KR20060016972A - Apparatus for attaching substrats - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method used for bonding a substrate for a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly, to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method capable of bonding two or more substrates in one step.

The present invention provides a vacuum chamber into which at least two upper and lower substrates can be inserted; An upper plate provided on an upper side of the vacuum chamber, and mounted so that at least two upper substrates do not overlap each other, and each detachable upper substrate separately; A lower plate provided below the vacuum chamber and mounted so that at least two lower substrates do not overlap each other; Substrate position correction means for correcting the position of the upper substrate mounted on the upper surface plate or the lower substrate mounted on the lower surface plate so that the positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate coincide; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Bonding means for joining the upper substrate and the lower substrate by applying pressure to the upper substrate and the lower substrate so as to face each other; It provides a substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel comprising a.

Liquid crystal, liquid crystal panel, bonding device, multiple alignment

Description

Substrate Bonding Device {APPARATUS FOR ATTACHING SUBSTRATS}

1 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional substrate bonding apparatus.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a process diagram of the substrate bonding method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a multiple substrate bonding method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

1: Conventional substrate bonding apparatus 100: Substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention

10, 110: vacuum chamber 20, 120: upper plate

30, 130: lower plate 40, 140: vacuum means

50, 150: vacuum suction means 160: substrate bonding means

170: position correction means 180: vision means

190: vertical driving means S1: upper substrate

S2: lower substrate

The present invention relates to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method used for bonding a substrate for a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly, to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method capable of bonding two or more substrates in one step.

In general, a liquid crystal display is formed by injecting a liquid crystal between a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) substrate on which an electrode is formed and a color filter substrate coated with phosphors. Of course, a sealer for confining the liquid crystal material is provided at the edges of both substrates, and a spacer for maintaining a gap between the substrates at predetermined intervals is disposed between the substrates.

The above-described liquid crystal display device is driven by applying power to the liquid crystal material. Since the liquid crystal material has anisotropic dielectric constant, the image of the liquid crystal display is controlled by controlling the intensity of the power to control the amount of light transmitted through the substrate.

Therefore, in manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, it is an essential and very important process to bond the two substrates and inject the liquid crystal material into the space therebetween after the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate are manufactured.

This substrate bonding process is performed by the substrate bonding apparatus for liquid crystal panels. This substrate bonding apparatus 1, as shown in Figure 1, the vacuum chamber 10; Upper plate 20; Lower plate 30; Vacuum means 40; Substrate bonding means (not shown); Position correction means 70; is configured to include.

First, in the substrate bonding apparatus 1, the vacuum chamber 10 which can form a vacuum atmosphere inside is formed. The vacuum chamber 10 should be a structure that can be opened to bring the substrate into the chamber while being sealed to form a vacuum atmosphere therein.

Next, the upper plate 20 is provided above the inside of the vacuum chamber 10 and has a structure in which the upper substrate S1 can be mounted on the lower surface thereof. The mounting of the substrate here means that the substrate is adsorbed and fixed to the lower surface of the top plate 20. In order to mount a substrate, an electrostatic chuck may be provided in the upper surface plate 20, a minute vacuum hole may be formed, and a vacuum suction chuck using an external vacuum pump 50 may be provided. Both can adsorb and fix the substrate without damaging the substrate, and can easily separate the substrate by cutting off the power or blocking the vacuum suction input.

And the lower plate 30 is provided on the lower side inside the vacuum chamber 10, the lower substrate (S2) is mounted on the upper surface. An electrostatic chuck or a vacuum suction chuck is also provided to fix the substrate to the lower plate 30.

Next, a vacuum means 40 capable of forming the inside of the vacuum chamber 10 in a vacuum state is provided. The vacuum means 40 is a component that makes the inside of the chamber a vacuum atmosphere by suctioning and removing the gas inside the vacuum chamber after the upper and lower substrates are introduced and mounted in the vacuum chamber 10. The vacuum means 40 may be composed of a dry pump, a TMP, a mechanical booster pump, and the like.

Next, a substrate dropping means (not shown) is provided to freely drop the substrate mounted on the upper plate 20. The substrate dropping means is a means for temporarily joining the upper substrate S1 and the lower substrate S2. The upper substrate S1 is freely dropped onto the lower substrate S2 so that the upper substrate S1 is lowered. Provisionally join S2). Since the sealing material is apply | coated to the edge part of lower board | substrate S2, when an upper board | substrate falls to the upper part, both board | substrates are joined. Since the electrostatic chuck or the vacuum suction chuck is provided in the upper plate 20, the substrate drop means is provided as a power cut-off portion or a vacuum suction cut-off portion. That is, to cut off the power to generate the adsorption force to adsorb the upper substrate in the upper plate, or to block the suction force of the vacuum pump to block the vacuum adsorption force.

In addition, the substrate bonding apparatus 1 is provided with a substrate bonding means (not shown). The substrate bonding means is a component that pressurizes the welded upper and lower substrates so that both substrates are completely bonded. In bonding the substrates, maintaining the parallelism of the upper and lower substrates is important because it is closely related to the quality of the panel.

And the substrate bonding apparatus 1 is provided with the position correction means 70 which can correct the position of the board | substrate adsorb | sucked to the upper surface plate 20 or the lower surface plate 30. As shown in FIG. 1, the position correcting means 70 corrects the position of the lower substrate S2 mounted thereon by moving the lower plate 30. Therefore, the relative position of the upper substrate (S1) and the lower substrate (S2) is changed to match the position of the substrate. At this time, the position correction means 70 is provided to move the lower plate 30 in the XY direction and the θ direction. The Z direction movement of the upper substrate S1 is performed by the upper and lower driving means 80.

However, in the substrate bonding process performed using such a substrate bonding apparatus, a large amount of time is required to bring the substrate into the bonding apparatus 1 and form a vacuum atmosphere. Therefore, the conventional substrate bonding apparatus has a problem in that it takes a long process time to bond one substrate. In particular, as the size of the substrate has recently been increased, the time required for forming the vacuum atmosphere is increased, and this problem is further exacerbated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method that can bond two or more substrates in one process.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vacuum chamber into which at least two upper and lower substrates can be inserted; An upper plate provided on an upper side of the vacuum chamber, and mounted so that at least two upper substrates do not overlap each other, and each detachable upper substrate separately; A lower plate provided below the vacuum chamber and mounted so that at least two lower substrates do not overlap each other; Substrate position correction means for correcting the position of the upper substrate mounted on the upper surface plate or the lower substrate mounted on the lower surface plate so that the positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate coincide; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Bonding means for joining the upper substrate and the lower substrate by applying pressure to the upper substrate and the lower substrate so as to face each other; It provides a substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel comprising a.

In addition, in the present invention, it is formed through the upper predetermined portion of the vacuum chamber, there is further provided a vision means for observing the substrate adsorbed on the upper plate or the lower plate, the vision means is provided on the upper plate and the lower plate By individually observing the mounted substrates, the positions of two or more substrates can be precisely matched and bonded together.

Further, in the present invention, by injecting gas into the vacuum chamber, the bonding means is provided as a pressure restoring means for bonding the upper and lower substrates so that the pressure inside the vacuum chamber is higher than the pressure in the space formed by the upper and lower substrates bonded together, The same pressure is applied to all the surfaces of the upper and lower substrates to produce a panel having excellent balance between the upper and lower substrates.

In this case, the bonding means may be provided as a substrate separation unit provided in the upper panel and separating the upper substrate from the upper panel.

In addition, in the present invention, after driving the substrate position correction means to match the position of the upper substrate and the lower substrate mounted in the vacuum chamber, the upper plate to freely drop the upper substrate on the lower substrate with the same position Control the

If another substrate mounted in the vacuum chamber remains, the substrate position correcting means is driven again to match the position of the next upper substrate and the lower substrate, and then the upper substrate is freely dropped onto the lower substrate whose position is matched. To control the upper plate,

After all the upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber are temporarily bonded, a control unit is provided to control the driving of the bonding means so that all the temporarily bonded upper and lower substrates are temporarily bonded, so that two or more substrates are automatically corrected in position. And control to coalesce. Therefore, several substrates can be bonded together in one vacuum, thereby greatly reducing the processing time.

In the present invention,

1) loading a substrate into a vacuum chamber and mounting at least two upper and lower substrates on the upper and lower plates so as not to overlap each other;

2) vacuum forming the atmosphere in the vacuum chamber;

3) freely dropping each upper substrate mounted on the upper plate onto each lower substrate mounted on the lower plate to temporarily join the upper substrate and the lower substrate;

4) attaching both substrates by applying pressure to the upper substrate and the lower substrate;

Provided is a substrate bonding method for a liquid crystal panel that includes.

Also in the present invention, step 3),

Compensating the position of the upper substrate and the lower substrate mounted at the corresponding position to match the position of the upper and lower substrates, and free-falling the bonded upper substrate by falling onto the lower substrate mounted at the corresponding position The step consists of a step that proceeds sequentially for each of the upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber, so that it is possible to temporarily join a plurality of substrates while matching the position accurately while repeating a simple process.

Also, in the present invention, step 4) is performed by increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber so that the upper and lower substrates are bonded by the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the temporarily bonded upper and lower substrates. While the bonded upper and lower substrates are temporarily bonded, the same pressure is applied to all surfaces of the upper and lower substrates, thereby producing a panel having excellent balance between the upper and lower substrates.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a specific embodiment of the present invention.

Substrate bonding apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment also shown in Figure 2, a vacuum chamber 10; Upper plate 20; Lower plate 30; Vacuum means 40; Substrate bonding means 160; Position correction means (170); Vision means 180; is configured to include.

First, unlike the related art, the vacuum chamber 110 according to the present embodiment is provided such that at least two upper and lower substrates can be inserted therein. That is, the area of the vacuum chamber 110 should be expanded to have an inner space such that the upper and lower plates on which at least two substrates can be mounted may be provided on the upper and lower sides thereof.

In addition, the upper panel 120 is provided above the inside of the vacuum chamber 110, and at least two upper substrates are mounted without overlap, and each upper substrate is detachably mounted. That is, two or more substrates do not overlap and have an area to be mounted, and two or more substrates mounted on the top plate 120 should be separated from the top plate separately. Therefore, this embodiment provides two or more separate substrate adsorption chucks of this top plate as shown in FIG. If the top plate is an electrostatic chuck, two or more electrostatic chucks are provided to be spaced apart so that two or more substrates can be adsorbed without overlapping, and in the case of a vacuum suction chuck, two or more vacuum suction chucks are provided.

Next, the lower platen 130 is provided below the vacuum chamber 110 and allows at least two lower substrates to be mounted without overlapping. In this case, it is sufficient if the lower plate 130 has an area to which two or more substrates can be mounted without overlapping, and each substrate does not need to be moved separately.

Next, the substrate position correcting means 170 corrects the positions of the upper substrate S1 mounted on the upper plate 120 or the lower substrate S2 mounted on the lower plate 130, thereby positioning the upper substrate and the lower substrate. To match. In this embodiment, the substrate position correction means is provided to move the upper and lower plates, respectively, as shown in FIG. The lower plate 130 may be moved in the XY direction and the θ direction by the position correction means 170, and the upper plate 120 may be moved in the Z direction by the vertical drive means 190. Therefore, by changing the position of the upper substrate and the lower substrate relative to each other, to match the position of both substrates. Therefore, by changing the positions of the upper and lower plates, the positions of the upper and lower substrates mounted on the lower and upper portions thereof are coincident.

Next, since the vacuum means 140 has the same structure and function as that of the conventional substrate bonding apparatus 1, it is not repeated here.

In addition, in this embodiment, the bonding means 160 firmly adheres the temporary bonded upper and lower substrates, and in this embodiment, the pressure in the vacuum chamber is increased by injecting gas into the vacuum chamber 110. The upper and lower substrates are provided as pressure restoring means for attaching the upper and lower substrates to a pressure higher than the pressure in the space formed by bonding. That is, after the upper and lower substrates are temporarily bonded, general air or inert gas is injected into the vacuum chamber to increase the pressure inside the chamber. Then, since the external pressure rises more than the internal pressure of the upper and lower substrates, the same pressure is applied to all the surfaces of the upper and lower substrates so that the space between the upper and lower substrates is kept constant. At this time, it is preferable that the recovery pressure of the vacuum chamber be atmospheric, since the substrate bonded later can be carried out without other processes.

In addition, the substrate bonding apparatus 100 according to the present exemplary embodiment may be formed by penetrating through an upper predetermined portion of the vacuum chamber 110 and may observe a substrate adsorbed on the upper plate 120 or the lower plate 130. It is preferred that further means be provided. At this time, the vision means 180 is provided to observe all the substrates mounted on the upper plate 120 and the lower plate 130. Therefore, in this embodiment, the vision means 180 is provided so as to scan each virtual zone after virtually dividing the upper or lower plate into several virtual zones. Therefore, after dividing the portion where the substrate is mounted on the upper or lower plate into various observable virtual zones, vision means for observing each virtual region are provided for each virtual region.

Next, in the present embodiment, a control unit (not shown) is further provided in the substrate bonding apparatus 100. The control unit drives the substrate position correcting means 170 to match the position of the first upper substrate and the lower substrate, and then controls the upper plate 120 to freely drop the first upper substrate, and again the substrate position correcting means. After driving 170 to match the position of the second upper substrate and the lower substrate, the upper surface is controlled to detach the second upper substrate. Thus, the above-described process is controlled to proceed sequentially until all upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber are temporarily bonded. After all the upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber are temporarily bonded, the bonding means is driven to control the upper and lower substrates existing in the vacuum chamber to be temporarily bonded together.

Hereinafter, a substrate bonding method for bonding substrates using the substrate bonding apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described.

First, the step (S110) of mounting the substrate on the upper plate 120 and the lower plate 130 is performed. In this step, the same number of substrates are mounted on the upper and lower plates, respectively, but at least two substrates are mounted on the upper and lower plates so as not to overlap each other.

Next, a step (S20) of forming a vacuum atmosphere in the vacuum chamber is performed. That is, after the mounting of the substrate is completed, the vacuum chamber 110 is sealed and the gas inside the chamber is sucked and discharged to lower the pressure inside the chamber.

In addition, the step S130 of temporarily bonding the substrate is performed. This step is a step of temporarily joining the positions of the substrates mounted on the upper and lower plates. In this embodiment, since two or more substrates are bonded together, this step is divided into several steps to proceed as shown in FIG. First, as shown in FIG. 4A, the positions of the upper and lower substrates to be bonded are corrected and matched, and then bonded. Therefore, while observing the position of the first upper substrate and the lower substrate using the vision means to match the position of the substrate using the position correction means. Then, as shown in FIG. 4B, the first upper substrate is free-falled to bond with the lower substrate.

Then, the bonding process for the next substrate is performed. At this time, since the first bonded substrate is already bonded, there is no problem even if its position is changed on the lower plate 130. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4C, the position correction can be freely performed with respect to the second substrate. Then, as shown in FIG. 4D, the upper substrate is free-falled to bond the second substrate. This process is repeated continuously depending on the number of substrates mounted on the upper and lower plates.

Next, the step (S140) of bonding the temporary bonded substrate is carried out. This step is a step of firmly bonding by applying pressure to the temporarily bonded substrate. In this embodiment, the bonding step is performed by increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber so that the upper and lower substrates are bonded by the pressure difference between the upper and lower substrates. In this embodiment, all of the temporary bonded upper and lower substrates are bonded together at one time. Therefore, there is an advantage that can be bonded to a plurality of substrates in one process.

According to the present invention, since several substrates can be bonded at one time by one vacuum forming process, there is an advantage that the process time for each panel bonding can be significantly shortened.

Claims (8)

A vacuum chamber into which at least two upper and lower substrates can be inserted; An upper plate provided on an upper side of the vacuum chamber, and mounted so that at least two upper substrates do not overlap each other, and each detachable upper substrate separately; A lower plate provided below the vacuum chamber and mounted so that at least two lower substrates do not overlap each other; Substrate position correction means for correcting the position of the upper substrate mounted on the upper surface plate or the lower substrate mounted on the lower surface plate so that the positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate coincide; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Bonding means for joining the upper substrate and the lower substrate by applying pressure to the upper substrate and the lower substrate so as to face each other; Substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel comprising a. The method of claim 1, Driving the substrate position correction means to match the position of one upper substrate and the lower substrate mounted in the vacuum chamber, and then controlling the upper surface plate to freely drop the upper substrate onto the lower substrate whose position is matched, If another substrate mounted in the vacuum chamber remains, the substrate position correcting means is driven again to match the position of the next upper substrate and the lower substrate, and then the upper substrate is freely dropped onto the lower substrate whose position is matched. To control the upper plate, After all the upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber is temporarily bonded, a liquid crystal panel substrate bonding apparatus further comprising a control unit for driving the bonding means to control all the temporarily bonded upper and lower substrates to be temporarily bonded. . The method of claim 2, wherein the bonding means, And a pressure restoring means for bonding the upper and lower substrates by injecting a gas into the vacuum chamber so that the pressure inside the vacuum chamber is higher than the pressure in the space formed by the upper and lower substrates bonded together. The method of claim 2, wherein the bonding means, And a substrate separating unit provided in the upper panel and separating the upper substrate from the upper panel. The method according to claim 1 or 2, It is formed through the upper predetermined portion of the vacuum chamber, the vision means for observing the substrate adsorbed on the upper plate or lower plate is further provided, the vision means is a substrate mounted on the upper plate and the lower plate A substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel, which can be observed individually. 1) loading a substrate into a vacuum chamber and mounting at least two upper and lower substrates on the upper and lower plates so as not to overlap each other; 2) vacuum forming the atmosphere in the vacuum chamber; 3) freely dropping each upper substrate mounted on the upper plate onto each lower substrate mounted on the lower plate to temporarily join the upper substrate and the lower substrate; 4) applying pressure to all the upper and lower substrates which are temporarily bonded to bond both substrates; The board | substrate bonding method for liquid crystal panels comprised, including. The method of claim 6, wherein step 3) Correcting the position of the upper substrate and the lower substrate mounted at the corresponding position to match the position of the upper and lower substrates, and free-falling the bonded upper substrate by dropping onto the lower substrate mounted at the corresponding position And a step of sequentially proceeding with respect to each of the upper and lower substrates mounted in the vacuum chamber. The method of claim 6, wherein step 4) And increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber so that the upper and lower substrates are bonded by the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the temporarily bonded upper and lower substrates.

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