JPH07312254A - Conducting contact terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a conducting contact terminal which is prevented from being broken, and never shifted from the pattern of a liquid crystal cell. CONSTITUTION:A conducting contact terminal 1 has a plurality of contacts 2 arranged at equal intervals and nipped by a P glass 4 and holder 5 which are insulating members so that the top ends are protruded in a prescribed quantity, and a silicon rubber 6 which is an elastic body is adhered and fixed to the vicinity of the top end of the holder 5. The contact 2 is adhered and fixed to the silicon rubber 6 with the top end being slightly protruded from the silicon rubber 56. Since the contact is supported by the silicon rubber in this conducting contact terminal, a stress never collectively act on the position where the contact is arranged, and a damage such as breakage of the contact can be avoided. Since the contact top end protruded from the silicon rubber is slight, the contact is never shifted from the pattern of a liquid crystal cell when pressed onto the pattern.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conductive contact terminal used for a lighting test of a liquid crystal cell, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, technological development in the liquid crystal field has been remarkable, and many products using the liquid crystal technology have come into widespread use. These liquid crystal products are equipped with a liquid crystal display for displaying images by liquid crystal, characters, numbers, etc., as represented by a liquid crystal television monitor, for example.
A liquid crystal cell is always used for this liquid crystal display.
This liquid crystal cell has a basic structure in which two transparent electrodes, which have been rubbed in one direction with Teflon particles or the like, are arranged facing each other so that the friction directions are at right angles to each other, and a liquid crystal molecular film is sandwiched between them. Such a system is generally called a TN mode. In addition to the TN mode, a large number of liquid crystal cells for a color display represented by a guest-host type in which a small amount of a dichroic dye is mixed with a liquid crystal molecular film for a recent color display are also produced and widely used. ing.

In such a liquid crystal cell, product inspection in the production process requires extremely high accuracy. This is because, in order to control the alignment of liquid crystal molecules by an electric field, a plurality of electric wires called patterns 8a are formed on the transparent electrode of the liquid crystal cell with a pitch of 100 as shown in FIGS.
This is because they are arranged in a grid pattern at intervals of ˜160 μm, and if even one of them is not conductive due to some defect, it will immediately affect the liquid crystal display. Therefore, when the liquid crystal cell 8 is completed, the conductive contact terminal 50 for lighting test shown in FIGS. 10 to 12 is provided in the inspection portion 8c of the pattern 8a which is provided in a U shape so as to surround the display portion 8b over the edge portion thereof. The lighting inspection is performed by pressing.

Each of the conductive contact terminals 50 is arranged at a pitch corresponding to the pitch of the pattern 8a and has a contact 51 having an extremely delicate cross-sectional area. The contact 51 has a glass plate or the like behind it. It is held by the insulating member 52, and an electronic board (not shown) connected to the drive board in the tester for the liquid crystal cell lighting test is connected to the rear end.
The amount of protrusion of the contact 51 in the conductive contact terminal 50 from the insulating member 52 is sufficiently bent with respect to the pattern 8a when the contact 51 is pressed against the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8 and contacts the pattern 8a. In order to obtain a large area, it is set to be about 2 mm to 4 mm, which is relatively long with respect to the cross-sectional area.

[0005]

However, when a lighting test of the liquid crystal cell 8 is performed using the conductive contact terminal 50 having the above-described structure, the contact 51 of the conductive contact terminal 50 is extremely delicate and the contact member 51 from the insulating member 52 is removed. Since the protrusion of the contact 51 is large,
The contact 51 has poor pitch stability, and the conductive contact terminal 50
When the liquid crystal cell 8 is pressed against the inspection part 8c, the contact 51
Is shifted from the pattern 8a, and the adjacent pattern 8
It often comes into contact with a to cause a short circuit. As a result, the lighting state of the display surface 8b of the liquid crystal cell 8 is such that the pattern 8a corresponding to the short-circuited contact 51 is not lit, that is, the non-lighted portion is displayed as a line on the display surface. It becomes a state. This is regarded as a line defect and the liquid crystal cell 8 is extracted as a defective product. As described above, when the lighting test of the liquid crystal cell 8 is performed using the conductive contact terminal 50 having the above-described configuration, the liquid crystal cell 8 that does not actually have a defective element is also extracted as a defective product, and thus the reliability of the lighting test is improved. It has been pointed out that there is a defect that it is lost and the subsequent lighting test cannot be performed.

Further, since the bending of the contact 51 depends only on the elastic force of the metal material forming the contact 51, each contact 5
Due to the extremely small width and thickness of 1, the load force is not evenly transmitted to each contact 51, the conduction resistance with the pattern 8a becomes unstable, and the liquid crystal cell 8 is turned on. There are drawbacks such as occurrence of lighting spots, which is a defective condition, and metal fatigue of the contactor 51 at the holding part of the insulating member 52 due to repeated use, which easily causes damage such as breakage from this part. Can be mentioned.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides a conductive contact terminal that prevents bending and breakage of the contactor, always stabilizes the contact pressure, and prevents the contactor from shifting from the pattern. The purpose is to do.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a plurality of contacts are arranged at equal intervals, and a conductive contact terminal sandwiched by an insulating member so that the tips of these contacts project by a predetermined amount is insulated. An elastic body is provided near the tip of the member, and the elastic body holds the contact.

[0009]

When performing the lighting test of the liquid crystal cell using the conductive contact terminal having the above-described structure, first, the contactor of the conductive contact terminal is tilted and aligned with the pattern of the liquid crystal cell, and then,
The conductive contact terminal is lowered to apply a vertical load to the contact. Then, the elastic body is deformed by the load force,
The contactor supported by the elastic body also bends together with the contactor. At this time, most of the contacts protruding from the insulating member are supported by the elastic body, so that the portions of the contacts that are not supported by anyone are small, and the pitch stability of the contacts is improved.

When a current is applied to all the contacts while the contacts are pressed against the inspection section of the liquid crystal cell, the display section of the liquid crystal cell is turned on. At this time, if there is some abnormality in the pattern of the liquid crystal cell, an abnormality also appears in the lighting of the display portion of the liquid crystal cell, and the liquid crystal cell is extracted as a defective product. When there is no abnormality in the liquid crystal cell, the current is conducted to all the patterns, and the display portion of the liquid crystal cell is in a state in which all the lights are turned on without spots.

When the quality of the liquid crystal cell is determined in this way and then the conductive contact terminal is raised, the load applied to the contact is removed, and the contact returns from the bent state to the straight state. . At this time, the contactor does not completely return to its original shape due to the bending until then, but since the elastic force of the elastic body overwhelms that of the contactor, a load is applied. The contact is easily straightened by the restoring force when the deformed elastic body returns to its original shape.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a conductive contact terminal, and a plurality of contacts 2 arranged at equal intervals corresponding to a pattern 8a arranged so as to surround a display surface of a liquid crystal cell 8 as a DUT, A relay substrate 3 located behind the contactor 2 and connected to the contactor 2, and a glass plate called P glass 4 which is an insulating member to which the contactor 2 and the relay substrate 3 are adhesively fixed, A holder 5 made of a resin material that is an insulating member that is located on the upper surfaces of the contact 2 and the relay substrate 3 and holds them by the P glass 4, and a holder 5 located on the lower surface of the tip of the holder 5 It is composed of a silicon rubber 6 which is an elastic body adhered and fixed to both of them, and a base glass plate 7 on which the above configuration is placed and fixed.

The contactor 2 is formed by arranging a plurality of plate members having extremely fine thickness and width in parallel at an interval of a pitch P so that adjacent plate members do not contact each other. Is a component that directly contacts the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8 during a lighting test of the liquid crystal cell 8 described later. In the present embodiment, an example of conductive contact terminals in which 150 contact terminals 2 are arranged at a pitch P = 160 μm will be described. The type of conductive contact terminals is, for example, the contact pitch P.
Is extremely complicated, such as 90 μm and 140 μm. Behind the contactor 2, there is provided a relay substrate 3 for connecting each of the contacts 2 by a bonding process 2a used when connecting the semiconductor, and the rear end of the relay substrate 3 is not shown. An IC board called TAB-IC 3a for controlling the conduction signal from the contactor 2 is connected to the lighting tester for the liquid crystal cell.

The liquid crystal cell 8 is, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a display portion 8 composed of two transparent electrodes holding liquid crystal molecules.
In the transparent electrode of the display portion 8b, a large number of electric wires called patterns 8a are arranged in a grid pattern at intervals of 160 μm in order to control the orientation of liquid crystal molecules by an electric field. This pattern 8a is partitioned and arranged as an inspection portion 8c at the edge of the liquid crystal cell 8. The inspection portion 8c is arranged in a U-shape so as to surround the edge portion of the liquid crystal cell 8, and the conducting contact terminals 1 are respectively brought into contact with the inspection portion 8c during a lighting test of the liquid crystal cell 8.

The lower surfaces of the contacts 2 and the relay board 3 are P
It is adhesively fixed to the glass 4. The P glass 4 is an insulating member made of a transparent glass plate, and is provided on the contact 2 side and the relay substrate 3 side, respectively, and holds the contact 2 and the relay substrate 3 from below. The P glass 4 is a base glass plate 7 that is slightly thicker than the P glass 4.
It is placed and fixed on. The base glass plate 7 is also a transparent glass plate like the P glass 4. A holder 5 made of a resin material, which is an insulating member, is located above the contacts 2 and the relay substrate 3. The holder 5 is formed with two leg portions 5a, 5a across the width thereof, and the front leg portion 5a has the upper surface of the contactor 2 and the rear leg portion 5a.
The upper surface of the relay substrate 3 is bonded and fixed to a. In this way, the contactor 2 and the relay substrate 3 are configured to be held by the P glass 4 and the holder 5, which are insulating members, respectively.

The holder 5 is used when the conductive contact terminal 1 is attached to the lighting tester, and the upper surface thereof is provided with a screw hole 5b suitable for attachment. Further, the lower tip of the holder 5 is formed such that its sectional shape is formed into an acute angle, extends above the tip of the contact 2, and is positioned at a certain distance from the contact 2.

Between the lower end of the holder 5 and the contactor 2, a silicon rubber 6 which is an elastic body is fitted over the entire width of the conductive contact terminal 1, and a double-sided tape or an adhesive agent is attached to each of the holder 5 and the contactor 2. It has been fixed using. The silicon rubber 6 is configured to cover most of the contactor 2 protruding from the P glass 4 in the lengthwise direction, and when the contactor 2 flexes, the flexure is supported by the elastic force of the silicon rubber 6. Is composed of. Further, an inclined surface 6a is formed on the front surface of the silicone rubber 6 so that the thickness of the silicone rubber 6 increases toward the holder 5 side, and the contact 2 of the conductive contact terminal 1 is pressed against the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8. The silicone rubber 6 is configured so as to be flexibly deformed when it is opened. Further, the tip of the contactor 2 adhered and fixed to the lower surface of the silicone rubber 6 projects forward from the silicone rubber 6 by a distance of m in FIG. The protrusion amount m shown in FIG. 5 is about 0.5 mm in this embodiment.

As described above, a double-sided tape or an adhesive may be used as the means for adhering the silicone rubber 6,
When an adhesive is used, when the lower surface of the silicone rubber 6 and the contactor 2 are adhered, the contactor 2 flows integrally due to the flow of the adhesive, and the pitch of the contactor 2 is often impaired. Contactor 2 using double-sided tape
Also, the holder and the silicone rubber 6 are configured to be adhesively fixed.

When performing a lighting test of the liquid crystal cell 8 using the conductive contact terminal 1 having the above-described structure, first, FIG. 6 (a) and FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6A, the contactor 2 of the conductive contact terminal 1 is tilted at a certain angle with respect to the inspection portion 8c of the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8 to be aligned with each other, and then, as shown in FIGS.
As shown in (b), the conductive contact terminal 1 is lowered to apply a vertical load to the contactor 2. Then, the silicon rubber 6 is deformed by the load force, and the contactor 2 supported by the silicon rubber 6 is also bent together with the contactor 2. At this time, most of the contacts 2 projecting from the holder 5 and the sandwiched portion of the P glass 4 are supported by the silicon rubber 6, so that the portion of the contacts 2 that is not supported by anyone is small, and the pitch of the contacts 2 is small. Improves stability.

Subsequently, the contactor 2 is the inspection part 8 of the pattern 8a.
When current is applied to all the contacts 2 in the state of being pressed against c, the display portion 8b of the liquid crystal cell 8 is turned on. At this time, if the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8 has some abnormality, the display portion 8b of the liquid crystal cell 8 also has an abnormality, and the liquid crystal cell 8 is extracted as a defective product. Specific examples of the lighting state of the liquid crystal cell 8 having the abnormal pattern 8a include line defects that do not linearly light only at the position of the abnormal pattern 8a, lighting spots caused by variations in the conduction resistance of the pattern 8a, and the like. When there is no abnormality in the liquid crystal cell 8, the current is conducted to all the patterns 8a, and the display portion 8b of the liquid crystal cell 8 is called a fully lit display portion 8b.
Are all illuminated without spots, and are picked as non-defective products.

After determining the quality of the liquid crystal cell 8 in this way, when the conductive contact terminal 1 is raised, the load applied to the contact 2 is removed, and the contact 2 is straightened from the bent state. Return to the state. At this time, the contactor 2 does not completely return to its original shape because it has been bent until then, but in this conductive contact terminal 1, the elastic force of the silicone rubber 6 is predominantly greater than that of the contactor 2. Therefore, the contact 2 is easily straightened by the restoring force when the silicon rubber 6 which has been deformed by the load is restored to its original shape.

In the lighting test process of the liquid crystal cell 8,
In the past, when the contactor 2 was pressed against the inspection portion 8c of the pattern 8a, the contactor 2 was bent only by a metallic elastic force, but in the present conductive contact terminal 1, the contactor 2 is bent by the silicon rubber 6 Supported by the elastic force of
Fatigue caused by the bending of the contactor 2 can be suppressed to a minimum, and the load on the contactor 2 is released, so that the contactor 2 after the contactor 2 is released.
Can help restore the original shape of. Moreover, due to the elastic force of the silicone rubber 6, a load due to the descent of the conductive contact terminal 1 is uniformly applied to each contact 2, so that each contact 2 can be uniformly bent. further,
The amount of protrusion of the contactor 2 from the P glass 4 is not much different from the conventional one, but most of the contactor 2 is left, leaving a minimum necessary protruding portion that contacts the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8.
The silicon rubber 6 that bends integrally with the adhesive 2 prevents the contacts 2 from interfering with the adjacent contacts 2.

As described above, the inclined surface 6a is formed on the front surface of the silicone rubber 6 in the conductive contact terminal 1, but the inclined surface 6a is formed on the front surface of the silicon rubber 6 as described above.
By providing the silicon rubber 6 with a thickness of the contactor 2
It tends to become thinner toward the tip of. As a result, the amount of deformation of the silicone rubber 6 when a load is applied gradually increases toward the tip. Therefore, when the conductive contact terminal 1 is pressed against the pattern 8a of the liquid crystal cell 8 during the lighting test, the contact 2 is bent into a smooth, substantially arcuate shape.

In the present embodiment, silicone rubber, which is a kind of special synthetic rubber, is selected as the elastic body because the silicone rubber has excellent electric insulation, heat resistance and cold resistance. . Here, the heat resistance and the cold resistance are selected as the criteria for selection because the pitch of the contactor is changed due to the deformation of the elastic body due to the temperature change in the conductive contact terminal. As such an elastic body, in addition to the silicone rubber of the present conductive contact terminal, it is conceivable to use a rubber material such as fluorosilicone rubber or fluororubber, which exhibits excellent heat resistance and cold resistance. Also, this conductive contact terminal is not applied only to the lighting test of the liquid crystal cell,
The present invention can be easily applied to a lighting test of pattern units arranged in parallel on other electronic boards at equal intervals.

[0025]

As described above in detail, in the conductive contact terminal of the present invention, most of the tips of the P glass of the plurality of contacts held by the P glass as the insulating member and the holder and the holding portion of the holder. Since it is configured to be supported by the elastic silicon rubber provided at the tip of the holder, the deflection of the contact when a load is applied to the contact depends on the deformation of the elastic body, and when the load is removed. The return of the contactor to the original shape is also performed by the return force of the elastic body. As a result, the durability of the contact can be increased, and when the contact is bent, stress is not concentrated on the position sandwiched by the P glass and the holder, and the contact at this position is prevented. It is possible to avoid damage such as breakage of the child. Moreover, since the contactor is supported by the silicon rubber, the portion where the contactor is not supported by anyone becomes very small, about 0.5 mm, which stabilizes the pitch of the contactor and reduces the contactor. There is an advantage that the contactor does not deviate from the pattern when pressed against the pattern inspection portion of the liquid crystal cell and an accurate lighting test can be always performed. As described above in detail, the conductive contact terminal of the present invention has an excellent and unique effect due to its structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conductive contact terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a conductive contact terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a conductive contact terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 3, showing an arrangement state of contacts.

5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of FIG. 2, showing a state where silicon rubber is attached to a holder and a contact.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view of the conductive contact terminal according to the present invention, in which (a) shows a tip of the conductive contact terminal before a load is applied, and (b) shows a tip of the conductive contact terminal after a load is applied.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory view of the conductive contact terminal according to the present invention, in which (a) shows a pitch of each contact before a load is applied and (b) shows a pitch of each contact after the load is applied. is there.

FIG. 8 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a liquid crystal cell.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 8, showing an array of patterns.

FIG. 10 is a side view of a conventional conductive contact terminal.

FIG. 11 is an operation explanatory view of a conventional conductive contact terminal, in which (a) shows a state before a load is applied, and (b) shows a state where a contact is bent after a load is applied.

FIG. 12 is an operation explanatory view of a conventional conductive contact terminal, in which (a) shows a matched state of a contact and a pattern of a liquid crystal cell before applying a load and (b) after applying a load. It is shown.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Conductive Contact Terminal 2 Contact 3 Relay Board 4 P Glass 5 Holder 5a Leg 5b Screw Hole 6 Silicon Rubber 6a Inclined Surface 7 Base Glass Plate 8 Liquid Crystal Cell 8a Pattern 8b Display 8c Inspection Part P Contact Pitch = 160 μm m The amount of protrusion from the silicon rubber at the tip of the contact = 0.
5 mm

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A conductive contact terminal in which a plurality of contacts are arranged at equal intervals and are sandwiched by an insulating member so that their tips protrude by a predetermined amount, and an elastic body is provided near the tip of the insulating member. A conductive contact terminal, characterized in that most of the contact tips protruding from the insulating member are held by the body, and the contact tips are slightly protruded from the elastic body.