outer frame of the alignment film on the glass substrate 100. Here, the outer frame coating step shown in step S3 will be further described using FIG.
First, in step S31, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 controls the Y-axis moving mechanism 7 to form an area in which the coating head 4 forms the outer frame pattern 110 (see FIG. 9A) in step S32 described later. To move the Y-axis position (coating head Y-axis alignment).

In step S32, as shown in FIG. 9A, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 to move the gantry 3 in the forward direction, and controls the coating head 4 The timing at which the droplet of the alignment film material is dropped from the nozzle of the coating head 4 is controlled.
Thereby, the outer frame pattern 110 of the alignment film is applied to the glass substrate 100.

When the forward movement of the gantry 3 is completed, the process proceeds to step S33.
In step S33, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 turns on the infrared lamp that is the heat source device 31 (heat source device ON).

In step S34, as shown in FIG. 9B, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 to move the gantry 3 in the backward direction. Thus, infrared light (heated region) 34 is irradiated to the glass substrate 100 which has passed through the opening 3 a (see FIG. 1) of the gantry 3.
Thereby, the outer frame pattern 110 of the alignment film applied to the glass substrate 100 in step S32 is dried.

When the movement of the gantry 3 in the backward direction is completed, the process proceeds to step S35.
In step S35, the outer frame coating process control unit 52 turns off the infrared lamp that is the heat source device 31 (heat source device OFF).

In step S36, the outer frame application process control unit 52 determines whether the predetermined number of times has ended.
In the outer frame applying step shown in step S3, the application and drying of the outer frame pattern 110 are repeated a plurality of times in order to set the outer frame pattern 110 to a predetermined height, and the predetermined number of times has not been completed. (S36 · No), the process of the outer frame coating process control unit 52 returns to step S31. If the predetermined number of times has ended (S36: Yes), the outer frame coating step (step S3) shown in FIG. 7 is ended, and the process proceeds to step S4 in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 6, in step S4, the inner surface application process control unit 53 of the control unit 50 applies an alignment film material to the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern 110 (see FIG. 9) formed in step S3. Here, the inner surface applying step shown in step S4 will be further described using FIG.
In step S41, the inner surface application process control unit 53 controls the Y axis moving mechanism 7 to move the position of the Y axis so that the application head 4 is disposed at the initial position in the Y axis direction (application head Y Axis alignment).

In step S42, the inner surface application process control unit 53 controls the X-axis moving mechanism 6 to move the gantry 3 and controls the application head 4 so that the timing for dropping the droplets of the alignment film material from the nozzles can be controlled. Control (Gantry movement, application). In addition, the movement of the gantry 3 in S42 does not matter whether it is an outward trip or a return trip.
Thus, the alignment film material is applied to the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern 110 (see FIG. 9) formed in step S3.

In step S43, the inner surface application process control unit 53 determines whether or not the predetermined number of times of application (N times) has ended.
As described later, the application of the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern 110 is performed N times while moving the application head 4 1 / N of the nozzle pitch. Thus, the pitch of the droplets dropped on the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern 110 is 1 / N of the nozzle pitch of the coating head 4. Thereby, the film thickness can be made uniform.
If the predetermined number of times of application has not been completed (S43, No), the process proceeds to step S44, and the inner surface application process control unit 52 controls the Y axis moving mechanism 7 to move the application head 4 by 1 / N nozzle pitch. . Then, the process returns to step S42.
If the predetermined number of times of application has been completed (S43: Yes), the inner surface application step (step S4) shown in FIG. 8 is completed, and the process proceeds to step S5 in FIG.

In step S <b> 5, the control unit 50 controls the suction table 9 to release the suction of the glass substrate 100 disposed on the suction table 9. The glass substrate 100 to which the alignment film has been applied is extracted from the thin film forming apparatus 1 by an external substrate loading mechanism (not shown) (substrate unloading).
The glass substrate 100 extracted from the thin film forming apparatus 1 is sent to a drying processing apparatus (not shown) that performs the main drying processing.

  As described above, since the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment forms the alignment film by using the inkjet method, it does not require a plate type as in the conventional flexo printing method, and forms a small amount and various types of alignment film. (In other words, it can correspond to the manufacture of a small amount and a wide variety of flat panel displays).

In addition, when forming the alignment film on the glass substrate 100, the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment forms the outer frame pattern 110 of the alignment film, and then applies the alignment film material in the frame.
Here, as shown in FIG. 9, when forming the outer frame pattern 110 of the alignment film, the alignment film material coated on the glass substrate 100 is heated by a heat source device 31 such as an infrared lamp, so that the coating is performed. The spread of the alignment film material from the applied position on the glass substrate 100 can be reduced. Thereby, the protrusion from the alignment film formation region can be reduced, and the alignment film material can be efficiently used.
In addition, the linearity of the edge of the alignment film can be improved. Thus, the non-display area of the flat panel display can be further reduced. In addition, in the case of multiple glass substrates, the distance between adjacent alignment film patterns can be reduced, and the number of flat panel displays that can be taken out from one glass substrate can be improved.

  Next, the alignment film material applied in the frame is blocked by the outer frame so as not to spread further. Thereby, the protrusion (wet spread) from the alignment film formation region can be reduced, and the alignment film material can be used efficiently.

Further, in the thin film forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the head recovery device 10 is provided adjacent to the suction table 9. As a result, clogging of the coating head 4 can be prevented, and the nozzle can be recovered (cleaned), and the amount and timing of droplets of alignment film material to be dropped from the nozzle of the coating head 4 can be suitably controlled. be able to.
Further, by imaging the alignment film material discharged from the coating head 4 with the camera 13, it is possible to check whether the discharge is performed correctly without clogging.
In addition, since the irradiation area | region (heating area | region 34 shown in FIG.9 (b)) of the heat-source apparatus 31 is turned to the downward direction of the gantry 3 to the glass substrate 100, clogging of the application head 4 is not promoted. It is supposed to be.

<Modification>
The thin film forming apparatus according to the present embodiment is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
FIG. 10 is a structural schematic view for explaining the structure of the gantry 3 of the thin film forming apparatus according to the modification. Compared with the gantry 3 (see FIG. 2) according to the present embodiment, the gantry 3 (see FIG. 10) according to the modification includes the heat source device 35 also on the return path side (front side in FIG. 1) of the gantry 3 There is. The heat source device 35 is, for example, an infrared lamp in the same manner as the heat source device 31 and can emit infrared light in a substantially vertical direction. That is, the heat source device 35 can irradiate infrared light to the object that has passed through the opening 3 a (see FIG. 1) of the gantry 3 when going forward of the gantry 3.
The heat source device 35 is controlled by the control unit 50 to be turned on / off.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view for explaining the outer frame coating process of the thin film forming apparatus according to the modification, and (a) shows the time of forward movement and (b) shows the time of backward movement.
As shown in FIG. 11A, when moving the gantry 3 in the forward direction, the application head 4 is controlled to control the timing at which the droplets of the alignment film material are dropped from the nozzles of the application head 4 and By turning on the device 35, the glass substrate 100 is irradiated with infrared rays (heating area) 36.
Further, as shown in FIG. 11B, when moving the gantry 3 in the backward direction, the application head 4 is controlled to control the timing at which droplets of alignment film material are dropped from the nozzles of the application head 4. By heating the heat source device 31, the glass substrate 100 is irradiated with infrared rays (heating area) 34.
As described above, according to the thin film forming apparatus according to the modification, the alignment film material can be dropped and dried both in the forward pass and the return pass, and the tact time for forming the outer frame can be shortened.
Moreover, since the time from application (dropping of droplets of alignment film material) to drying (irradiation of infrared rays) can be shortened, the linearity of the outer frame is further improved.

  In addition, heating means (not shown) for heating the glass substrate 100 adsorbed on the adsorption table 9 (see FIG. 1) is further provided, and the glass substrate 100 is dropped by heating in the outer frame forming step (step S3). Drying of the droplets of the alignment film material may be promoted.

Reference Signs List 1 thin film forming apparatus 2 gantry 3 gantry 3a opening 4 coating head 4a nozzle 4b droplet of alignment film material 5 coating head unit 6 X axis moving mechanism 6a stator 6b mover 7 Y axis moving mechanism 7a stator 7b mover 8 Z Shaft moving mechanism 9 Suction table 10 Head recovery device 11 Suction port (discharge position)
12 LED (imaging device)
12A LED moving mechanism (imaging device)
13 Camera (imaging device)
13A Camera moving mechanism (imaging device)
31 heat source device 32 alignment camera 33 alignment camera moving mechanism 34 infrared ray (heating area)
35 heat source device 36 infrared (heating area)
Reference Signs List 50 control unit 51 head recovery control unit 52 outer frame coating process control unit 53 inner surface coating process control unit 100 glass substrate (object to be coated)
110 Outer frame pattern

Claims (5)

An adsorption table for adsorbing and holding an application object;
A plurality of coating heads for forming thin films while discharging a coating material from an ink jet type nozzle onto the surface of the application object held by suction on the suction table;
A gantry for moving the coating head at a position above the object to be coated;
It is a thin film forming apparatus provided with the heat source apparatus containing the infrared rays, visible light, or ultraviolet irradiation which heats the surface of the said coating object to the said gantry, Comprising:
The suction table includes a θ rotation mechanism that rotates by an angle of rotation θ with an axis in the Z axis direction as a rotation axis,
The coating head is moved so as to pass through the area forming the outer frame pattern, and the gantry is moved in a predetermined direction, and the coating material is discharged from the nozzle of the coating head, and the gantry is moved. The heat source apparatus disposed in the direction opposite to the direction is used to dry the discharged coating material to form an outer frame pattern, and after the outer frame pattern is formed, the coating head is used for the inkjet nozzle. The coating material is applied N times while moving 1 / N (N is a predetermined number of times of application) of the nozzle pitch and the coating material is applied to the inner surface surrounded by the outer frame pattern and connected to a vacuum chamber, the Z axis direction What is claimed is: 1. A thin film forming apparatus comprising: a head recovery device having a suction port disposed so as to correspond to the position of the coating head as viewed in FIG. The thin film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the head recovery device is disposed adjacent to the suction table. The thin film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coating material is applied N times so that the inner surface is blocked by the outer frame pattern. The thin film forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an imaging device configured to image a coating material discharged from a nozzle of the coating head. The thin film forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the coating material is made of a thin film material of polyimide.

Images