KR101169057B1 - Fabricating method and apparatus for flat display device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device which can reduce manufacturing costs and improve yield.

A method of manufacturing a flat panel display device of the present invention comprises the steps of roughening the surface of the master mold (Master Mold); Forming a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the master mold; Forming a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure and a rough surface of the master mold, the surface having a rough protrusion; Aligning the soft mold such that the groove is located in the protrusion and the other area in an area corresponding to an area where a thin film pattern is to be formed on a substrate; Contacting the substrate with the protrusion of the soft mold to hydrophobize the substrate corresponding to the protrusion of the soft mold; Applying the thin film material dissolved in a hydrophobic solvent on the substrate to form the thin film pattern in the hydrophobized region on the substrate.

Description

Manufacturing method and apparatus for flat panel display device {FABRICATING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FLAT DISPLAY DEVICE}

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a general liquid crystal display panel.

2A to 2D are cross-sectional views illustrating stepwise formation of a gate electrode using a photolithography process.

3A to 3D are cross-sectional views showing stepwise formation of a gate electrode according to the present invention.

4 is a view showing a contact angle between a hydrophobized substrate and water droplets.

5 is a view showing a soft mold according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6A and 6C are cross-sectional views illustrating strong hydrophobicity of a substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a view showing the surface of the protrusion of the soft mold according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a view showing a contact angle between a strongly hydrophobized substrate and water droplets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.

16: liquid crystal 52: upper substrate

54: black matrix 56: color filter

58: upper alignment layer 59, 159: gate electrode

60: photoresist 61: mask

64 active layer 66 pixel electrode

68: common electrode 82, 182, 282: lower substrate

88 lower alignment layer 90 source electrode

92 drain electrode 94 gate insulating film

97: ohmic contact layer 100: protective film

170, 270: soft mold 280: master mold

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device that can reduce manufacturing costs and improve yield.

In general, a liquid crystal display (LCD) displays an image by adjusting the light transmittance of the liquid crystal using an electric field. The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel including a color filter substrate and a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate facing each other with a liquid crystal interposed therebetween.

1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a liquid crystal display panel of a general vertical field type liquid crystal display device.

Referring to FIG. 1, a vertical field type liquid crystal display panel includes a black matrix 54, a color filter 56, a common electrode 68, and an upper alignment layer 58 sequentially formed on the upper substrate 52. A liquid crystal injected into an internal space between the filter array substrate, the TFT formed on the lower substrate 82, the TFT array substrate composed of the pixel electrode 66 and the lower alignment layer 88, and the color filter array substrate and the TFT array substrate. (16) is provided.

In the color filter array substrate, the black matrix 54 serves to provide a cell area in which the color filter 56 is to be formed, and to prevent light leakage and to absorb external light to increase contrast. The color filter 56 is formed for each of RG and B in the cell region partitioned by the black matrix 54 to implement a color image. The common electrode 68 is supplied with a reference voltage (hereinafter, referred to as "common voltage") for controlling the movement of the liquid crystal 16. Meanwhile, in the horizontal field type liquid crystal display panel, the common electrode 68 is formed on the TFT array substrate, and a planarization layer (not shown) is formed on the upper substrate 52 to compensate for the step difference of the color filter 56.

In a TFT array substrate, a TFT overlaps a gate electrode 59 formed on a lower substrate 82 together with a gate line, and a semiconductor layer 64, 97 overlapping the gate electrode 59 with a gate insulating film 94 therebetween. And source and drain electrodes 90 and 92 formed together with the data lines with the channel of the TFT interposed therebetween. This TFT supplies the pixel signal from the data line to the pixel electrode 66 in response to the gate signal from the gate line.

The pixel electrode 66 is a transparent conductive material having a high light transmittance and is in contact with the drain electrode 92 of the TFT with the protective film 100 interposed therebetween. The upper and lower alignment layers 58 and 88 for liquid crystal alignment are formed by applying an alignment material such as polyimide and the like followed by a rubbing process.

The plurality of thin film patterns including the gate electrode 59 of the liquid crystal display panel are mainly formed using a photolithography process using a mask.

Hereinafter, the formation of the gate electrode 59 among the plurality of thin film patterns of the liquid crystal display panel will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2D.

Referring to FIG. 2A, the gate metal material 59a and the photoresist 60 are entirely deposited on the lower substrate 82 by using a deposition method such as sputtering, and then in the region where the gate electrode 59 is to be formed. The mask 61 having the opening 61a is aligned.

Subsequently, the photoresist 60 is patterned by a photolithography process to form the photoresist pattern 60a in a region corresponding to the region where the gate electrode 59 is to be formed, as shown in FIG. 2B.

Then, the gate metal material 59a is patterned by an etching process to form the gate electrode 59 as shown in FIG. 2C.

In addition, the gate electrode 59 is completed by removing the photoresist pattern 60a as shown in FIG. 2D by a stripping process.

As described above, a process of forming a plurality of thin film patterns of a liquid crystal display panel formed using a mask includes many processes such as a thin film deposition process, a cleaning process, a photolithography process, an etching process, and a photoresist stripping process. The disadvantage is that the manufacturing is complicated. In addition, the photolithography process requires a large amount of waste to form the photoresist and the photoresist pattern used, and the expensive manufacturing equipment is used for the exposure process of the photolithography process. There is a problem.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device which can reduce manufacturing costs and improve yield.

In order to achieve the above object, a method of manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of roughening the surface of the master mold (Master Mold); Forming a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the master mold; Forming a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure and a rough surface of the master mold, the surface having a rough protrusion; Aligning the soft mold such that the groove is located in the protrusion and the other area in an area corresponding to an area where a thin film pattern is to be formed on a substrate; Contacting the substrate with the protrusion of the soft mold to hydrophobize the substrate corresponding to the protrusion of the soft mold; Applying the thin film material dissolved in a hydrophobic solvent on the substrate to form the thin film pattern in the hydrophobized region on the substrate.

Method of manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of roughening the surface of the master mold (Master Mold); Forming a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the master mold; Forming a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure and a rough surface of the master mold, the surface having a rough protrusion; Aligning the soft mold such that the protrusion is located in the groove and the other area in an area corresponding to an area where a thin film pattern is to be formed on a substrate; Contacting the substrate with the protrusion of the soft mold to hydrophobize the substrate corresponding to the protrusion of the soft mold; Applying a thin film material dissolved in a hydrophilic solvent on the substrate to form the thin film pattern in a region other than the hydrophobized region on the substrate.

Forming a soft mold having a roughened surface of the surface includes pouring the material of the soft mold into the master mold and curing it with heat.

Roughening the surface of the master mold may include depositing a metal material including aluminum (Al) on the surface of the master mold; Growing the metal material at high temperature.

The metal material is grown to 5 nm or more and 20 nm or less.

The soft mold is a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) soft mold.

The thin film material is a nano powder obtained by decomposing the material to be the thin film pattern to have a nano size.

An apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a master mold having a rough surface and a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the rough surface; And a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure of the master mold and a rough protrusion of the surface by the rough surface of the master mold.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3A to 8.

3A to 3D are cross-sectional views illustrating stepwise formation of a gate electrode according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3A, a soft mold 170 having a groove 170a formed in an area corresponding to an area where a gate electrode is to be formed on the lower substrate 182 and a protrusion 170b in the other area is formed. Align and contact the mold mold 170 over the lower substrate 182.

Here, the soft mold 170 is a soft mold proposed in patent 2003-0098122 filed by the applicant of the present invention. The soft mold 170 is made of polydimethylsiloxane (hereinafter referred to as “PDMS”), which is a rubber material having a large elasticity.

On the surface of the PDMS soft mold 170, an un-cured monomer component or oligomer component of the material of the PDMS soft mold 170 remains. In contact with 182, the hydrophobic group CH ₃ of the un-cured monomer component or oligomer component is adsorbed onto the lower substrate 182. As a result, some regions of the lower substrate 182, that is, regions to which the protrusions 170b of the PDMS soft mold 170 are adhered, may be formed as shown in FIG. 3B. The hydrophobic group (CH ₃ ) of the oligomer component is adsorbed and becomes hydrophobic.

Then, the gate metal material 159a is entirely coated on the lower substrate 182. In this case, the gate electrode material 159a is a nano-powder gate electrode material in which Al, Cu, Cr, Mo, Al / Nd, or an alloy thereof forming the gate electrode is decomposed to have a nano size. (159a) is used after being dissolved in a hydrophilic solvent. Then, the gate metal material 159a moves to a region where the gate metal material 159a is not hydrophobized according to its polarity, that is, a region corresponding to the groove 170a of the PDMS soft mold 170 according to its polarity. As shown in 3c, the gate electrode pattern 159b is formed.

Subsequently, the lower substrate 182 on which the gate electrode pattern 159b is formed undergoes a heat treatment such as a firing process, and the hydrophilic solvent of the gate electrode pattern 159b is evaporated through the heat treatment, and a current path between the gate electrode patterns 159b is passed. ), The gate electrode 159 is formed as shown in FIG. 3D.

Here, in the formation of the gate electrode 159 according to the present invention, when the nano powder gate electrode material 159a is dissolved in a hydrophobic solvent, the formation of the gate electrode 159 gates the protrusion 170b of the PDMS soft mold 170. The gate electrode 159 may be formed by contacting the lower substrate 182 to be in contact with the region where the electrode 159 is to be formed.

As described above, the formation of the thin film patterns including the gate electrode 159 according to the present invention is performed by using a hydrophobic group (CH ₃ ) of an un-cured monomer component or an oligomer component on the surface of the PDMS soft mold 170. By forming the patterns, the exposure and development processes required for thin film patterning using a conventional photolithography process can be omitted. Accordingly, the process can be simplified and the waste of the photoresist and the developer for forming the photoresist pattern can be reduced. In addition, expensive exposure equipment is not required since the exposure process is not performed. As a result, the manufacturing cost of the flat panel display element can be reduced.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention forms a strong hydrophobic group (CH ₃ ) in a region in which a PDMS soft mold contacts, thereby reducing defect rates of thin film patterns formed by the aforementioned method using a PDMS soft mold. We want to provide a way to reduce it.

When the protrusion 170b of the general PDMS soft mold 170 is in contact with the substrate 182, some regions of the substrate 182 to which the protrusion 170b of the PDMS soft mold 170 is in contact with each other are shown in FIG. 4. It hydrophobizes to form a contact angle (θ) between water and 90 ° to 120 °. This is a phenomenon in which the hydrophobic group CH _{3 on} the surface of the protrusion 170b of the PDMS soft mold 170 is absorbed by the substrate 182.

Accordingly, the method of manufacturing the flat panel display device according to the embodiment of the present invention increases the roughness of the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 as illustrated in FIG. 5, so that the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 is increased. To increase the hydrophobic group (CH ₃ ) of the surface of. Accordingly, the method of manufacturing the flat panel display device according to the present invention can maximize the hydrophobicity of a part of the substrate in contact with the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270, and thus, the thin film using the PDMS soft mold 270. The defective rate of patterns can be reduced.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing the PDMS soft mold 270 having the protrusion 270b having the hydrophobic group CH ₃ increased on the surface will be described with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6C.

Referring to FIG. 6A, the PDMS soft mold 270 is molded using a master mold 280 having a rough surface. The rough surface of the master mold 280 having a rough surface is deposited with a metal material such as aluminum (Al) to a thickness of 5 nm or less on the surface of the master mold 280, and then it is 5 nm or more and 20 nm at a high temperature as shown in FIG. 7. It is formed by growing below. Subsequently, the PDMS soft mold is formed by mixing the main PDMS chain and the curing agent (Curing Agent) in a ratio of 10: 1, and then poured into a master mold 280 where a desired pattern is formed and cured with heat to form a PDMS soft mold 270. To complete). The master mold 280 has a structure 280a having a shape corresponding to the groove 270a in an area corresponding to the groove 270a of the soft mold 270. Accordingly, the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 is molded by the rough surface of the master mold 280 as shown in FIG. 6B.

Accordingly, the surface of the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 to be molded is roughened as shown in FIG. 6C, and accordingly, the hydrophobic group CH of the surface of the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 is roughened. ₃ ) is increased so that the surface of the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 maximizes hydrophobicity.

Thereafter, the substrate 282 in contact with the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 is strongly hydrophobized by contacting the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 having maximized hydrophobicity with the substrate 282. This can be seen that the contact angle θ formed by the water droplets and a portion of the substrate 282 in contact with the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 becomes 120 ° or more as shown in FIG. 8.

As described above, the method and apparatus for manufacturing the flat panel display device according to the embodiment of the present invention maximize the hydrophobicity of the surface of the protrusion 270b of the PDMS soft mold 270 in contact with the substrate 282 by using the PDMS soft mold 270. A portion of the substrate 282 in contact with the protrusion 270b of the substrate is strongly hydrophobized. Accordingly, the hydrophilic or hydrophobic thin film material applied to the substrate 282 by the strongly hydrophobized substrate 282 is improved in patterning, and as a result, the yield of the flat panel display device can be improved.

As described above, the method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can pattern predetermined thin film patterns on a substrate by using a PDMS soft mold capable of forming a hydrophobic group (CH ₃ ) on the substrate. have. Thus, the exposure and development processes required for the patterning of certain thin film patterns using conventional photolithography can be omitted. As a result, the process time can be reduced, and the waste of the photoresist and the developer for forming the photoresist pattern can be reduced. In addition, expensive exposure equipment is not required. As a result, the manufacturing cost of the flat panel display element can be reduced.

In addition, the method and apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention maximize the hydrophobicity of the surface of the protrusion of the PDMS soft mold in contact with the substrate to strongly hydrophobize a partial region of the substrate in contact with the protrusion of the PDMS soft mold. Let's do it. Accordingly, the hydrophilic or hydrophobic thin film material applied to the substrate by the strongly hydrophobized substrate is improved in patterning, and as a result, the yield of the flat panel display device can be improved.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification, but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (12)

Roughening the surface of the master mold; Forming a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the master mold; Forming a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure and a rough surface of the master mold, the surface having a rough protrusion; Aligning the soft mold such that the groove is located in the protrusion and the other area in an area corresponding to an area where a thin film pattern is to be formed on a substrate; Contacting the substrate with the protrusion of the soft mold to hydrophobize the substrate corresponding to the protrusion of the soft mold; And applying the thin film material dissolved in a hydrophobic solvent on the substrate to form the thin film pattern on the hydrophobized region on the substrate. Roughening the surface of the master mold; Forming a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the master mold; Forming a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure and a rough surface of the master mold, the surface having a rough protrusion; Aligning the soft mold such that the protrusion is located in the groove and the other area in an area corresponding to an area where a thin film pattern is to be formed on a substrate; Contacting the substrate with the protrusion of the soft mold to hydrophobize the substrate corresponding to the protrusion of the soft mold; And applying the thin film material dissolved in a hydrophilic solvent on the substrate to form the thin film pattern in a region other than the hydrophobized region on the substrate. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The step of forming a soft mold having a roughened surface thereof, And pouring the material of the soft mold into the master mold to cure it with heat. The method of claim 3, wherein Roughening the surface of the master mold, Depositing a metal material including aluminum (Al) on a surface of the master mold; And growing the metal material at a high temperature. The method of claim 4, wherein And the metal material is grown to 5 nm or more and 20 nm or less. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The soft mold is a PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) soft mold manufacturing method of a flat display device characterized in that. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The thin film material is a method of manufacturing a flat panel display device characterized in that the nano-powder is decomposed to have a nano (nano) size of the material to be the thin film pattern. A master mold having a rough surface and having a structure having the same shape as a groove of a soft mold on the rough surface; And a soft mold having a groove having the same shape as the structure of the master mold and a protrusion having a rough surface thereof by the rough surface of the master mold. 9. The method of claim 8, And the soft mold is formed by pouring a material of the soft mold into the master mold to cure it with heat. 9. The method of claim 8, The rough surface of the master mold is formed by depositing a metal material containing aluminum (Al) on the surface of the master mold and growing the metal material at a high temperature. 11. The method of claim 10, And the metal material is grown to 5 nm or more and 20 nm or less. 9. The method of claim 8, The soft mold is a PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) soft mold manufacturing apparatus, characterized in that.

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