JPH08211345A - Manufacture of optical shutter array - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide manufacture of an optical shutter array simple in a manufacturing process. CONSTITUTION: A groove 3 (depth a) for a common electrode is formed on a substrate having an electrooptical effect in the longitudinal direction of the substrate. The grooves 4, 5 (depth b) for several electrodes are formed parallel to the groove 3 for the common electrode at a prescribed interval. Further, many grooves 6 (depth c) for element formation formed obliquely for these grooves 3-5 are formed. By making the relation among these groove depths a>c>b, the grooves 3 for the common electrode are continued in the longitudinal direction, and the grooves 4, 5 for several electrodes are separated in the longitudinal direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical shutter array in which a plurality of shutter elements are formed on a substrate having an electro-optical effect in at least one dimension.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Optical shutter arrays using PLZT, which is a material having an electro-optical effect and has a particularly large Kerr effect, are currently used in optical spatial modulators, optical attenuators, high-speed data recorders, optical printers, optical scanners, and the like. Application is considered.

As the above-mentioned optical shutter array, for example, an optical shutter array disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-90127 is known (see FIG. 9). This optical shutter array 100 is
A plurality of shutter elements 101 arranged one-dimensionally on a substrate having an electro-optical effect, and signal electrodes 102 and ground electrodes provided corresponding to these shutter elements 101.
A groove separating 103 and the adjacent shutter element 101
104 and are formed. Optical shutter array 1 with the above configuration
In 00, a plurality of grooves 104 prevent crosstalk between electrodes of adjacent shutter elements. The signal electrode 102 and the ground electrode 103 are formed between the grooves 104.

[0004]

However, in the optical shutter array described in the above publication, electrodes are formed corresponding to the individual elements, and further grooves are formed to prevent crosstalk. There is a problem that the process is complicated.

[0005]

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method of manufacturing an optical shutter array having a simple manufacturing process.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention forms a conductive film continuous on the substrate on both sides of a portion acting as a shutter element in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements. In the first step, the plurality of grooves are formed on the substrate in a direction different from the arrangement direction, and the conductive film formed on one side of the arrangement direction of the shutter elements is divided in the arrangement direction to separate the shutter elements individually. A second step of forming an electrode and forming a common electrode common to a plurality of shutter elements by making at least a part of the conductive film formed on the other side continuous without dividing in the arrangement direction; It is a manufacturing method of the optical shutter array having.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the conductive film formed in the first step is divided on the one side in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements by forming the groove in the second step, and individual electrodes for each shutter element are formed. Becomes
Further, at least a part of the conductive film on the other side of the shutter element is continuous without being divided in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements even if the groove is formed in the second step, and a common electrode common to the plurality of shutter elements is formed. Become.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 shows a partial plan view of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment. The optical shutter array 10 includes shutter arrays 11A and 12A arranged in parallel in two rows at the center. The shutter windows (shown by hatching) of the shutter elements 11 forming the shutter array 11A have a parallelogram shape. The shutter window of the shutter element 12 of the shutter array 12A is also a parallelogram having the same shape as the shutter element 11. Reference numeral 13 is a common electrode as a first electrode common to the shutter arrays 11A and 12A. 14 is an individual electrode as the second electrode of each shutter element 11, 15 is an individual electrode as the second electrode of each shutter element 12, and each of these individual electrodes 14, 15 is an external drive circuit. It is connected to the electrode lead portions 14l and 15l for connection.

The common electrode 13 is provided in the groove 3, and the individual electrode 1
The grooves 4 and 15 are provided in the grooves 4 and 5, respectively. The shutter elements, individual electrodes and lead portions of the shutter arrays 11A, 12A are separated from each other by a large number of parallel grooves 6 having a constant pitch. The common electrode groove 3, the individual electrode grooves 4 and 5, and the element separating groove 6 are all formed by precision cutting. The manufacturing process of the shutter array 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1 (a), a long flat plate-shaped PLZT1
To prepare. Both front and back sides of PLZT1 have been optically polished in advance. PLZT1 is specifically 9/65/35 in composition and 100m in length.
m, width 5.0 mm, thickness 0.5 mm.

As shown in FIG. 1 (b), a resist pattern 2 is formed in a strip shape at the substantially central portion of the surface of this PLZT1.
The width of the resist pattern 2 is 300 μm, and a general photolithography technique is usually used. This resist pattern 2
Is used for removing the deposited film by the lift-off method, as will be described later. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II with the longitudinal direction of PLZT1 as the X-axis and the width direction, that is, the direction orthogonal to the X-axis as the Y-axis. The thickness of the resist pattern 2 is about 1 μm.

Next, the P on which the resist pattern 2 is formed
PLZT1 in the center of the resist pattern 2 of LZT1 in the X-axis direction
Precise cutting over the entire length of the common electrode groove shown in Fig. 3
Forming 3 The cutting process was performed with a dicing saw, and the cutter used was a diamond cutter with a blade thickness of 40 μm.
The shape of the groove 3 is 80 μm in width and a = 150 μm in depth. In addition,
The depth is based on the surface of PLZT1.

Further, in a manner similar to the above-mentioned cutting step, in parallel with the groove 3 at a constant distance from both end edges of the groove 3,
That is, grooving and cutting the entire length of PLZT1 in the X-axis direction,
As shown in FIG. 3, grooves 4 and 5 for individual electrodes are formed.
The shapes of the groove 4 and the groove 5 are the same, and the width is 80 μm and the depth b is 110 μm. The interval between the groove 3 and the groove 4 and the groove 5, that is, the width of the convex portion serving as the shutter was set to 80 μm. The width of the shutter portion and the depths a and b of the groove 3, the groove 4, and the groove 5 are arbitrarily selected according to the performance required for the optical shutter array and within the precision cutting precision range. It is possible to However, the condition is a> b.

The next step is to provide a metal thin film for electrodes. In the example, the sputtering method
Aluminum was vapor-deposited on the entire surface including the processed surface of PLZT1 to form an aluminum vapor-deposited film 7 having a thickness of about 2 μm (FIG. 5).

Next, the PLZT 1 provided with the aluminum vapor deposition film 7 is cut again with a dicing saw to cut a large number of grooves 6 for element separation. It cuts at an angle of 63 ° to the X-axis direction and the groove pitch is 160 μm. The diamond cutter used for cutting is replaced with a blade having a blade thickness of 50 μm.
The groove 6 has a width of 70 μm and a depth c of 130 μm.

The cutting depth c is set so as to satisfy the condition of a>c> b, as can be seen from the cross section of FIG. That is,
By setting the depth c (= 130 μm) of the groove 6 for the groove 3 (a = 150 μm) and the grooves 4, 5 (b = 110 μm), it is easy to scrape off the aluminum vapor deposition film 7 of the grooves 4 and 5. Separate electrode and electrode lead part of shutter element can be formed separately,
It is not necessary to scrape off the bottom of the aluminum vapor deposition film 7 of the groove 3 which will be the common electrode. In addition, it is possible to form a three-dimensional shutter element and simultaneously form its parallel electrodes. In the conventional example, the step of forming the shutter element into a three-dimensional structure is complicated, and the electrode formation thereof is a separate step, but according to this example, the manufacturing process can be greatly simplified. If the shutter element is three-dimensional (the electrodes are parallel to each other), there is a great advantage that the driving voltage can be lowered.

At the end of the manufacturing process, the shutter element 1
This is a step of removing the aluminum vapor deposition film 7 formed on the upper surface window portions 1 and 12. The aluminum vapor deposition film 7 is formed on the resist 2 and is peeled off together with the resist 2 by a resist peeling liquid (lift-off method).

As described above, the optical shutter array 10 shown in FIG. 4 is obtained. The optical shutter array 10 includes a shutter array 11A including a shutter element 11 having an electrode lead portion 14l individually extending to the outer edge, and a shutter element 12 having an electrode lead portion 15l extending to the opposite outer edge.
The shutter array 12A is composed of two rows. FIG. 6 shows a connection diagram of the optical shutter array 10 with an external circuit.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 is a drive circuit (including a semiconductor chip-shaped circuit) for applying a drive pulse to the shutter element 11 group of the shutter array 11A, and 21 is a drive circuit for driving the shutter element 12 group of the shutter array 12A. . The drive circuit 20 and the shutter array 11A are the individual electrode lead portions of the odd-numbered shutter elements 11 of the shutter array 11A.
While being connected to 14l, the drive circuit 21 and the shutter array 12A are connected to individual electrode lead portions 15l of the even-numbered shutter elements 12 of the shutter array 12A. Drive circuit 20,
Shutter elements that are not connected to 21 are not used.

The drive circuits 20 and 21 are operated in a time-divisional manner, and one dot line of an image is formed by the shutter action of the two rows of shutter arrays 11A and 12A (FIG. 7 (a)) based on the image information ( Fig. 7 (b)). The time difference is adjusted in synchronization with the rotation speed of the image forming unit, for example, the photosensitive drum. This allows
The optical shutter array of the embodiment achieves a high resolution of 80 μm pitch, that is, 12 dots / mm.

FIG. 7 (b) shows two rows of shutter arrays 11A and 12A.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a one-line projected image composed of A and a photosensitive body. Although there is always a physical gap between the shutter elements, in the projected image,
This inter-dot gap is filled up. This allows
The line becomes smooth with dense dot continuity. In particular, in this embodiment, since the condition is set well, that is, the parallelogram shape is made the same as the physical gap between the shutter elements, the physical gaps are mutually compensated by the staggered drive. You can

If, as in the above embodiment, one line is formed by two rows of shutter arrays, the connection between the optical shutter array and the drive circuit will be easy, and automatic connection by a wire bonder or the like will be possible. It can be applied to Incidentally, according to the above embodiment, the electrode lead portion 14
The connection pitch of each of l and 15l is 160 μm.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic plan view of another embodiment. The optical shutter array 30 is composed of one row of shutter arrays, and the shutter window of the shutter element 31 is a parallelogram. The optical shutter array 30 may be made of a material having an electro-optical effect and a large Kerr constant (not limited to PLZT) by using photolithography technology, or by precision cutting as in the previous embodiment, or You may produce these in combination. When forming the gap 31g between the elements by cutting, this gap becomes relatively large due to the problem of the blade thickness of the cutter, but by forming the gap 31g obliquely with respect to the arrangement direction of the shutter elements 31. The difficulty of the existence of this gap can be skillfully avoided.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the conductive film formed in the first step has the shutter element formed by forming the groove in the second step on one side in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements. It is divided with respect to the arrangement direction and becomes an individual electrode for each shutter element. Further, at least a part of the conductive film on the other side of the shutter element is continuous without being divided in the arrangement direction of the shutter elements even when the groove is formed in the second step, and the common electrode common to the plurality of shutter elements is formed. Become. Therefore, the individual electrodes and the common electrode can be simultaneously formed in the process of forming the groove for preventing crosstalk, and the manufacturing method of the optical shutter array having a simple manufacturing process can be provided.

[0026]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic partial plan view of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an optical shutter array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a connection between an optical shutter array and a drive circuit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a relationship between a drive type of an optical shutter array and one line of a formed image thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view of an optical shutter array according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a configuration of a conventional optical shutter array.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: PLZT 3: Groove for common electrode 4, 5: Groove for individual electrode 6: Groove for element separation 7: Aluminum vapor deposition film 10, 30: Optical shutter array 11, 12, 31: Shutter element a: Common electrode Depth of groove for use b: Depth of groove for individual electrode c: Depth of groove for element separation

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Koichi Aragaki 2-3-13 Azuchi-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka City Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd. (72) Tomohiko Masuda 2-chome, Azuchi-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka No. 13 Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing an optical shutter array in which a plurality of shutter elements are formed at least one-dimensionally on a substrate having an electro-optical effect, wherein shutter elements are provided on both sides of a portion of the substrate that functions as a shutter element. And a plurality of grooves are formed in the substrate in a direction different from the arrangement direction, and the conductive film is formed on one side of the arrangement direction of the shutter elements. Is divided in the arrangement direction to form individual electrodes for each shutter element, and at least a part of the conductive film formed on the other side is not divided in the arrangement direction so as to be continuous and common to a plurality of shutter elements. A second step of forming a common electrode, and a method of manufacturing an optical shutter array, comprising: