KR20060017356A - Apparatus for attaching substrats - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention 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, by bonding upper and lower substrates by using pressure differences inside and outside the substrate, a panel having a constant gap between both substrates can be produced. It relates to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method that can be.

The present invention, a vacuum chamber capable of forming a vacuum; It is provided in the vacuum chamber, the upper and lower plates for mounting a pair of substrates, one each up and down; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Substrate drop means for dropping the substrate adsorbed on the upper surface plate; It provides a substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel comprising a; pressure restoring means for restoring the pressure in the vacuum chamber to a pressure higher than the vacuum.

Principle of liquid crystal panel, bonding device, pressure difference, Pascal

Description

Substrate Bonding Device {APPARATUS FOR ATTACHING SUBSTRATS}

1 is a schematic view in the case where the upper and lower substrates are bonded by a conventional bonding means.

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

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram when the upper and lower substrates are bonded by the substrate bonding apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

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

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

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

10: vacuum chamber 20: upper plate

30: lower plate 40: vacuum means

50: vacuum suction means 60: pressure restore means

70: position correction means 80: vertical drive means

90 vision means S1 upper substrate

S2: lower substrate

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention 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, by bonding upper and lower substrates by using pressure differences inside and outside the substrate, a panel having a constant gap between both substrates can be produced. It relates to a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method that can be.

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.

The substrate bonding process is performed by a substrate bonding apparatus capable of forming the interior thereof in a vacuum state, and in the substrate bonding apparatus, an electrostatic chuck (ESC) is used to fix the substrate to the upper and lower plates in the substrate bonding apparatus in a vacuum state. Electro Static Chuck) can be used. That is, the power is applied to the upper and lower platen and the substrate is fixed by the electrostatic force generated by the power source.

In order to bond the two substrates, the position of the substrate must be adjusted by using an aligner. The aligner translates the lower substrate in the front, rear, left, and right directions, or rotates it to match the position of the upper substrate. Then, in order to bond the substrates, the upper and lower substrates are brought close to each other, and then brought into close contact with each other. The components for bonding the upper and lower substrates are the bonding means.

By the way, conventionally, this bonding means is comprised by mechanical means. That is, it is configured in such a way that the mechanical force is applied by directly contacting the upper substrate of the temporary bonded upper and lower substrates. However, in the case of applying a force to the substrate in such a mechanical manner, as shown in Figure 1, the distance between the upper and lower substrates (S1, S2) to be bonded by applying a different magnitude of force to each point on the substrate is not constant There is a problem. This problem is getting serious as the panel is enlarged.

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate bonding apparatus and a bonding method that can produce a panel with a constant gap between both substrates by bonding the upper and lower substrates using a pressure difference.

The present invention to achieve the above object, a vacuum chamber capable of forming a vacuum; It is provided in the vacuum chamber, the upper and lower plates for mounting a pair of substrates, one each up and down; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Substrate drop means for dropping the substrate adsorbed on the upper surface plate; It provides a substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel comprising a; pressure restoring means for restoring the pressure in the vacuum chamber to a pressure higher than the vacuum.

In addition, in the present invention, by further providing a position correction means for correcting the position of the substrate mounted on the upper or lower plate, the bonding of the substrate is performed in a state where the position of the substrate is exactly matched.

Moreover, in this invention, a board | substrate may be made to adsorb | suck a board | substrate by a vacuum adsorption force on a top plate or a bottom plate, and you may adsorb | suck a board | substrate by the attraction force by static electricity. Therefore, it can be adsorbed and fixed without damaging the substrate.

In addition, in the present invention, it is formed through the upper predetermined portion of the vacuum chamber, by further providing a vision means for observing the substrate mounted on the upper plate or lower plate, thereby easily inspecting the substrate or matching the upper and lower substrates Make sure you know.

In addition, in the present invention, the pressure restoring means is provided with a device for injecting gas into the vacuum chamber so that the pressure in the vacuum chamber is at atmospheric pressure, so that the gas is simply injected into the vacuum chamber without a complicated configuration. The substrates can be bonded while maintaining a constant distance.

In the present invention,

1) a substrate attaching step of bringing a substrate into a vacuum chamber and mounting one substrate on each of the upper and lower plates;

2) a vacuum forming step of forming an atmosphere in the vacuum chamber into a vacuum;

3) freely dropping the substrate mounted on the upper plate and temporarily joining the substrate mounted on the lower plate;

4) a substrate bonding step of increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber so that the substrate is strongly bonded by the pressure difference between the upper and lower substrates;

It provides a substrate bonding method for a liquid crystal panel comprising a.

In addition, in the present invention, before performing step 3), by further including a substrate position correction step of correcting the position of the substrate so that the position of the substrate mounted on the upper plate and the substrate attached to the lower plate match each other, the position of the upper and lower substrates Allows to manufacture perfectly matched panels.

In addition, in the present invention, by injecting gas into the vacuum chamber, by restoring the pressure in the vacuum chamber to atmospheric pressure, the two substrates are bonded together, so that the substrates are not damaged and are bonded while maintaining a constant gap between the two substrates.

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

Substrate bonding apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, as shown in Figure 1, the vacuum chamber 10; Upper plate 20; Lower plate 30; Vacuum means 40; Substrate dropping means (not shown); Pressure restoring means 60; 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 this embodiment, in order to mount a substrate, an electrostatic chuck may be provided in the upper plate 20, a fine vacuum hole 22 may be formed, and a vacuum suction chuck may be provided using an external vacuum pump 50. have. Both are preferable because they can adsorb and fix the substrate without damaging the substrate, and can easily disconnect the substrate by cutting off the power supply or blocking the vacuum suction input. Moreover, an upper surface plate can also be comprised so that both may be provided simultaneously.

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 vacuum suction chuck should be 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 should be provided. The vacuum means 40 is a component that makes the atmosphere in the chamber into a vacuum atmosphere by suctioning and removing the gas in the vacuum chamber after the upper and lower substrates are introduced and mounted in the vacuum chamber 10. Vacuum means 40 may be composed of a dry pump, TMP, 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. In this embodiment, since the electrostatic chuck or the vacuum suction chuck is provided on 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 the substrate bonding apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, a pressure restoring means 60 is provided. The pressure restoring means 60 is a component that restores the pressure in the vacuum chamber 10 to a pressure higher than the vacuum. The pressure restoring means 60 applies pressure to the upper and lower substrates which are temporarily bonded to allow the upper and lower substrates to be completely bonded.

In bonding the substrates, maintaining the parallelism of the upper and lower substrates is very important because it is closely related to the quality of the panel. In this embodiment, the substrate is temporarily bonded to form a space enclosed by the upper and lower substrates, and then the pressure is applied to the upper and lower substrates using the principle of Pascal by increasing the pressure outside the substrate, that is, in the vacuum chamber. Therefore, since a constant force is applied to all surfaces of the upper and lower substrates by the pressure difference between the upper and lower substrates, the upper and lower substrates are bonded while maintaining parallelism. In this case, when pressure is applied to the upper and lower substrates S1 and S2 using the pressure difference, the same magnitude of force is applied to all the points on the substrate, as shown in FIG. 3, so that the upper and lower substrates S1 and S2 are joined. There is an advantage that the interval of is kept constant.

At this time, the pressure restoring means 60 is provided to stably supply gas into the vacuum chamber. The pressure in the vacuum chamber is preferably restored to atmospheric pressure because other additional means are not necessary and are advantageous for the operation of the apparatus.

And the substrate bonding apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is preferably provided with a position correction means 70 for correcting the position of the substrate adsorbed on the upper plate 20 or the lower 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.

Substrate position correction made by the position correcting means 70 is performed with the help of the vision means 90. The vision means 90 uses a mark formed at the edges of the upper substrate S1 and the lower substrate S2 through a viewport provided in the upper portion of the vacuum chamber to position the upper and lower substrates. Observe whether they match vertically. When the positions of the upper and lower substrates do not coincide with each other, the substrate position correcting means 70 is driven to match the positions of the substrates.

Hereinafter, a substrate bonding method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2. 2 is a process chart for explaining each process of the substrate bonding method according to the present embodiment.

First, the step (S110) of mounting the substrate on the upper plate 20 and the lower plate 30 is performed. In this step, the vacuum chamber 10 is opened, and the upper and lower substrates are respectively supplied to the upper and lower plates by a conveying device (not shown in the drawing) provided outside the chamber, and fixed by suction.

Next, the step S120 of correcting the positions of the upper substrate S1 and the lower substrate S2 is preferably further performed. This step is unnecessary when the vertical positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate coincide, but are necessary when the positions of the two substrates do not coincide. When the positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate do not match, the positions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate are corrected by correcting the positions of the lower substrate.

Next, the step (S130) of forming the inside of the vacuum chamber 10 in a vacuum proceeds. In this step, the vacuum chamber is sealed to the outside, and then the gas inside the vacuum chamber is discharged using the vacuum means 40 to lower the pressure inside the chamber.

Next, the step S140 of temporarily bonding the upper substrate S1 and the lower substrate S2 is performed. This step is a step of temporarily bonding the upper substrate and the lower substrate. In this embodiment, the lower substrate (S1) mounted on the upper plate 20 is free-falled and attached to the lower plate 30. Provisionally bonded to S2).

Next, the step S150 of firmly bonding the temporarily bonded positive substrate is performed. In this step, pressure is applied to the temporarily bonded both substrates so that both substrates are firmly fixed and not separated. In this embodiment, by increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber, the two substrates are strongly bonded by the pressure difference between the upper and lower substrates. In this case, the pressure at which the inside of the vacuum chamber is restored is preferably atmospheric pressure. The reason is that it is easy to control the pressure, and since the substrate unloading operation is performed at atmospheric pressure, no further processing is necessary.

According to the present invention, instead of applying pressure by mechanical means in the bonding process of the upper and lower substrates, the pressure is applied to the upper and lower substrates by using a pressure difference between the inner and outer pressure-bonded substrates. As shown in, the same pressure is applied to all the points on the upper and lower substrates S1 and S2. Therefore, the upper and lower substrates bonded by the same pressure has the advantage that the interval between the upper and lower substrates over the entire area. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to produce excellent panels in which the parallelism of the upper and lower substrates is precisely maintained.

In addition, according to the present invention, a separate mechanical means is not required in the substrate bonding process, and only a means for restoring the pressure in the chamber to atmospheric pressure is required, thereby simplifying the overall configuration of the substrate bonding device and facilitating its manufacture.

In addition, when the substrate bonding is completed, the pressure inside the chamber is made to atmospheric pressure and then the bonded substrate is discharged. In the present invention, since the pressure inside the chamber is already formed at atmospheric pressure in the process of bonding the substrate, the substrate bonding process time is shortened. .

Claims (9)

A vacuum chamber capable of vacuum forming; It is provided in the vacuum chamber, the upper and lower plates for mounting a pair of substrates, one each up and down; Vacuum means capable of forming a vacuum in the vacuum chamber; Substrate dropping means for dropping the substrate mounted on the top plate; And a pressure restoring means for restoring the pressure in the vacuum chamber to a pressure higher than that of the vacuum. The method of claim 1, Liquid crystal panel substrate bonding apparatus further comprises a position correction means for correcting the position of the substrate mounted on the upper plate or the lower plate. According to claim 1, wherein the upper or lower plate, A substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel, wherein the substrate is adsorbed by a vacuum adsorption force. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper half or the lower half, A substrate bonding apparatus for a liquid crystal panel, wherein the substrate is attracted by an attractive force due to static electricity. The method of claim 1, And a vision means formed through the upper predetermined portion of the vacuum chamber and capable of observing the substrate mounted on the upper plate or the lower plate. According to claim 1, wherein the pressure restoring means, And injecting gas into the vacuum chamber so that the pressure in the vacuum chamber is at atmospheric pressure. 1) a substrate attaching step of bringing a substrate into a vacuum chamber and mounting one substrate on each of the upper and lower plates; 2) a vacuum forming step of forming an atmosphere in the vacuum chamber into a vacuum; 3) freely dropping the substrate mounted on the upper plate and temporarily joining the substrate mounted on the lower plate; 4) a substrate bonding step of increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber so that the substrate is strongly bonded by the pressure difference between the upper and lower substrates; Substrate bonding method for a liquid crystal panel comprising a. The method of claim 7, wherein before performing step 3), And a substrate position correction step of correcting a position of the substrate such that the positions of the substrate mounted on the upper plate and the substrate mounted on the lower plate correspond to each other. The method of claim 7, wherein step 4) And injecting gas into the vacuum chamber to restore the pressure in the vacuum chamber to atmospheric pressure.

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