KR101278183B1 - E-Papar ane method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic paper and a method for manufacturing the same, which are capable of providing a stable display effect with low manufacturing cost. The electronic paper according to the present invention includes a lower substrate composed of paper, a lower electrode formed on the lower substrate, a partition wall formed on the lower electrode and the lower substrate to form a cell space, and a charge charged inside the partition wall. And fine particles, an upper electrode formed above the partition wall, and an upper substrate formed above the upper electrode.

Description

E-Papar ane method of manufacturing the same

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electronic paper, and more particularly, to a method for manufacturing an electronic paper, in which a manufacturing cost is low and a stable display effect can be provided.

Currently, various types of display devices such as CRT, LCD, PDP, etc. have been developed and used. The conventional display apparatuses are all designed to receive and output a video signal such as RGB, and have a disadvantage in that the size of the apparatus is large, heavy, and very high.

On the other hand, in recent years, display apparatuses called electronic paper have been developed and widely studied. This electronic paper is produced by making upper and lower electrodes on a glass substrate and filling positive and negatively charged toner particles in the space while forming partitions between the two electrodes.

Electronic paper has attracted much attention as a next-generation display means because it has the advantage of having a good resolution such as displayed characters and a wide viewing angle. However, since such an electronic paper is formed on a glass substrate, it is not as flexible and thick as conventional display means, so it is insufficient to be referred to as an electronic species, and also conventional display means is not easy to implement colors or convert gray scales. There are many problems to compete with.

In order to compensate for the disadvantages of the conventional electronic paper, an electronic paper using a flexible plastic as a substrate has been developed and introduced. However, since such electronic paper also uses materials other than paper, there is a big difference in texture from actual paper. In addition, since the plastic that is susceptible to heat is used as a substrate, there are many limitations in the manufacturing method and it is impossible to provide a high quality image.

That is, in general, an electronic paper forms a pixel cell by forming a partition between upper and lower electrodes formed of transparent electrodes, and fills the cell space with positive and negative charged toner particles. .

However, as is well known, in the case of a plastic substrate, since it is very weak to heat, it is impossible to use a semiconductor manufacturing process having high precision when installing upper and lower electrodes or partitions on the plastic substrate. Therefore, in the conventional electronic paper, the size of the pixels constituting the pixel is limited to a certain size or more, which is a great restriction to increase the quality of the image that can be provided through the electronic paper.

In addition, the conventional electronic paper is not easy to convert the gradation of the image that can be provided through the electronic paper because the size of the pixel is limited to a certain size, and also has a major disadvantage in providing a precise color image.

In addition, in the case of employing a lithography technique for a precise manufacturing process, there is a disadvantage that the manufacturing process is complicated and manufacturing costs are high.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its main object is to provide a method for producing an electronic paper having substantially the same texture as the paper by implementing the electronic paper using a paper material which is generally used. .

In addition, the present invention has a main object to provide a method for producing an electronic paper which is excellent in flexibility and can be provided at a very low cost.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method of an electronic paper capable of realizing a highly accurate image by employing various manufacturing methods.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing an electronic paper, the method comprising preparing a substrate made of paper or a material including paper as a lower substrate, and forming a lower electrode on the lower substrate. Forming a substructure,
Preparing an upper substrate, and forming an upper electrode on the upper substrate;
Forming a partition on each of the lower structure and the upper structure,
Filling the fine particles charged in the cell space consisting of the partition wall,
Comprising the step of coupling the lower structure and the upper structure,
The lower electrode is gold, silver, aluminum, platinum, indium tin compound (ITO), strontium titanate compound (SrTiO ₃ ) and other conductive metal compounds, alloys and compounds thereof,
In the manufacturing method of the electronic paper, characterized in that the upper electrode is composed of a transparent electrode of ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) or IZO (Indium-Zinc-Oxide),
The forming of the partition wall may include forming upper and lower partitions on the lower substrate and the upper substrate, respectively, after which the upper and lower partitions are coupled to be spaced apart from each other.
Charging negatively charged fine particles in a state in which a positive voltage is applied to a lower electrode formed on the lower substrate, and conversely, in a state in which a negative voltage is applied to an upper electrode of the upper substrate Filling positive (+) charged microparticles,
The fine particles injected into the cell space formed by the partition walls include white and black particles, wherein white particles are set to be negatively charged and black particles are positively charged.

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In addition, preparing the paper substrate is characterized in that it further comprises the step of drying the paper substrate.

The forming of the lower electrode may be performed by vacuum depositing a conductive metal.

The barrier rib forming step may include forming a photoresist layer, UV curing a portion of the photoresist layer for forming the barrier rib, and etching other portions except the UV curing layer. It features.

In addition, the forming of the lower structure is characterized in that it further comprises the step of forming an insulating layer on the lower electrode.

In addition, the forming of the upper structure is characterized in that it further comprises the step of forming an insulating layer on the upper electrode.

In addition, the forming of the lower electrode is characterized in that for printing a conductive organic material on the lower substrate.

In addition, the upper substrate is characterized in that the organic material of a transparent material.

According to the present invention having the above-described configuration, the electronic paper is implemented on the paper which is generally used. Therefore, it is possible to implement an electronic paper having the same texture as a general paper.

In addition, by using paper as a lower substrate and organic material as an upper substrate, the present invention can realize an electronic paper having excellent flexibility and very low manufacturing cost.

In addition, according to the present invention, the upper and lower electrodes and the partition wall constituting the electronic paper can be executed through a semiconductor process. Therefore, the size of the cell formed of the partition wall can be greatly reduced. When the size of the cell is reduced as described above, a plurality of cells can be formed in one cell area as compared with the related art. When one pixel is composed of a plurality of cells, the gray scale of the image displayed on the electronic paper can be precisely and easily adjusted by adjusting the number of cells driven black.

In addition, when one pixel is composed of a plurality of cells, various color images can be provided by differently setting the color of the fine particles filled in each cell.

In addition, according to the present invention is to provide an electronic paper that can significantly reduce the environmental pollution by implementing the electronic paper using a paper that is environmentally friendly.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a cross-sectional structure of an electronic paper according to the present invention.
Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the manufacturing process of the electronic paper according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing process of an electronic paper according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the embodiments described below show one preferred embodiment of the present invention, and examples of such embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the technical idea thereof.

1 illustrates a cross-sectional structure of an electronic paper according to the present invention, which shows an example in which the present invention is applied to a dry electronic paper using collision charge type or electrophoresis.

In Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a lower substrate, and the lower substrate 1 is made of paper. In the present invention, the term "paper" includes any paper made from pulp as a main raw material, and a material containing such paper, such as coating or impregnating a heat-resistant material such as silicon on a paper. Hereinafter, the lower substrate 1 and the paper substrate will be used in the same sense.

The lower electrode 2 is formed on the paper substrate 1. As the lower electrode 2, materials such as gold, silver, aluminum, platinum, indium tin compound (ITO), strontium titanate compound (SrTiO ₃ ), other conductive metal oxides, alloys and compounds thereof, and the like are used. These lower electrodes 2 are formed on the paper substrate 1 by, for example, a vacuum deposition method.

A plurality of partitions 3 are formed on the paper substrate 1 and the lower electrode 2 to partition each cell. This partition 3 is produced, for example, by a method of UV curing the photoresist and then etching appropriately.

In the cell space formed by the partitions 3, fine particles 4 such as toner particles or preferably metal nanoparticles are filled. At this time, the fine particles injected into the cell space include, for example, white and black particles, among which, for example, the white particles are set to a negatively charged state and the black particles are positively charged.

The upper electrode 5 is formed above the cell space in a direction orthogonal to the lower electrode 2. The upper electrode 5 is made of a transparent electrode such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO). Also in this case, if necessary, a lower side of the upper electrode 2 is covered with an insulator made of a transparent material for preventing the upper electrode 5 from directly contacting the charged particles.

In addition, an upper substrate 6 formed of, for example, an organic material of glass or a transparent material is formed on the upper electrode 5.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing process of an electronic paper according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 2A, the lower electrode 2 is formed on the lower substrate 1 made of paper using a conductive metal or an organic substance. In the case of depositing a conductive metal on the paper substrate 1 by using a vacuum deposition method, the paper substrate 1 may be vacuumed or, for example, argon (Ar), neon (Ne), etc. before forming the lower electrode 2 as necessary. It is also preferable to remove moisture or air adsorbed on the paper by heat treatment in an inert gas atmosphere.

Subsequently, although not specifically shown in the drawings, an insulating material is preferably formed on the lower substrate 1 and the lower electrode 2, and the barrier rib 3 for forming a cell space using, for example, a photoresist as described above is formed. ) To complete the substructure.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 2B, the upper structure 6 is prepared, and the upper structure 5 formed of the transparent electrode is formed thereon, thereby completing the upper structure.

In forming the upper structure, when using a conventional glass substrate as the upper substrate 6, for example, ITO, IZO, or the like is used as the upper electrode 5. In the case of using the organic substrate having excellent flexibility as the upper substrate 6, carbon nanotubes may be preferably used as the upper electrode 5. When the upper electrode 5 is formed using carbon nanotubes, a spray method may be preferably used.

In addition, as the upper electrode 5, graphene, a conductive organic material, or a mixture of a conductive organic material and a conductive inorganic material that can be formed at a low temperature can be preferably used.

Then, positive and negatively charged toner or metal nanoparticles are filled in the cell space made of the partition 3 in the lower structure, and the upper structure is formed on the lower structure using, for example, an adhesive or the like. By combining, the electronic paper is completed.

3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a manufacturing process of an electronic paper according to another embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, an electronic paper was manufactured by forming a partition 3 on the lower substrate 1 and joining the upper substrate 6 having only the upper electrode 5 formed thereon. In contrast, the present embodiment is to form the upper and lower partitions 3-1 and 3-2 on the lower substrate 1 and the upper substrate 6, respectively, and then combine them.

In the method according to the present embodiment, negatively charged fine particles are charged to the lower electrode 2 formed on the lower substrate 1 while a positive voltage is applied, for example, and the upper substrate ( The upper electrode 5 of 6) can be effectively filled with fine particles in the cell space by, for example, filling the positively charged fine particles with a negative voltage applied thereto.

In addition, since other processes are substantially the same as the above-mentioned embodiment, a detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

In the above embodiment, the upper and lower electrodes 5 and 2 and the partition 3 constituting the electronic paper can be executed through the semiconductor process. Therefore, the size of the cell formed by the partition 3 can be greatly reduced. When the size of the cell is reduced as described above, a plurality of cells can be formed in one cell area as compared with the related art. When one pixel is composed of a plurality of cells, the gray scale of the image displayed on the electronic paper can be precisely and easily adjusted by adjusting the number of cells driven black.

In addition, when one pixel can be composed of a plurality of cells, for example, one pixel can be composed of three cells of R (Red), G (Green), and B (Blue), so that a color image can be realized through electronic paper. do. Of course, when constituting a cell having a specific color, fine particles having a color of R, G or B are used instead of black fine particles.

Further, when one pixel can be composed of a plurality of cells, it is possible to provide a high quality image by increasing the accuracy of the image provided through the electronic paper.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can be implemented in various modifications. That is, for example, in the above-described embodiment, the conductive inorganic material is used as the upper and lower electrodes 2 and 5, but as these electrodes, polyaniline, poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) / polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT) Conductive polymers such as: PSS) can be employed. In addition, in the case of forming the upper and lower electrodes using the conductive polymer, it is possible to use screen printing or the like in addition to vacuum deposition.

As the upper and lower electrodes 2 and 5, a mixture of conductive organic materials such as conductive polymers and conductive inorganic materials can also be preferably used.

In addition, in the manufacturing method shown in FIG. 2, the partition wall 3 is formed on the lower substrate 1 and the lower electrode 2, but the partition wall 3 is disposed on the upper substrate 6 and the upper electrode 5. And a lower structure composed of the lower substrate 1 and the lower electrode 2 may be combined with each other to implement electronic paper.

In addition, in the above embodiments and drawings, the formation of two cell spaces has been described. However, those skilled in the art may apply the same to an electronic paper having a plurality of cell spaces. I can understand.

That is, in the case of implementing an electronic paper having a plurality of pixels by using the present invention, a plurality of rows of lower electrodes 2 will be formed on the lower substrate 1 in one direction, and the upper electrodes 5 are the lower electrodes. A plurality of rows will be formed on the upper substrate 6 in the direction orthogonal to (2). In addition, a plurality of cell spaces may be provided for one pixel, and each cell space may be filled with fine particles 4 having different colors.

1: lower substrate, 2: lower electrode,
3: sidewall, 4: fine particles,
5: upper electrode, 6: upper substrate.

Claims (25)

delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete A lower structure forming step comprising preparing a substrate made of paper or a material including paper as a lower substrate, and forming a lower electrode on the lower substrate;
Preparing an upper substrate, and forming an upper electrode on the upper substrate;
Forming a partition on each of the lower structure and the upper structure,
Filling the fine particles charged in the cell space consisting of the partition wall,
Comprising the step of coupling the lower structure and the upper structure,
The lower electrode is gold, silver, aluminum, platinum, indium tin compound (ITO), strontium titanate compound (SrTiO ₃ ) and other conductive metal compounds, alloys and compounds thereof,
In the manufacturing method of the electronic paper, characterized in that the upper electrode is composed of a transparent electrode of ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) or IZO (Indium-Zinc-Oxide),
The forming of the partition wall may include forming upper and lower partitions on the lower substrate and the upper substrate, respectively, after which the upper and lower partitions are coupled to be spaced apart from each other.
Charging negatively charged fine particles in a state in which a positive voltage is applied to a lower electrode formed on the lower substrate, and conversely, in a state in which a negative voltage is applied to an upper electrode of the upper substrate Filling positive (+) charged microparticles,
The fine particles injected into the cell space formed by the partition walls include white and black particles, wherein the white particles are set to be negatively charged and the black particles are positively charged. Method of making paper. 17. The method of claim 16,
The preparing of the paper substrate may further include drying the paper substrate. 17. The method of claim 16,
Forming the lower electrode is a method of manufacturing an electronic paper, characterized in that performed by vacuum depositing a conductive metal. 17. The method of claim 16,
The barrier rib forming step may include forming a photoresist layer;
UV curing a portion of the photoresist layer for forming a partition wall, and
Etching other portions except the UV cured layer, characterized in that it comprises a step of manufacturing an electronic paper. 17. The method of claim 16,
The forming of the lower structure further comprises forming an insulating layer on the lower electrode. 17. The method of claim 16,
The forming of the upper structure further comprises the step of forming an insulating layer on the upper electrode. 17. The method of claim 16,
The forming of the lower electrode is a method of manufacturing an electronic paper, characterized in that for printing a conductive organic material on the lower substrate. delete delete 17. The method of claim 16,
The upper and lower electrodes are conductive polymers of polyaniline and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) / polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT: PSS).

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