JPH08292220A - Device for evaluating destaticizing property and evaluation substrate therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a device for evaluating destaticizing property and evaluation substrate therefor by which a destaticizer prepared in the production line for liquid crystal display element or semiconductor element, etc., can be evaluated in real line concerning its performance in the same manner as actually produced parts. CONSTITUTION: The title device consists of an evaluation susbstrate 1 for evaluating destaticizing property in which a charging electrode 3 is prepared on one surface of a dielectric substrate 2 and a grounding electrode 4 connecting with an earth on the other surface thereof respectively, a high-voltage power supply 8 for charging the electrode 3 on the substrate 1, and a surface electrometer 9 for measuring the surface electric potential of the electrode 3 which is charged by the power supply 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a static elimination characteristic evaluation device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a static elimination characteristic evaluation device for evaluating the performance of an ion generator for eliminating static charge generated on a substrate in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor element or a liquid crystal display element, and an evaluation substrate used for the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A liquid crystal display device, for example, is manufactured by repeating a plurality of steps such as film formation and patterning performed on the surface of an insulating substrate such as glass. In this manufacturing process, many processes such as deionized water washing, drying, resist coating, exposure, development, etching, and resist removal are performed. During this period, static electricity is liable to be generated due to friction, peeling, etc. Charges the surface of the insulating substrate.
Especially in the rubbing process, static electricity is easily generated due to friction.
When this static electricity is discharged, the electrode patterns and switching elements formed on the surface of the insulating substrate are damaged,
This is a cause of lowering manufacturing yield.

Therefore, in order to eliminate static electricity, a static eliminator is generally installed in a liquid crystal display element or semiconductor element manufacturing apparatus or a carrier, and ions generated by corona discharge in the static eliminator are blown to an insulating substrate or the like. A neutralization method is used to neutralize the charged electric charge.

Regarding the static eliminator and the method of determining the static erasing effect as described above, "Electrostatic Sensitive Devices and Apparatuses" stipulated in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-231578 and Japanese Electronic Components Reliability Center were established in March 1993. See "Handling Guidelines" and measure the surface potential of a charged plate using a charged plate monitor, and investigate at what rate the potential on a plate charged to a certain amount decreases due to static elimination. Therefore, the static eliminator is evaluated. Although the specific structure of the charging plate monitor is not shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-231578, it is considered to be equivalent to that shown in the above guidelines. FIG. 5 shows a configuration diagram of a charged plate monitor (static elimination characteristic evaluation device) used for performance evaluation of the static elimination device based on the guidelines.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the conventional static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus, the high voltage electrode plate 13 is provided on the ground electrode plate 14 so as to have a constant gap through the insulator 12, and the high voltage electrode plate 13 is provided. A surface electrometer 9 having a probe 9a on the high-voltage electrode plate 13, a high-voltage power source 8 for charging the high-voltage electrode plate 13 with electric charges, and a switch 7 so that the surface potential of the high-voltage electrode plate 13 can be measured. In addition, 10 is a timer for measuring time.

In this apparatus, the switch 7 is turned on to charge the high-voltage electrode plate 13 with a certain amount of charge, and the switch 7 is turned off. Next, the surface potential of the high voltage electrode plate 13 is measured,
Ions are blown by a static eliminator (not shown), and then the surface potential of the high-voltage electrode plate 13 is periodically measured by the surface electrometer 9. Then, for example, the time until it decays to 1/10 of the initially charged predetermined potential is measured, and the static elimination characteristic is evaluated by the length of the decay time. Also, by optimizing the performance of the static eliminator, by setting the time to decay and controlling the amount of ions generated from the static eliminator so that the potential of the high-voltage electrode plate becomes the lowest in that device within the predetermined time. The method of doing is adopted.

[0007]

In the conventional apparatus for evaluating the performance of the static eliminator, the high voltage electrode plate 13 and the ground electrode plate 14 are used.
The size of the charging plate is made of, for example, an electrostatic monitor MOD manufactured by Hugle Electronics Co., Ltd.
The EL-700 has a width of 207 mm, a depth of 220 mm, and a height of 143 mm, and when evaluating the performance of a static eliminator provided in a real line of a liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus or a transporting apparatus, the charging plate Since the height dimension is high, there is a problem that the same evaluation as that of an actual insulating substrate for a liquid crystal display element cannot be performed.

That is, the concentration of ions generated at the electrodes of the static eliminator changes as a function of the distance from the electrodes of the static eliminator and / or the time since the generation. For this reason, in the performance evaluation of the static eliminator, it is necessary to control the ion concentration generated in the electrode of the static eliminator so that the optimum static eliminator performance is obtained at the distance between the glass substrate surface and the electrode of the static eliminator in the actual line. There is. However, the above-mentioned electrostatic monitor has a height of 143 mm, which is much larger than the thickness of the glass substrate forming the liquid crystal display element, which is 0.7 to 1.1 mm. Therefore, compared with the distance between the electrode of the static eliminator and the glass substrate surface in the actual line, the distance between the electrode of the static eliminator and the high voltage electrode plate of the static eliminator characteristic evaluation device when the charging plate monitor is installed is very short. Therefore, the performance of the static eliminator in the actual line cannot be accurately evaluated.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and the performance evaluation of the static eliminator provided in the manufacturing line of the liquid crystal display element or the semiconductor element is performed in the actual line as in the case of the actual manufacturing part. It is an object of the present invention to provide a static elimination characteristic evaluation device capable of performing performance evaluation and an evaluation board used for the same.

[0010]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus according to the present invention, wherein a dielectric electrode is provided on one surface thereof with a charging electrode for charging, and the other surface thereof is provided with a ground electrode connected to ground. And a high-voltage power supply for charging the charging electrodes of the evaluation substrate with an evaluation substrate for static elimination characteristics evaluation,
And a surface electrometer for measuring the surface potential of the charging electrode charged by the high-voltage power supply.

In the evaluation substrate for evaluating the static elimination characteristics of the present invention, the dielectric substrate is provided with a charging electrode on one surface thereof to be charged with electric charges, and the other surface thereof is provided with a ground electrode connected to ground. .

It is preferable that the dielectric substrate is made of the same material and has the same thickness as that of the insulating substrate that is actually subjected to static elimination because it can be evaluated in the same manner as an actual line.

It is preferable that the charging electrode and / or the ground electrode is formed of a thin film because it can be easily formed by sputtering or vapor deposition without attaching an electrode plate.

A dielectric made of the same material as the actual line is that the charging electrode is formed to have a capacitance of 20 ± 2 pF between the charging electrode and the ground electrode via the dielectric substrate. Even if a substrate is used, the evaluation can be performed in accordance with general standards, which is preferable.

Since a plurality of the charging electrodes are independently provided on one of the dielectric substrates, the distribution of charges charged on the substrate can be different, and the distribution of the static elimination effect on the substrate can be changed. It is preferable because it can be evaluated.

[0016]

According to the static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus of the present invention, since the evaluation substrate can be made to have the same thickness as the substrate such as a liquid crystal display element manufactured, the distance between the electrode of the static elimination apparatus and the substrate surface is the same. Therefore, the performance evaluation of the static elimination characteristics of the static eliminator can be performed in the same state on the actual line of the manufacturing apparatus for the liquid crystal display element or the like or the transporting apparatus.

Further, according to the evaluation board of the present invention, since the charge charging electrode is provided on one surface of the dielectric substrate and the ground electrode is provided on the other surface, the evaluation charge can be easily obtained. Can be charged and the surface potential can be easily measured.

Furthermore, by providing a plurality of charging electrodes, it is possible to independently charge different amounts of electric charge at a plurality of locations on the substrate, and to perform charging in the same manner as in the actual electrostatic charge distribution, and to eliminate static electricity. Can be evaluated.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus of the present invention and an evaluation board used for the same will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Example 1 FIG. 1 is a sectional explanatory view of an example of an evaluation substrate for evaluating static elimination characteristics of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows evaluation of the present invention in a static elimination unit of a carrier in a manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display element. It is a block diagram of one Example of the static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus which mounts a board | substrate and performs static elimination characteristic evaluation of a static elimination apparatus.

Evaluation board 1 for evaluating static elimination characteristics of this embodiment
Of the dielectric substrate 2 is provided with a charging electrode 3 on one surface of which the electric charge is charged and a ground electrode 4 connected to the ground on the other surface. The dielectric substrate 2 has a thickness of 1 mm
The phenol resin laminated board of was used. The size is the same as the size of the glass substrate forming the liquid crystal display element. Each of the charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 has a thickness of 0.05.
mm stainless steel foil, the size of which is the dielectric substrate 2
Each of the four sides of the above is set to be about 10 mm shorter than the dielectric substrate 2. The dielectric substrate 2 and the charging electrode 3 or the ground electrode 4 were bonded and fixed with a synthetic resin adhesive. The thickness of the evaluation substrate 1 thus configured is 1.1 mm.
And the thickness of the glass substrate for manufacturing the liquid crystal display element is 0.7 to
It has almost the same thickness as 1.1 mm.

In FIG. 2, numeral 5 is a static eliminator for generating ions by corona discharge and spraying the ions to the charging electrode 3 for neutralization, and numeral 6 is a terminal of a high voltage power source 8 and a high voltage via a switch 7. It is connected to the voltage power supply 8 and the switch 7 is turned on to precharge the charging electrode 3 of the evaluation substrate 1 to a predetermined potential through the terminal 6. The control of the charging to the predetermined potential is adjusted by measuring the surface potential of the charging electrode 3 through the probe 9a by the non-contact type surface electrometer 9. The high voltage power source 8 is, for example, 1000-5.
A voltage of about 000V is supplied.

As shown in FIG. 2, the evaluation substrate 1 is placed and conveyed on the conveying device 11 in the liquid crystal display element manufacturing process.
Under the static eliminator 5, first, as described above, the charging electrode 3 is charged to a predetermined potential. Then, the static eliminator 5 is turned on to generate ions, and the ions are sprayed on the surface of the charging electrode 3 of the evaluation substrate 1. Further, the switch 7 is cut off, and the time from this point until the potential of the charging electrode 3 decays to 1/10 of the initial potential is measured.

Further, after the charging electrode 3 is charged to a predetermined potential, the switch 7 is cut off, and the ion from the static eliminator 5 is set so that the potential of the charging electrode 3 becomes the lowest in the device within a predetermined time. The generated amount is controlled to find the optimum point of the performance of the static eliminator 5.

According to the first embodiment, since the evaluation substrate 1 having the charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 provided on both surfaces of the dielectric substrate 2 is used, the evaluation substrate 1 is used for an actual liquid crystal display device. The thickness of the glass substrate can be made to be about the same, and the distance from the electrodes of the static eliminator is the same as that of the glass substrate, enabling performance evaluation of the static eliminator in the actual line that could not be evaluated in the conventional example. .

Example 2 Next, a second example of the evaluation substrate of the present invention will be described. The structure of the evaluation substrate 1 is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, but in this second embodiment, the dielectric substrate 2 is made of the same glass substrate as the glass substrate used when manufacturing the liquid crystal display element. It is a thing.

The method of evaluating the static elimination characteristics of the static eliminator 5 is the first embodiment.
And the effect is the same. However, since the glass substrate, which is a material for forming the liquid crystal display element, is used for the dielectric substrate 2 in the second embodiment, the leakage current between the charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 becomes almost the same as the actual line, There is an effect that the static elimination characteristics equivalent to those of the actual line can be evaluated.

When the substrate to be discharged is other than the glass substrate, for example, an insulating film is provided on the semiconductor substrate, the insulating film is provided on the same semiconductor substrate as the dielectric substrate of the evaluation substrate. It is preferable to use one because more accurate evaluation can be performed.

Example 3 Next, a third example of the evaluation substrate of the present invention will be described. The structure of the evaluation substrate 1 is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, but in the third embodiment, metal thin films (chrome, aluminum, etc.) are formed on the front and back surfaces of the dielectric substrate 2 by sputtering or vapor deposition. The charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 are formed by depositing a thickness of about 0.3 to 1 μm. The method of evaluating the static elimination characteristics of the static eliminator 5 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the effects are also the same.

According to the third embodiment, the electrodes 3 and 4 can be easily formed by a manufacturing apparatus for a liquid crystal display device or the like, there is no need to attach electrode plates, and the thickness is 0.3 to 1.0 μm.
It is possible to form a thin electrode, and it is possible to form a thin evaluation substrate 1 at a low cost.

Furthermore, if a glass substrate is used as the dielectric substrate 2 and the charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 are formed of a metal thin film, there is an effect that the static elimination characteristics equivalent to those of the actual line can be evaluated.

Embodiment 4 FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view showing a fourth embodiment of the evaluation board 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, the dielectric substrate 2 and the ground electrode 4 are
Is the same as that of the first embodiment, but in this embodiment, the size of the charging electrode 3 is formed so that the electrostatic capacitance between the charging electrode 3 and the ground electrode 4 is about 20 pF, and the dielectric substrate is formed. It is provided at the center of 2. When a glass substrate having a thickness of 1.1 mm is used as the dielectric substrate 2, if the relative permittivity ε _r of the glass substrate is 6.5, the electrostatic capacitance per unit area is ε _{o in} vacuum. , Ε _o · ε _r / d, where d is the thickness of the glass substrate.
/ Cm ² . Therefore, the area of the charging electrode may be set to 4 cm ² in order to obtain the above-mentioned capacitance of 20 pF. The method of evaluating the static elimination characteristics of the static eliminator 5 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the effects are also the same.

In the fourth embodiment, the above-mentioned "guidelines for handling static-sensitive devices and apparatuses" are mentioned.
The capacitance of the dielectric part specified in paragraph 20pF ± 2
Since it is pF, it is possible to evaluate the static elimination characteristics on the basis of a guideline. As described above, according to the present invention, the characteristic evaluation according to the guideline can be easily performed.

Embodiment 5 FIG. 4 is a front explanatory view of a fifth embodiment of the evaluation board of the present invention. In Example 5, the dielectric substrate 2 and the ground electrode 4
Is the same as that of the first embodiment, but is configured by arranging nine charging electrodes 3 having an area where the dielectric substrate 2 has an electrostatic capacitance of 20 pF. The method of evaluating the static elimination characteristics of the static eliminator 5 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the effects are also the same.

In the fifth embodiment, since the charge eliminating characteristics of each of the nine charging electrodes 3 can be evaluated independently, the distribution of the charge eliminating effect in the plane of the glass substrate can be evaluated. In order to independently form a plurality of charging electrodes in this way, a lift-off method of forming a metal film on the entire surface and patterning by etching, or applying a resist to unnecessary portions and forming a film on the entire surface to remove the resist And the like.

Further, in the fifth embodiment, the area of the charging electrode 3 is provided so that the electrostatic capacitance is 20 pF. However, even if the charging electrode 3 is not set to 20 pF, a plurality of charging electrodes 3 having the same area are provided, so that the dielectric substrate is formed. It is possible to evaluate the charge removal characteristics for each of the above two locations.

Further, the distribution of the charged electric charge on the glass substrate in the actual manufacturing line is measured, and the electric charge distribution is generated in the charging electrode 3 of the evaluation substrate 1 in the same manner as the distribution, and the electric charge is distributed in the same state as the actual substrate. It is also possible to evaluate the static elimination characteristics of the surface distribution. In these cases, if the number of charging electrodes is as large as possible, the surface distribution of the actual charge can be made the same.

Although the specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Needless to say. For example, the materials, dimensions, shapes, etc. of the dielectric substrate, charging electrode, ground electrode, etc. are not limited to those in the above embodiment.

Further, in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the case of the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display element has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this technical field, and the static elimination by the static elimination means by another ion generator such as a semiconductor element production line is performed. It can be widely applied to characteristic evaluation devices.

[0041]

According to the apparatus for evaluating static elimination characteristics of the present invention, an evaluation substrate for charging an electric charge for evaluating static elimination characteristics is provided with a charging electrode on one surface of a dielectric substrate and a ground electrode on the other surface. Since it is composed of a substrate provided with, it is possible to form an evaluation substrate with the same thickness as an insulating substrate such as a glass substrate where static electricity charging actually becomes a problem, such as in a liquid crystal display device manufacturing line. The evaluation can be performed on an actual line in which a static eliminator such as a device or a carrier is provided. As a result, the evaluation can be performed by approaching the same state as the actual manufacturing line, and the charge can be removed more accurately.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the generation of defective products due to the discharge of the charged electric charges, and it is possible to improve the yield of the manufacturing process.

Further, according to the evaluation board for evaluating the static elimination characteristic of the present invention, since the charging electrode and the ground electrode are simply provided on both surfaces of the dielectric substrate, charging of the dielectric substrate is actually a problem. The thickness and the material of the actually used substrate such as a glass substrate can be made the same, and the evaluation can be performed in the same state as the actual manufacturing line. Further, the charging electrode and the ground electrode can be formed by attaching a metal plate or a metal foil, or by coating with a sputtering method or vapor deposition, and by patterning by etching, a plurality of independent charging electrodes can be formed. You can
The actual static elimination characteristics can be accurately evaluated in the state of the static eliminator on a more actual line.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing an example of an evaluation board for evaluating static elimination characteristics of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing an embodiment of the static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing another embodiment of the evaluation board of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory plan view showing still another embodiment of the evaluation board of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective explanatory view showing an example of a conventional static elimination characteristic evaluation apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Evaluation Substrate 2 Dielectric Substrate 3 Charging Electrode 4 Grounding Electrode 5 Eliminating Device 8 High Voltage Power Supply 9 Surface Potentiometer 9a Probe

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An evaluation substrate for static elimination characteristics, comprising: a dielectric substrate having a charging electrode on one surface thereof for charging an electric charge; and a ground electrode on the other surface thereof, the ground electrode being connected to a ground, and the evaluation substrate. 2. A static elimination characteristic evaluation device comprising: a high voltage power source for charging the charging electrode with electric charges; and a surface electrometer for measuring the surface potential of the charging electrode charged by the high voltage power source. 2. An evaluation board for static elimination characteristics evaluation, comprising: one surface of a dielectric substrate provided with a charging electrode for charging an electric charge; and the other surface provided with a ground electrode connected to a ground. 3. The dielectric substrate is formed of the same material and has the same thickness as an insulating substrate on which static electricity is actually removed.
Evaluation board described. 4. The evaluation substrate according to claim 2, wherein the charging electrode and / or the ground electrode is formed of a thin film. 5. The size according to claim 2, wherein the charging electrode is formed to have a capacitance of 20 ± 2 pF between the charging electrode and the ground electrode via the dielectric substrate. Evaluation board. 6. The evaluation substrate according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of the charging electrodes are independently provided on one side of the dielectric substrate.