JPH1026773A - Production of liquid crystal display panel and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a production method for a liquid crystal display panel with excellent yield of nondefective products by removing a foreign matter at the position for laser irradiation during the irradiating process with laser light when a short ring is cut from electrode terminals by irradiation, with laser light. SOLUTION: A residual liquid such as a liquid crystal depositing on a short ring 2 or electrode terminals 3 is blown off or gathered near a sealing material 6 by compressed air as a pair of air blow 27 to an intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 so that the liquid 5 does not remain near the short ring 2. Even when a foreign matter such as dust deposits on the surface of the panel 1, it also blown off and removed. By this method, short circuit between adjacent electrode terminals 3 or production of worn particles of the substrate 25 or scratches on its surface can be prevented when the short ring 2 is removed. Therefore, the short ring 2 can be easily removed. Moreover, fault in the removing process of the ring 2 due to the residual liquid crystal or detergent liquid can be surely prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, and in particular, to a method for removing a short ring which short-circuits between external connection electrode terminals of a switching element such as a thin film transistor (TFT). Related to technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Liquid crystal panels are characterized by low power consumption, light weight, thinness, and flat screen as compared with CRTs, and their applications are expanding. In particular, due to the dramatic increase in the amount of information accompanying the recent increase in the number of multimedia computers, liquid crystal panels have been promoted to have higher definition and larger size. In a liquid crystal display panel using a field-effect thin film transistor, which is abbreviated as a TFT, as a switching element, there is an increasing demand for defect-free display due to high definition and the like.

In the process of manufacturing such a liquid crystal display panel, there are a cutting step and a chamfering step of the substrate on which the TFT element is formed. In such a process, it is known that static electricity generated on the substrate causes an element failure due to dielectric breakdown of a TFT element or the like. In order to prevent such a device failure due to static electricity, a large number of TFs are required in the process of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel.
T element and its external connection electrode terminal formation substrate (TFT
The external connection electrode terminals of the TFT element are short-circuited by a short ring formed on the side substrate).

In manufacturing a conventional liquid crystal display panel,
After the above-mentioned TFT side substrate and the color filter forming substrate (color filter side substrate) are bonded to each other, the substrate is cut into a predetermined size to produce an intermediate liquid crystal panel. In the intermediate liquid crystal panel, corners of each substrate are chamfered in the following step in order to prevent the TFT side substrate and the color filter side substrate from being damaged or cracked.

Here, since the above-mentioned short ring is essentially unnecessary after the panel is manufactured, in the chamfering step, it is necessary to cut off the short ring at the same time as polishing the corners of the intermediate liquid crystal panel. (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-140488), or removal of the short ring by laser irradiation after chamfering has been performed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-294949).

[0006]

There are the following problems in removing such a conventional short ring.

(1) In the case of chamfering In this case, if the wiring material of the electrode terminal and the short ring is a relatively soft material such as Al, the wiring material is dragged at the time of polishing the intermediate liquid crystal panel, and the distance between the electrode terminals is reduced. As a result, adjacent short-circuits occur, or shavings of the substrate generated during polishing adhere to the screen display portion of the intermediate liquid crystal panel and remain as bubbles when a polarizing plate is attached in a later process, thereby deteriorating the display quality.

In order to chamfer the intermediate liquid crystal panel, the corners of the intermediate liquid crystal panel are polished obliquely. At the same time, in order to polish and remove the short ring portion at the same time, It is necessary to ensure a large polishing allowance (polishing width of the liquid crystal module), and the outer dimensions of the entire intermediate liquid crystal panel are accordingly increased.

(2) In the case of laser irradiation In this case, unlike the case of chamfering, there is no occurrence of adjacent short-circuit between the electrode terminals or shavings, and the short ring portion is inclined. Since there is no need to remove by polishing, the external dimensions at the time of panel design can be reduced.

However, as shown in FIG. 8A, when liquid crystal is injected into the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 or when the liquid crystal is washed,
In the case where the liquid crystal residue that has not been completely removed or the cleaning liquid residue (hereinafter referred to as residual liquid) 5 adheres to the surface of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 and covers the short ring 2 and the electrode terminal 3, as shown in FIG. Even if the laser 7 is irradiated so as to cross the electrode terminal 3, the short ring 2 is difficult to remove because the laser fusing action is insufficient at the location where the residual liquid 5 is attached. For this reason, there is a problem in that defective cutting of the short ring 2 occurs, which leads to a decrease in the yield rate. Reference numeral 6 denotes a sealing material for sealing the liquid crystal.

[0011] The present invention has been made in view of the above,
Provided is a method and apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel having an excellent non-defective product ratio by eliminating adjacent shorts or shavings between electrode terminals and eliminating short ring removal defects caused by residual liquid. Is to be solved.

[0012]

According to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel of the present invention, a plurality of switching elements, electrode terminals for external connection of each of the switching elements, and a short ring for short-circuiting between these electrode terminals are provided. When the short ring is cut off from the electrode terminal by laser irradiation for a substrate having a laser beam, foreign substances on the laser irradiation position may be removed in parallel with the laser irradiation or in advance from the laser irradiation position. Features. Preferably, the removal is by blowing or sucking gas toward the laser irradiation position.

In the above manufacturing method, since the foreign matter is removed from the laser irradiation position, the short ring can be easily and accurately removed by laser irradiation from an arbitrary position. In addition, glass shavings do not occur.
Further, in the case where the residual liquid adhering to the surface of the substrate is removed from the irradiation position by spraying or sucking a gas upon laser irradiation, short-circuiting of the short ring by the laser does not occur.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel according to the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 1. A large-sized panel formed by bonding a TFT-side substrate and a color filter-side substrate together ( After receiving the substrate, the panel is cut into a predetermined size to produce an intermediate liquid crystal panel. The intermediate liquid crystal panel created by such division is chamfered, but in this case, the conventional short ring removal processing is not performed. After the liquid crystal is injected between the two substrates of the intermediate liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal injection port is sealed. Subsequently, after the intermediate liquid crystal panel is subjected to a cleaning process, an inspection such as an appearance inspection is performed. As a result of this inspection, a residual liquid such as a liquid crystal is removed by subjecting the intermediate liquid crystal panel determined to be non-defective to a gas blow, for example, a blowing process using air or a vacuum suction process as described later. After that, the short ring is removed by the laser, and the next process is paid out.

FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively show the overall configuration of a manufacturing apparatus used for carrying out the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel of the present invention, in particular, a laser processing machine used in a process excluding a short ring, as viewed from the front and the plane, respectively. Things.

The intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 is fixed on the table 9 by suction using the positioning pins 8 as positioning guides. The table 9 is provided with a θ-axis servo motor 11 through a base plate 10.
And is rotatable at an arbitrary angle.
Table 9, base plate 10, and θ-axis servo motor 11
Are arranged on the precision XY table 12. Precision XY
The table 12 can be individually moved along X-axis and Y-axis orthogonal to each other by an X-axis servomotor 13 and a Y-axis servomotor 14 connected thereto. Separately from the precision XY table 12, a pair of air blow units 15 and precision X axis
Are arranged on the left and right sides of the table 9. The air blow unit 15 is for blowing compressed air onto the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 arranged on the table 9.

The precision X-axis table 20 includes a pulse motor 2
1 allows it to be moved arbitrarily along the X direction. On the precision X-axis table 20, a manual Z-axis slide table 18 and a manual Y-axis slide table 19 are arranged. The manual Z-axis slide table 18 is manually operated in the Z-axis direction (vertical direction in FIG. 2), and the manual Y-axis slide table 19 is manually operated in the Y-axis direction.
Each is movable. A high magnification microscope 16 and a CCD camera 1 are placed on a manual Z-axis slide table 18.
7 is attached. Manual Z-axis slide table 1
8 is moved along the Z-axis direction, so that the focal length of the high-magnification microscope 16 is adjusted to the surface of an alignment pattern (not shown) formed in advance at, for example, four corners of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1. Have been.

The laser oscillating section 22 generates, for example, a high power YAG laser or the like as a laser irradiation mechanism, and is arranged in parallel with the high magnification microscope 16. The laser oscillating unit 22 is also fixed such that the focal point of the lens 23 for condensing the laser coincides with the short ring removal surface of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system of the above-mentioned laser beam machine. Referring to FIG. 5, sequence controller 40 is connected to operation panel 41, motor controller 39, and laser control unit 44, respectively.

The motor controller 39 includes a θ-axis servomotor 11, an X-axis servomotor 13, and a Y-axis servomotor 1.
4 and the pulse motor 21 to control the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1
Adjust the position of. The motor controller 39 is connected to the image processing device 38, and performs feedback control of the θ-axis servomotor 11, the X-axis servomotor 13, and the Y-axis servomotor 14 based on the image processing result received from now.

The image processing device 38 includes the display control unit 3
7 and the monitor 36. Display control unit 37
Is connected to the CCD camera 17, captures the alignment mark through the high-magnification microscope 16 connected to the CCD camera 17, and transfers the image to the image processing device 38.

The operation panel 41 is provided with a touch panel, so that commands for starting and stopping the basic operation can be input, and a start position, a stop position, and a laser scanning distance for removing the short ring can be respectively input. ing. The sequence controller 40 transfers the input data from the operation panel 41 to the motor controller 39, and the motor controller 39 drives the θ-axis servomotor 11, the X-axis servomotor 13, and the Y-axis servomotor 14 based on the input data. To perform the short ring removal operation. The laser control unit 44 receives a signal from the sequence controller 40 and turns on / off laser irradiation. The laser control unit 44 adjusts the power of the laser output from the laser oscillation unit 22 by setting the current value and the frequency by the FA personal computer 43, thereby enabling setting control of the cut width when removing the short ring.

The lens 23 of the laser oscillation section 22 is provided with a half mirror 45 for reflecting a laser. The half mirror 45 displays an image of the laser irradiation position via a high-magnification camera 46 facing the half mirror 45 and a laser position confirmation monitor 4.
7 so that the laser irradiation position can be easily confirmed.

Next, the operation will be described.

First, the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 is positioned with the positioning pins 8 and set on the table 9. After this set, the positioning pin 8 is retracted from the table 9 side, and θ
By driving each of the axis servomotor 11, the X-axis servomotor 13 and the Y-axis servomotor 14, one end of each of the opposing first and second sides of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 is connected to each of the pair of air blow units 15. The table 9 is moved so as to face each other. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the compressed air from each of the pair of air blow units 15 is supplied to the first and second 2
By driving the Y-axis servo motor 14 while spraying the liquid crystal panel toward each side, the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 is moved to the first and second liquid crystal panels.
Is moved toward the other end of each of the two sides.

When the air blowing on the first and second sides is completed, the X-axis servo motor 13, the Y-axis servo motor 14, and the θ-axis servo motor 11 are driven to form the intermediate liquid crystal panel. The table 9 is moved such that each of the pair of air blow units 15 faces one end of each of the remaining two of the third and fourth opposite sides. Then, the Y-axis servomotor 14 is driven to blow the compressed air from each of the pair of air blow units 15 onto each of the third and fourth sides of the intermediate liquid crystal panel in the same manner as above to drive the third and fourth air blow units. Is moved toward the other end of each of the two sides.

By blowing compressed air onto the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 by each of the pair of air blows 27, as shown in FIG. 6, residual liquid 5 such as liquid crystal adhered on the short ring 2 and the electrode terminals 3 is formed. Is blown off or blown toward the sealing material 6 so that the residual liquid 5 does not exist near the short ring 2. Also, even if foreign matter such as dust adheres to the surface of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1, it is blown off at the same time and removed. in this case,
The residual liquid 5 may be called foreign matter including dust and the like.

When the blowing of the air is completed, the X-axis servo motor 13, the Y-axis servo motor 14 and the θ-axis servo motor 11 are driven to rotate the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 and move it in two directions of the X axis and the Y axis. Thus, the alignment mark of the liquid crystal panel 1 is projected within the field of view of the high-power microscope 16. Then, the alignment mark of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 is taken into the CCD camera 17 through the high-magnification microscope 16, and the center coordinates of the alignment mark are extracted by the image processing device 38.

Next, the amount of deviation between the center coordinates and the cursor displayed on the monitor 36 is determined by the X-axis servo motor 13,
The Y-axis servo motor 14 and the θ-axis servo motor 11 are driven to perform a correction operation so that the alignment mark is aligned with the cursor line on the monitor 36.

After the completion of this correcting operation, the X-axis servomotor 13, the Y-axis servomotor 14, and the θ-axis servomotor 1
1 is driven to move the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1 placed on the table 9 from the position of the high-magnification microscope 16 to a short ring removal position below the laser oscillation unit 22 set by the motor controller 39.

Next, by setting the lamp current and the frequency by the FA personal computer 43, the laser controlled by the laser oscillation section 22 is directed toward the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1, and the motor controller 39 is set in advance. Based on the predetermined short ring removal distance,
Since the X-axis servo motor 13 or the Y-axis servo motor 14 is driven to move the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1, as shown in FIG. 6, the TFT intersects the electrode terminal 3 close to the short ring 2 of the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1. The side substrate 25 is blown by the laser, and the short ring 2 is removed. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 7 indicates a laser-blown portion.

FIG. 7 shows a COG (chip glass) structure in which a driving driver 34 is directly mounted on the intermediate liquid crystal panel 1. In this structure, the short ring 2 is formed on the side on which the driving driver 34 is not mounted (two sides in this example). When such a short ring 2 is removed by irradiating a laser, For example, if the wiring of the electrode terminal 3 and the short ring 2 is Ta, Y of wavelength 1060 nm
When an AG laser is irradiated at an energy of 1.8 to 2.0 W,
Only the electrode terminals 3 can be cut with a width of about 100 μm without damaging the TFT side substrate 25. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 7 indicates a laser-blown portion.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention,
Although compressed air is blown by the air blow 15 to remove the residual liquid 5 such as liquid crystal, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the residual liquid 5 may be removed by vacuum suction.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the laser is irradiated so as to cross the electrode terminal 3 in order to remove the short ring 2, but the laser is directly irradiated on the short ring 2. The short ring 2 itself may be removed.

Although air is blown in the embodiment of the present invention, other gas may be blown instead of air.

[0036]

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel of the present invention, when a short ring is removed, adjacent shorts between electrode terminals occur, or shavings or surface scratches on the substrate occur. This makes it possible to easily remove the short ring without rubbing, and it is also possible to reliably eliminate short ring removal failures due to the remaining liquid crystal and cleaning liquid, thus producing high quality liquid crystal panels. It is possible to do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a laser processing machine used when manufacturing the liquid crystal display panel according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the laser beam machine.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system of the laser beam machine.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a state of blowing compressed air to an intermediate liquid crystal panel.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a state in which residual liquid has been removed from above the short ring by air blowing.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing removal of a short ring of an intermediate liquid crystal panel having a COG (Chip on Glass) structure.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a case in which a short ring is blown by a laser in a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Intermediate liquid crystal panel 2 Short ring 3 Electrode terminal 5 Residual liquid 6 Sealing material 7 Laser irradiation trace 24 Color filter side substrate 25 TFT side substrate

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A substrate comprising: a plurality of switching elements; electrode terminals for external connection of each of the switching elements; and a short ring for short-circuiting between the electrode terminals. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, comprising: removing foreign matter located on a laser irradiation position in parallel with laser irradiation or beforehand from the laser irradiation position when cutting off by laser irradiation. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the removal is performed by blowing or sucking a gas toward a laser irradiation position. 3. A mechanism for spraying or sucking a gas to a substrate for a liquid crystal display panel having a short ring for short-circuiting between electrode terminals, a laser irradiation mechanism for cutting off the short ring, An apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, comprising: a control mechanism for controlling both mechanisms.