JPH07201486A - Static eliminating method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stably eliminate static electricity without generating ozone by holding an insulating member in the atmosphere heated to 50 deg.C or more, and decreasing surface potential caused by the static electricity. CONSTITUTION:A glass-made substrate 33 is stored in a heat insulating wall 18, and a surface of the substrate 33 is left as previously charged with static electricity, to hold the substrate by a holding mechanism 15 so as to prevent the substrate from being tumbled and brought into contact with each other. The inside of the heat insulating wall 18 is held to 50 deg.C temperature by a gas heating mechanism 11, and here the temperature in the heat insulating wall 18 is about 50%RH, to generate convection of air only by natural convection. Here in accordance with increasing the atmospheric temperature, a convergent value of surface potential is decreased lower, but in order to generate a safety level as the surface potential, the atmosphere is set to 50 deg.C or more. Thus by eliminating necessity for using high voltage, the generation of ozone according to a corona discharge is eliminated. In this way, static electricity in a surface of an insulating member, which is partly an insulator, can be safely removed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for removing static electricity generated on an insulating substrate used for, for example, a liquid crystal element, and an apparatus therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as a countermeasure against static electricity, proper grounding and the use of a conductive material have been performed. However, if you have no choice but to use an insulator member,
This kind of countermeasure is impossible, and an air ionizer that blows ionized air onto the target object was often used. This air ionizer applies a high voltage to the tip electrode, generates corona discharge, ionizes and ionizes gas molecules in the air, and depending on the method of applying the high voltage, a direct current type or a pulse type is used. It is used. These devices may be equipped with a slow heating mechanism that heats the gas up to about 40 ° C. in order to prevent the airflow from hitting the human body and feeling cold.

[0003]

In these air ionizers, it is necessary to use a high voltage because of the driving principle thereof, and it is indispensable to take special measures to prevent electric leakage and accidental electric shock. Further, since ozone is generated with corona discharge, a device for removing the generated ozone is indispensable. Therefore, it is an expensive device. further,
Fine particles adhere to the tip electrode. There is a problem that the adhered fine particles fall off and scatter to contaminate the target object.

Further, in a DC type or pulse type static eliminating method / apparatus, if the amount of positive and negative ions to be generated is unbalanced or if the charge amount and polarity of the object are not consistent, the charge amount is rather increased. Therefore, it was very difficult to correctly remove the static electricity charged on the object.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a method of removing static electricity according to the present invention is to remove static electricity on the surface of an insulating member which is at least partially insulating in an electronic device. The insulating member is maintained in an atmosphere heated to 50 ° C. or higher (Claim 1). Further, the insulating member is sprayed with a gas heated to 50 ° C. or higher at a wind speed of 1 m / sec or higher by the above method (claim 2). Further, the above static electricity removing method is applied to charge removal of a liquid crystal element (claim 3).
Still further, the above-mentioned static electricity removing method is applied to charge removal of a substrate having electrodes partially formed (claim 4).

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the static electricity removing device of the present invention is a device for removing static electricity on the surface of an insulator member, at least a part of which constitutes an electronic device, and is a gas. Is heated to 50 ° C. or higher, and a blowing mechanism that blows the gas onto the insulator member by forming the gas into a gas stream having a wind speed of 1 m / sec or more (claim 5). Further, the apparatus is provided with a dust removing mechanism for cleaning the gas (claim 6). Furthermore, the insulating member is a liquid crystal element or a substrate at least a part of which constitutes the liquid crystal element is insulative, and has a holding mechanism for holding or carrying the insulating member (claim 7). ).

[0007]

By maintaining the insulator member in an atmosphere heated to 50 ° C. or higher, the surface potential of the insulator member surface due to static electricity is reduced. Although the details of this power removal mechanism are unknown, the resistance value of the insulating material and the atmosphere gas, which are the objects of charge removal, decreases due to the increase of the atmosphere temperature, the dielectric constant of the atmosphere gas increases, and the Brownian motion of gas molecules It is considered that it may be due to activation or the like.

At this time, if a gas heated to 50 ° C. or higher with a wind velocity of 1 m / sec or higher is blown, the charge can be removed more effectively. The static elimination effect cannot be obtained by using only the air that is not heated. This is effective because the electric charge discharged from the insulator member to the gas in the immediate vicinity thereof by the above action is diffused by the air flow having a wind velocity of 1 m / sec or more, and fresh gas is constantly supplied to the surface of the insulator member. It is thought that this is because the electricity is removed by

Due to the driving principle, the generation of ozone is eliminated and at the same time, the generation of fine particles is eliminated. The above static electricity removing method makes heavy use of insulating members such as a glass substrate and a polarizing plate, and works optimally as a static eliminating method for liquid crystal elements in which static electricity is easily charged during the manufacturing process. It also works optimally as a static elimination method for a substrate on which various electrodes are formed, such as a thin film transistor formed on the surface of an insulating substrate.

When the above-mentioned static electricity removing device is used, the heated gas is surely blown to the insulator member, so that the electrostatic charge of the insulator member can be surely eliminated.
Further, when the above-mentioned static electricity removing device having a dust removing mechanism is used, clean gas is blown to the insulator member which is the object of static elimination, so that the insulator member which is the object of static elimination is not contaminated. Therefore, the present apparatus can be used without worrying about the contamination of all static elimination objects. Further, for example, it is necessary to keep the surface clean, and a thin film transistor substrate of an active matrix liquid crystal element in which a large number of thin film transistors are formed on the surface of an insulating substrate, or to be surely adhered to the substrate is required, and particularly to avoid contamination. This device is particularly effective for static elimination of polarizing plates and the like. At this time, it is possible to remove the charge while transporting an insulating member typified by a liquid crystal element or a substrate that constitutes the liquid crystal element. Further, it becomes possible to perform the static elimination processing while storing and storing the insulator member in the device.

Furthermore, no ozone is generated and no fine particles are generated.

[0012]

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. A glass substrate 3 having a 10 cm square and a thickness of 1 mm
3 (Corning Corporation # 7059) was stored in the heat insulating wall 18. The surface of the substrate 33 was charged to 2 kV in advance so that the effect of the present invention can be more remarkably confirmed, and the substrate 33 was held by the holding mechanism 15 so as not to fall over or come into contact with each other. Then, the temperature inside the heat insulating wall 18 was maintained at 50 ° C. by the gas heating mechanism 11. At this time, the humidity inside the heat insulating wall 18 was about 50% RH, and the air flow was only natural convection.

With such a structure, the change with time of the surface potential of the surface of the substrate 33 was measured. The surface potential was measured using Model 344 manufactured by Trek. The result is shown by the solid line in FIG. The vertical axis represents the surface potential of the surface of the substrate 33, and the horizontal axis represents the holding time. In FIG. 10, as a comparative example, a time-dependent change in the surface potential of the glass substrate, which was similarly charged to 2 kV and then allowed to stand in the laboratory (23 ° C. and 50% RH), is shown by a broken line. Further, the time-dependent change of the surface potential of the glass substrate 33, which has been subjected to the holding treatment with the temperature inside the heat insulating wall 18 set at 70 ° C. (50% RH), is shown by a chain line.

As is apparent from FIG. 10, almost no static electricity is removed by holding in the atmosphere of 23 ° C., while holding in the atmosphere of 50 ° C. takes 10 minutes. The surface potential, which was 2 kV, decreased to 600 V. The static elimination effect becomes more remarkable as the ambient temperature rises.
When kept in an atmosphere of 0 ° C., the surface potential decreased to 100 V after being kept for 10 minutes. It was also confirmed that the higher the ambient temperature, the lower the convergence value of the surface potential (the value at which the surface potential hardly decreases even when held). In addition, FIG. 11 shows the surface potential after 10 minutes when the static elimination treatment temperature was variously changed using this apparatus. From FIG. 11, the temperature and the surface potential after 10 minutes are not necessarily in a proportional relationship, and in order to keep the surface potential at 600 V or lower, which is a generally safe level, it is necessary to maintain the atmosphere at 50 ° C. or higher. It was confirmed to be effective. This temporal change in the surface potential had a similar tendency even in the substrate 33 having the thin film transistor 34 and the electrode 32 formed on the surface thereof illustrated in FIG. Also, as illustrated in FIG.
The same applies to the liquid crystal element 31 in which two insulating substrates each having the electrode 32 formed on the surface are combined.

(Embodiment 2) The difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 is that the glass substrate 33 has a wind speed of 1 m / sec.
That is, the air heated to ℃ was blown. First, the static eliminator 20 used for the static elimination process will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 12 is a blower mechanism for sending air under pressure, reference numeral 13 is a dust removing mechanism for removing suspended dust in the air, reference numeral 16 is an external intake port for taking in air from the outside of the heat insulating wall 18, and reference numeral 21 is an internal intake port for taking in the air inside the heat insulating wall 18,
Reference numeral 17 is an outlet for blowing a heated airflow onto the substrate 33, and reference numeral 19 is an intake control valve for appropriately selecting internal air or external air.

In the static electricity removing device 20 having such a structure,
As in Example 1, the glass substrate 33 charged to 2 kV was installed. Air sucked from the external intake port 16 or the internal intake port 21 is appropriately mixed with the glass substrate 33 by the intake control valve 19 to form the gas heating mechanism 1.
1 is heated to 50 ° C., and the blower mechanism 12 is used to
The wind velocity was accelerated to 1 m / sec, the suspended dust in the air was removed by the dust removing mechanism 13, and the dust was blown from the outlet 17. Air heated at 50 ° C. with a wind speed of 1 m / sec was blown to measure the change over time in the surface potential of the substrate 33. The result is shown by the solid line in FIG. In FIG. 12, as in the case of FIG. 10, as a comparative example, after being charged to 2 kV, it was stored in the laboratory (23 °
The glass substrate 33 was allowed to stand still at 50% RH), and air at room temperature with a wind velocity of 1 m / sec was blown onto the glass substrate 33 to measure the time-dependent change in surface potential. Further, the time-dependent change of the surface potential of the glass substrate 33, which has been subjected to the holding treatment with the temperature inside the heat insulating wall 18 set at 70 ° C. (50% RH), is shown by a chain line.

As is apparent from FIG. 12, 23 ° C. and 1 m
The static electricity was hardly removed by keeping it in the airflow atmosphere of 1 / sec, whereas it was 2 kV in the holding time of 10 minutes when kept in the airflow atmosphere of 50 ° C and 1 m / sec. The potential decreased to 500V. The static elimination effect is more remarkable as the ambient temperature is higher, and the surface potential was reduced to 100 V by holding for 10 minutes when the atmosphere was maintained at 70 ° C. for 1 m / sec. Further, when comparing FIG. 12 and FIG. 10, it was confirmed that if the surface potential after 10 minutes and the convergent value of the surface potential were the same temperature condition, there was an air flow of 1 m / sec. Further, FIG. 13 shows the surface potential after 10 minutes when the static elimination treatment temperature was fixed to 50 ° C. and the flow velocity of the air to be blown was variously changed by using this apparatus. From FIG. 13, it was confirmed that setting the flow velocity of air to 1 m / sec or more is effective in removing the surface potential.

The change of the surface potential with time is similar to that of the first embodiment, and the thin film transistor 34 on the surface illustrated in FIG. 9 is used.
The same tendency was observed with the substrate 33 having the electrodes 32 and 32 formed thereon. Further, the same applies to the liquid crystal element 31 illustrated in FIG. 8 in which two insulating substrates each having the electrode 32 formed on the surface are combined. In this embodiment, HEP
Since the dust removing mechanism 13 including the A filter was used, the suspended dust in the air could be effectively removed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, it is necessary to keep the surface clean, and the substrate 33 of the active matrix liquid crystal element in which the thin film transistors 34 are formed on the substrate surface of a large number of insulators.
Moreover, the present apparatus could be used without worrying about contamination of the substrate 33. Note that the static elimination ability was not affected by the presence or absence of the dust removing mechanism 13.

(Embodiment 3) This embodiment is different from Embodiment 2 in that the air blown onto the glass substrate 33 is ionized air. First, the static eliminator 20 used in the static elimination process will be described with reference to FIG. Figure 3
The same parts as those in the above embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 14 is a gas ionization mechanism (air ionizer static eliminator) for ionizing the air heated and fed.

In the static electricity removing device 20 having such a structure,
As in the case of Example 2, a glass substrate 33 charged to 2 kV was set, and a wind speed of 1 was applied to the glass substrate 33.
Air heated to 50 ° C. of m / sec and further ionized by the gas ionization mechanism 14 using the air ionizer static eliminator shown in the prior art is blown from the outlet 17.
The change in surface potential with time was measured. The result is shown in FIG. With a holding time of 10 minutes, the surface potential, which was 2 kV, decreased to 200 V.

The change of the surface potential with time is similar to that in the first embodiment, and the thin film transistor 34 on the surface illustrated in FIG. 9 is used.
The same tendency was observed with the substrate 33 having the electrodes 32 and 32 formed thereon. Further, the same applies to the liquid crystal element 31 illustrated in FIG. 8 in which two insulating substrates each having the electrode 32 formed on the surface are combined. However, when the dust removing mechanism 13 is not used in the present embodiment, it is necessary to take sufficient care so that the surface of the substrate 33 is not contaminated.

(Embodiment 4) This embodiment is different from Embodiment 2 in that the heat insulating wall 18 is not used. In the static eliminator 20 whose conceptual diagram is shown in FIG.
The air taken in from the air is heated to 50 ° C by the gas heating mechanism 11.
It was heated to 1 m / sec by the blower mechanism 12, and was blown onto the glass substrate 33 from the blowout port 17. The substrate 33 was previously charged to 2 kV as in the second embodiment.

Using this static electricity removing device 20, a wind speed of 1 m
The substrate 33 is sprayed with air heated to 50 ° C./sec.
The time-dependent change of the surface potential of was measured. The result is shown by the solid line in FIG. In FIG. 15, as in the case of FIG. 10, as a comparative example, after charging to 2 kV, it was stored in the laboratory (23 ° C./50%).
RH), the wind speed of 1 m on the glass substrate 33.
Air temperature was blown at room temperature for 1 second per second, and the change in surface potential with time was measured, which is shown by a broken line.

As is apparent from FIG. 15, 50 ° C. · 1
By blowing air with an air flow of m / sec, the surface potential, which was 2 kV, was reduced to 500 V in the treatment time of 10 minutes. On the other hand, static electricity was hardly removed by blowing air at 23 ° C. and 1 m / sec. Also in this example, it was confirmed that the converged value of the surface potential was reached in a short time by blowing air of 50 ° C. and 1 m / sec of air flow. In addition, FIG. 16 shows the surface potential after 10 minutes when the static elimination treatment temperature was variously changed using this apparatus.
As a result, in order to reduce the surface potential to 600 V or less, 5
It was confirmed that blowing air at 0 ° C. or higher was effective. From FIG. 16, it is confirmed that the temperature of the gas to be sprayed and the surface potential after 10 minutes are not necessarily in a proportional relationship also in this embodiment, and that it is effective to spray the air of the air current of 50 ° C. or more and 1 m / sec. Was done. The change with time of the surface potential is illustrated in FIG. 9 as in the second embodiment.
The same tendency was observed with the substrate 33 having the thin film transistor 34 and the electrode 32 formed on the surface. Further, the same applies to the liquid crystal element 31 illustrated in FIG. 8 in which two insulating substrates each having the electrode 32 formed on the surface are combined. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, even if the arrangements of the gas heating mechanism 11 and the air blowing mechanism 12 were reversed, no difference was observed in the obtained static elimination effect.

(Embodiment 5) This embodiment is different from Embodiment 3 in that the heat insulating wall 18 is not used. In the static eliminator 20 whose conceptual diagram is shown in FIG. 6, the air taken in from the external intake port 16 to the glass substrate 33 is heated to 50 ° C. at a wind speed of 1 m / sec by the gas heating mechanism 11 and the blowing mechanism 12. Further, the air ionized by the gas ionization mechanism 14 using the air ionizer static eliminator was blown from the outlet 17 to measure the change in surface potential with time. The result is shown in FIG. With a holding time of 10 minutes, the surface potential of 2 kV was effectively eliminated and the surface potential was reduced to 200
It decreased to V. Similar to the first embodiment, this temporal change in the surface potential has the same tendency even in the substrate 33 having the thin film transistor 34 and the electrode 32 formed on the surface thereof illustrated in FIG. In addition, the electrode 3 on the surface illustrated in FIG.
The same applies to the liquid crystal element 31 in which two insulating substrates each having the number 2 formed therein are combined. However, in this embodiment, it is necessary to pay sufficient attention so that the surface of the substrate 33 is not contaminated.

(Sixth Embodiment) This embodiment differs from the fifth embodiment in that the glass substrate 33 is moved by using the static eliminator having the holding mechanism 15 shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. That is, the charge was removed. In this embodiment,
The effect similar to that of the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 17 is obtained, and the holding mechanism is an endless belt or a turntable, so that static electricity can be removed from the glass substrate 33 by flow work, which is very efficient. .

[0027]

As described above, in the method of removing static electricity according to the present invention, it is not necessary to use a high voltage, and a special device for preventing electric leakage and careless electric shock is unnecessary. Further, since ozone is not generated at all due to corona discharge, a device for removing ozone is unnecessary. Further, since the fine particles do not adhere to the discharge electrode due to the discharge phenomenon, fine particles are not dropped or scattered and the problem of contaminating the object is eliminated. Furthermore, it is not necessary to consider the matching with the charge amount and polarity of the target object, and it is possible to always perform stable charge removal.

Further, in the static eliminator according to the present invention,
It is possible to reliably carry out the above static electricity removal method at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a liquid crystal element.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of a substrate having a thin film transistor formed on its surface.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a time-dependent change in the surface potential of the substrate surface.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the relationship between the surface potential of the substrate surface and the charge removal processing temperature.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing changes in the surface potential of the substrate surface over time.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the relationship between the surface potential of the substrate surface and the pneumatic feeding speed.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a time-dependent change in the surface potential of the substrate surface.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing changes with time in surface potential of the substrate surface.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the relationship between the surface potential of the substrate surface and the temperature of static elimination treatment.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a time-dependent change in the surface potential of the substrate surface.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Gas Heating Mechanism 12 Blower Mechanism 13 Dust Removal Mechanism 14 Gas Ionization Mechanism 15 Holding Mechanism 16 External Intake Port 17 Outlet Port 18 Insulation Wall 19 Intake Control Valve 20 Static Eliminator 21 Internal Intake Port 31 Liquid Crystal Element 32 Electrode 33 Substrate 34 Thin Film Transistor

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A method for removing static electricity from a surface of an insulating member, at least a part of which constitutes an electronic device, which is insulative, wherein the insulating member is held in an atmosphere heated to 50 ° C. or higher. A method of removing static electricity. 2. A method for removing static electricity from a surface of an insulating member at least a part of which constitutes an electronic device, wherein the insulating member is heated to 50 ° C. or more at a wind speed of 1 m / sec or more. A method of removing static electricity, characterized by spraying a gas. 3. The static electricity removing method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a liquid crystal element. 4. The static electricity removing method according to claim 1, wherein the insulator member is a substrate having an electrode formed on a part thereof. 5. A device for removing static electricity on a surface of an insulating member, at least a part of which constitutes an electronic device is an insulating material, and a gas heating mechanism for heating a gas to 50 ° C. or higher,
A static electricity removing device, comprising: a blowing mechanism that blows the gas into the air flow at a wind velocity of 1 m / sec or more and blows the gas onto the insulator member. 6. The static electricity eliminator according to claim 5, further comprising a dust removing mechanism for cleaning the gas. 7. The insulating member is a liquid crystal element or a substrate at least a part of which constitutes the liquid crystal element is insulative, and has a holding mechanism for holding or carrying the insulating member. 5. The static eliminator according to claim 5 or claim 6.