JPH0381734A - Formation of electrode for display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve production yield by performing etching in which a resist pattern is taken as a mask plural times. CONSTITUTION:When an electrode 2 on a glass substrate 5 is etched by taking the resist pattern as the mask, a short circuit part, etc., occurs between the electrodes 2 by dust 1, etc. When the second etching is performed by using a resist mark whose width of an electrode pattern 3 is wide, the short circuit part of the electrode is excellently etched without the damage of the end part of the electrode 2 caused by the positional deviation of the mask, etc. Thus, the production yield is enhanced in a method etching is performed plural times.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Summary] Regarding the method for forming electrodes used in display panels, the purpose of this method is to form an electrode film on an insulating substrate in order to be able to repair short circuits between electrodes even if they occur due to adhesion of dust. When forming an electrode by etching the electrode film using the resist pattern as a mask, the etching process is performed multiple times using the resist pattern as a mask. [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a method for forming electrodes used in display panels, and particularly to a method for forming electrodes that can improve the manufacturing yield of display panels. [Prior Art] Conventionally, various electrodes used in display panels such as liquid crystal display panels are produced by forming a transparent conductive film or an aluminum electrode on the entire surface of a substrate, forming a resist film with a predetermined pattern on top of this, and It was formed by etching using the mask as a mask and removing unnecessary parts. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional electrode forming method described above, if spots are attached before or after applying the resist, the resist cannot be removed in the buttering process where the spots are attached. Further, since that part cannot be etched, if dust straddles the electrode patterns, a short circuit will occur between the electrodes. Conventionally, in order to repair short circuits between electrodes, the board is inspected using a microscope, etc., and after discovering the location of the short circuit between electrodes, a jig such as a needle with an extremely thin tip is used to detect the presence of dust or dirt. Therefore, the resist that could not be exposed and developed was mechanically removed and etched again to eliminate the short circuit between the electrodes. However, with this method, it is difficult to detect all inter-electrode short circuits through inspection, and even if they are found, re-etching will result in over-etching of normal electrodes that have been etched optimally. There was a problem in that the electrode width became narrower than the designed value. The problem of the adhesion of rubber ξ can be solved by increasing the cleanliness of the work room, but increasing the cleanliness of the room costs a huge amount of money, leading to an increase in manufacturing costs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to make it possible to repair even if a short circuit between electrodes occurs due to the adhesion of dirt. [Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention reapplies resist to a defective panel in which touch has occurred between electrodes, forms a resist pattern aligned with the already formed electrode pattern, and uses this as a mask for etching. By applying this, short-circuit points between electrodes are removed. [Function] As described above, a short circuit between electrodes occurs when dust straddles two adjacent electrodes. Therefore, if you peel off the resist once, apply it again, align it with the electrode that has already been formed, and form a resist film, even if dust adheres this time, the dust will be removed from the process. We rarely ride in the same place. Therefore, the first short circuit is removed by the second etching, and a good electrode substrate can be obtained. Also, by making the electrode mask used for the second patterning thicker than the one used for the first patterning, it is possible to prevent the electrode from thinning due to misalignment. [Example] An example of the present invention is shown in Figures 1 (a) to (d) and Figure 2.
This will be explained using figures. Figure 1 (al is a plan view of the main part showing the state in which dust l is attached across two adjacent electrodes 2, middle) to (cl) are T
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of main parts taken along line A--A in the order of manufacturing steps in a), and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the procedure of this embodiment. First, a film with a thickness of about 17 mm is placed on a glass substrate 5 as an insulating substrate.
00 people's ITO film was formed by sputtering method.

[Refer to Figure 2], apply resist on top of this

[See Figure 2 ■] After that, the resist film is exposed to light using a photomask having a desired pattern.

[Refer to Figure 2 ■], Perform a development process to form a resist pattern.

[See Figure 2 ■]. Next, using this resist pattern as a mask, the above IT
The O film was etched with hydrochloric acid at about 40°C, and the ITO
A striped electrode 2 consisting of

[See Figure 2 ■], then peel off the resist pattern.

[See Figure 2 ■]. During the above series of steps, as shown in Figure 1(a),
If dust adheres across two adjacent electrode patterns, the etching will be incomplete in the area where the dust has adhered, and as shown in Figure 1(b), the two A short circuit occurs between the electrodes 2. Therefore, we inspected the pattern of electrode 2 obtained.

[Figure 2 ■
If there is a short circuit between the electrodes, apply resist again.

[See Figure 2 ■], expose the above resist film to light using a photomask.

[See Figure 2 ■]. Note that the pattern of the electrode 2 may be inspected by visual inspection, or by a method such as checking the presence or absence of electrical short circuits, and there is no need to particularly limit the material. The electrode pattern 3 of the second photomask is negative 1 (C
), the stripe width of the first electrode pattern is made wider. In this way, by providing an alignment allowance for the electrode pattern 3 with respect to the electrode 2, it becomes easy to align the electrode pattern □ with the electrode 2, and the end of the electrode 2 may be exposed due to misalignment of the electrode pattern □ and the turn 3. There is no risk of it happening. Therefore, in the electrode 2 obtained by subsequent development and processing, short circuits are removed, and a display panel free of display defects is obtained. In this example, strip-shaped electric grout 2 (electrode spacing is 30 μm) was formed on a glass bonded plate 5 of 3,00 x 200 mm at a pitch of 5 wires/mm, and in the first process, 25 out of 70 2 touch defects occurred due to Go ξ, but 2
After the second process, all the products were of good quality. Although the amount of dust depends on the cleanliness of the work room, this example was conducted in a class 100,000 room, which has a low cleanliness level, and the above results were obtained. By using the present invention in this way, a good electrode substrate can be formed even in an environment with a low degree of cleanliness. However, the second photo process requires precision alignment, and the electrode becomes thinner to compensate for the misalignment of the pattern. So, for example, the first time is 170μm, and the second time is 180pm.
In this way, in the second and subsequent patterning, if a pattern is used that is wider than the electrode width used in the first time, the electrode will not become thinner, and a good electrode substrate can be formed. As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to form a fine electrode pattern over a large area even in a room with low cleanliness. Furthermore, substrates that were previously discarded as defective can be recycled, making it possible to reduce costs. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to all processes for forming fine electrodes with large areas, such as EL and FDP, in addition to display electrodes for liquid crystals. Further, in the above embodiment, an ITO film was used as the electrode film, but the electrode material is not limited to a transparent conductive film such as ITO, but may also be a metal film. [Effects of the Invention] As explained above. As described above, according to the present invention, the yield of display electrodes can be improved and costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the manufacturing process of one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is dust, 2 is an electrode, 3 is an electrode pattern,
4 is a resist pattern, 5 is an insulating substrate (glass substrate)
shows. Furyōmei-Complete example of Shurouzu Kankichuzu

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) When forming an electrode film on an insulating substrate (5) and etching the electrode film using a resist pattern as a mask to form an electrode (2), a plurality of etching steps are performed using the resist pattern as a mask. A method for forming electrodes for a display panel, the method comprising applying the electrodes repeatedly. (2) The display panel according to claim 1, characterized in that when performing the etching step multiple times using the resist pattern as a mask, the width of the electrode portion of the resist pattern is made thicker in the second and subsequent etchings than in the first etching. Electrode formation method.