KR100685146B1 - Apparatus for attatching and hardening substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate bonding / curing apparatus used for manufacturing a flat panel display device, and more particularly, to a substrate bonding / curing apparatus capable of performing not only a substrate bonding process but also a process of curing a bonded substrate. .

The present invention is a structure that can be separated from the upper cover forming the upper wall, the vacuum chamber in which the bonding and curing process of the substrate is performed; A sealing member interposed in a portion where the vacuum chamber and the upper cover are in contact with each other; An upper stage provided below the upper cover and configured to adsorb the upper substrate carried by the transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A lower stage provided on a bottom surface of the vacuum chamber so as to face the upper stage and adsorbing a lower substrate loaded by a transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A curing mask provided on the upper cover and used to cure the substrate; A curing light source embedded in the upper cover and configured to irradiate light onto the substrate when curing the substrate; It provides a substrate bonding / curing apparatus for a flat panel display device comprising a; upper cover rotating portion for rotating the upper cover to reverse the upper and lower portions of the upper cover.

LCD, Substrate Bonding, Substrate Curing, Joiner, Curing Machine

Description

Substrate bonding / curing device for flat panel display device manufacturing {APPARATUS FOR ATTATCHING AND HARDENING SUBSTRATE}

1 is a view showing the equipment layout of the bonding process and the curing process of the liquid crystal display device production process.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional bonding apparatus.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional curing apparatus.

4 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a substrate bonding / curing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view showing the operation of the substrate bonding / hardening apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

10, 130: upper stage 20, 140: lower stage

30, 190: substrate position detection unit 40: substrate position adjustment unit

60: curing chamber 70, 150: curing mask

80, 160: curing light source 90: pressing part

170: upper cover rotating part

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate bonding / curing apparatus used for manufacturing a flat panel display device, and more particularly, to a substrate bonding / curing apparatus capable of performing not only a substrate bonding process but also a process of curing a bonded substrate. .

As the information society develops, the demand for display devices is increasing in various forms. In response, various flat panel display devices such as liquid crystal devices (LCDs) and plasma display pantals (PDPs) have been studied. It is used as a display device in various equipments.

Among the display elements described above, LCDs are currently being used most frequently, replacing CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) for mobile image display devices due to the advantages of excellent image quality, light weight, thinness, and low power consumption. In addition to mobile applications such as monitors, various types of monitors have been developed for television and computer monitors for receiving and displaying broadcast signals.

As described above, although various technical advances have been made in order to serve as screen display devices in various fields, the improvement of image quality as screen display devices is often arranged with the above characteristics and advantages. . Therefore, in order for a liquid crystal display device to be used in various parts as a general screen display device, development of high quality images such as high brightness and large area while maintaining the characteristics of light weight, thinness, and low power consumption is at stake. have.

Such a liquid crystal display device is a display device that displays information on a screen by using refractive index anisotropy of a liquid crystal. The liquid crystal display device is composed of a liquid crystal formed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate and both substrates. In general, the lower substrate is a drive element array substrate, and the upper substrate is a color filter substrate. A plurality of pixels are formed on the driving element array substrate, and a driving element such as a thin film transistor is formed on each pixel, and a color filter layer for realizing color is formed on the color filter substrate. The alignment film for orienting an electrode, a common electrode, and a liquid crystal molecule is apply | coated.

Therefore, in the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display device, a process of bonding both substrates after the manufacturing process of the upper substrate and the lower substrate is completed and a process of curing and fixing the bonded substrates are required.

1 is a process layout for performing a general bonding process and a curing process. As shown in FIG. 1, as the substrate moves, the upper and lower substrates are first bonded at the bonding machine, and the substrates that are bonded are transferred to the curing machine to undergo a curing process.

At this time, the conventional splicer takes the structure as shown in FIG. A vacuum chamber for first forming a vacuum therein and providing a space for bonding the substrate; Upper and lower stages 10 and 20 provided in the vacuum chamber and adsorbing and bonding the upper and lower substrates, respectively; A substrate position sensing unit 30 capable of sensing a position of a substrate that is adsorbed by the upper stage 10 and the lower stage 20; And a substrate position adjusting unit 40 capable of finely adjusting the position of the substrate.

And the curing machine, as shown in Figure 3, the curing chamber 60 to provide a space for performing the process of curing the substrate; A hardening mask part 70 provided on an inner bottom surface of the hardening chamber 60 and having a bonded substrate thereon; A curing light source unit 80 provided below the curing chamber 60 and irradiating light to the substrate in the curing process; And a pressing unit 90 provided on the inner upper wall of the curing chamber 60 to apply a predetermined pressure to the substrate to be cured.

However, in the related art, as described above, the bonding and curing of the substrate are performed separately in each system, so that the area for manufacturing the liquid crystal display device occupies a large area in the clean room, and the operation cost and management elements increase due to operating various devices. There is a problem.

Moreover, in recent years, as the area of the liquid crystal display device to be manufactured is enlarged, the size of the device for manufacturing the liquid crystal display device is also increased. Therefore, reducing the area occupied by the liquid crystal display device manufacturing apparatus has become a more important problem in equipping the liquid crystal display device manufacturing equipment.

This problem is similarly applied to other flat panel display devices such as PDPs as well as liquid crystal display devices.

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate bonding / curing apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device capable of performing both the bonding and curing process of the substrate.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a structure that can be separated from the upper cover forming the upper wall, the vacuum chamber in which the bonding and curing process of the substrate is performed; A sealing member interposed in a portion where the vacuum chamber and the upper cover are in contact with each other; An upper stage provided below the upper cover and configured to adsorb the upper substrate carried by the transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A lower stage provided on a bottom surface of the vacuum chamber so as to face the upper stage and adsorbing a lower substrate loaded by a transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A curing mask provided on the upper cover and used to cure the substrate; A curing light source embedded in the upper cover and configured to irradiate light onto the substrate when curing the substrate; It provides a substrate bonding / curing apparatus for a flat panel display device comprising a; upper cover rotating portion for rotating the upper cover to reverse the upper and lower portions of the upper cover.

In the present invention, by providing the lower stage in a structure capable of moving in the vertical direction, it is possible to easily maintain the position of the appropriate lower stage required in each of the bonding process and the curing process.

In addition, the upper cover rotating portion, the linear movement portion capable of lifting the upper cover in a vertical direction; By including a rotary motion unit for rotating the upper buckle; when the substrate bonding / hardening apparatus for flat panel display device manufacturing to perform the curing process after performing the bonding process by easily rotating the top cover to quickly adhere the bonding process Allow it to proceed.

In addition, in the present invention, the predetermined position of the lower portion of the chamber main body is provided with a substrate position detecting unit for detecting the position of the substrate located inside the chamber, despite the separate rotation of the upper cover, it is possible to stably detect the position of the substrate in the chamber To ensure accurate substrate bonding and curing.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a specific embodiment of the present invention.

The substrate bonding / curing apparatus 100 for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to the present embodiment includes a vacuum chamber 110; Sealing member 120; Upper stage 130; Lower stage 140; Curing mask 150; Curing light source 160; The upper cover rotating portion 170; is configured to include.

In the present embodiment, the structure of the vacuum chamber is provided with a structure in which the upper cover 114 forming the upper wall thereof can be separated from the chamber body 112. That is, as shown in Figure 4, the upper cover 114 forming the upper wall of the chamber is provided in a structure that can be separated by rising to the upper side of the vacuum chamber 110. The reason why the upper cover 114 of the vacuum chamber is provided as a structure that can be separated is that the upper and lower surfaces of the upper cover 114 form components used in the bonding process and components used in the curing process, respectively. In order to proceed with each process, they are alternately placed inside the chamber. The sealing member 120 is provided at a portion where the upper cover 114 and the chamber body 112 contact each other to maintain the airtightness inside the chamber 110. The sealing member 120 has a slight elasticity so that when the upper cover 114 is placed on the chamber body 112, the upper cover 114 is pressed slightly by its own weight and seals all the portions where the upper cover 114 and the chamber body 112 come into contact with each other. It is to let.

In this embodiment, the upper cover rotating part 170 is provided as shown in FIG. 5 to separate and refit the upper cover 114. The upper cover rotating portion 170 is preferably composed of a linear movement portion 172 and the rotary movement portion 174.

The linear motion part 172 is a component that performs a linear motion to move the upper cover 114 in the vertical direction. As shown in FIG. 5, the linear movement part 172 is provided in a pair so as to face each other on the outer surface of the side wall of the vacuum chamber 110 and is coupled to both sides of the upper cover 114. And it is preferable to take the piston structure which can perform linear motion. Accordingly, the linear movement part 172 lifts the upper cover 114 to move upward of the chamber 110, thereby separating the upper cover 114 from the chamber body 112, and rotating the upper cover 114 to rotate. Secure the radius. After the upper cover 114 is rotated, the upper cover 114 is lowered again to be coupled with the chamber body 112.

Next, the rotary motion unit 174 is a component that performs a rotary motion to rotate the upper cover 172. As shown in FIG. 5, the rotation part 174 is coupled to both sides of the upper cover 114 and is also coupled to the linear motion part 172. In addition, the rotary movement unit 174 is provided with a motor capable of rotating the upper cover 114. Therefore, after being raised to a predetermined height by the above-described straight operating unit 172, the upper cover 114 is rotated to reverse the upper and lower portions of the upper cover 114. The reason for rotating the upper cover 114 using the rotary motion 174 is to install the components necessary for the bonding process and the components necessary for the curing process, respectively, on the upper and lower surfaces of the upper cover 114, the components They are to place the inside of the chamber 110 as the progress of each process.

Next, the upper stage 130 is provided below the upper cover 114, as shown in FIG. The upper stage 130 serves to adsorb and fix the upper substrate when the substrate bonding process is performed. Therefore, the upper stage 130 is provided with a substrate adsorption means for bonding the substrate, the substrate adsorption means may be a variety of means, such as electrostatic chuck, vacuum adsorption chuck. In this embodiment, the electrostatic chuck and the vacuum suction chuck are provided at the same time.

Next, the lower stage 140 is provided on the inner bottom surface of the vacuum chamber 110 as shown in FIG. 4. In this case, the lower stage 140 should be provided to face the upper stage 130. The lower stage is a component that adsorbs and fixes the lower substrate carried in from the outside by a conveying device (not shown in the figure) when the substrate bonding process is performed. Therefore, the lower stage 140 is also preferably provided with a substrate adsorption means for adsorbing and fixing the substrate. In this embodiment, the substrate adsorption means is provided in a structure in which the electrostatic chuck and the vacuum adsorption chuck are provided at the same time.

In this embodiment, the lower stage 140 is provided in a structure capable of moving in the horizontal direction. That is, the lower stage 140 is to enable translation and rotational movement in the horizontal direction. The reason for allowing the lower stage 140 to move in the horizontal direction is that the upper and lower substrates are finely adjusted by adjusting the position of the lower substrate when the position of the upper and lower substrates is not exactly matched during the substrate bonding process. It is intended to be an exact match.

In addition, in this embodiment, the lower stage 140 is preferably provided in a structure that can move in the vertical direction. That is, the lower stage 140 can be moved in the vertical direction to satisfy both the height of the lower stage 140 required when performing the bonding process and the height of the lower stage 140 required when performing the curing process. will be. In a typical bonding apparatus, the substrate bonding process is performed while the upper stage moves in the vertical direction. However, in this embodiment, providing a complicated structure on the top cover may give rise to lifting and rotation of the top cover 114. Therefore, it is desirable to simplify the structure of the components provided in the upper cover 114 is to enable the lower stage 140 to move in the vertical direction.

Next, a curing mask 150 is provided on the upper cover 114, as shown in FIG. This curing mask 150 is a component used in the process of curing the bonded substrate.

Next, the curing light source 160 is provided in the interior of the upper cover 114, as shown in FIG. In this case, the curing light source 160 is provided to irradiate light in an upward direction of the upper cover 114. The curing light source 160 is a component that irradiates light onto the substrate during curing of the substrate.

In the substrate bonding / curing device 100 for manufacturing the flat panel display device according to the present embodiment, the same general components as the conventional substrate bonding device, such as a vacuum pump (not shown), may be used to form a vacuum atmosphere inside the chamber. To be prepared. Therefore, the description thereof is omitted here.

In addition, it is preferable that the substrate position detecting unit 190 is further provided in the substrate bonding / curing apparatus 100 for manufacturing the flat panel display device according to the present embodiment. The substrate position detecting unit is also provided in a general substrate bonding apparatus. The substrate position sensing unit is a component that detects the position of the upper and lower substrates, which are carried in the chamber and adsorbed to the upper and lower stages, to determine whether the positions of the upper and lower substrates coincide with each other. In this embodiment, the function is the same as in the general substrate bonding apparatus. However, the installation position is different from the general substrate bonding apparatus in that the chamber body 112 is lower. In a general substrate bonding apparatus, a substrate position sensing unit is provided at an upper portion of a chamber. However, in the present embodiment, since a plurality of other components such as the curing light source 160 and the curing mask 150 are provided on the upper cover 114, the substrate position sensing unit under the chamber body 112 for smooth driving of each component. (190). In this embodiment, the substrate position detecting unit 190 is provided as a CCD camera. Therefore, the substrate position is photographed and the data are displayed on a separate monitor to determine whether the upper and lower substrates are matched.

Hereinafter, a process of performing a substrate bonding process and a curing process using the substrate bonding / curing apparatus 100 for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to the present embodiment will be described.

5A to 5C are views illustrating a driving process of a substrate bonding / curing apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to the present embodiment. This will be described with reference.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 5A, the substrate bonding process is performed in a state where the upper cover 114 is coupled with the chamber body 112 so that the upper stage 130 is positioned inside the chamber. For the substrate bonding process, first, the upper substrate and the lower substrate are brought into the chamber using a transfer device provided outside the chamber. The loaded upper substrate and lower substrate are absorbed and fixed to the upper stage 130 and the lower stage 140, respectively. At this time, the sealing material A is apply | coated to the outer peripheral part of the lower board | substrate S2.

And while adjusting the position of the upper lower substrate while making the inside of the chamber in a vacuum atmosphere, each position is exactly matched. When the position of the substrate is exactly matched, the lower stage 140 is raised to approach the upper substrate and the lower substrate. Then, the suction force of the upper stage is removed to freely drop the upper substrate onto the lower substrate to attach the upper and lower substrates. When the gas is injected into the chamber to apply pressure, the upper and lower substrates are bonded.

In this way, when a board | substrate bonding process is completed, a hardening process will advance. In order to proceed with the curing process, as shown in FIG. 5B, the upper cover 114 is raised to the upper side of the chamber body by using the linear movement part 172. In this case, the height at which the top cover is raised should be such that the top cover and the chamber body do not interfere with each other when the top cover is rotated. That is, to ensure a sufficient radius of rotation of the top cover. Then, the upper cover 114 is rotated 180 ° using the rotary motion 174. Then the top and bottom of the top cover 114 is reversed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6B, the upper stage 130 positioned below the upper cover faces upward, and the curing mask 150 positioned above the upper cover 114 faces downward.

In this state, the rotational movement of the upper cover is stopped, and the linear cover 172 is driven to lower the upper cover. As shown in FIG. 5C, the top cover is lowered completely so that it is in contact with and completely engaged with the chamber body.

Then, the height of the lower stage 140 is adjusted to suit the curing process. Then, the curing light source 160 is operated to proceed with the curing process. When the curing process is finished, the finished substrate is taken out to the outside using a transfer device.

According to the present invention, since the bonding and curing of the substrate can be performed by one device, the area occupied by the device in the clean room is significantly reduced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost of the facility and reducing the management cost.

Claims (4)

A vacuum chamber in which an upper cover constituting the upper wall thereof can be separated, and a bonding and curing process of the substrate is performed; A sealing member interposed in a portion where the vacuum chamber and the upper cover are in contact with each other; An upper stage provided below the upper cover and configured to adsorb the upper substrate carried by the transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A lower stage provided on a bottom surface of the vacuum chamber so as to face the upper stage and adsorbing a lower substrate loaded by a transfer device to perform substrate bonding; A curing mask provided on the upper cover and used to cure the substrate; A curing light source embedded in the upper cover and configured to irradiate light onto the substrate when curing the substrate; It includes a linear movement portion for lifting the upper cover in the vertical direction, and a rotary movement portion for rotating the upper cover, the upper cover that can reverse the position of the upper and lower parts of the upper cover by rotating the upper cover Rotating part; Substrate bonding / curing device for manufacturing a flat panel display device comprising. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower stage, A substrate bonding / curing device for manufacturing a flat panel display device, characterized in that the structure can move in the vertical direction. delete The method of claim 1, And a substrate position sensing unit configured to detect a position of a substrate positioned inside the chamber in a predetermined portion of the lower chamber body.

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