JPS6318325A - Manufacture of liquid crystal element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the yield and quality and to reduce the cost by forming the pattern of a electrode group after forming a conductive film on a substrate and carrying out processes up to the formation of an oriented film consistently under vacuum without breaking the vacuum state. CONSTITUTION:Respective chambers 5-9 are held in the vacuum state by an evacuation system 10. A substrate 1 is entered from A, heated to constant temperature in the substrate heating chamber 5 to remove impurities sticking on the surface, and then moved to an ITO vapor deposition chamber 6 through a gate valve, thereby forming an ITO film on the surface of the substrate by sputtering, etc. Similarly, metallic electrodes are formed on the ITO film in the metallic electrode vapor deposition chamber 7 and the metallic electrodes and the ITO film are irradiated selectively with laser light in a laser patterning chamber 8 to form the pattern. Finally, the substrate is entered into the oriented film vapor deposition chamber 9 to form an oriented film 4 on the electrodes by vapor-depositing SiO2 slantingly, and the substrate is taken out from B. Consequently, a liquid crystal element having uniform cell thickness is obtained stably and the yield improvement and further the cost reduction are attained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device that obtains a uniform cell thickness.

[Prior art] Conventionally, the manufacturing process for liquid crystal elements involves forming a conductive film on a substrate by sputtering, forming an electrode pattern using photolithography, and then forming two sheets coated with an alignment film. A commonly used method is to bond substrates through a gap and inject a liquid crystal material into the gap to form a liquid crystal element.

However, since this method uses photolithography technology, the substrate is often exposed to the atmosphere or solvent, making it easy for minute dust present in the environment to adhere to the substrate.
In particular, in order to obtain an extremely thin and uniform cell thickness, the adhesion of dust to the substrate becomes a major problem, leading to a decrease in yield.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention solves the drawbacks of the prior art as described above, simplifies the manufacturing process, and performs the manufacturing in an atmosphere where dust is less likely to be generated. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element that improves performance and reduces costs.

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element having two substrates each having a striped electrode group formed on at least one side and a liquid crystal material sandwiched between them. After forming the conductive film that will become the electrode, forming the pattern of the electrode group, and then forming the orientation treatment film, the process is performed in a vacuum without breaking the vacuum. This is a characteristic method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an example of one side substrate in a dot matrix type liquid crystal element formed by the method of the present invention. In Fig. 2, l is a substrate such as glass,
Reference numeral 2 denotes a transparent electrode (ITO), 3 a metal electrode, and 4 an alignment film.In an actual cell, an opposing substrate is present above the alignment film 4 with a liquid crystal material interposed therebetween.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a load-lock type vacuum apparatus for forming the substrate shown in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 1, 5 is a substrate heating chamber, 6 is an ITO deposition chamber, 7 is a metal electrode deposition chamber, 8 is a laser patterning chamber,
9 is an alignment film deposition chamber; 10 is an exhaust system for each chamber;
Each of the chambers 9 to 9 is shut off by a gate valve.

First, the cleaned substrate 1 enters the substrate heating chamber 5 from A in the figure. Thereafter, the exhaust system 10 maintains all chambers 5 to 9 in a vacuum state. In that state, the substrate 1 is placed in the substrate heating chamber 5.
The substrate 1 is heated to a constant temperature within the substrate 1, and all impurities previously attached to the surface of the substrate 1 are removed.

Next, ITo 75 Arrival Room 6, which is already in a vacuum state,
Then, the substrate 1 is moved through a gate valve, and an ITO film (corresponding to 2 in FIG. 2) is formed on the surface of the substrate by, for example, sputtering.

Similarly, after a metal electrode is formed on the ITo film in the metal electrode deposition chamber 7, the laser patterning chamber 8 is entered.

Here, the metal electrode and the ITOM are selectively irradiated with laser light, and the laser light erases the metal electrode coating and ITo film other than the pattern, thereby forming a desired pattern.

Finally, the film enters the alignment film deposition chamber 9 and undergoes an alignment process on the electrodes by diagonal vapor deposition of, for example, Sin! ! 4 is formed,
At this point, the vacuum is broken for the first time, and the substrate on which the alignment treatment film 4 has been formed is taken out from B in the figure.

Thereafter, the substrate is bonded to a counter substrate through a gap using a sealing material or the like, and a liquid crystal material is injected into the gap to obtain a dot matrix type liquid crystal element.

In the present invention, the vacuum maintained by the evacuation system is about 10-' Torr or less, preferably 10-' to 1 O
-2 Torr is desirable.

In addition, the laser beam that eliminates the metal electrode coating and TTOfi and forms a pattern has an oscillation wavelength of 1.0.
An infrared laser such as a 6g+a YAG laser can be used.

As explained above, in the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal element of the present invention, the substrate is formed with almost no contact with the atmosphere or solvent, so there is no influence from environmental dust, and even if the cell thickness is made extremely thin, It is also possible to obtain uniform cell thickness with good yield.

Note that the substrate formed in vacuum according to the present invention can be applied to both one or two substrates forming a cell.

[Function] The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element of the present invention is such that all the steps up to forming an alignment treatment film on the substrate of the liquid crystal element are consistently performed in a vacuum without breaking the vacuum even once. Since the substrate is almost never exposed to the outside world, fine dust in the environment will not adhere to the substrate, making it possible to manufacture cells with extremely thin and uniform cell thickness at a high yield. This in turn leads to cost reduction.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples.

Example 1 A liquid crystal element was manufactured using a load-lock type vacuum apparatus shown in FIG.

Two glass substrates were placed in a substrate heating chamber, and the inside of the apparatus was evacuated using a rotary pump to maintain each chamber in a vacuum state of about 10<-4 >orr.

Next, after heating the substrate heating chamber, the substrate was moved to an ITO deposition chamber via a gate valve, and ITOfi having a thickness of 900 A was formed in the ITO deposition chamber by sputtering.

Next, it is introduced into the metal electrode deposition chamber through the gate valve,
CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposits)
After forming an AP film with a thickness of 100A by the ion method, 2+sJ,
YAG laser with wavelength 1, 06B, beam diameter 101, 1 pulse 20nsec, moving speed 50mm+/sec
Then, the metal electrode coating and ITO film were irradiated to eliminate unnecessary portions, thereby forming a striped electrode group pattern.

Next, it is introduced into an alignment film deposition chamber, and a thickness of 1
After forming a 5 in 2 alignment film of 00 OA, the vacuum system was returned to normal pressure and the substrate was taken out from the vacuum apparatus.

Two substrates were placed facing each other so that the uniaxial orientation axes of the obtained substrates were parallel to each other, and Aj! of average particle diameter IBφ was used as a spacer. 203 to form a gap, and the periphery was sealed with an adhesive to obtain a liquid crystal cell.

C810 manufactured by Chisso Corporation, which is a ferroelectric liquid crystal, is used in the liquid crystal cell.
When No. 11 (trade name) was injected by a conventional method, a dot matrix type bistable ferroelectric liquid crystal device was obtained.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device of the present invention, there is no reduction in yield or quality due to dust, and it is possible to stably produce a liquid crystal device with a uniform cell thickness. ,
It is possible to obtain excellent effects that lead to improved yield and ultimately cost reduction.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an example of a vacuum apparatus used in the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view showing an example of one side substrate of a liquid crystal element formed using the present invention. 1...Substrate 2...Transparent electrode 3...
Metal electrode 4... Oriented grain coating 5... Substrate heating chamber 6... ITO vapor deposition chamber 7... Metal electrode vapor deposition chamber 8... Laser buttering chamber 9... Alignment film vapor deposition chamber 10.・Exhaust system

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element having two substrates each having a striped electrode group formed on at least one side and a liquid crystal material sandwiched between them, after forming a conductive film to serve as an electrode on the substrate, A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element, characterized in that the steps from forming a group pattern to forming an alignment treatment film are performed in a vacuum without breaking the vacuum. (2) The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element according to claim 1, wherein in the manufacturing step, the next step is performed without breaking the vacuum using a load lock device. (3) The method for manufacturing a liquid crystal element according to claim 1 or 2, wherein in the manufacturing step, the pattern of the electrode group is formed by irradiation with laser light.