JPH08171076A - Liquid crystal display element and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To efficiently and inexpensively produce a liquid crystal display element by making it possible to simultaneously process two kinds of electrode substrates in parallel even in a limited production space, thereby averting excess quality. CONSTITUTION: A pair of the electrode substrates formed with cut parts varying in sizes in corner parts are sent from a prepn. stage through, for example, a loader stage 15, a washing stage 16 and a resist applying stage 17 to a discriminating stage 18. The respective electrode substrates are discriminated in accordance with the respective cut parts in this discriminating stage 18. The discriminated electrode substrates are respectively subjected to parallel treatments in exposing stages 19, 20 of respectively separate lines. The respective electrode substrates fed in the separate lines are collected to one line and are subjected to the canon processing in a developing stage 21. There is no need for using two lines of the production lines to be exclusively used for respective production of the respective electrode substrates like heretofore or using one production line by changing over the line at every specified time is eliminated the simultaneous and parallel processing of two kinds of the electrode substrates in the limited production space is possible.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a liquid crystal display device has electrodes made of transparent conductive material and an alignment film covering the electrodes formed on opposite surfaces of a pair of electrode substrates, and liquid crystal is sealed between the pair of electrode substrates by a sealing material. It has an enclosed structure. In this case, a signal electrode is formed as an electrode on one electrode substrate, and a common electrode is formed as an electrode on the other electrode substrate. In such a liquid crystal display element, normally, in order to avoid complexity of the number of parts and manufacturing process,
The pair of electrode substrates and each electrode have the same specifications with the same material and film thickness.

[0003]

However, in such a liquid crystal display element, since the signal electrode may be generally shorter in length than the common electrode and higher in electrical resistance than the common electrode, the film thickness of the common electrode is reduced. Although it can be formed thinner than the other, in order to make the pair of electrode substrates and each electrode have the same specifications, the signal electrode is also formed to have the same thickness as the common electrode, and one of them is excessive with respect to the other. Become quality,
There was a problem that the cost would be increased by this amount. Under such circumstances, it has been considered to use two types of pair of electrode substrates. In the case where the pair of electrode substrates is made of two kinds as described above, it is necessary to adopt the following manufacturing method.
That is, there are a method of using two dedicated manufacturing lines for manufacturing each electrode substrate, a method of switching and using one manufacturing line at regular intervals, and the like. However, in the former manufacturing method, since two dedicated manufacturing lines must be installed, a large manufacturing space is required, equipment costs increase, and manufacturing costs increase. In the latter manufacturing method,
Since one production line is switched and used at regular intervals, there is a problem that production efficiency is poor and production capacity is reduced.

It is a first object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display device which can make a pair of electrode substrates different types to prevent excessive quality and reduce the cost.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, which can process two kinds of electrode substrates in parallel at the same time even in a limited manufacturing space and can efficiently manufacture the same.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to achieve the above first object, in a liquid crystal display device in which liquid crystal is sealed between a pair of electrode substrates each having an electrode and an alignment film covering the electrodes on opposite surfaces, the pair of electrode substrates are distinguished from each other. It is characterized in that a discriminating information supply means that enables the discrimination information is provided. in this case,
As described in any one of claims 1 to 8, the discrimination information supplying means is configured such that the shape difference between the pair of electrode substrates, the thickness difference between the pair of electrode substrates, the material difference between the pair of electrode substrates, and the pair of electrodes. Difference in film thickness of each electrode of the substrate, difference in material of each electrode of the pair of electrode substrates, difference in each total thickness of the electrode substrate and the electrode, identification mark formed on each pair of electrode substrates It is desirable that either

Further, in order to achieve the second object, the invention according to claim 9 is a pair of electrode substrates having an electrode film formed on the opposing surfaces and provided with a discrimination information supply means capable of discriminating the both. A preparation step for preparing a discriminating step, a discriminating step for discriminating each of a pair of electrode substrates based on the discriminating information supplying means, and a parallel process for carrying out parallel processing while conveying each electrode substrate discriminated in this discriminating step on a separate line. Processing steps,
It is characterized in that it comprises a common processing step of performing common processing while collectively transporting the electrode substrates, which have been transferred in separate lines of the parallel processing step, into one line. In this case, it is desirable that the determining step, the parallel processing step, and the common processing step are repeated as described in claim 10. Further, as described in claim 11, the parallel processing step is an exposure step of a photoresist for patterning the electrode film into an electrode having a predetermined shape, and as described in claim 12, the electrode film has a predetermined shape. It is desirable that this is an alignment film forming step of forming an alignment film covering the patterned electrode.

[0007]

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when the pair of electrode substrates provided with the discrimination information supply means is sent from the preparation step to the discrimination step, the discrimination information supply means is provided for each of the pair of electrode substrates in the discrimination step. On the basis of the above, the parallel processing is performed while each of the determined electrode substrates is conveyed on separate lines of the parallel processing step, and the electrode substrates conveyed on separate lines are processed by one line in the common processing step. Since the common processing is performed while collectively transporting the electrode substrates,
Even if the type is different, there is no need to use two dedicated production lines for producing each electrode substrate as in the prior art or to switch and use one production line at regular intervals. Even in a limited manufacturing space, two types of electrode substrates can be processed in parallel at the same time, and efficient production is possible.

Further, according to the invention of claim 1, since the discrimination information supply means for discriminating each of the pair of electrode substrates is provided, even if there are two kinds of electrode substrates, the invention is described in claim 9. As described above, the two types of electrode substrates can be discriminated based on the discrimination information supplying means and processed in parallel on separate lines at the same time, and can be efficiently produced. Therefore, the material and thickness of each of the pair of electrode substrates, or each electrode By changing the material, thickness, etc. of each type, the pair of electrode substrates with electrodes can be made into different types to prevent excess quality, which can reduce the unit price of the product and reduce the product cost. The price can be increased.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the liquid crystal display element and the manufacturing method thereof according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a liquid crystal display element of the present invention. In this liquid crystal display element, electrodes 3, 4 and alignment films 5, 6 respectively covering the electrodes 3, 4 are formed on opposing surfaces of a pair of electrode substrates 1, 2 made of glass or synthetic resin, and the pair of electrodes is formed. A liquid crystal 7 is sealed by a sealing material 8 between the alignment films 5 and 6 of the substrates 1 and 2 facing each other.

The electrodes 3 and 4 are made of a transparent conductive material such as ITO. The electrode 3 on one electrode substrate 1 is a strip-shaped common electrode that is long in the left-right direction, and the electrode 4 on the other electrode substrate 2 is the front and back of the paper. This is a strip-shaped signal electrode that is long in the direction, and the electrodes 3 and 4 face each other in a state of being orthogonal to each other. Further, since the signal electrode 4 is shorter than the common electrode 3 and therefore it is not necessary to keep the electric resistance low unlike the common electrode 3, the signal electrode 4 is formed to be thinner than the common electrode 4. There is. Therefore, the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 do not have the same specifications but have different specifications.

Further, a corner cutting portion 10 of 2 mm is formed as a discrimination information supplying means at the corner portion of one of the electrode substrates 1 as shown in FIG. 2 (a). As a discrimination information supplying means, for example, in FIG. 2B, a corner portion of the other substrate 2 corresponding to the cut portion 10 is provided.
As shown in FIG. 4, a 4 mm corner cut portion 11 is formed. As a result, the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 are formed in different shapes due to the different sizes of the cut portions 10 and 11. In addition, the size of the cut portions 10 and 11 is formed in units of 2 mm because the detection by the current contact sensor is 2 mm.
This is because it is impossible unless there is a difference in outer shape.

Next, a method of manufacturing this liquid crystal display element will be described with reference to FIG. First, two types of electrode substrates 1 and 2 having different specifications are prepared. That is, one of the prepared electrode substrates 1 and 2 has an electrode film for the common electrode 3 formed in advance on one of the electrode substrates 1 with a predetermined film thickness, and a cut portion 10 of 2 mm is formed on the corner portion. Has been done.
Further, an electrode film for the signal electrode 4 is formed in advance on the other electrode substrate 2 with a film thickness smaller than that of the electrode film for the common electrode 3, and a 4 mm cut portion 11 is formed at the corner portion. .

Then, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 are sequentially sent from the loader process 15 to the cleaning process 16 for cleaning and transported to the resist process 17, where the resist process 17 is performed on the electrode films of the electrode substrates 1 and 2. Photoresist is applied to. Each of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 coated with the photoresist is
In the discrimination step 18, each type is discriminated and sorted. That is, in this determination step 18, each electrode substrate 1,
The type of each of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 is discriminated by detecting the respective cut portions 10 and 11 of 2 with a contact type sensor or the like. Then, the respective electrode substrates 1 and 2 that have been discriminated and sorted for each type are transported to the exposure steps (parallel processing steps) 19 and 20 on different lines. In each of the exposure steps 19 and 20, the photoresist is exposed for each line by using a mask corresponding to each electrode pattern of the common electrode 3 and the signal electrode 4. In the exposure steps 19 and 20, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 of each type are simultaneously processed in parallel.

After that, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 transported in separate lines of the exposure steps 19 and 20 are combined into one line, respectively, and are sequentially sent to a developing step 21 which is one of common processing steps. Then, in the developing step 21, the photoresist of each of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 is developed, and then sent to the etching step 22. This etching process 2
In 2, each electrode film is etched by using each photoresist as a mask, thereby forming each electrode 3, 4. That is, the common electrode 3 is formed on one electrode substrate 1 and the signal electrode 4 is formed on the other electrode substrate 2 with an appropriate film thickness. After this, each electrode substrate 1, 2
Are sequentially sent to the peeling process 23, and the peeling process 23
Then, each photoresist is peeled off, and then sent to the next discrimination step 24. In this discriminating step 24, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 are discriminated and sorted for each type again as described above, and sent to the unloader step 25 on different lines. This completes the process of forming the electrodes 3 and 4.

Next, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 proceed to the loader process 26 from the unloader process 25, and the electrode substrates 1 and 2 are grouped into one line again from the loader process 26 to perform the common processing process. The electrode substrates 1 and 2 are sequentially sent to a single cleaning step 27 to be cleaned, and then are sent to a next drying step 28 to be sequentially dried.
The dried electrode substrates 1 and 2 are again discriminated and sorted for each type in the discriminating step 29 in the same manner as described above, and the respective printing steps 3 on separate lines, which are each part of the parallel processing step.
The alignment film is printed according to the electrodes 3 and 4 of each of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 by being transported to 0 and 31. Then, the electrode substrates 1 and 2 on which the alignment film is printed are sent to firing lines 32 and 33 on different lines, the alignment films are fired, and sent to the unloader process 34 on different lines. This completes the alignment film forming step of forming the alignment film on each of the electrode substrates 1 and 2. This alignment film forming process is the same as the process performed on the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2, but since the time required for the process is long, parallel processing greatly contributes to the reduction of the overall process time.

After that, although not shown, a sealing material 8 is printed on one peripheral edge of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2,
A pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 are attached to each other via the sealing material 8, and a liquid crystal 7 is injected into an area surrounded by the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 and the sealing material 8 from an injection port of the sealing material 8. The liquid crystal display element is completed by sealing this injection port.

As described above, in the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, the cut portions 10 and 11 having different sizes formed on the corner portions of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 are discriminated in the step 18,
The exposure process 19 which is a parallel processing process for each electrode substrate 1 and 2 is determined by a contact sensor or the like at 24 and 29.
20 or unloader process 25 or printing process 30,
31 and the baking steps 32 and 33 are processed in parallel while being distributed and transferred to different lines, respectively, and the electrode substrates 1 and 2 transferred on separate lines are developed in a common processing step 21, Etching process 22 and peeling process 2
3, or the cleaning process 27 and the drying process 28, etc., perform common processing while collectively transporting them to one line respectively, so that even if two types of electrode substrates 1 and 2 are used, each electrode substrate can be processed in the conventional manner. 2 for manufacturing 1, 2 respectively
There is no need to use a dedicated production line for books, or to switch and use one production line at regular intervals, and two types of electrode substrates 1 and 2 can be conveyed in parallel as appropriate in a limited production space. At the same time, the required processing can be performed, and the liquid crystal display device can be efficiently produced.

Further, in this liquid crystal display element, the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 have different shapes by forming the cut portions 10 and 11 of different sizes at the corner portions of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2, respectively. Since the respective electrode substrates 1 and 2 can be discriminated from each other, the thickness and material of the pair of substrates 1 and 2 themselves and the film thickness and material of the electrodes 3 and 4 are suitable for the respective electrode substrates. As a result, it is possible to prevent excessive quality of the substrate and the electrodes, thereby reducing the unit price of the product and reducing the price of the product.

In the above embodiment, the case where the thickness of each electrode 3, 4 provided on each of the pair of electrode substrates 1, 2 is set to a unique thickness suitable for each electrode substrate has been described. Not limited to this, for example, expensive ITO and inexpensive SnO ₂ may be separately used for the electrode substrates 1 and ₂ as the materials of the electrodes 3 and 4, and the thickness of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 may be changed for each type. The electrode substrates 1 and 2 may be different combinations such as a glass substrate and a plastic substrate, or a plate-shaped plastic substrate and a sheet-shaped film substrate, and all of these items are suitable for the electrode substrate. You can combine them into different pieces. By doing so, the unit price of the product can be further reduced, and an extremely low-cost product can be obtained.

Further, in the above embodiment, the cut portions 10, 1
Although the case where 1 is detected by the contact type sensor has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be detected by a non-contact type sensor such as an optical type that measures reflectance, transmittance, refractive index, etc. You can

In the above embodiment, each electrode substrate 1, 2
Although the cut portions 10 and 11 having different sizes are formed in one corner portion of the respective electrodes to make the shapes of the electrode substrates 1 and 2 different, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the cut portions are formed only on one substrate. Only, or cut portions of the same size may be formed at different positions on the electrode substrates 1 and 2, and the number of cut portions may be formed on the electrode substrates 1 and 2 differently. Further, these may be combined.

Further, in the above embodiment, the cut portions 10 and 11 are provided on the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 as the discrimination information supplying means.
The electrode substrates 1 and 2 are formed to have different shapes, but the invention is not limited to this. For example, the electrodes 3 of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 are
4 may have different film thicknesses, or the electrodes 3 and 4 of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 may be formed of different materials such as ITO and SnO ₂ . In this case, the difference in material may be determined by optically measuring the reflectance, transmittance, refractive index, etc. of the determination target member. Further, the thickness of the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 is not limited to this, and the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 may be a glass substrate and a plastic substrate or a plate-shaped plastic substrate and a sheet-shaped substrate. Using a film substrate or the like, a pair of electrode substrates 1, 2
Different materials may be used. Furthermore,
Alternatively, the pair of electrode substrates 1 and 2 may be discriminated from each other by an identification mark provided by an electrode film such as ITO. In this case, the type of each electrode substrate 1, 2 may be determined by reading the identification mark with an inspection camera or the like.

[0023]

As described above, according to the manufacturing method of the liquid crystal display element of the ninth aspect, when the pair of electrode substrates provided with the discrimination information supplying means is sent from the preparation step to the discrimination step, this discrimination is performed. In the process, each of the pair of electrode substrates is discriminated based on the discrimination information supplying means, and each discriminated electrode substrate is processed in parallel while being conveyed in separate lines in the parallel processing step, and then conveyed in separate lines. Since each electrode substrate is subjected to a common treatment while being collectively conveyed to one line and sequentially conveyed in a common treatment step, even if there are two types of electrode substrates, two electrodes for manufacturing each electrode substrate as in the conventional method are used. There is no need to use a dedicated production line for this product, or to switch and use one production line at regular intervals, so that two types of electrode substrates can be processed in parallel at the same time even in a limited production space. Yellow, it can be a liquid crystal display element efficiently production. Further, according to the liquid crystal display element of claim 1, since the liquid crystal display element is provided with the discrimination information supplying means capable of discriminating each of the pair of electrode substrates, even if two kinds of electrode substrates are used, the discrimination information supplying device according to claim 9 is described. As described above, the two types of electrode substrates can be discriminated based on the discrimination information supplying means and processed in parallel on separate lines at the same time, and the liquid crystal display device can be efficiently produced. Therefore, the material and thickness of each of the pair of substrates, or By making the material and thickness of each electrode suitable for each electrode substrate, it is possible to prevent excessive quality of components such as the substrate and electrodes, which can reduce the unit price of the product. It is possible to reduce the price.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an essential part showing an example of a liquid crystal display element of the present invention.

2A and 2B show the difference in shape of each electrode substrate, FIG. 2A is a plan view of an electrode substrate on a common electrode side, and FIG. 2B is a plan view of an electrode substrate on a signal electrode side.

FIG. 3 is a process drawing showing the flow of a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display element.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Electrode substrate 3, 4 Electrode 5, 6 Alignment film 7 Liquid crystal 8 Sealing material 10, 11 Cut part 18, 24, 29 Discrimination process 19, 20 Exposure process 21 Development process 22 Etching process 23 Peeling process 30, 31 Printing process 32, 33 baking step 27 cleaning step 28 drying step

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A liquid crystal display device in which liquid crystal is sealed between a pair of electrode substrates each having an electrode and an alignment film covering the electrodes formed on opposite surfaces thereof, and the pair of electrode substrates can be discriminated from each other. A liquid crystal display device characterized by comprising an information supply means. 2. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supply means is a difference in shape between the pair of electrode substrates. 3. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discriminating information supplying means is a difference in thickness between the pair of electrode substrates. 4. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supplying means is a difference in material between the pair of electrode substrates. 5. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supply means is a difference in film thickness between the electrodes of the pair of electrode substrates. 6. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supply means is a difference in material of each of the electrodes of the pair of electrode substrates. 7. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supplying means is a difference in total thickness of the electrode substrate and the electrode. 8. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 1, wherein the discrimination information supply means is an identification mark formed on the pair of electrode substrates. 9. A preparatory step of preparing a pair of electrode substrates having an electrode film formed on opposite surfaces and provided with discrimination information supply means capable of discriminating the two, and a pair of the pair of electrode substrates based on the discrimination information supply means. A determination step of determining each of the electrode substrates, a parallel processing step of performing parallel processing while transporting each of the electrode substrates determined in the determination step on separate lines, and a separate processing step of the parallel processing step. And a common processing step of performing common processing while collectively transporting the respective electrode substrates into one line and sequentially transporting the same, and a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display element. 10. The method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device according to claim 9, wherein the determining step, the parallel processing step, and the common processing step are repeated. 11. The parallel processing step is an exposure step of a photoresist for patterning the electrode film into an electrode having a predetermined shape.
A method for producing the liquid crystal display element described. 12. The liquid crystal display element according to claim 9, wherein the parallel processing step is an alignment film forming step of forming an alignment film that covers the electrodes having the electrode film patterned into a predetermined shape. Manufacturing method.