KR20010038798A - System for repairing defects of liquid crystal display device and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: System and method of repairing a liquid crystal display are to accurately detect the locations of a line defect and a pixel defect, thereby moving a repair system to the exact point of defected portions. CONSTITUTION: The repair system comprises a defect detection unit(10), a repair unit(30) and a control unit(40). The detect detection unit detects coordinates corresponding to a position of a defect in a substrate. The repair unit repairs the defect. The control unit makes the repair unit to move from a predetermined alignment coordinates to the detected coordinates, and then allows the repair unit to be driven. In case that the coordinates corresponding to a position of the detect are not placed within a predetermined alignment area, a minimum path is calculated and thereby the repair unit moves from the alignment coordinates to a reference coordinates of the detected coordinates.

Description

Fault repair system of liquid crystal display device and its method {SYSTEM FOR REPAIRING DEFECTS OF LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY DEVICE AND METHOD THEREOF}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a manufacturing process of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (hereinafter, referred to as TFT-LCD). The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically repairing a defect by automatically finding a location where a defect occurs when a pixel defect or a disconnection defect occurs at a time.

In general, a liquid crystal display includes a color filter substrate on which red, green, and blue color filters (CF) and a black matrix are formed to display a desired color, a plurality of pixel electrodes, and thin film transistors (thin). film transistor: It consists of a thin film transistor substrate in which TFT is formed.

Such a liquid crystal display has a display area formed of a set of unit pixels in a central portion, and pixel electrodes for display operation are formed in each unit pixel. The pixel electrodes cross each other and are driven according to a signal applied through a gate line and a data line defining a unit pixel area. At this time, the gate line and the data line are connected to the pixel electrode through a switching element such as a thin film transistor, and the thin film transistor is switched in accordance with a scan signal from the gate line to apply an image signal applied from the data line to the pixel electrode.

One of the causes of reducing the process yield in the process of manufacturing the thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a line defect of the data line. One method for solving such disconnection defects in the data lines is to form redundancy wirings that are spaced with the data lines and the gate wirings around the display area on the substrate, so that opening occurs in the respective data and gate wirings. In this case, there is a method of transmitting signals by bypassing the circumference of the display area using the redundancy wiring. In general, such redundancy wiring is called a repair line.

When repairing a disconnection defect or the like of a liquid crystal display using a conventional repair line, first, an operator directly connects a data line on which a defect occurs to a redundancy line according to information about a location where a defect occurs. In addition, when a pixel defect occurs, a repair operation of manually disconnecting a data line connected to the corresponding pixel electrode is performed.

As such, the repair work for repairing the disconnection defect or the pixel defect generated on the substrate is performed manually, resulting in a decrease in workability and productivity.

In order to solve this problem, according to the information on the location of the fault, move the repairer for the high fault repair to the point, and then operate it automatically to cut off the wrongly connected data line or gate line, A technique for performing repair work for connecting the gate line to the corresponding pixel electrode has been developed.

1 illustrates a principle of finding a position where a defect occurs in a defect repair system of a conventional liquid crystal display. As shown in FIG. 1, in the related art, alignment coordinates for aligning a repair device for repairing a defect are previously set, and then the coordinates of the position where the defect occurs are found based on the alignment coordinates.

However, this method increases the possibility of error because the defect repair system moves at once from the alignment coordinates to the coordinates of the position where the defect occurs.

That is, when a defect occurs at a position far from the alignment coordinate in a state where the size of the substrate is large, the distance and time to move from the alignment coordinate to the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs increase in the direction of the microscopic movement during the movement. Even if the error occurs largely, the repair device may not move accurately to the position where the defect occurred.

In addition, even when the water holding machine is greatly shaken by an external impact during the movement, a position error may occur largely and the water holding machine may not be accurately moved to the corresponding position.

As such, when the repair device is not accurately positioned at the position where the defect is generated, the possibility of malfunction occurs, such as a fault that is not normally repaired or a wrong repair process is performed at a point where the defect is not generated. As a result, a manufacturing yield of the liquid crystal display device is reduced and a problem occurs that the reliability is lowered.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems, and to improve the accuracy of the repair process by more accurately locating the occurrence of disconnection defects or pixel defects in the liquid crystal display device.

1 is a view illustrating a principle of finding a position where a defect occurs in a defect repair system of a conventional liquid crystal display.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view illustrating a principle of finding a position where a defect occurs in a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a defect repair method of the liquid crystal display according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a state diagram when a defect occurs on the substrate for a liquid crystal display according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In order to achieve this object, the defect repair system of the liquid crystal display according to the present invention moves the repairer for repairing the defects generated on the substrate step by step from the set alignment coordinates to the coordinates of the position where the defects occur.

The defect repair system of a liquid crystal display device according to this aspect of the invention comprises a defect detection unit for measuring the coordinates of the position where the defect occurred on the substrate; A conservator for repairing the defect; And a controller for moving the repairer through a plurality of steps from the set alignment coordinates to the defect position coordinates according to the defect position coordinates, and controlling the defect to be repaired by driving the repairer.

The controller divides the substrate into a plurality of regions and sets reference coordinates for each region, and then, if the coordinates of the position where the defect occurs are located in an alignment region that includes the alignment coordinates, the water retainer from the alignment coordinates. Move to the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred, and if the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred is not located in the alignment area, the water retainer from the alignment coordinate to the reference coordinate of the region where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs is located. After moving, the compensator is moved from the reference coordinate to the position where the defect is generated.

On the other hand, the controller is the shortest path for moving the water retainer from the alignment coordinates to the reference coordinate of the region where the coordinates of the position where the defect is located, if the coordinates of the position where the defect occurred is not located in the alignment area Next, after the step is moved to the reference coordinates of each area included in the shortest path step by step and the repairer position coordinates where a defect occurs in the reference coordinates of the region where the coordinates of the position where the defect occurred Move to.

In addition, the defect repair system further includes a host managing the information on the substrate, in which case the controller receives the information from the host to the substrate to drive the repairer.

A defect repair method for a liquid crystal display device according to another aspect of the present invention is a method of controlling a defect repair system including a repair device for repairing a defect generated on a substrate, the method comprising: coordinates of a position where a defect is generated on the substrate; Detecting; Moving the repairer through a number of steps from alignment coordinates to align the repairer on the substrate to the defect location coordinates; And driving the repairer to perform a repair operation on a position where a defect occurs on the substrate.

The step of moving the repairer may include moving the repairer from an alignment coordinate to a coordinate of a position where a defect occurs when the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs is located in an alignment area including the alignment coordinate. If the coordinate of the generated position is not located in the alignment area, the water retainer is moved from the alignment coordinate to the reference coordinate of the area where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs is located, and then the water retainer generates a defect from the reference coordinate. To the position where it was.

As the conservator moves step by step to the position where the defect has occurred, it is prevented from moving to the wrong position of the conservator due to an error due to the shaking of the conservator which may occur during the movement.

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

2 illustrates a structure of a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be stored in the defect detector 10, the data storage unit 20, the maintenance unit 30, and the data storage unit 20. And a controller 40 for controlling the operation of the conservator 30 according to the data.

In addition, the host 50 manages information on a work object (substrate) and transmits a plurality of information to the controller 40 at the request of the controller 40.

The defect detection unit 10 detects disconnection defects or the like generated on the substrate, and an automatic optical inspection (AOI) device that mainly detects a disconnection defect by an optical method is used. In the embodiment of the present invention, the defect detector 10 processes an image of the substrate photographed through a lens or the like according to a conventional image processing technique to detect whether a disconnection defect or a pixel defect occurs, and the position where the defect is generated. Measure the coordinates of. The defect position coordinates and other information of the substrate are processed in file units and stored in the data storage unit 20.

The data storage unit 20 is configured as a file server, and processes and stores a plurality of pieces of information (including defect position coordinates) of each substrate in units of files for each substrate.

The repair device 30 repairs a defect on the substrate and emits a laser or the like as a repair line for repairing the defect and connects the data line or the signal line to the corresponding pixel electrode through the repair line, or connects a wrongly connected data line or signal line to the pixel electrode. Perform a repair function that separates from the

The controller 40 determines where the defect has occurred on the substrate according to the data file stored in the data storage unit 20, moves the repair device 30 to the corresponding position, and then drives the repairer 30 to repair the disconnection defect. Information is exchanged with the host 50 by the controller 40 and a known communication means.

In the embodiment of the present invention, unlike the prior art, the operation of moving from the alignment position where the water retainer 30 is aligned to the position where the defect occurs according to the position where the defect is generated is performed through a number of steps.

3 illustrates a principle of finding a position where a defect occurs in a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is divided into a plurality of regions, and reference coordinates of each region are set. Here, the reference coordinates of the area including the alignment coordinates for aligning the water retainer become alignment coordinates, and in general, the alignment coordinates are set to the highest coordinates on the left side of the substrate, that is, x, y = (0.0).

If the coordinate of the position where the defect is generated is (xi, yi), and if the coordinate (xi, yi) is located in the area including the alignment coordinate, the water retainer is defective based on the alignment coordinate (0.0). Move to the generated position (xi, yi).

However, if these coordinates (xi, yi) are not located in the area containing the alignment coordinates, after obtaining the reference coordinates of the area where the coordinates (xi, yi) of the position where the defect occurred are located, After moving up to the reference coordinate of the corresponding area, it is moved from the reference coordinate of the area to the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred. At this time, the movement distance and the movement direction to the position where the defect occurred based on the reference coordinates of the corresponding area are calculated, and the water retainer is moved to the position where the defect has occurred according to the calculated movement distance and the movement direction.

Thus, as the conservator moves step by step to the position where the defect has occurred, it is possible to prevent the conservator from being moved to the wrong position of the conservator due to an error caused by shaking of the conservator.

The operation of the defect repair system of the liquid crystal display according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail.

4 is a flowchart of the operation of the defect repair system of the liquid crystal display according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a state diagram when a defect occurs on the substrate.

In manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a substrate is divided into a display area composed of a plurality of pixels, a pixel electrode is formed in each unit pixel, and a wiring process of connecting the gate line and the data line to each other is connected to the pixel electrodes. Then, it is checked whether this wiring process is performed correctly.

After detecting the substrate on which the pixel electrode, the data line, and the gate line are formed, the defect detector 10 processes the image of the photographed substrate, and is the pixel electrode correctly connected to the data line and the gate line according to the designed wiring pattern? Check it.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, a disconnection defect in which a data line or a gate line to be connected to a pixel electrode is broken on a substrate, or a fire water defect in which a data line or a gate line to be connected to a pixel electrode is not connected. If this occurs, the defect detection unit 10 measures the coordinates of the position where the defect is generated, and processes the defect position coordinates in a file unit together with other information of the substrate and stores them in the data storage unit 20 (S100 to S110). ). Accordingly, the data storage unit 20 stores information about a plurality of substrates processed in file units.

The inspection operation is sequentially performed on a plurality of substrates, and when the inspection is completed, the substrate is sent to a maintenance process that receives a repair depending on whether a defect occurs before proceeding to the assembly process of assembling the color filter substrate.

The controller 40 of the repair facility that performs the repair process transmits information of the loaded board from the host 50 when the substrate is transferred from the previous facility, that is, the facility that detects a defect and loaded onto a handling station (not shown). Receive (S120).

The host 50 transmits information, such as a substrate number, about the loaded substrate to the controller 40, and the controller 40 accesses the data storage unit 20 based on the substrate number of the loaded substrate, so that the substrate information is stored. Read the saved file. Then, it is determined whether the transferred substrate is a substrate on which defects are generated based on the substrate information stored in the file (S130).

When the transferred substrate is a substrate in which a defect is generated, the repair operation is performed based on the coordinates of the position where the defect is stored in the file read from the controller 40 data storage unit 20 (S140).

First, the controller 40 determines whether the defect position coordinate is located in an area (hereinafter, referred to as an alignment area) including alignment coordinates in which the conservator 30 is aligned and positioned (S150), and the defect position coordinate is located in the alignment area. If it is, the water retainer 30 is moved from the alignment coordinates to the defect position coordinates (S160).

On the other hand, when the defect position coordinates are not located in the alignment region, the reference coordinates of the region where the defect position coordinates are located are obtained, the water retainer 30 is moved from the alignment coordinates to the reference coordinates of the region, and then the water retainer 30 is again. Move from the reference coordinate to the defect position coordinate (S170).

For example, in more detail, as shown in the accompanying FIG. 3, when a substrate having an overall coordinate of 100 × 100 is divided into four regions, the substrate is formed of a first region having an alignment coordinate (0.0) as a reference coordinate. A), second area B having (50,0) as reference coordinates, third area C having (0,50) as reference coordinates and fourth area D having (50.50) as reference coordinates Can be divided into

In this case, it is assumed that the substrate is divided into a plurality of regions A to D, and the position of the defect position of the substrate on which the defect is generated is an alignment region based on the alignment coordinates (0,0), that is, the first region A. ), The controller 40 calculates the moving distance according to the movement direction to the defect position coordinate on the basis of the alignment coordinates, and then the controller 40 moves the water retainer 30 from the alignment coordinates according to the calculated movement distance. Move to the generated position.

However, when the defect position coordinates are (60.10) not located in the first area A including the alignment coordinates (0,0), but located in the second area B, for example, the water retainer is the alignment coordinates. After moving from (0,0) to the reference coordinate (50,0) of the second area, the moving distance according to the moving direction to the defect position coordinate (60,10) based on the reference coordinate (50,0) After the calculation, the water retainer 30 is moved from the reference coordinates 50 and 0 to the defect occurrence position coordinates 60 and 10 according to the calculated movement distance.

In addition, even when the defect position coordinates are located in the third region C or the fourth region D, the water retainer 30 is moved from the alignment coordinates (0, 0) to the third region C or the fourth region D. After moving to the reference coordinate of), the water retainer 30 is moved to the defect position coordinate based on the reference coordinate.

After moving the repairer 30 to the position where the defect has occurred as described above, the controller 40 drives the repairer 30 to perform the defect repair work. For example, if the pixel electrode is connected to a data line that should not be connected, the laser is irradiated to the line connecting the data line and the pixel electrode. In addition, when the pixel electrode is not connected to the data line to be connected, the laser is irradiated with the repair line to transmit a signal to the corresponding electrode.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the controller determines whether the location coordinates in which the defect occurs is included in the area, and calculates the moving distance from the reference coordinate of the corresponding area to the defect location coordinates, but moves the conservative. In addition, the processing method according to the detected defect position coordinates, that is, the processing method for moving the maintenance unit for each area according to the defect position coordinates in advance, is stored in the data storage unit, and then the controller subsequently stores the processing scheme. Depending on the treatment method, the repair work may be performed by moving the repair device to the corresponding defect position coordinate.

As such, as the conservative moves from the alignment coordinates to the defect position coordinates step by step, it is possible to solve the problem of moving to the wrong position due to tremors that may occur during movement.

In the above-described embodiment, the case in which the substrate is divided into four regions to move the repairer by region is described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the substrate may be divided into four or less regions or four or more regions to move the repairer by region. Do.

In the case of moving the repairer by dividing the board into four or more areas, the path of the repairer is found in the shortest distance to move the repairer from the alignment coordinates to the defect position coordinates, and the repairer is moved in stages. For example, if a defect occurs in the sixth region while the substrate is divided into six regions, the water retainer is moved from the alignment region to the reference coordinate of the fourth region, and then again to the reference coordinate of the sixth region. In this case, the path for moving the conservator back to the defect position coordinate is the shortest based on the reference coordinate of the sixth region.

Therefore, the repair machine is accurately moved to the corresponding defect position coordinate at the fastest moving speed.

This invention is capable of various modifications and implementations without departing from the scope of the following claims.

In the above-described embodiment, when disconnection defects or pixel defects occur during the manufacturing process of the thin film transistor liquid crystal display device, the shifter for repairing the defect is moved step by step to the position where the defect is generated, and thus, due to vibration during movement or the like. It is possible to prevent the movement to the wrong position by the error that may occur.

As the repairer is moved precisely to the position where the fault occurred, it is possible to prevent the repair work from being performed at the wrong position.

This improves the reliability of the repair operation, and also increases the yield as the number of substrates on which defects occur is reduced.

Claims (7)

A defect detecting unit measuring a coordinate of a position where a defect is generated on the substrate; A conservator for repairing the defect; And A controller for controlling the defect to be repaired by moving the repairer through a plurality of steps from a set alignment coordinate to the defect position coordinate according to the defect position coordinates, and driving the repairer; Defect repair system of the liquid crystal display device comprising a. The method of claim 1, The controller divides the substrate into a plurality of regions, and then sets reference coordinates for each region, and when the coordinates of the position where the defect is generated are located in the alignment region including the alignment coordinates, the water retainer is arranged from the alignment coordinates. Move to the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred, and if the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred is not located in the alignment area, the water retainer from the alignment coordinate to the reference coordinate of the region where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs is located. And moving the repair device from the reference coordinate to the position where the defect occurred after moving. The method of claim 2, The controller obtains a shortest path for moving the water retainer from an alignment coordinate to a reference coordinate of an area where the coordinate at which the defect occurred is located when the coordinate at the position where the defect occurs is not located in the alignment area. Next, the step is moved to the reference coordinates of each area included in the shortest path step by step and then the step is moved from the reference coordinates of the area where the coordinates of the position where the defect occurred, the position coordinates where the defect occurred. Defect repair system of liquid crystal display device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, Further comprising a host for managing information about the substrate, The controller is a defect repair system of a liquid crystal display device driving the repair device by receiving information from the host to the substrate. A method of controlling a defect repair system comprising a repairer for repairing a defect generated on a substrate, Detecting coordinates of a position where a defect occurs on the substrate; Moving the repairer through a number of steps from alignment coordinates to align the repairer on the substrate to the defect location coordinates; And Driving the repair device to perform repair work on a position where a defect occurs on the substrate; Defect repair method of the liquid crystal display comprising a. The method of claim 5, Moving the conservator, After the substrate is divided into a plurality of regions, reference coordinates of each region are set, and when the coordinates of the position where the defect occurs are located in the alignment region including the alignment coordinate, the defect is generated from the alignment coordinates. To the coordinates of the location If the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred is not located in the alignment area, move the water retainer from the alignment coordinates to the reference coordinate of the region where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurs is located, and then the water retainer from the reference coordinate. The defect repair method of the liquid crystal display device which moves to the position which a defect generate | occur | produced. The method of claim 6, If the coordinates of the position where the defect occurred are not located in the alignment area, after finding the shortest path for moving the pedometer from the alignment coordinates to the reference coordinate of the area where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred is located, A liquid crystal display for moving the water retainer step by step to the reference coordinate of each region included in the shortest path and then moving the water retainer to the position coordinate where the defect is generated from the reference coordinate of the region where the coordinate of the position where the defect occurred How to repair the fault of the device.