JPH11231333A - Liquid crystal injection device and manufacture of liquid crystal display device using same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten the time required to inject a liquid crystalline material by providing a conveying mechanism part which takes a panel formed by sticking two substrates together by a substrate sticking jig housed in a load lock part from the jig and conveys it to a chamber for liquid crystal injection. SOLUTION: The liquid crystal injection device 1 consists of a load lock part 2, a robot 5, a cassette inverting mechanism 6, the chamber 7 for liquid crystal injection, and a cassette conveying mechanism 8. The cassette conveying mechanism 8 carries a panel 1 together with the substrate sticking jig 3, used to stick substrates in the preceding process, in the load lock part 2 while the jig 3 is set on the panel and the pressure at the time of sticking the substrates is maintained. Then evacuation is carried out by opening the discharge valve of the valve 9 of the load lock part 2, but a vacuum is already produced in the panel 10, so that only the load lock part 2 is evacuated. In this evacuating operation, neither the cracking of the panel 10 nor the peeling of a seal material is caused, so that the operation is completed speedily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal injection device for injecting liquid crystal into a panel in which two opposing electrode substrates are bonded when manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, and a liquid crystal display device using the liquid crystal injection device. And a method for producing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The bonding of a liquid crystal display device and the injection of liquid crystal have been carried out, for example, by the following methods.

First, a thermosetting sealing material is applied to one of a pair of glass substrates provided with electrodes for driving a liquid crystal, and a spacer is sprayed on the other to make the distance between the pair of substrates uniform. Thereafter, the two substrates are aligned. Next, the pair of aligned substrates is sandwiched between jigs, and the space between the substrates is evacuated, whereby the substrates are uniformly pressed by the atmospheric pressure. By holding the jig together in an oven and heating while maintaining this state, the sealing material is hardened in a state where the substrate is pressed by the atmospheric pressure so that the distance between the substrates becomes uniform with the spacer, and the two substrates are bonded together. You.

[0004] Next, a pair of substrates (hereinafter referred to as a panel) which are bonded to each other are put into a chamber for injecting liquid crystal, and the inside of the chamber is evacuated to evacuate the panel to form a panel. A liquid crystal injection port formed between two substrates is immersed in a liquid crystal material.

[0005] Then, by leaking the inside of the chamber to return to the atmospheric pressure, the liquid crystal material is injected by utilizing the pressure difference between the panel and the chamber. After the injection of the liquid crystal is completed, an ultraviolet-curable sealing material is applied to the liquid crystal injection port, and then the liquid crystal display panel is completed by irradiating ultraviolet rays to seal the injection port.

Next, the liquid crystal injection step will be described with reference to FIG. First, as shown in FIG. 6A, the panel 106 is placed in the chamber 101 for injecting liquid crystal, and the exhaust valve 102 is provided.
Is opened, and the inside of the chamber 101 is gradually evacuated to a vacuum state. In this manner, a vacuum can be created between the bonded substrates. After the evacuation of the chamber 101 is completed, the liquid crystal injection port 108 formed on the side surface of the panel 106 is immersed in the liquid crystal dish 104 containing the liquid crystal material 105 as shown in FIG. And the leak valve 103
Is opened to gradually leak inside the chamber 101 to increase the pressure inside the chamber 101. At this time, the panel 106
Since the inside is in a vacuum state, a pressure difference is generated between the inside of the chamber 101 and the liquid crystal material 105 is injected into the panel 106 as shown in FIG.

[0007]

However, in the above-described conventional liquid crystal injection method, the size of the liquid crystal display device is increased,
There is a problem that it takes a very long time to inject the liquid crystal material. This is because when the inside of the panel 106 is evacuated, the inside of the chamber 101 must be slowly evacuated because the substrate interval between the panels is as small as about 5 μm. If the inside of the chamber 106 is evacuated quickly when the inside of the panel 106 is evacuated, the exhaust of the panel 106 cannot catch up with the inside of the chamber 101, and a difference occurs between the pressure in the panel 106 and the pressure in the chamber 101. As a result, the pressure inside the panel 106 becomes higher, so that the substrate may swell and the sealing material may be peeled off, or the substrate may be broken.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and a liquid crystal injection device in which the time required for a liquid crystal material injection step is reduced, and a liquid crystal display device using the liquid crystal injection device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing the same.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in a liquid crystal injection device, at least a load lock portion accommodating a substrate bonding jig, a liquid crystal injection chamber portion, and a substrate bonded in the load lock portion. And a transfer mechanism for taking out the panel after bonding the two substrates from the jig and transferring the panel to the liquid crystal injection chamber.

[0010] The present invention also provides the load lock unit,
The liquid crystal injection chamber section and the transport mechanism section each have an exhaust mechanism that can be controlled independently.

Further, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, wherein two substrates disposed opposite to a substrate bonding jig are set, and the substrates are bonded by evacuation and heating. Is maintained in the liquid crystal injection device, the substrate bonding jig carry-in portion of the liquid crystal injection device is depressurized to the pressure in the substrate bonding jig, and then the panel is taken out. And injecting the liquid crystal material.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a liquid crystal injection device, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a substrate bonding jig, FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a cassette reversing mechanism of the liquid crystal injection device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a liquid crystal injection chamber of a liquid crystal injection device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a liquid crystal injection device 1 is provided with a load lock unit 2 for loading a panel 10 before liquid crystal in which two substrates are bonded while maintaining a predetermined gap, and a liquid crystal injection device 3 from a substrate bonding jig 3. Robot 5 for transferring panel 10 to cassette 4 for cassette, cassette reversing mechanism 6 for reversing liquid crystal injecting cassette 4, chamber 7 for injecting liquid crystal material into panel 10, liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 for inverting liquid crystal It is composed of a cassette transport mechanism 8 for transporting to the chamber 7 for use.

The substrate bonding jig 3 used in the substrate bonding in the previous process is loaded into the load lock unit 2 with the panel 10 set and the pressure at the time of substrate bonding maintained. Is done. At this time, in the previous step, the substrate is heated by the oven to cure the sealing material. Therefore, before the substrate is carried into the load lock unit 2, the substrate temperature is lowered to the temperature at which the liquid crystal material 17 is injected. On this occasion,
The pressure maintained by the substrate bonding jig 3 may be further reduced. After the substrate bonding jig 3 is carried in, the load lock unit 2 is evacuated until the pressure maintained by the substrate bonding jig 3 is reached by opening an exhaust valve (not shown) of the valve 9 of the load lock unit. The door 11 is installed at the entrance of the substrate bonding jig 3 of the load lock unit 2, and the door 12 is installed between the load lock unit and the robot 5.
Only the load lock unit 2 needs to be exhausted with the doors 11 and 12 closed. In this evacuation operation, since the inside of the panel 10 is in a vacuum state, the sealing material 13 is peeled off,
Since a and 10b are not likely to be cracked, it can be performed quickly.

Next, the substrate bonding jig 3 is opened, and the panel 10 is transferred from the substrate bonding jig 3 to the liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 using the robot 5. After the panel 10 is transferred, the liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 is inverted using the cassette inverting mechanism 6. This is because the panel 10 needs to be vertical when the liquid crystal material 17 is injected into the panel 10. The inverted liquid crystal injection cassette 4 is transported by the cassette transport mechanism 8 to the chamber 7 for injecting the liquid crystal material 17.

After transporting the liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 into the chamber 7, the evacuation valve 9a of the valve 9 is opened to evacuate to the degree of vacuum necessary for injecting the liquid crystal material. The part 15 is immersed in the liquid crystal material 17 placed in the liquid crystal dish 16, the leak valve 9 b is opened, and the inside of the chamber 7 is leaked to inject the liquid crystal material 17. A plurality of chambers 7 are provided, a door 7a is provided between the chamber 7 and the cassette transport mechanism 8, and an exhaust valve 9a and a leak valve 9b are provided for each chamber 7, and the exhaust and the exhaust are independently performed. It is configured to be able to leak. The number of chambers 7 may be determined as appropriate based on the tact of the vacuum press and the tact of the liquid crystal injection, which are the preceding steps. After the leakage in the chamber 7 is completed, the cassette 4 is taken out from the cassette carrying-out door 19 of each chamber 7 and the liquid crystal injection step is completed.

Here, the vacuum press step shown in FIG. 2 will be described in detail. First, as shown in FIG. 2A, when the two substrates 10a and 10b are vacuum-pressed, the air in the portion surrounded by the packings 22 and 23 between the upper jig 20 and the lower jig 21 is discharged from the exhaust port 24. It is more evacuated and in a vacuum. By installing the check valve 25 at the exhaust port 24, the inside of the substrate bonding jig 3 can be maintained in a vacuum state.

After the pressing, the panel 10 with the vacuum maintained is taken out of the oven by the substrate bonding jig 3 and cooled to a temperature at which the liquid crystal material can be injected. After the temperature of the substrate is lowered, the panel 10 is carried into the load lock unit 2 of the liquid crystal injection device 1 together with the substrate bonding jig 3, and the inside of the liquid crystal injection device 1 is evacuated. This exhaust is performed at a stretch until the pressure inside the substrate bonding jig 3 becomes equal to the internal pressure. And
As shown in FIG. 2A, the lifter 27 is inserted into the panel 10, and the lower jig 21 and the lower jig holder 26 are moved down by the guide 28 and placed on the lifter 27. A pad 27a is provided on a panel supporting portion of the lifter 27. Here, the hand part of the robot 5 is inserted, and the panel 10
From the substrate bonding jig 3. The panel 10 taken out from the substrate bonding jig 3 is directly transferred to the liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 in a horizontal state.

The liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 on which the panel 10 is mounted is inverted by the cassette inverting mechanism 6 so that the panel 10 is oriented vertically and the liquid crystal injecting port 15 is located below. The inverted substrate injection cassette 4 is placed on the cassette table 29 of the cassette transport mechanism 8 and transported into the liquid crystal injection chamber 7. At this time, the cassette table 29 is moved by the ball screw mechanism.

Next, the liquid crystal injection step will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. The liquid crystal injecting cassette 4 transported into the chamber 7 is placed on the cassette receiving table 30. Then, the exhaust valve 9a is opened, and the liquid crystal injection chamber 7 is opened.
After evacuation to the degree of vacuum necessary for the internal injection, the liquid crystal dish mounting table 31 on which the liquid crystal dish 16 containing the liquid crystal material 17 is mounted is raised, and the panel 10 in the liquid crystal injection cassette 4 is immersed in the liquid crystal. Here, the liquid crystal dish 16 is raised, but the present invention is not limited to this configuration, and the liquid crystal injection cassette 4 may be lowered and immersed in the liquid crystal material 17. After that, the leak valve is opened to leak the inside of the chamber 7 and the liquid crystal material 17 is injected into the panel 10.

By adopting the above method,
While maintaining the vacuum state of the substrate bonding jig 3 used in the vacuum press in the previous process, the panel 10 is
It is possible to carry in.

Next, a liquid crystal injection method when a large number of panels are formed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a chamber when a large number of panels are taken. In FIG. 5, a plurality of panels 10 are placed in a liquid crystal injecting cassette 51 in two upper and lower stages. At this time, the lower panel 10 is placed with the inlet 15 facing downward, and the upper panel 10 is placed with the inlet 15 facing upward. The liquid crystal material 17 is injected by immersing the panel 10 in the liquid crystal material 17 placed in the liquid crystal dish 52 for the lower panel 10, and is injected by dropping the liquid crystal material 17 from the upper part by the dispenser 53. . This makes it possible to easily inject liquid crystal even when multiple panels 10 are formed.

[0023]

According to the present invention, the time required for evacuation of the vacuum chamber for injecting the liquid crystal can be reduced, and the productivity of the liquid crystal display device can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a liquid crystal injection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a substrate bonding jig.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of a cassette reversing mechanism of the liquid crystal injection device shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of a vacuum chamber for liquid crystal injection of the liquid crystal injection device shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged view showing another configuration of the liquid crystal injection vacuum chamber of the liquid crystal injection apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a liquid crystal injection method using a conventional liquid crystal injection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Liquid crystal injection apparatus 2 Load lock part 3 Substrate bonding jig 4 Liquid crystal injection cassette 5 Robot 6 Cassette inversion mechanism 7 Liquid crystal injection chamber 8 Cassette transport mechanism 9a Exhaust valve 9b Leak valve 10 Panel

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A panel after at least two substrates are bonded from a load-lock portion for housing a substrate bonding jig, a liquid crystal injection chamber portion, and a substrate bonding jig stored in the load-lock portion. And a transfer mechanism for taking out the liquid crystal and transferring the liquid to the liquid crystal injection chamber. 2. The liquid crystal injecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the load lock section, the liquid crystal injecting chamber section, and the transport mechanism section each have an exhaust mechanism that can be independently controlled. . 3. A substrate bonding jig is set with two substrates disposed to face each other, and the substrates are bonded by exhausting and heating.
The substrate bonding jig is loaded into the liquid crystal injection device while maintaining the pressure, and the panel is taken out after the pressure of the substrate bonding jig loading portion of the liquid crystal injection device is reduced to the pressure in the substrate bonding jig. Transferring the panel to a liquid crystal injection chamber and injecting a liquid crystal material.