KR20040012309A - liquid crystal panel including patterned spacer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A liquid crystal display panel using a patterned spacer is provided to prevent smear and improve reliability of the liquid crystal display. CONSTITUTION: A liquid crystal display includes lower and upper substrates(112,132), a liquid crystal layer formed between the lower and upper substrates, and a patterned spacer(120). The lower substrate is divided into a display region and a non-display region and includes the first electrode. The upper substrate includes a color filter(136), the second electrode(138) and a black matrix(134). The lower and upper substrates are arranged such that the first electrode faces the second electrode. The patterned spacer supports the second electrode. The portion of the second electrode, supported by the patterned spacer, has a protrusion(138a).

Description

Liquid crystal panel including patterned spacer

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal panel for a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal panel including upper and lower substrates facing each other with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween, and a patterned spacer interposed between the two substrates. It is about.

In recent years, as the society enters the information age, the display industry that processes and displays a large amount of information has been rapidly developed.

Accordingly, a liquid crystal display (LCD) has been developed to meet various demands of consumers, such as thinning, light weight, and low power consumption. Next-generation advanced display that replaces the existing cathode-ray tube (CRT) It is attracting attention as a display device.

The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel that displays an image to a user by using optical anisotropy and polarization of the liquid crystal.

That is, the liquid crystal has a thin and long molecular structure, optical anisotropy having directionality in the array, and polarization property in which the alignment direction changes when an electric field is artificially applied. Therefore, a liquid crystal panel which displays an image shown to a user as a part of the liquid crystal display device changes an array direction by applying an electric field to these liquid crystal molecules, and expresses the image with the refractive index of the light changed at this time.

Accordingly, the liquid crystal panel is simply provided with a lower substrate and an upper substrate on which one electric field generating electrode is formed, and have a configuration in which the two electrodes face each other with the liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween.

At this time, it can be classified into a simple matrix method and an active matrix method according to a method of changing the liquid crystal molecule array. In particular, the active matrix type has a structure in which a plurality of pixels are implemented in a liquid crystal panel and a switching element is mounted in each of the pixels, and thus the on / off operation of each pixel is independently controlled. As a result, high resolution and fast response speed can be obtained, and resolution and video implementation ability are excellent. This is the most widely used method at present.

At this time, a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a well-known thin film transistor (TFT) as a switching element.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating an exploded view of a liquid crystal panel of a general active matrix type, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a cross section taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1. do.

As described above, a general active matrix liquid crystal panel includes a lower substrate 10, an upper substrate 30, and a liquid crystal layer filled therebetween, having a plurality of elements each including a field generating electrode on one surface facing each other as described above. 40).

The lower substrate 10 includes a plurality of parallel gate lines 14 outputting scanning voltages on the first transparent substrate 12 such as glass, and a plurality of parallel data lines 16 outputting image voltages. The vertically and horizontally intersecting arrays define a pixel region P having a mesh shape. In addition, thin film transistors T are provided at intersections of the gate lines 14 and the data lines 16, and first electrodes 18 connected one-to-one with the thin film transistors T in each pixel region P. It is mounted.

In this case, the first electrode 18 serves as an electric field generating electrode for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal layer 40. The portion where the first electrode 18 exists becomes a display area of the liquid crystal panel, and the other portions are non- It becomes the display area. In addition, the thin film transistor T is turned on / off through the signal voltage output to the gate line 14, and selectively applies the signal voltage output to the data line 16 to the first electrode 18. Serves as a switching element.

In addition, the upper substrate 30 is a color filter layer 36 including a plurality of color filters 36a, 36b, and 36c which are adjacent to each other to block light of a specific wavelength band on the back surface of the second transparent substrate 32 such as glass. And a second electrode 38 serving as another field generating electrode are sequentially installed. In particular, a stripe type color filter is illustrated in the drawing.

In addition, a light leakage phenomenon may occur between the second transparent substrate 32 and the color filter layer 36 at a boundary between adjacent color filters 36a, 36b, and 36c, and light to the thin film transistor T. The black matrix 34 is installed to block the inflow.

The liquid crystal layer 40 is interposed between the lower substrate 10 and the upper substrate 30.

For reference, although not shown, in order to prevent leakage of the liquid crystal layer 40 filled between the lower substrate 10 and the upper substrate 30, sealing is performed along the edges of the two substrates. The upper and lower alignment layers, which facilitate alignment of liquid crystal molecules, are included at the boundary portions of both substrates and the liquid crystal layer 40, respectively.

In the above-described liquid crystal panel, the interval of the liquid crystal layer 40 must be kept constant in order to realize a correct image. A spacer is interposed between the substrates for this purpose.

These spacers have traditionally used ball spacers that are randomly distributed between the lower substrate 10 and the upper substrate 30, which are manufactured by separate processes, but before bonding. There are some problems.

That is, when the ball spacer is used, there is a possibility of movement, so that damage such as scratches occurs in the alignment layer, and light leakage may occur around the ball spacer due to the adsorption force between adjacent liquid crystal molecules. In addition, since the density of irregularly distributed ball spacers is not constant, reliability in maintaining the spacing when applied to a large-area liquid crystal display device is inferior, and for the same reason, a ripple phenomenon may occur when the screen is touched.

In order to solve these disadvantages, a patterned spacer spacer positioned in a non-display area has been developed.

2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1, although the display is limited to the lower substrate, the lower substrate 10 and the upper substrate 30 constituting the liquid crystal panel are bonded and then patterned. Note that the cross section is cut along the portion where the spacer 20 is located.

Accordingly, the second electrode 38, the color filter layer 36, the black matrix 34, and the second transparent substrate 32 are sequentially positioned on the patterned spacer 20, and the first transparent portion is disposed below the first electrode 38. The substrate 12 is located.

The patterned spacer 20 is also called a column spacer, and is generally manufactured by a photolithography process of coating, exposing, developing, and etching a high strength organic material.

Therefore, it can be installed in the non-display area according to the intention of the operator, so that light leakage can be prevented even when adsorbing force with adjacent liquid crystal molecules is generated, and the height can be precisely controlled, thereby providing reliability in maintaining the substrate gap. In addition, by fixing the position of the spacer can not only increase the robustness of the product, but also has the advantage of preventing the ripple phenomenon when the screen touch.

In this case, the patterned spacer 20 is not particularly limited in the non-display area. Therefore, the patterned spacer 20 may be disposed on the thin film transistor T. In particular, the patterned spacer 20 may be a gate adjacent to an edge of the first electrode 18. In the case of a high-aperture rate liquid crystal display device that overlaps the line 14 and the data line 16, it is also possible to install on this overlapping first electrode.

However, an unexpected problem may be found when the above-described general patterned spacer 20 is used, which is caused by the color filter layer 36 between the second electrode 38 and the black matrix 34 due to externally generated pressure. Smear phenomenon that appears when pressed and stains around.

In general, an organic insulating material is used for the patterned spacer 20 to minimize the influence on the surrounding electrical circuits. The patterned spacer 20 has a high strength of a certain degree or more to maintain a gap between the lower substrate 10 and the upper substrate 30. Have

In addition, the second electrode 38 which is connected to the upper end thereof is also generally made of a metal material such as indium tin oxide (ITO), and the black matrix 34 is also made of a hard material such as a chromium-based metal material or a carbon-based material. As a result, the externally applied pressure is transmitted to the color filter layer 36.

On the other hand, the color filter layer 36 is in the form of a resin (resin) using a dye-in a salted resin or a polyimide pigment. Therefore, since it is relatively soft compared to the above-described patterned spacer 20, the second electrode 38, or the black matrix 34, when a pressure is applied, a portion located directly above the patterned spacer 20 as an arrow is pressed. It spreads, which eventually affects the surroundings and appears as stains.

This smear defect is frequently observed due to the combination of an exterior for commercializing a liquid crystal display, or a pressure applied to the liquid crystal display, resulting in deterioration of the displayed image quality and deterioration of the reliability of the liquid crystal display.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, in the liquid crystal panel comprising a pattern spacer, to prevent smear defect caused by the color filter is pressed by the external pressure, and to provide a more reliable liquid crystal display device Provided is a liquid crystal panel for implementation.

1 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid crystal panel for a general liquid crystal display device using a patterned spacer;

2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG.

3 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid crystal panel for a liquid crystal display according to the present invention using a patterned spacer;

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3.

5 is a cross-sectional view of another liquid crystal panel for a liquid crystal display according to the present invention using a patterned spacer.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

112: first transparent substrate 120: patterned spacer

132: second transparent substrate 136: color filter layer

138: second electrode

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a lower substrate including a first electrode provided on one surface of a first transparent substrate, and a display substrate and a non-display region, a color filter layer sequentially stacked on one surface of a second transparent substrate, An upper substrate including a second electrode, a black matrix interposed between the second transparent substrate and the color filter layer so as to correspond to the non-display area of the lower substrate, and the second substrate arranged to face the first electrode; A liquid crystal panel comprising a liquid crystal layer filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and a patterned spacer upright in a non-display area of the lower substrate to support the second electrode on the upper surface, wherein the second electrode is the pattern Provided is a liquid crystal panel having a concave-convex shape such that a portion supported by the upper surface of the de spacer is in close contact with the black matrix.

In this case, in particular, further comprising a support end of a metal material interposed on the lower surface of the patterned spacer, the black matrix is a chromium-based or carbon-based material, the second electrode is made of ITO, the color filter It is characterized by having a form of a resin (resin) in which the dye-inflammable chlorinated resin or a polyimide-based pigment is used, wherein the patterned spacer is an organic insulating material. It demonstrates in detail with reference.

3 is an exploded perspective view briefly illustrating a liquid crystal panel according to the present invention, each of which is formed of a transparent material such as glass, and includes a first transparent substrate 112 and a second electrode 138 provided with a first electrode 118 on one surface thereof. The second transparent substrate 132 provided with) is arranged so as to face each other's electrodes, and the liquid crystal layer 140 is interposed between these substrates.

On one surface of the first transparent substrate 112, a plurality of parallel gate lines 114 and a plurality of parallel data lines 116 intersect to be vertically and horizontally defined to define a pixel area P having a mesh shape, and these intersections Thin film transistors T are respectively installed at the points. In each pixel area P, a first electrode 118 connected one-to-one with the thin film transistor T is mounted to form the lower substrate 110.

In this case, the first electrode 118 serves as a field generating electrode for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal layer 140, and the portion where the first electrode 118 exists becomes a display area of the liquid crystal panel. The part becomes a non-display area.

In addition, a color filter layer including a plurality of color filters 136a, 136b, and 136c that are adjacent to each other to block light of a specific wavelength band on one surface of the second transparent substrate 132 facing the first transparent substrate 110 ( 136 and a second electrode 138 serving as another field generating electrode are sequentially installed. In the drawing, a stripe type color filter layer 136 is illustrated.

In addition, between the second transparent substrate 132 and the color filter layer 136, a light leakage phenomenon may occur at a boundary between adjacent color filters 136a, 136b, and 136c, and a thin film transistor T The black matrix 134 which blocks the light inflow is installed to constitute the upper substrate, which may be referred to as a typical case.

For reference, although not shown, in order to prevent leakage of the liquid crystal layer 140 filled between the lower substrate 110 and the upper substrate 130 is sealed with a sealing agent or the like along the edge of both substrates, As described above, the upper and lower alignment layers may be included in the boundary portions of the substrate and the liquid crystal layer 140 to facilitate alignment of the liquid crystal molecules.

In the liquid crystal panel according to the present invention, a spacer for maintaining a predetermined distance between the lower substrate 110 and the upper substrate 130 is interposed between the two substrates, in particular the present invention can be fixed to the non-display area Even when adsorption with adjacent liquid crystal molecules occurs, light leakage can be prevented, the height can be precisely controlled, and the ripple phenomenon can be prevented when the screen is touched. It is characterized by.

That is, FIG. 4 illustrates the IV-IV line of FIG. 3, which is a portion where the patterned spacer 120 is positioned after the lower substrate 110 and the upper substrate 130 are bonded to each other with the liquid crystal layer 140 interposed therebetween. A cross-sectional view of the cross section taken along the top of the patterned spacer 120 includes a second electrode 138, a color filter layer 136, a black matrix 134, and a second transparent substrate 132 sequentially positioned. The lower transparent substrate 112 may be located at a lower portion thereof.

In this case, in particular, the second electrode 138 included in the upper substrate 130 has a plurality of protruding concave-convex shapes 138a closely contacting with the black matrix 134, and more specifically, the upper surface of the patterned spacer 120 The black portion is characterized in that the concave-convex shape (138a) to be in close contact with the black matrix 134. As a result, smear defects occurring in a liquid crystal panel including a general patterned spacer can be prevented.

At this time, the patterned spacer 120 is manufactured by a photolithography process of coating, exposure, development, and etching using a high-strength organic material to minimize the influence on the surrounding electrical circuit, and the second electrode 138 is As a metal material such as indium tin oxide (ITO), the black matrix 134 is also preferably a hard material such as a chromium-based metal material or a carbon-based material.

On the other hand, the color filter layer 136 may be manufactured in the form of resin (resin), such as a dye or a salt of a salt of a polyimide-dyed dye as in the general case, the color filter layer 136 is a relatively patterned spacer ( 20 and the second electrode 38 or the black matrix 34 is softer.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the second electrode 138 is provided with a concave-convex shape 138a in close contact with the black matrix 134 as a part in contact with the patterned spacer 120. Or it is dispersed in the black matrix 134. Accordingly, pressure may not be transmitted to the color filter layer 136 and thus a constant thickness may be maintained.

In particular, since the portion where the patterned spacer 120 is positioned is a non-display area of the liquid crystal panel, the uneven shape 138a of the second electrode 138 does not affect the displayed image. Even if it is installed on the thin film transistor (refer to FIG. 3: T), the same effect can be obtained by giving the uneven shape 138a in close contact with the black matrix 134 to the second electrode 138 which is contacted with the upper surface thereof.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a concave-convex shape 138a in close contact with the black matrix 134 to a portion of the second electrode 138 which is in contact with the upper surface of the patterned spacer 120, and thus has various advantages that a general patterned spacer has. This will prevent the phenomenon.

In addition, FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention in which the patterned spacer 120 is used, and the unevenness of the black matrix 134 is in close contact with the portion of the second electrode 138 abutting on the upper surface of the patterned spacer 120. Although the shape 138a is the same, the support end 150 of the metal material interposed to the bottom of the patterned spacer 120 is different.

As described above, the patterned spacer 120 may be freely installed on the non-display area of the liquid crystal panel according to the purpose. In this case, when pressure is applied from the outside, the color filter layer 136 is applied to the portion of the second electrode 138 that is in contact with the upper surface of the patterned spacer 120 by giving the concave-convex shape 138a in close contact with the black matrix 134. Although pressure can be prevented from being applied, the pressure applied to the lower end of the patterned spacer 120 is transmitted to the lower substrate.

In this case, if the portion where the patterned spacer 120 is installed is a hard portion such as a thin film transistor or an upper surface of the first transparent substrate, it is not a big problem, but if it is a relatively soft portion, there may be an influence by pressure. This is to disperse this pressure through the support end 150 of the metal material to the lower end of the patterned spacer 120.

The support end 150 may be the overlapping first electrode, particularly in the case of a high-aperture rate liquid crystal display device in which the edge of the first electrode 118 overlaps the adjacent gate line 114 and the data line 116. As a result, a more improved liquid crystal panel for a liquid crystal display device may be implemented (see FIG. 3).

The present invention is characterized by providing a concave-convex shape in close contact with the black matrix as a part of the second electrode which is in contact with the upper surface of the patterned spacer. This does not affect the color filter layer even when pressure is applied, and has an advantage of preventing smearing. In this case, in particular, the patterned spacer is characterized in that its position can be freely adjusted, which is advantageous in that it is installed in the non-display area so as not to affect the displayed image.

This has a relatively simple configuration to give the second electrode a concave-convex shape, but the effect can be very large, while removing the smear phenomenon while maintaining the characteristics of the patterned spacer having various advantages over the general ball spacer method. It has the advantage to do it.

In particular, the present invention provides a liquid crystal panel further comprising a support end of a metal material interposed to a lower end of the patterned spacer, thereby dispersing the pressure applied to the lower substrate, thereby realizing an improved liquid crystal display device.

Claims (4)

A lower substrate including a first electrode disposed on one surface of the first transparent substrate, the display area and the non-display area separated, a color filter layer and a second electrode sequentially stacked on one surface of the second transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate and the An upper substrate including a black matrix interposed between the color filter layers so as to correspond to the non-display area of the lower substrate, and a liquid crystal layer filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, wherein the second electrode is arranged to face the first electrode; And a patterned spacer upright in the non-display area of the lower substrate to support the second electrode on the upper surface thereof. The second electrode has a concave-convex shape such that a portion supported by the upper surface of the patterned spacer is in close contact with the black matrix. The method according to claim 1, A support end of a metal material interposed on the bottom surface of the patterned spacer Liquid crystal panel further comprising The method according to claim 1, The black matrix is a chromium-based or carbon-based material, the second electrode is made of ITO, and the color filter is a liquid crystal panel in the form of a resin in which a dye-soluble chlorinated resin or a polyimide pigment is used. The method according to claim 1, The patterned spacer is an organic insulating material liquid crystal panel