KR101595461B1 - Method of fabricating imprinting mold and method of fabricating liquid crystal display panel using the imprinting mold - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing an imprint mold capable of preventing deformation, preventing thickness unevenness, and improving the service life, and a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel using the imprint mold.

A method of manufacturing a mold for imprinting according to the present invention includes the steps of: forming a metal pattern on a substrate using a photoresist pattern; Etching the substrate using the metal pattern as a mask; Inverting the substrate up and down; Etching the substrate by using the metal pattern as a mask; Removing the photoresist pattern and the metal pattern on the substrate; And etching the second etched substrate by the front surface.

Mold for imprint, glass, substrate, etching, SAM

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a mold for imprinting, and a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel using the mold for imprinting.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an imprint mold capable of preventing deformation, preventing thickness unevenness, and improving the service life, and a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel using the imprint mold.

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, various flat panel display devices capable of reducing weight and volume, which are disadvantages of cathode ray tubes (CRTs), are emerging. Examples of the flat panel display include a liquid crystal display, a field emission display, a plasma display panel, and an electro-luminescence (EL) display device .

Such a flat panel display device is composed of a plurality of thin films formed by a mask process including a deposition (coating) process, an exposure process, a development process, and an etching process. However, the mask process has a problem in that the manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacturing cost is increased. Accordingly, in recent years, research has been conducted to form a thin film through a patterning process using an imprint mold.

In this patterning step, after the liquid resin is coated on the substrate, the grooves and protrusions of the imprint mold are reversely transferred to the liquid resin when the imprint mold having the grooves and the protrusions come into contact with the liquid resin, .

1, the conventional mold for imprint 10 includes a pattern part 14 having grooves and protrusions formed therein, and a back plane 12 supporting the pattern part. The backplane 12 is generally formed of glass or quartz, and the pattern portion 14 is formed of a polymer.

As described above, since the backplane 12 and the pattern portion 14 are formed of different materials, their thermal expansion coefficients are different from each other. In this case, the total pitch of the backplane 12 and the pattern portion 14 varies depending on the temperature and the humidity, so that a distortion phenomenon occurs. If such a distortion occurs, the pattern portion 14 may be damaged when the imprint mold 10 is used for a long time.

In addition, since the pattern portion 14 is formed of a polymer, the uniformity of the surface is uneven, the life of the imprint mold 10 is shortened, and the pattern is patterned by the imprint mold 10 due to the height difference of the protruding portions of the pattern portion 14 There is a problem that the scattering of the thickness of the thin film becomes uneven.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing an imprint mold capable of preventing deformation, preventing thickness unevenness, and improving lifetime, and a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel using the imprint mold.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a mold for imprinting, comprising: forming a metal pattern on a substrate using a photoresist pattern; Etching the substrate using the metal pattern as a mask; Inverting the substrate up and down; Etching the substrate by using the metal pattern as a mask; Removing the photoresist pattern and the metal pattern on the substrate; And etching the second etched substrate by the front surface.

The method for manufacturing an imprint mold may include irradiating ultraviolet light onto the front-side etched substrate; Reacting the ultraviolet-irradiated substrate with the self-assembled material; Further comprising the step of heat treating the substrate reacted with the self-assembled material.

The step of performing the primary and secondary etching of the substrate is a step of immersing the substrate in pure water and an etching solution diluted with HF in a ratio of 1: 8.

And the substrate is immersed in the etchant while being vertically aligned with the surface of the substrate.

And an injector for injecting the etchant is disposed in the etching vessel so as to face the substrate.

The step of irradiating ultraviolet rays to the front-side etched substrate may include aligning the grooves and protrusions of the substrate so as to face the blocking portions of the photomask. And irradiating the substrate with ultraviolet light using the photomask.

The step of reacting the ultraviolet ray-irradiated substrate with the self-assembled material is a step of putting the ultraviolet ray-irradiated substrate into a chamber of N 2 atmosphere and then reacting the substrate with the self-assembled material for about 2 to 24 hours .

According to the self-assembled material, the surface of the groove or protrusion of the substrate is hydrophilic or hydrophobic.

If the terminal group of the self-assembled material is a -CL, -F, -I, -CH3 group, the surface of the protrusion is hydrophobic and if the terminal group of the self-assembled material is -OH, -COOH, The surface is characterized by being hydrophilic.

The step of heat-treating the substrate reacted with the self-assembled material is characterized in that the substrate is thermally treated at 130 to 150 degrees for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, including: providing the imprint mold; Forming a thin film on a substrate of a liquid crystal display panel; And simultaneously forming the color spacer and the overcoat layer of the liquid crystal display panel by contacting the imprint mold and the substrate.

Since the imprint mold according to the present invention is formed of a single material, the overall pitch deformation can be prevented as compared with the mold for imprint which is conventionally formed of a different material. In addition, glass or quartz, which is a material of the imprint mold according to the present invention, has a uniform surface uniformity compared to a polymer which is a material of a conventional pattern portion, so that defects due to thickness unevenness can be prevented and the lifetime of the imprint mold can be improved.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing a mold for imprinting according to the present invention.

The imprint mold 110 shown in FIG. 2 is formed of a single material structure using glass or quartz. Further, the imprint mold 110 is formed to have the projecting portion 114 and the groove 112 for the patterning process.

As described above, since the imprint mold 110 according to the present invention is formed of a single material, the entire pitch deformation can be prevented as compared with the mold for imprint which is conventionally made of a different material. In addition, glass or quartz, which is a material of the imprint mold 110 according to the present invention, has uniform surface uniformity compared to a polymer as a material of a conventional pattern portion, so that defects due to thickness irregularities can be prevented and lifetime of the imprint mold can be improved .

A method of manufacturing such an imprint mold 110 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3I.

3A, a metal layer is formed on the substrate 120, and then a photoresist pattern 124 is formed on the metal layer through a photolithography process. And the metal pattern is etched using the photoresist pattern 124 to form the metal pattern 122 on the substrate 120.

The substrate 120 on which the photoresist pattern 124 and the metal pattern 122 are formed is first immersed in the etchant 126 filled in the etch chamber 128 as shown in FIG. Here, the etching vessel 128 is filled with an etchant diluted with a ratio of DI water to HF of 8: 1, and the substrate 120 is aligned perpendicular to the ground. The substrate 120 immersed in the etching liquid 126 is etched by a half depth of the desired depth d through the etching process using the metal pattern 122 as a mask, A groove 112 having a depth d / 2 and a projection 114 having a height of 1/2 of a desired height are formed. Here, the etch depth is etched by 1/2 of the desired depth, but it can be adjusted by using the immersion time and the etchant.

Also, in the etching vessel 128, the etching liquid injector 130 is positioned to face the substrate 120. The etchant injector 130 uniformly injects the etchant 126 onto the entire surface of the substrate 120 to prevent stains that may occur during contact with the etchant in each region of the substrate 120 during the first immersion. The etchant injector 130 injects the etchant 126 onto the substrate 120 so that the substrate 120 isotropically etched by the etchant 126 is anisotropically etched.

As shown in FIG. 3C, the substrate 110, which is primarily etched, is vertically inverted and then immersed in the etching solution 126 by a second order. That is, in order to minimize the occurrence of a thickness variation of the substrate 120, the substrate 120 may be formed such that the lower side DS of the substrate 120 first immersed in the first immersion is immersed in the last, The upper side US of the etching solution 120 is vertically inverted to be firstly immersed and then immersed in the etching solution 126 for a second time. Here, the etching vessel 128 is filled with an etching solution 126 diluted with DI water and HF at a ratio of 8: 1, and the substrate 120 is in a state of being perpendicular to the surface of the substrate . The substrate 120 which is secondarily immersed in the etching solution 126 is etched by a half depth of the desired depth d through the etching process using the metal pattern 122 as a mask, A protrusion 114 having a desired height is formed.

Also, in the etching vessel 128, the etchant injector 130 is positioned to face the substrate 120 as in the first etching.

As shown in FIG. 3D, the metal pattern 122 and the photoresist pattern 124 remaining on the secondary-etched substrate 120 are removed through the strip process. At this time, the groove 112 of the substrate 120 is formed in an inverted tapered shape by isotropic etching at the time of primary and secondary etching so that the upper width UW of the projection 114 is formed to be larger than the width CW of the center side .

As shown in FIG. 3E, the substrate 120 is front-etched by being immersed in the etching container 132 containing the etching liquid. At this time, the substrate 120 is aligned vertically or horizontally with the ground. Thus, the reverse taper remaining on the substrate 120 is removed without changing the entire etch depth of the substrate 120.

As shown in FIG. 3F, the front substrate 120 is cleaned with ultraviolet rays and ozone to complete the imprint mold 110 having the grooves 112 having the desired depth and the protrusions 114 having the desired height.

As shown in FIG. 3G, the imprint mold 110 is surface-treated through an exposure process using a photomask 140. Specifically, the photomask 140 is aligned on the mold 110 for imprinting. That is, the blocking portion 138 of the photomask 140 is aligned with the groove 112 of the imprint mold 110. Accordingly, the light (for example, UV) that has passed through the substrate 136 of the photomask 140 is irradiated onto the surface of the protrusion 114 of the imprint mold 110. At this time, light having a wavelength of about 180 to 260 nm is irradiated to the surface of the projection 114 for about 10 to 20 minutes. Then, the surface of the protrusion 114 of the imprint mold 110 becomes hydrophilic.

3H, the imprint mold 110 is placed in the N2 atmosphere chamber 142, and then the surface of the protruding portion 114 having hydrophilic property is reacted with the self assembly materials (SAM) The surface of the substrate 114 is minimized or extreme hydrated. Depending on the terminal group of the self-assembled material, the surface of the protrusion 114 is minimized or extreme hydrophilized. For example, if the terminal group is -CL, -F, -I, or -CH3, the surface of the protrusion 114 is minimized and if the terminal group is -OH, -COOH, or -COH groups, do. The projecting portion 114 having such a projecting surface has a large repulsive force with the thin film to be contacted for patterning. That is, if the thin film is hydrophilic, the protruding portion 114 has hydrophobicity, and if the thin film is hydrophobic, the protruding portion 114 has hydrophilicity, so that defective thin film pattern is minimized. On the other hand, the reaction time of the surface of the self-assembled material and the projecting portion 114 is about 2 to 24 hours, and the longer the reaction time, the more uniform the surface treatment.

The surface of the protruding portion 114 and the entire surface of the groove 112 of the imprint mold 110 may be made hydrophobic in addition to the surface treatment method of the imprint mold described in Figures 3G and 3H. That is, ultraviolet rays are irradiated to the protrusions 114 and the grooves 112 of the imprint mold 110 to hydrophilize the whole surfaces of the protrusions 114 and the grooves 112, . A thin film pattern is formed by patterning the thin film using the hydrophobic imprint mold 110. The hydrophobic imprint mold 110 when separating the imprint mold 110 and the thin film pattern after the formation of the thin film pattern has relatively strong repulsive force with respect to the thin film pattern, thereby facilitating the separation.

As shown in FIG. 3I, the imprint mold 110 having the surface of the protruding portion 114 having a minimized or extreme hydrophilicity is heat-treated in the chamber 144 of about 130 to 150 degrees for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, do.

The imprint mold 110 formed by the above-described manufacturing method is applied to the thin film patterning process. This will be described in detail with reference to Figs. 4A to 4C.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the imprint mold 110 is entirely attracted to the vacuum chuck 146, thereby preventing the imprint mold 110 from being warped. Then, the imprint mold 110 is aligned with the substrate 151 of the flat panel display element on which the thin film 158 is formed so as to be spaced apart by 300 mu m or less. At this time, the size MW of the imprint mold 110 is formed to be equal to the size SW of the substrate 151 of the flat panel display device.

The imprint mold 110 is dropped onto the substrate 151 of the flat panel display device as shown in FIG. 4B. Accordingly, the imprint mold 110 is brought into contact with the thin film 158 on the substrate 151. Then, the thin film 158 is moved into the groove 112 of the imprint mold 110, so that the thin film patterns 154 and 156 are formed. The thin film patterns 154 and 156 are patterned in such a manner that the protruding pattern 156 invertedly transferred with the grooves 112 of the imprint mold 110 and the protruded portions 114 of the imprint mold and the inverted- I have. For example, the thin film patterns 154 and 156 are formed of the overcoat layer 154 and the column spacer 156 formed on the color substrate of the liquid crystal display element. That is, the column spacer 156 corresponds to the protruding pattern of the thin film pattern, and the overcoat layer 154 corresponds to the remaining area except the protruding pattern.

The imprint mold 110 is separated from the thin film patterns 154 and 156 formed on the substrate 151 of the flat panel display device as shown in FIG. 4C.

The thin film pattern formed by the imprint mold according to the present invention is applied to the liquid crystal display panel shown in FIG. 5 includes a thin film transistor substrate 180 and a color filter substrate 160, which are bonded to each other with a liquid crystal layer 182 interposed therebetween.

The color filter substrate 160 includes a black matrix 164 formed on the upper substrate 162 for preventing light leakage, a color filter 166 for color implementation, a common electrode 168 for forming an electric field with the pixel electrodes, An overcoat layer 184 for covering the overcoat layer 184, a column spacer 186 formed integrally with the overcoat layer 184 for maintaining the cell gap, a column spacer 186, and an upper alignment film (not shown) covering these.

The thin film transistor substrate 180 includes a gate line 176 and a data line 174 formed on the lower substrate 172 so as to intersect with each other and a thin film transistor 178 adjacent to the intersection, And a pixel electrode 170 and a lower alignment film (not shown) covering the pixel electrode 170. [

The color filter 166, the black matrix 164 and the column spacer 186, the thin film transistor 178, the gate line 176, the data line 174, the pixel electrode 170, And can be formed through a patterning process using the above-described imprint mold having grooves corresponding to the patterns.

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. Will be clear to those who have knowledge of.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a mold for a conventional imprint.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing a mold for imprinting according to the present invention.

FIGS. 3A to 3I are cross-sectional views illustrating a method of manufacturing the imprint mold shown in FIG.

4A to 4C are cross-sectional views illustrating a thin film patterning process using the imprint mold shown in FIG.

5 is a perspective view showing a liquid crystal display panel having a thin film pattern formed by the manufacturing method of Figs. 4A to 4C.

Description of the Related Art

110: mold for imprinting 112: groove

114: protrusion

Claims (11)

Forming a metal pattern on the substrate using a photoresist pattern; Etching the substrate using the metal pattern as a mask; Inverting the substrate up and down; Etching the substrate by using the metal pattern as a mask; Removing the photoresist pattern and the metal pattern on the substrate; And etching the second etched substrate to form a front surface. The method according to claim 1, Irradiating the front etched substrate with ultraviolet light; Reacting the ultraviolet-irradiated substrate with the self-assembled material; Further comprising the step of heat treating the substrate reacted with the self-assembled material. ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > 11. < / RTI > The method according to claim 1, The step of first and second etching the substrate Wherein the step of immersing the substrate in an etchant diluted with pure water and HF in a ratio of 1: 8 is carried out. The method of claim 3, Wherein the substrate is immersed in the etchant while being vertically aligned with the surface of the substrate. The method of claim 3, Wherein an ejector for ejecting the etchant is disposed in the etching vessel so as to face the substrate. 3. The method of claim 2, The step of irradiating ultraviolet rays to the front-side etched substrate Aligning one of the groove and the protrusion of the substrate and the blocking portion of the photomask so as to face each other; And irradiating the substrate with ultraviolet light using the photomask. ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > 11. < / RTI > 3. The method of claim 2, The step of reacting the ultraviolet-irradiated substrate with the self- Wherein the step of introducing the ultraviolet-irradiated substrate into a chamber of an N 2 atmosphere is followed by reacting the substrate with the self-assembled material for 2 hours to 24 hours. The method according to claim 6, Wherein the surface of the groove or protrusion of the substrate has hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity according to the self-assembled material. 9. The method of claim 8, If the terminal group of the self-assembled material is a -CL, -F, -I, -CH3 group, the surface of the protrusion is hydrophobic and if the terminal group of the self-assembled material is -OH, -COOH, Wherein the surface is hydrophilic. 3. The method of claim 2, The step of heat treating the substrate reacted with the self-assembled material Wherein the substrate is thermally treated at 130 to 150 degrees for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 11. A method of manufacturing an imprint mold, comprising the steps of: providing the mold for imprinting according to any one of claims 1 to 10; Forming a thin film on a substrate of a liquid crystal display panel; And simultaneously forming the color spacer and the overcoat layer of the liquid crystal display panel by contacting the imprint mold and the substrate.

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