KR101615223B1 - Bonding appratus of multi arrayed substrates - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for bonding a cell substrate for a cover glass of a touch panel to one carrier in a state that the cell substrate is arrayed. The apparatus for bonding a multi-array substrate comprises: a carrier supply unit for sequentially supplying one or more carriers; a resin coating unit for coating a predetermined area of the carrier which is carried from the carrier supply unit with a bonding resin; a cell substrate supply unit for carrying a plurality of cell substrates to the bonding resin-coated area of the carrier carried from the resin coating unit; an array unit for arraying the cell substrates carried to the carrier on the carrier according to a predetermined array reference; and a bonding unit for bonding the arrayed cell substrates with the carrier. In spite of process error, each of a plurality of cell substrates can be bonded to a predetermined specific position on the carrier, which is the center of each of a plurality of figure marks arranged at regular intervals, while the cell substrates are accurately arrayed on the specific position. Thus, it is possible to manufacture an integrated multi-array substrate having the cell substrates bonded on one carrier in a state of being arrayed thereon.

Description

[0001] BONDING APPRATUS OF MULTI ARRAYED SUBSTRATES [0002]

The present invention relates to a substrate bonding apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for bonding a plurality of cell substrates to one carrier in an aligned state.

BACKGROUND ART [0002] Touch panels are widely used in various display devices including mobile electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and tablet PCs as a means for a user to directly touch a display with a hand or a pen to input information.

Among the touch panels, capacitive touch panels are widely applied to portable electronic devices such as mobile phones because of their excellent durability and multi-touch functions. Recently, according to the market demand for thin and durable touch panels, Development of touch panel is active.

A manufacturing method of a cover glass integrated type touch panel is divided into a sheet process and a cell process, and a cover glass reinforced in both methods is used at the request of durability.

The sheet method is a method in which a plurality of substrate processing steps such as printing or a touch sensor module process (hereinafter referred to as " substrate processing ") is selectively performed only on a cell region partitioned on a disc glass sheet, (Hereinafter abbreviated as 'cell substrate') is performed, and the disc glass sheet is cut into divided cell unit substrates (hereinafter abbreviated as 'cell substrates') and separated.

 Such a sheet method is advantageous in productivity and low manufacturing cost by performing a substrate processing step such as printing or thin film processing in units of original glass sheets, but it is difficult to cut a surface-reinforced original glass sheet into a cell substrate, There is a problem that the cut surface, that is, the lateral strength of the cell substrate is lowered due to the microcracks generated, resulting in poor durability. There is also a problem that after the substrate processing step, the high temperature chemical strengthening treatment on the side of the cell substrate is substantially impossible.

Due to the problems of the sheet type, most cover glass integrated type touch panels are manufactured according to the cell type.

The cell type is a method in which a disc glass sheet of a large size is first cut into a plurality of cell substrates and the substrate processing process is performed after the chemical strengthening process for each cut cell substrate. Since the cell process is performed before the surface strengthening process, the cutting process is easy, and since the surface strengthening process is performed before the substrate process after the cutting, effective reinforcement treatment is performed on the side surface including the cell substrate So that the durability of the product can be improved.

However, since the cell process is performed on each cell substrate in each of the substrate processing processes, the defect rate of the product is high, the process line and time are long, the productivity is low, and the manufacturing cost is high.

Recently, a so-called " process module " in which a plurality of cell substrates are aligned and bonded to one carrier by compromising the disadvantages of the cell system and compromising the merits of the sheet system is manufactured, A method of performing a substrate processing process on a module has been attempted. However, due to the machining error of each cell substrate separated from the disk glass sheet in this manner, the conventional alignment method using the jig can exceed the allowable range of the alignment error, It is a practical limitation to perform the substrate processing process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of accurately bonding each of a plurality of cell substrates to a predetermined position on a carrier, .

The gist of the present invention regarding the recognition of the above-mentioned problems and the solution means based on the above is as follows.

(1) a carrier supply unit for continuously supplying one or more carriers; A resin application unit for applying a bonding resin to a predetermined area of the carrier transferred from the carrier supply unit; A cell substrate supply unit for transferring a plurality of cell substrates to a bonding resin application region of the carrier transferred from the resin application unit; An alignment unit for aligning the cell substrate transferred to the carrier on the carrier according to a predetermined alignment criterion; And a bonding unit for bonding the carrier with the plurality of aligned cell substrates.

(2) the carrier includes a first mark as an alignment reference for the carrier itself; (1) according to any one of (1) to (3) above, wherein the second mark has a symmetrical shape corresponding to the number of the plurality of cell substrates. To the substrate.

(3) The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to (2), wherein the second mark is a square or a circle.

(4) The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to (1), wherein the carrier is selected from any one of metal, glass, and hard resin.

(5) The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to (1), wherein the resin coating unit includes a nozzle movable in x, y, and z directions.

(6) The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to (5), wherein the resin application unit further comprises a first alignment unit for the carrier.

(7) The cell substrate supply unit includes: a loader for the plurality of cell substrates; A multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising a first pick-up unit holding a plurality of cell substrates and being movable in x, y and z directions.

(8) the alignment unit comprises: a second alignment unit for the carrier; And a second pick-up unit holding the cell substrate and movable in x, y, and z directions.

(9) The image pickup apparatus according to (8), wherein the second pick-up unit includes imaging means for measuring a distance between the respective cell substrates and the second marks corresponding to the outlines, Substrate bonding apparatus.

(10) The aligning unit controls the distance between the respective cell substrates and the second marks corresponding to the outlines of the second marks equally in the symmetrical direction of the second mark, so that each cell substrate has the center of the second mark (8) according to the above (8), characterized in that the substrate is aligned with the substrate.

(11) The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to (1), wherein the bonding unit is cured by irradiating UV light or heat to the bonding resin.

In the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to the present invention, regardless of the machining error, each of the plurality of cell substrates is bonded in a precisely aligned position to a predetermined position on a predetermined carrier, that is, the center of each of a plurality of figure marks arranged at equal intervals The present invention can be advantageously applied as a unit 'process module' to a process for manufacturing a cover glass-integrated touch panel in which a multi-array substrate bonded with a plurality of cell substrates aligned on one carrier is integrally formed. That is, in the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus, the defective rate and the manufacturing cost are reduced in the manufacture of the touch panel, and the productivity can be greatly improved.

1 is a plan view of a multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a partial perspective view of a resin application unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a partial perspective view of an alignment unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;
4 and 5 are plan views of carriers used in the multi-array substrate bonding process according to the embodiment of the present invention.
6 and 7 are plan views of a multi-array substrate in a state where a plurality of cell substrates are bonded to a carrier substrate in an aligned state according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals are given to the same or similar parts.

In addition, throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as including an element, it is understood that the element may include other elements, not the exclusion of any other element, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, it is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being " selectively " provided, included, or included, it is not necessarily an essential component for solving the problem of the present invention, it means.

In the following description, a 'multi-array substrate' refers to an article in which a plurality of cell substrates are aligned and bonded to a carrier.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a resin application unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, Respectively. As shown in Fig.

1, the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus 10 includes a carrier supply unit 110, a resin application unit 120, a cell substrate supply unit 130, an alignment unit 140, And a bonding unit 150. A bonding unit 150 and a discharging unit 160 in the direction from the carrier supplying unit 110 to the resin coating unit, the bonding unit 150, the discharging unit 160, A conveyor 170 is installed to move the carrier 20.

The carrier 20 supplied by the carrier supply unit 110 is a base material to which a plurality of cell substrates 30 are bonded in an aligned state. The material of the carrier 20 is not particularly limited, Metal, glass, hard resin, and the like.

4 and 5, the carrier 20 includes a first mark 210 as an alignment reference for the carrier 20 itself in a bonding process, and a second mark 210 on the carrier 20, And a second mark 220 serving as an alignment reference to the first mark 30.

Specifically, the first mark 210 may be formed on the plurality of cell substrates 30 in the aligning unit 140 before or after the resin application unit 120 applies the bonding resin to a predetermined region of the carrier 20, To align the carrier 20 in a predetermined position in a step prior to positioning the carrier 20 on the carrier 20. [

The second mark 220 may function as an identifier for the corresponding position in the step of aligning the plurality of cell substrates 30 on the carrier 20 in the aligning unit 140.

In this case, the second mark 22 corresponds to a position where each of the plurality of cell substrates 30 is aligned and bonded, and the number of the second marks 22 can be arbitrarily determined corresponding to the number of the plurality of cell substrates 30.

The second mark 220 is preferably a symmetrical shape for the purpose of center alignment with respect to the cell substrate 30. The shape and area of the second mark 220 are not particularly limited but may be a rectangular or circular symmetrical shape, . In the embodiment, the area of the second mark 220 is illustrated as being larger than the area of the cell substrate 30.

In addition, although the second marks 220 are arranged at equal intervals in the embodiment, these conditions are not necessarily required.

The carrier supply unit 110 is a means for supplying the carrier 20 to the resin application unit 120. The carrier 20 is directly supplied by the carrier loader 112 or in a separate cassette And a plurality of these can be mounted and supplied. In this case, the supplied carrier 20 can be continuously supplied to the resin application unit 120 by a conveying means such as a conveyor.

1 and 2, the resin application unit 120 is a means for applying a bonding resin to a predetermined region of the carrier 20 supplied from the carrier supply unit 110, and a nozzle 122 movable in the x, y, and z directions. The movement in the x, y and z directions with respect to the nozzle 122 is guided by the guide frames 122a and 122b.

In this case, the area to which the bonding resin is applied by the nozzle may be all or a part of the area of the second mark 220 displayed on the carrier 20.

The resin application unit 120 may further include a first alignment unit 124 for aligning the carrier 20 in a predetermined position before the application of the bonding resin, And functions as a means for supplementing the positional accuracy with respect to the area to which the bonding resin is applied. In this case, alignment with respect to the carrier 20 by the first alignment unit is performed using the first mark 210 as an identifier.

The cell substrate supply unit 130 includes a loader 132 for a plurality of cell substrates 30 and a first pick-up unit 134 holding the plurality of cell substrates and movable in x, y and z directions . The movement in the x, y and z directions with respect to the first pick-up unit 134 is guided by the guide frames 134a and 134b.

In this case, the pick-up unit 134 preferably operates in an air adsorption manner to prevent damage to the cell substrate 30 during the bonding process. One pick-up unit 134 is provisionally transferred to the intermediate tray 136 and waits for an alignment operation on the carrier 20 transferred from the resin dispensing unit 120.

1 and 3, the aligning unit 140 includes an aligning unit 140 for aligning the carrier 30 in a predetermined position in a stage before aligning the plurality of cell substrates 30 on the carrier 20. [ A second pick-up unit 144 for transferring the cell substrate 30 transferred to the intermediate tray 136 from the resin dispensing unit 120 onto the carrier 20 transferred to the bonding unit 150 142). The second pick-up unit 142 is movable in the x, y, and z directions by holding the cell substrate. The movement in the x, y and z directions with respect to the second pick-up unit 142 is guided by the guide frames 142a and 142b.

In this case, it is preferable that the second pick-up unit 142 operates in an air adsorption manner in order to prevent damage to the cell substrate 30 during the bonding process, like the first pick-up unit 134. The second pick-up unit 142 is integrally provided with an image pickup unit 146 such as a camera for measuring a distance between each of the cell substrates 30 and the corresponding second marks 220 to the outline .

Similar to the first alignment unit 124, the second alignment unit 144 serves to compensate for the positional accuracy of the area of the carrier 20 in which each of the plurality of cell substrates 30 is aligned.

6 and 7, the image sensing unit 146 includes a plurality of cell substrates 30 and a plurality of second marks 220 corresponding to the respective cell substrates 30, , b, b ') are measured. The alignment unit 140 is configured to detect the distance between the second mark 220 in the symmetrical direction based on the data on the distance a, a ', b, b' measured and transmitted from the imaging unit 146 By repositioning the cell substrate 30 so that the distances a and a ', b and b' are the same, each of the plurality of cell substrates 30 is precisely aligned to the center of the corresponding second mark 220 do.

In this case, the process of repositioning and moving the position relative to the cell substrate 30 is performed by the second pick-up unit 142 constituting the aligning unit 140 and integrally including the image pick-up means 146.

With such an alignment method, the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus 10 according to the present invention is capable of positioning each of the plurality of cell substrates 30 having a processing error in a predetermined position on the carrier 20, That is, the plurality of second marks 220 arranged at equal intervals can be accurately aligned with the center of the graphic form.

Accordingly, if the second mark 220 displayed on the carrier 20 is applied to other carriers having the same machining error with the same arrangement interval and size, the machining tolerance for the whole of the carrier 20, Center alignment of the cell substrate 30 with respect to the second mark 220 in the different multi-array substrates to be fabricated can be repeatedly repeated mutually even if there is a machining tolerance of the substrate 30. [

As a result, the multi-array substrate manufactured in accordance with the present invention can be advantageously applied as a unit 'process module' to a process of manufacturing a cover glass-integrated touch panel integrally, and it is possible to reduce the defect rate and manufacturing cost for the touch panel, Can be greatly improved.

The bonding unit 150 bonds the cell substrate 30 to the carrier 20 by irradiating UV light or heat to the bonding resin. That is, the bonding resin used in the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus 10 according to the present invention is made of a UV curable or thermosetting resin material.

Finally, the multi-array substrate is taken out from the bonding unit 150 by the discharge unit 160 to complete the fabrication process.

While the foregoing is directed to a specific embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that the above-described embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed for the purpose of illustration and is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention, It should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention.

That is, in the drawings referred to as the embodiments of the multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to the present invention, detail elements constituting the bonding apparatus, which are conventionally adopted in the technical field, . For example, a carrier transport means such as a carrier or a cell substrate, a carrier transport means such as a conveyor, an x, y, z direction transport means, a resin application unit, and an alignment unit for a pickup unit for gripping a nozzle or a cell substrate as a bonding resin application means The specific design of the first alignment unit for the included carrier and the mechanical means employed in the second alignment unit and the like can be readily adopted at the level of those skilled in the art in various ways.

It is therefore to be understood that all such modifications and alterations are intended to fall within the scope of the invention as disclosed in the following claims or their equivalents.

10: Multi-array substrate bonding apparatus 110: Carrier supply unit
112: Carrier loader 120: Resin application unit 122: Nozzle 122a, 122b: Guide frame
124: first alignment unit 130: cell substrate supply unit
132: cell substrate loader 134: first pick-up unit
134a, 134b: guide frame 136: intermediate tray
140: alignment unit 142: second pick-up unit
144: second alignment unit 146: imaging unit
150: bonding unit 160: exhaust unit
170: Conveyor
20: Carrier
210: first mark
220: 2nd mark
30: Cell substrate

Claims (11)

A carrier supply unit for continuously supplying one or more carriers;
A resin application unit for applying a bonding resin to a predetermined area of the carrier transferred from the carrier supply unit;
A cell substrate supply unit for transferring a plurality of cell substrates to a bonding resin application region of the carrier transferred from the resin application unit;
An alignment unit for aligning the cell substrate transferred to the carrier on the carrier according to a predetermined alignment criterion; And
And a bonding unit for bonding the plurality of aligned cell substrates to the carrier.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier includes: a first mark that is an alignment reference for the carrier itself; And a second mark on the carrier, the second mark being an alignment reference for the plurality of cell substrates,
And the second mark has a symmetrical shape corresponding to the number of the plurality of cell substrates.
3. The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second mark is rectangular or circular.
The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the carrier is selected from any one of metal, glass, and hard resin.
2. The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resin application unit includes a nozzle movable in x, y and z directions.
6. The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the resin application unit further comprises a first alignment unit for the carrier.
The battery module according to claim 1,
A loader for the plurality of cell substrates; And a first pick-up unit holding the plurality of cell substrates and movable in x, y, and z directions.
3. The apparatus of claim 2,
A second alignment unit for the carrier; And a second pick-up unit holding the cell substrate and movable in x, y, and z directions.
9. The multi-array substrate bonding apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the second pick-up unit includes imaging means for measuring the distance between the respective cell substrates and the second marks corresponding to the outline, .
9. The apparatus of claim 8,
And each of the cell substrates is aligned with the center of the second mark by controlling the spacing distance between the cell substrate and the corresponding second mark to be equal to the symmetrical direction of the second mark. , A multi-array substrate bonding apparatus.
The bonding apparatus according to claim 1,
Wherein the bonding resin is cured by irradiating UV light or heat.

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