JPH0950014A - Inspection method for liquid crystal driving board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable accurately to correspond defective picture elements to their addresses by measuring reflection state of light on each part of a modulator and detecting a position of each picture element. SOLUTION: A liquid crystal driving board A is arranged face-to-face with a modulator B at a small distance away by means of a loading means. The whole surface of the modulator B is irradiated with light with a uniform intensity by a halogen lamp D. A CCD camera E successively scans the surface of modulator B from a prescribed position. The reflected light from each part is transduced into a voltage corresponding to the intensity as it is and a picture data representing the brightness on each part of the surface of the modulator B is formed and outputted to a picture processor F. And each position of the picture element electrodes 2 is obtained based on a voltage pattern applied on each picture element electrode 2 and the state of light reflection on each part of the modulator B and defective parts of the liquid crystal driving board A are detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate, which is a main component of a liquid crystal display panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in a liquid crystal display panel, a glass substrate to which transparent electrodes are attached and a liquid crystal driving substrate are arranged face-to-face via a spacer, and a liquid crystal is placed in a gap between the glass substrate and the liquid crystal driving substrate. It is configured by sealing. This liquid crystal drive substrate is known to have various configurations depending on the liquid crystal drive method.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a structural example of an active matrix type liquid crystal driving substrate using TFTs (thin film transistors). In the figure, a plurality of row wirings 6, 6, ... Which are parallel to each other are laid out at a predetermined pitch on the surface of the glass substrate 1, and column wirings 4, 4, ... Which are orthogonal to these row wirings. The wires are laid out at a predetermined pitch. Then, on the glass substrate 1, one pixel electrode 2 and one switching TFT 3 are arranged at each intersection where each row wiring and each column wiring intersect. Here, in each TFT 3, the source terminal is connected to the column wiring 4, the drain terminal is connected to the pixel electrode 2, and the gate terminal is connected to the column wiring 6. A series of TFTs 3, 3, ... Arranged in the row direction become conductive by applying a predetermined voltage from the row wiring 6 to each gate terminal, whereby each applied voltage to each column wiring 4 becomes T.
It is applied to each pixel electrode 2 via FT3. Here, the liquid crystal drive substrate A is in the middle of the manufacturing process,
In order to protect T3 from static electricity or the like, all the row wirings 4 are connected to the shorting bar 5 and all the column wirings 6 are connected to the shorting bar 7. However, when the liquid crystal drive substrate A is completed as a liquid crystal display panel, the shorting bars 5 and 7 are removed and the row wirings 4 and the column wirings 6 are separated.

By the way, the applicant of the present invention uses an electro-optical element (modulator) having electro-optical characteristics in which the reflectance of light is changed by an electric field, as an inspection apparatus for the liquid crystal drive substrate A having the above-mentioned structure. JP-A-5-25679
No. 4 publication.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of the main part of this inspection apparatus. In this figure, the symbol B is a modulator. The modulator B is configured by laminating a thin film transparent electrode 11 on one surface of a liquid crystal sheet 10 in which liquid crystal is sealed, and vapor-depositing or laminating a semiconductor reflection film 12 that reflects light irradiated on the modulator B on the other surface. Has been done. The modulator B is fixed to the inspection device, and the liquid crystal drive substrate A is arranged face-to-face with high precision in the modulator B at a minute interval (10 μm to 20 μm). Then, the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B and the shorting bars 5 and 7 of the liquid crystal drive substrate A are respectively applied with a predetermined voltage required for inspecting the operation of the liquid crystal drive substrate A by the voltage application device C. . Then, the halogen lamp D uniformly irradiates the surface of the modulator B with light. The CCD camera E captures the surface of the modulator B as one image by the reflected light from the surface of the modulator B.

Next, since the liquid crystal drive substrate A is arranged to face the modulator B with a minute gap, the liquid crystal enclosed in the liquid crystal sheet 10 of the modulator B is driven by the thin film transparent electrode 11 and the liquid crystal. It is affected by the electric field generated between the substrate A and each pixel electrode 2. Under the influence of this electric field, the liquid crystal enclosed in the liquid crystal sheet 10 changes its molecular orientation and changes its reflectance with respect to the light emitted by the halogen lamp D. However, the reflectance of light of the modulator B at the portion facing the pixel electrode 2 to which the voltage is not normally applied due to a defect such as a disconnection of the column wiring 4 or the row wiring 6, a short circuit between the column wiring 4 and the row wiring 6, becomes normal. The value is different from the reflectance of light in the portion facing the pixel electrode 2 to which a voltage is applied.

Therefore, an image captured by the CCD camera E by the reflected light of the modulator B becomes an image having a brightness distribution reflecting the voltage applied to the pixel electrode 2 of the liquid crystal drive substrate A. Here, since the positional relationship between the CCD camera E and the modulator B is always constant,
The image processing device F can perform a predetermined process by correlating an image input from the CCD camera E with a predetermined address designated for each pixel electrode 2. That is,
The image processing device F can always recognize that the image information input from the CCD camera E is the information corresponding to the pixel electrode 2 of which address, and can perform a predetermined process.
As a result, the image processing device F detects the operating state of each pixel electrode 2 to determine the quality of the liquid crystal drive substrate A, and displays the result on the monitor G.

[0008]

By the way, the above-mentioned liquid crystal drive substrate has a structure in which the modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate are relatively moved when the liquid crystal drive substrate is mounted on the inspection device by processing the outer shape of the substrate with high precision. The position is always constant. By doing so, the image processing apparatus associates the position on the image of the surface of the input modulator with the position of the pixel electrode facing the position (corresponding to each pixel when driving the pixel electrode). (Address) can be stored in association with. That is, when a defective pixel exists at a specific position on the surface of the modulator, the image processing apparatus can associate which address on the liquid crystal drive substrate the pixel electrode is with this defective pixel. However, keeping the positional relationship between the modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate constant by such mechanical processing accuracy has a problem in that it costs a lot. Further, there is a problem that the relative positional relationship between the modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate may be displaced due to the limit of processing accuracy and its deviation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to accurately associate a defective pixel with its address without depending on the mechanical processing accuracy of the liquid crystal drive substrate which is the object to be inspected. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate.

[0010]

A method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to claim 1 is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems.
A liquid crystal drive substrate formed by a plurality of pixel electrodes for applying an electric field to the liquid crystal and a circuit for applying a drive voltage to each of these pixel electrodes, a transparent electrode is formed on the surface,
A method of inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate, which inspects by using a modulator having a liquid crystal sheet whose light reflectance changes depending on the electric field strength, comprising: a. The modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate to be inspected are arranged so as to face each other so that the liquid crystal sheet is sandwiched between the transparent electrode and the pixel electrode; b. A voltage of a predetermined pattern is applied between the transparent electrode of the modulator and each pixel electrode of the liquid crystal drive substrate, and the light reflection state of each part of the modulator when the voltage is applied is measured, and c. Determining the position of each pixel electrode based on the pattern of the voltage applied to each pixel electrode and the light reflection state of each part of the modulator; d. The defective portion of the liquid crystal drive substrate is detected based on the light reflection state of each part of the modulator and the position of each pixel electrode.

A liquid crystal driving substrate inspection method according to a second aspect is the inspection method according to the first aspect, wherein a predetermined voltage applied to each pixel electrode in the voltage application of b is:
The voltage is applied so that the first voltage and the second voltage are alternately arranged.

[0012]

According to the method of inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate as set forth in claim 1, a voltage of a predetermined pattern is applied between the transparent electrode of the modulator and each pixel electrode of the liquid crystal drive substrate, and each part of the modulator at this time is applied. The position of each pixel electrode is detected by measuring the light reflection state. That is, since the position of each pixel electrode is detected by electrical processing based on the reflected light of each part of the modulator, the positional relationship between the modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate is highly accurate depending on the shape processing accuracy of the liquid crystal drive substrate. Defective pixels can be detected without being suppressed.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Regarding the liquid crystal drive substrate to be inspected used in the present embodiment, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 7 already described are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. Further, the positional relationship between the modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate at the time of inspection is the same as that in FIG. 8 already described, and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a liquid crystal drive substrate A'used in this embodiment. In the figure, reference numerals 4a and 4b
Is column wiring, 6a and 6b are row wiring, 5a, 5b, 7a and 7
b is a shorting bar. The source terminals of the TFTs 3 located in every other row from the left end in the horizontal direction are
The source terminals of the TFTs 3 connected to the shorting bar 5a via the column wirings 4 and located in the other columns are
It is connected to the shorting bar 5b through the column wiring 4b. Further, each gate terminal of the TFTs 3 located in every other row from the upper end in the vertical direction is connected to the shorting bar 7a via the row wiring 6a, and each gate terminal of the TFTs 3 located in the other row is It is connected to the shorting bar 7b via the row wiring 6b.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing an inspection method of the present embodiment for the liquid crystal drive substrate A'to be inspected constructed as described above. Hereinafter, a specific inspection method will be described in detail with reference to this flowchart. [Step S1] Mounting of Liquid Crystal Driving Substrate The liquid crystal driving substrate A ′ is placed face-to-face with the modulator B with a minute distance of 10 μm to 20 μm by mounting means (not shown). Then, the halogen lamp D irradiates the entire surface of the modulator B with light of uniform intensity. The CCD camera E sequentially scans the surface of the modulator B from a predetermined position. Then, the reflected light obtained from each part is converted into a voltage corresponding to the intensity thereof to form image data representing the brightness of each part on the surface of the modulator B, and output to the image processing device F.

[Step S2] Generation of Pixel Map In this step S2, in order for the image processing apparatus F to accurately associate the position on the surface of the modulator B with the position (address) of the pixel electrode 2 facing it, Perform the described process.

The voltage applying device C applies a bias voltage, which will be described later, to the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B. A voltage E2 is applied to the shorting bar 5a, a voltage E1 is applied to the shorting bar 5b, and a positive voltage is applied to the shorting bars 7a and 7b. In this state, each TFT 3 is turned “ON”, the voltage E2 is applied to the pixel electrode 2 of the column connected to the shorting bar 5a, and the pixel electrode 2 of the column connected to the shorting bar 5b is applied. The voltage E1 is applied. That is,
The voltage E2 and the voltage E1 are alternately applied to the pixel electrodes 2 in each column in the vertical direction every other column.

Next, the voltage application device C applies a negative voltage to the shorting bars 7a and 7b, and all the TFTs 3 are turned off. In this state, each pixel electrode 2 and the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B are connected to the liquid crystal sheet 10 and the semiconductor reflection film 12 which constitute the modulator B.
And the air will be sandwiched to form a capacitor.
Therefore, the voltage E2 applied to each pixel electrode 2,
E1 is held in the state where the TFT 3 is "OFF" in this way.

Next, the voltage applying device C, contrary to the above,
The voltage E1 is applied to the shorting bar 5a, and the voltage E2 is applied to the shorting bar 5b. Here, the voltage application device C switches the voltage applied to the shorting bar 7b from a negative voltage to a positive voltage. As a result, the TFTs 3 in each row in the horizontal direction whose gate terminals are connected to the shorting bar 7b are turned "on" again, and the voltage E1 or voltage E2 opposite to the above is applied to the pixel electrode 2. Accordingly, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the voltage applied to the pixel electrodes 2 adjacent to each other in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction has a voltage application pattern in which the voltage E2 and the voltage E1 are alternately arranged in a checkered flag shape. .

Next, in such a voltage application pattern, the CCD camera E detects the intensity of the reflected light by sequentially scanning each part of the surface of the modulator B. In this case, the resolution of the CCD image pickup device of the CCD camera E is set to a higher resolution than the pitch of the pixel electrodes 2 on the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ which is the substrate to be inspected.
Detects the intensity of the reflected light for each pixel electrode 2 and outputs a detection voltage according to the intensity of the reflected light. This detection voltage is input to the image processing device F and stored in the internal memory. At that time, the image processing device F is concerned with each pixel electrode 2 for which the reflected light is to be detected. The detected voltage obtained by performing the spatial smoothing process with the filter size of horizontal 3 pixels × vertical 3 pixels centering on is stored.

For example, when the image processing device F detects the intensity of the reflected light of the pixel H24 shown in FIG. 3, a total of 9 (3 × 3) pixels (pixels H13, H14, H) centered on the pixel H24 are shown.
15, H23, H24, H25, H33, H34, H35) is used to perform the convolution operation, and as a result, the spatially smoothed detected voltage is stored. By performing this convolution operation for each pixel three times, for example, the noise included in the reflected light of each pixel is removed and the voltage value is stored as a stable voltage value.

Next, FIG. 4A is a diagram showing the detection voltage stored in the image processing apparatus F for the pixels H11 to H16. In this figure, the portion shown as a voltage higher than the voltage E3 is the pixel (H11, H11,
H13, H15) shows the voltage obtained by detecting the intensity of the reflected light, and the portion shown as a voltage lower than the voltage E3 is the pixel (H12, H1) to which the voltage E1 is applied.
4, H16) shows the voltage obtained by detecting the intensity of the reflected light. Here, the voltage E3 is a voltage corresponding to the bias voltage applied to the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B. As described above, the detection voltage output from the CCD camera E is the voltages E1 and E applied to each pixel centering on the voltage E3.
The repetitive waveform reflects 2. The detection voltage detected for each pixel is subjected to the image processing described below by the image processing device F, and finally the pixel map data indicating the position of each imager is calculated.

This detected voltage is made into an absolute value with reference to the voltage value E3, and is made into absolute value data X1 as shown in FIG. 4 (b). Then, this absolute value data X1 has 3 horizontal pixels x
The convolution operation of the filter size of three vertical pixels is performed three times, and the smoothed data X2 shown in FIG. 4C is calculated.
Then, the smoothed data X2 is binarized by subtracting it from the absolute value data X1 and comparing it with a predetermined threshold value. As a result, data X3 showing the position of each pixel with a range as shown in FIG. 5A is calculated. Further, each data X3 is subjected to the processing for obtaining the center,
As a result, data X4 that roughly indicates the center position of each pixel as shown in FIG. 5B is calculated.

Next, based on this data X4, a horizontal line L is calculated using a method such as the least square method. Then, the intersections a0, a of the line L and the detection voltage
, Are calculated, and the center points b0, b1, ... Of the adjacent intersections are calculated as the center coordinates of each pixel. The center coordinates of all the pixels H11, H12, ... Are calculated by applying the series of processes described above to the detection voltages obtained for the pixels H11, H12 ,. The data indicating the center coordinates are stored in the internal memory of the image processing apparatus F as the pixel map data R.

[Step S3] E / O Gain Calibration In this step S3, the image processing apparatus F calculates the electro-optical gain (E / O gain) of the modulator B for each pixel electrode 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing electro-optical characteristics of the modulator B. In this figure, when the voltage E applied to the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B is increased, the reflected light amount O of the modulator B detected by the CCD camera E changes along the curve P. For example, when the voltage E is used as the bias voltage and the voltage E1 is changed from the voltage E1 to the voltage E2, the reflected light amount O detected by the CCD camera E is detected.
Changes almost linearly from the reflected light amount O1 to the reflected light amount O2. Amount of change in voltage E applied to the thin film transparent electrode 11 |
The ratio | E2-E1 | / | O2-O1 | of the change amount | O2-O1 | of the reflected light amount O with respect to E2-E1 | is the E / O gain.
This E / O gain has different values in the modulator defective portion and the normal portion described above.

When actually obtaining the E / O gain, the voltage applying device C sets each pixel electrode 2 of the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ to the grounded state, and applies the voltage E1 to the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B.
Is applied. At the same time, this voltage E1 is applied to the image processing device F.
Stored in the internal memory of the. Then, the image processing device F
Stores the voltage EO1 corresponding to the reflected light amount O1 output from the CCD camera E in the internal memory for each pixel electrode 2.
Here, the image processing device F stores the voltage EO1 in the internal memory in association with the address of each pixel electrode 2 indicated by the pixel map data R.

Next, the voltage applying device C includes the thin film transparent electrode 1
The voltage E2 is applied to 1, and the image processing apparatus F stores the voltage E2 corresponding to the reflected light amount O2 at this time and the voltage E2 in the internal memory. The image processing device F obtains the E / O gain based on the voltages E1 and E2 and the voltages EO1 and EO2 corresponding to the reflected light amounts O1 and O2 stored in this way, respectively, and sets this as the E / O gain data X. Store in internal memory. This E / O gain data X is used when the image voltage is calculated from the reflected light amount obtained for each pixel electrode 2 in the acquisition of the image voltage in step S4 described below.

[Step S4] Substrate Voltage Application Next, the voltage application device C applies a bias voltage E0 to the thin film transparent electrode 11 of the modulator B, and the shorting bars 5a, 5b, 7a and 7b are shown below. The voltages having such patterns are sequentially applied. (A) Positive voltage (each TF) is applied to the shorting bars 7a and 7b.
(Gate terminal voltage of T3) is applied, and voltage Ex (source terminal voltage of each TFT3) is applied to the shorting bars 5a and 5b.
Is applied. (B) The shorting bars 7a and 7b are grounded, and the voltage Ex is applied to the shorting bars 5a and 5b. (C) A positive voltage is applied to the shorting bars 7a and 7b, and the shorting bars 5a and 5b are grounded.

[Step S5] Acquisition of Image Voltage For each of the voltage application patterns, the output voltage of the CCD camera E corresponding to the reflected light amount of the modulator B is the image processing circuit F.
Is taken into. For example, in the voltage application pattern of (a) above, when the voltage Ex is applied to the pixel electrode 2,
The reflected light amount of the modulator B facing the pixel electrode 2 is the reflected light amount Ox. However, in the pixel electrode 2 in which the column wiring 4a is broken at the point x, the voltage gain Ex is not applied to the pixel electrode 2 in the left one column, so that the reflected light amount of the modulator B facing this portion is the reflected light amount. Ox cannot be generated, and the amount of reflected light is low compared to other portions.

In the voltage application pattern (b) above, when the point x and the point y of the column wiring 4a are short-circuited,
The voltage Ex is applied only to the pixel electrode 2 at the upper left corner, and the reflected light amount of the modulator B in this portion becomes the reflected light amount Ox. In this case, the other pixel electrodes 2 cannot have the reflected light amount Ox, and have a low reflected light amount. Further, in the voltage application pattern of the above (c), when the point y and the point z are short-circuited, the voltage Ex is applied only to the pixel electrode 2 at the upper left end similarly to the above, and the reflection of the modulator B at this portion is reflected. The amount of light is the amount of reflected light Ox.

As described above, the amount of reflected light of the modulator B becomes the amount of reflected light that reflects the state of application of the voltage to the pixel electrode 2. The image processing device F changes the output voltage of the CCD camera E, which changes according to the amount of reflected light, to the previously stored E /
It is converted into an image voltage Ey by using the O gain data X and stored in the internal memory.

Here, the image voltage Ey at three points is calculated for each pixel electrode 2, they are weighted and averaged by a predetermined weighting factor, and the result is stored as the image voltage Ey of the corresponding pixel electrode 2. FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of one pixel electrode 2. In this figure, the image voltage Ey0 at the center coordinates of the pixel indicated by the pixel map data R and the image voltages Ey1 and Ey2 at the coordinates vertically separated by a distance r are obtained, and the following formula is used. The image voltage Ey of this pixel is calculated. Ey = (K1 * Ey1 + K2 * Ey2 + K3 * Ey0) / (K1 + K2 + K3) (1) However, K1, K2, and K3 are weighting factors. In addition, the image voltage Ey of the pixel located at the edge of the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ is
Is likely to be detected low with respect to the image voltage Ey of other pixels. In consideration of this, in the pixel located at the end, the distance r is slightly corrected as compared with the case of other pixels.

[Step S6] Binarization Image voltage Ey calculated for each pixel electrode 2
Is compared with the voltage applied to each pixel electrode 2 in step S4 and binarized depending on whether the difference is larger than a predetermined threshold value S or not. For example, | Ex−
When Ey | <S, the pixel electrode 2 corresponds to "0" as a normal pixel, and when | Ex-Ey | ≥S, it corresponds to "1" as a defective pixel. In this way, the image processing device F creates defective pixel data T in which defective pixels and normal pixels are associated with each other for each pixel electrode 2.

[Step S7] Defect Judgment Here, the quality of the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ is judged, the result is displayed on the monitor G, and the inspection is ended. Alternatively, at the same time as the number of defective pixels, the distribution of defective pixels of the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ is displayed on the monitor G as an image, and the operator can judge the quality of the liquid crystal drive substrate A ′ from the number of defective pixels and the distribution state thereof. Is.

The method of inspecting the liquid crystal drive substrate according to the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and the following inspection methods also belong to the scope of the present invention. (1) In the above-described embodiment, a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate in which the column wirings and row wirings of the pixel electrodes in each horizontal column and each vertical row are connected to a shorting bar of another system every other column or every other row. Explained. However, the connection relationship between the shorting bar and the column wirings and the row wirings is not limited to the configuration shown in the above embodiment. For example, in the case of a liquid crystal drive substrate in which every two columns in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction are connected to shorting bars of different systems, the center coordinates of the pixels are detected by using different voltage application patterns. Then, it is possible to determine the defective pixel generated in the liquid crystal drive substrate.

(2) In the above embodiment, the method of inspecting the liquid crystal driving substrate in which the row wiring is common in the horizontal direction and the column wiring is common in the vertical direction has been described. However, even in the case of a liquid crystal driving substrate in which the column wiring is common in the horizontal direction and the row wiring is common in the vertical direction, it is possible to inspect the liquid crystal driving substrate by a similar method.

(3) In the above embodiment, the image voltage of one pixel was obtained by picking up three points in the vertical direction. However, the inspection can be performed by picking up three points in the horizontal direction according to the shape of the pixel and acquiring the image voltage of the pixel.

[0038]

The method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to the present invention has the following effects. (1) Each pixel electrode is applied by applying a voltage having a predetermined pattern between the transparent electrode of the modulator and each pixel electrode of the liquid crystal drive substrate, and measuring the light reflection state of each part of the modulator when the voltage is applied. Since the position of the defective pixel is detected, it is possible to accurately detect the position of the defective pixel. Moreover, since a highly reliable inspection is realized by this, the reliability of the produced liquid crystal drive substrate is improved. (2) As a result, when the liquid crystal drive substrate, which is the object to be inspected, is mounted on the liquid crystal inspection device, it is not necessary to position the liquid crystal drive substrate with high accuracy. As a result, the mechanical accuracy of the mounting mechanism of the liquid crystal drive substrate in the inspection device can be relaxed to some extent.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing an example of a liquid crystal drive substrate used in the liquid crystal drive substrate inspection method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a voltage application pattern to the liquid crystal drive substrate in the liquid crystal drive substrate inspection method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a first diagram illustrating a method for generating a pixel map in the method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a second diagram illustrating a method of generating a pixel map in the liquid crystal drive substrate inspection method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of electro-optical characteristics of the present invention and a conventional modulator.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a method of acquiring an image voltage in the liquid crystal drive substrate inspection method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a front view showing a configuration example of a liquid crystal drive substrate of a TFT type active matrix system.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary configuration of a main part of a liquid crystal drive substrate inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A'Liquid crystal drive substrate 1 Glass substrate 2 Pixel electrode 3 TFT 4a, 4b Column wiring 5a, 5b, 7a, 7b Shorting bar 6a, 6b Row wiring B modulator 10 Liquid crystal sheet 11 Thin film transparent electrode 12 Semiconductor reflection film C Voltage application device D Halogen lamp E CCD camera F Image processor G Monitor

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Mutsutake Takeuchi, 5236 Kamo, Dejima-mura, Shinji-gun, Ibaraki Pref., Ishikawa Kawashima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. Tsuchiura Works (72) Inventor, Kan Sakamoto, 5236, Kamo, Dejima-mura, Ibaraki-ken Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Tsuchiura Works (72) Inventor Katsuhiro Kaji 5236 Kamo, Deshima Village, Shinji-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Tsuchiura Works (72) Inventor, Long Chu 2-Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku, Tokyo 1-16 SVAX Hama Matsumachi 2nd Building Photon Dynamics Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Mike Miller 2-1-16 Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku, Tokyo SVAX Hama Matsumachi 2nd Building Photon Dynamics Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A liquid crystal drive substrate having a plurality of pixel electrodes for applying an electric field to liquid crystal and a circuit for applying a drive voltage to each of these pixel electrodes, and a transparent electrode formed on the surface thereof. And a method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate, which inspects using a modulator having a liquid crystal sheet in which the light reflectance changes depending on the electric field strength, comprising: a. The modulator and the liquid crystal drive substrate to be inspected are arranged so as to face each other so that the liquid crystal sheet is sandwiched between the transparent electrode and the pixel electrode; b. A voltage of a predetermined pattern is applied between the transparent electrode of the modulator and each pixel electrode of the liquid crystal drive substrate, and the light reflection state of each part of the modulator when the voltage is applied is measured, and c. Determining the position of each pixel electrode based on the pattern of the voltage applied to each pixel electrode and the light reflection state of each part of the modulator; d. A method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate, comprising: detecting a defective portion of the liquid crystal drive substrate based on a light reflection state of each part of the modulator and a position of each pixel electrode. 2. In the voltage application of the above item b, a predetermined voltage applied to each pixel electrode is applied so that the first voltage and the second voltage are alternately arranged. The method for inspecting a liquid crystal drive substrate according to claim 1.