KR100927955B1 - Nano wire grid polarizer unit and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a nanowire grid polarizer unit for forming a support between patterns in order to protect the metal layer of the nanowire grid polarizer, and a manufacturing method thereof.

Nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, the patterned nanowire grid polarizer; A connection part formed between the patterns; And an optical sheet laminated on the connection part.

Description

Nano wire grid polarizer unit and manufacturing method thereof

The present invention relates to a nano-wire grid polarizer unit and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to form a support between a patterned metal layer and to laminate an optical sheet including a protective sheet or the like, thereby protecting the metal layer and handling property. The present invention relates to a nanowire grid polarizer unit for facilitating a manufacturing method thereof.

Recently, various flat panel displays have been developed to reduce weight and volume, which are disadvantages of cathode ray tubes. Such flat panel displays include Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Field Emission Display (FED), Plasma Display Panel (PDP) and Electro-Luminescence (EL) display. The flat panel display apparatus has been actively researched to improve the display quality and to make a large screen.

In particular, the liquid crystal display (LCD) of the flat panel display device has a number of advantages, such as small size / light weight and low power consumption is increasingly used. The liquid crystal display is a non-light emitting display that displays information by using the electrical / optical properties of the liquid crystal injected into the liquid crystal display panel and expresses an image by using a light source such as a lamp. That is, unlike a cathode ray tube, a liquid crystal display device is a liquid crystal material injected between a TFT substrate and a color filter substrate, not a light emitting material that emits light, but a light receiving material that controls the amount of light coming from the outside and displays it on the screen. A separate device, ie, a backlight assembly, for irradiating light to the display panel is necessary.

The backlight assembly includes a mold frame in which a storage space is formed, a reflective sheet disposed on a base surface of the storage space and reflecting light toward the liquid crystal display panel, a light guide plate installed on an upper surface of the reflective sheet to guide light, and a light guide plate and a side wall of the storage space. A lamp unit installed in the light emitting unit, optical sheets stacked on an upper surface of the light guide plate to diffuse and condense light, and an upper portion of the mold frame to cover an area from a predetermined portion of the edge of the liquid crystal display panel to the side of the mold frame. It consists of a covering top chassis.

Here, the optical sheets are composed of a diffusion sheet for diffusing light, a prism sheet for condensing the light diffused and stacked on an upper surface of the diffusion sheet, and transferring the light to a liquid crystal display panel, and a protective sheet for protecting the diffusion sheet and the prism sheet. do.

1A and 1B are sectional views showing the structure of a conventional liquid crystal display device. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the conventional liquid crystal display device 60 is provided with a backlight assembly 50 for generating light, and an upper side of the backlight assembly 50 and supplies light from the backlight assembly 50. And a display unit 40 for displaying the image. The backlight assembly 50 includes a lamp unit 51 for generating light and a light guide unit for guiding light from the lamp unit 51 to the liquid crystal display panel 10. In addition, the display unit 40 includes upper and lower polarizers 30 and 20 provided on the liquid crystal display panel 10 and the upper and lower portions of the liquid crystal display panel 10, respectively. It consists of a liquid crystal layer injected between the TFT substrate and color filter substrates 11 and 12 in which an electrode was formed, and the TFT substrate and color filter substrates 11 and 12.

Specifically, the lamp unit 51 includes a lamp 51a for generating light and a lamp reflector 51b surrounding the lamp 51a. The light generated from the lamp 51a is incident to the light guide plate 52 side described later, and the lamp reflector 51b reflects the light generated from the lamp 51a to the light guide plate 52 side to increase the amount of light incident on the light guide plate. do.

The light guide unit includes a reflector plate 54, a light guide plate 52, and optical sheets 53. First, the light guide plate 52 is provided at one side of the lamp unit 51 to guide the light from the lamp unit 51. In this case, the light guide plate 52 changes the path of the light emitted from the lamp unit 51 and guides the light guide plate 52 toward the liquid crystal display panel 10. In addition, the lower portion of the light guide plate 52 is provided with a reflector plate 54 for reflecting light leaked from the light guide plate 52 back to the light guide plate 52 side.

Meanwhile, the reflecting plate 54 and the light guiding plate 52 of the light guiding unit shown in FIG. 1A may be replaced with the reflecting plate 54 'and the diffusion plate 52' as shown in FIG. 1B. In this case, the lamp unit 51 'is positioned under the diffusion plate 52', and directs the path of the light emitted from the lamp unit toward the liquid crystal display panel 10.

The upper part of the light guide plate 52 is provided with a plurality of optical sheets 53 for improving the efficiency of the light emitted from the light guide plate 52. Specifically, the optical sheet is composed of a diffusion sheet 53a, a prism sheet 53b, and a protective sheet 53c, and is sequentially stacked on the light guide plate 52. The diffusion sheet 53a scatters the light incident from the light guide plate 52 (FIG. 1A) or the light incident from the diffusion plate 52 ′ (FIG. 1B) to even out the luminance distribution of the light. In addition, the prism sheet 53b has a prism of a triangular prism shape formed on the upper surface repeatedly, and the light diffused by the diffusion sheet 53a is focused in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the liquid crystal display panel 10. . Therefore, most of the light passing through the prism sheet 53b proceeds perpendicularly to the plane of the liquid crystal display panel 10 to have a uniform luminance distribution. In addition, the protective sheet 53c provided on the upper portion of the prism sheet 53b protects the surface of the prism sheet 53b and diffuses light in order to uniformize the distribution of the light incident from the prism sheet 53b. Play a role.

In the optical sheet, a prism shape is continuously arranged and mainly a light condensing sheet for performing light condensing function, a diffusion sheet for condensing a light mainly by arranging a plurality of lenses of beads or microlenses or lenticular type. It can be divided into a composite optical sheet of a functional mixture to perform the role of the diffusion sheet in combination, these may be used in combination with a polarizing sheet, a protective sheet and stacked in one or a plurality. In addition, in order to increase light efficiency, a nano wire grid polarizer (NWGP) may be inserted and used.

The nanowire grid polarizer is for polarizing visible light having a wavelength of 400 to 700 nm. However, since the metal pattern structure of the nanowire grid polarizer has a very small shape of several nanometers, surface damage, scratches, etc. may occur due to friction between upper and lower surfaces of the plurality of stacked optical sheets or LCD panels. There is a problem of poor handleability.

Therefore, studies of alternative structures for preventing damage and scratching of the metal layer pattern surface of the nanowire grid polarizer are actively conducted.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the present invention is to configure the support so as to minimize the optical loss of the surface of the metal layer pattern of the nano WIO grid polarizer nano-layer laminated an optical sheet including a protective sheet thereon It is an object to propose a wire grid polarizer unit.

Nanowire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, forming a support on the transparent substrate between the nanostructures and the nanostructures; Stacking a metal layer on the nanostructure and the support; Etching the metal layer; Coating an adhesive on the support; And laminating an optical sheet on the adhesive.

Nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, the patterned nanowire grid polarizer; A connection part formed between the patterns; And an optical sheet laminated on the connection part.

According to the present invention, by forming a support between the nanowire grid polarizer metal layer pattern and laminating an optical sheet including a protective sheet thereon, the surface of the metal layer can be protected and the handleability can be improved.

In addition, by using the optical sheet as a protective sheet, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost of the product and to prevent the loss of optical properties.

In addition, by using the optical sheet as a protective sheet, the structure can be made slim and the loss of optical properties can be prevented.

Nanowire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, forming a support on the transparent substrate between the nanostructures and the nanostructures; Stacking a metal layer on the nanostructure and the support; Etching the metal layer; Coating an adhesive on the support; And laminating an optical sheet on the adhesive.

Preferably, etching the metal layer further includes removing the metal layer stacked on the support.

Preferably, forming the nanostructure and the support includes performing an imprinting process using a mold having a pattern for forming the nanostructure and the support.

Preferably, the optical sheet includes any one of a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet.

Preferably, the height from the transparent substrate to the adhesive is 5 to 20 times the height from the transparent substrate to the metal layer, and the width of the support is 5 to 40 times the width of the metal layer.

Nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, the patterned nanowire grid polarizer; A connection part formed between the patterns; And an optical sheet laminated on the connection part.

Preferably, the connection part includes a support and an adhesive formed on the support, and the pattern includes a nano structure and a metal layer formed on the nano structure.

Preferably, any one of a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet is formed on the rear surface of the nanowire grid polarizer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily understand and implement the present invention.

2 is a view for explaining the operation of the backlight unit using the nanowire grid polarizer unit according to the present invention.

The backlight unit includes a lamp unit 60 composed of a light source 36, a lamp reflector 37, a light guide plate 38, and a reflector plate 39, and a nanowire grid polarizer unit 41.

The nano-wire grid polarizer unit 41 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet for diffusing light, a light condensing sheet for condensing light, a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet for diffusing and condensing light, and the like. It may further include.

Light generated by the light source 36 is reflected by the lamp reflector 37 and the reflecting plate 39 and transmitted to the liquid crystal panel 34 through the light guide plate 38. Upper and lower polarizing plates 33 and 35 are disposed on upper and lower portions of the liquid crystal panel 34, respectively. For the sake of illustration, the light from the lamp unit 60 is divided into a portion 31 not passing through the nanowire grid polarizer unit 41 and a portion 32 passing through the optical sheet.

In the part 31 in which the nanowire grid polarizer unit 41 is not provided, light from the lamp unit 60 passes only the P wave component by the lower polarizing plate 35, and the S wave component is blocked. Therefore, less than 50% of the generated light is effectively used as a light source of the liquid crystal panel.

In the portion 32 in which the nano wire grid polarizer unit 41 is installed, the light from the lamp unit 60 passes only the P wave component by the lower polarizer 35, and the S wave component passes through the nano wire grid polarizer unit 41. Reflected by the lamp unit 60 and scattered by the light guide plate 38 to cancel polarization. After passing through the light guide plate 38, the light is reflected back by the reflecting plate 39 and transmitted to the liquid crystal panel. In this case, only the P wave component passes, and the S wave component is reflected to pass through the light guide plate 38 and the reflecting plate 39. Is reflected by the light and toward the liquid crystal panel.

In FIG. 2, the intensity of light is represented by the thickness of the arrow in the portion 32 in which the nanowire grid polarizer unit 41 is disposed. That is, about half of the light emitted from the lamp unit 60 is used as the light source, and half of the other half is used as the light source. In this way, the utilization efficiency of light can be improved.

3A to 3F are views illustrating a method of manufacturing a nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 3A, the support 110 positioned between the nanostructures 120 and the nanostructures 120 is formed on the transparent substrate 100. As shown in FIG. 3A, various methods may be used to form structures having different sizes, for example, imprinting into a mold in which a pattern for forming the nanostructure 120 and the support 110 is formed. The structures may be formed by performing a process).

In addition, although the cross section of the support 110 is shown as a square in FIG. 3A, this is exemplary and not limited thereto, and may have various geometric shapes such as a circle, a cross, a triangle, an ellipse, and the like.

The transparent substrate 100 may use a transparent polymer substrate or a thin glass substrate, and the nanostructure 120 may be made of a heat curable or UV curable resin.

When the support 110 is formed between the nanostructure 120 and the nanostructure 120, as shown in FIG. 3b, a metal layer 130 is stacked on the nanostructure 120 and the support 110. do. The metal layer 130 may be deposited, for example, by sputtering.

The metal layer 130 may be any one of Al, Ti, Cr, Ag, an alloy of Ni and Cr, and Au.

When the metal layer 130 is stacked, as shown in FIG. 3C, the metal layer 130 in the remaining space is etched, leaving only the metal layer 130 on the nanostructure 120 and the support 110.

When the etching process of the metal layer 130 is completed, the method may further include removing the metal layer 130 stacked on the support 110 as illustrated in FIG. 3D. The method of removing only the metal layer 130 stacked on the support 110 may be various, and for example, a method such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or dry etching may be used.

However, even if the thin metal layer 130 is laminated on the support 110, the removal of the metal layer 130 may be omitted since the metal layer 130 does not significantly affect the adhesive properties and the optical properties of the polarizer.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3e, an adhesive 140 is coated on the support 110. The adhesive 140 is generally an optical adhesive, and may include, for example, an adhesive such as an acrylic base.

The method of coating the adhesive 140 only on the support 110 except for the nanostructure 120 may vary. For example, the adhesive 140 may be applied to a roller having a predetermined flatness. After the roller is pressed on the support 110, the adhesive 140 may be selectively coated only on the support 110.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 3F, the optical sheet 150 is laminated on the adhesive 140. In this case, the optical sheet 150 may be laminated using a laminating technique. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the optical sheet 150 may be supported by the support 110 itself without the adhesive 140.

The support 110 and the adhesive layer 140 may form a connection part connecting the transparent substrate 100 and the optical sheet 150.

The optical sheet 150 may be any one of a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet. 3F exemplarily shows a structure in which protective sheets are laminated. The protective sheet serves to protect the structures located at the bottom of the protective sheet and to uniformize the distribution of incident light. In addition, the protective sheet may use a polycarbonate (PC) film or a non-oriented film to minimize light loss.

The structure and function of the light collecting sheet or the diffusion / condensing integrated sheet will be described later with reference to FIG. 5.

4 is a view for explaining the numerical value of each part of the nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transparent substrate 100, a support 110, a nanostructure 120, a metal layer 130, and an adhesive 140. can do.

In this case, the height A from the transparent substrate 100 to the adhesive 140 is about 5 to 20 times the height B from the transparent substrate 100 to the metal layer 130. In addition, the width C of the support 110 is about 5 to 40 times the width D of the metal layer 130. In the drawings of the present invention exaggerated for the purpose of illustration, the width or height of the actual support 110 is formed larger than the nano-structure 120 or the metal layer 130.

In order that the support 110 is added, the support 110 of a suitable size is required in order not to change the overall optical properties and polarization properties of the polarizer. The relative height or width ratio may generally support the optical sheet without being visible to the human eye, considering that the size of the nanostructure 120 is about several to several tens of nanometers and affects the overall optical properties. This is the optimal ratio to avoid In addition, by maintaining the height or width ratio, the contact between the metal layer 130 may be minimized by maintaining the air layer formation between the nanostructure 120 and the support 110.

In addition, in order to cause a polarization phenomenon for visible light having a wavelength of 400 nm to 800 nm, the interval between the nanostructures 120 is preferably 200 nm or less. Therefore, instead of forming the support 110 in all spaces between the nanostructures 120, the support 110 is selectively formed only in a predetermined region on the transparent substrate 100, thereby affecting the overall polarization phenomenon. It is possible to protect the metal layer 130 without giving. This structure is shown in Figures 3A-5C.

5A to 5C are diagrams illustrating various embodiments of the nanowire grid polarizer unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In the nano-wire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, an optical sheet may be laminated on an adhesive. As described above, the optical sheet may include a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet 161, a light collecting sheet 162, and a diffusion / condensing layer. It may include any one of the unitary sheet 163.

5A shows the diffusion sheet 161 stacked on the left side, the light collecting sheet 162 is stacked on the left side of FIG. 5B, and the diffusion / condensing integrated sheet 163 is stacked on the left side of FIG. 5C. Each is shown.

The diffusion sheet 161 serves to diffuse the incident light to even the luminance distribution of the light. The condensing sheet 162 has a triangular prism repeatedly formed, and serves to condense incident light in a predetermined direction. The diffusion / condensing integrated sheet 163 is a mixture of shapes of the diffusion sheet 161 and the light collecting sheet 162, and may simultaneously diffuse and collect light.

In addition, the nano wire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that any one of a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet is formed on the back of the nano wire grid polarizer, which is respectively illustrated in FIG. 5A. The right side (diffusion sheet 161) of FIG. 5B, the right side (condensing sheet 162) of FIG. 5B, and the right side (diffusion / condensing integrated sheet, 163) of FIG. 5C are shown.

So far, the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains to the detailed description of the present invention and other forms of embodiments within the essential technical scope of the present invention. Could be implemented.

Here, the essential technical scope of the present invention is shown in the claims, and all differences within the equivalent range will be construed as being included in the present invention.

1A and 1B are sectional views showing the structure of a conventional liquid crystal display device.

2 is a view for explaining the operation of the backlight unit using the optical sheet according to the present invention.

3A to 3F illustrate a method of manufacturing a nanowire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining the numerical value of the nano-wire grid polarizer unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A-5C illustrate various embodiments of a nanowire grid polarizer unit in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

    ※ Description of the main parts of the drawings ※

100 transparent substrate 110 support

120: nanostructure 130: metal layer

140: adhesive 150: optical sheet

161: diffusion sheet 162: light collecting sheet

163: diffused / condensing integrated sheet

Claims (13)

Forming a nanostructure and a support positioned between the nanostructure on the transparent substrate; Stacking a metal layer on the nanostructure and the support; Etching the metal layer; Coating an adhesive on the support; And And laminating an optical sheet on the adhesive. The method of claim 1, Etching the metal layer further comprises the step of removing the metal layer stacked on the support nanowire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method. The method of claim 1, Forming the nanostructures and the support, And performing an imprinting process using a mold having a pattern for forming the nanostructure and the support. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The optical sheet is a nano-wire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method, characterized in that any one of a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The height from the transparent substrate to the adhesive is a nanowire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method, characterized in that 5 to 20 times the height from the transparent substrate to the metal layer. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The width of the support is nanowire grid polarizer unit manufacturing method, characterized in that 5 to 40 times the width of the metal layer. Transparent substrate which transmits light; A nano wire grid polarizer having a pattern formed on the transparent substrate; A connection part formed between the patterns; And Nanowire grid polarizer unit characterized in that it comprises an optical sheet laminated on the connecting portion. The method of claim 7, wherein And the optical sheet is any one of a protective sheet, a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffused / condensing integrated sheet. The method of claim 8, The protective sheet is a nano-wire grid polarizer unit, characterized in that using a PC film or an unstretched film. The method of claim 7, wherein The connecting portion, Support; And an adhesive formed on the support, The pattern is, Nanostructures; And a metal layer formed on the nanostructures. The method of claim 7, wherein Nanowire grid polarizer unit, characterized in that any one of a diffusion sheet, a light collecting sheet, or a diffusion / condensing integrated sheet is formed on the back of the nanowire grid polarizer. The method of claim 10, The height from the transparent substrate to the adhesive is nanowire grid polarizer unit, characterized in that 5 to 20 times the height from the transparent substrate to the metal layer. The method of claim 10, The width of the support is nanowire grid polarizer unit, characterized in that 5 to 40 times the width of the metal layer.

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