JPS6177031A - Production of liquid crystal panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a liquid crystal panel of high contrast by putting a metallic layer on a transparent electrode and using this metallic layer as a mask to etch the transparent electrode layer. CONSTITUTION:One surface of a glass substrate 1 is coated with a transparent electrode layer 20, and a metallic layer 30 is put on the surface of the transparent electrode layer 20. The metallic layer 30 is etched to form metallic layers 31, and these metallic layers 31 are used as a mask to etch the transparent electrode layer 20. A mask 17 provided with a wiring pattern for metallic layers 31 is used to print a photoresist to metallic layers 31. Etching is performed along the printed pattern, thus forming a wiring pattern 3 consisting of metallic layers along grooves of transparent electrodes 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel with improved contrast by reducing the non-display area of the liquid crystal panel.

Liquid crystal displays are used not only in electronic communication devices but also in toys and miscellaneous goods. LCD panels consume less power,
It is also widely used in various fields as a thin display.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the main part configuration of a liquid crystal panel according to the prior art.

In FIG. 3, the surface of a glass substrate 1 is coated with a transparent electrode layer 2 containing an indium compound as a main component to a thickness C.

A photolithography process (not shown) is performed on the surface of the transparent electrode N2, and the transparent electrode layer 2 is processed with a groove width a of 50 μm to 60 μm. This is to ensure a minimum gap between adjacent transparent electrodes 2 of 10 μm to 20 μm. Glass substrate 1 obtained in this way
．． 11, transparent electrodes 2 and 12 are intersected in a lattice pattern and are attached to each other so as to face each other, and a liquid crystal is sealed between the glass substrates 1 and 11.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the liquid crystal panel manufacturing method described above, in order to keep the conductor resistance of the transparent electrode constant, it is necessary to coat the transparent electrode layer as thick as several hundred layers for small liquid crystal panels and more than that for large liquid crystal panels.

Naturally, the thicker the transparent electrode layer becomes, the longer the etching time will be, and therefore the reaction rate between the etching solution and the transparent electrode layer will vary depending on the location. Also, because the adhesion between the photoresist and the transparent electrode is not uniform, 1. In areas where the adhesion is poor, the etching solution penetrates between the eyebrows of the transparent electrode layer and the photoresist and reacts with the transparent electrode layer. The gap between the transparent electrodes is 10 μm from the gap specified by the photoresist.
There are places where the distance is 70 μm to 80 μm, which is ~20 pm wide, and where there is good adhesion between the photoresist and the transparent electrode layer, there are places where the gap is as indicated by the photoresist.

For this reason, it has been difficult to perform highly accurate processing such as making the groove width of the transparent electrode constant over the entire liquid crystal panel.

[Means to solve the problem]

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a method for manufacturing a high-contrast liquid crystal panel. This is done by overlaying a metal layer on top and etching the transparent electrode layer using the metal layer as a mask.

[For production]

In the above liquid crystal panel, by providing the metal layer on the transparent electrode layer, the adhesion between the transparent electrode layer and the metal layer is strong and uniform, so there is no etching solution between the transparent electrode layer and the metal layer. By eliminating penetration and by using the metal layer as a wiring pattern for the transparent electrode, conductor resistance can be reduced and the thickness of the transparent electrode can be reduced. This shortens the etching time and reduces the groove gap from 50μm compared to the conventional method.
Although the diameter was 60 μm, fine processing of 3 μm or more was possible.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the main part configuration of a liquid crystal panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a pattern forming process of a liquid crystal panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a large number of transparent electrode patterns 2 are provided in which a transparent electrode layer 2 coated on one side of a glass substrate 1 is divided by grooves a that are wider than a gap d between the opposing transparent electrode 12, and further transparent electrode patterns 2 A metal 4 wiring pattern 3 is overlaid along the groove. This metal 4 wiring pattern 3 is used as the wiring pattern of the transparent electrode pattern 2.

Glass substrate 1.11 having such a configuration
Transparent electrode patterns 2, 12 and metal layer wiring patterns 3, 13 intersect in a grid pattern, respectively. A liquid crystal panel is made by attaching the liquid crystal 7 so as to face each other and sealing the liquid crystal 7 between them.

Next, pattern formation will be explained in detail using FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2 (al), one surface of the glass substrate 1 is coated with a transparent electrode layer 20 to a thickness of approximately C500.Furthermore, a gold mud layer 30 is overlaid on the surface of the transparent electrode layer 20.

Parallel light rays 15 are emitted from the upper surface of a mask 16 having the same dimensions as those used to divide the transparent electrode layer 20 into the overlaid metal l1i30.
is irradiated and baked onto the surface of the metal layer 30.

The gold W530 is etched along the baked pattern to obtain a metal layer 31 divided by groove dimensions a shown in FIG. 2 (bl).

The groove dimension a that divides the metal layer 30 is the transparent electrode 1 coated on the glass substrate [1] facing the transparent electrode 20.
2, but the groove dimension a can be freely set as long as it is 3 μm or more.

Next, the transparent electrode layer 20 is etched using the metal layer 31 as a mask. Due to the good adhesion (it) between the metal layer 31 and the transparent electrode layer 20 and the small thickness C of the transparent electrode layer 20, the width of the groove dimension a of the metal layer 31 allows the transparent electrode layer 2
By dividing 0, a transparent electrode pattern shown in FIG. 2(C) can be obtained.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2 (di), a photoresist is baked on the metal layer 31 using a mask 17 provided with a wiring pattern for the metal layer 31. Etching is performed along the baked pattern, and the second pattern is etched. A wiring pattern 3 made of a metal layer shown in Figure (e) is formed along the groove of the transparent electrode 2. In this way, each pattern is completed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the conductor resistance of the transparent electrode is reduced by providing a metal layer on the surface of the transparent electrode,
This makes it possible to make the transparent electrode layer thinner, and because the metal layer has strong adhesion to the transparent electrode layer, it has become possible to form a transparent electrode pattern with sharp edges. This makes it possible to form fine patterns, and by making the non-display area small, a display with good contrast can be obtained, which is advantageous in expanding the field of application of liquid crystal panels.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of a liquid crystal panel according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing pattern formation according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a liquid crystal panel according to the prior art. The figure which shows the main part structure of. 1.]1 is a glass substrate, 2.12 is a transparent electrode pattern,
20 is a transparent electrode layer, 3.13 is a metal wiring pattern, 3(
1, 3] is a metal layer, 7 is a liquid crystal 115 is a parallel light beam, 16.
17 indicates mask patterns, respectively.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) In a liquid crystal panel in which liquid crystal is sealed between substrates provided with transparent electrodes, a metal layer is superimposed on the transparent electrodes, and the transparent electrodes are etched using the metal layer as a mask. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel characterized by: 2) The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal panel according to claim 1, wherein the width of the opening in the metal layer used as an etching mask for the transparent electrode is 3 μm or more.