KR20060087727A - Liquid crystal panel and the repairing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal panel for preventing a defect due to liquid crystal overinjection and a defect repair method thereof.

A liquid crystal panel according to the present invention comprises: a first substrate and a second substrate; A seal line formed to bond the first substrate and the second substrate; A liquid crystal layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; A through hole formed in at least one of the first and second substrates in the seal line; And a sealant filled in the through hole.

Therefore, the present invention can easily repair the defects caused by the liquid crystal overinjection of the liquid crystal panel even after the liquid crystal panel is bonded, and the manufacturing yield is improved, and the cell gap of the liquid crystal panel is made constant, thereby improving the quality and reliability of the liquid crystal panel. It has the advantage of letting.

Sealant, hall, liquid crystal injection

Description

Liquid crystal panel and the repairing method

1 is a process flowchart of a liquid crystal panel using a liquid crystal dropping method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for repairing a defect of a liquid crystal panel manufactured as shown in FIG. 1.

3A to 3G are cross-sectional views of a liquid crystal panel sequentially showing a defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a plan view showing the formation position of the repair hole in the liquid crystal panel according to the present invention.

<Description of Signs of Major Parts of Drawings>

100: liquid crystal panel 101: lower plate

102: top plate 111: array element

112: color filter element 131, 132: alignment film

140: liquid crystal 150: seal line

161: hole 165: sealant

181: gate pad 182: data pad

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly, to a liquid crystal panel for preventing a defect due to liquid crystal overinjection and a defect repair method thereof.

Recently, with the development of various portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, and notebook computers, there is an increasing demand for flat panel display devices for light and thin applications.

Liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), field emission display (FED), and vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) are actively researched as such flat panel displays, but mass production technology, ease of driving means, and Liquid crystal display (LCD) is now in the spotlight for implementation reasons.

Such a liquid crystal display is largely divided into a liquid crystal panel displaying an image and a driving unit for applying a driving signal to the liquid crystal panel, wherein the liquid crystal panel has first and second substrates bonded to each other with a predetermined space, and the first And a liquid crystal layer injected between the second substrates.

Here, the first and second substrates are bonded by a sealant having a predetermined space by a spacer and having a liquid crystal injection hole to inject liquid crystal between the two substrates.

In this case, in the liquid crystal injection method, when the liquid crystal injection hole is immersed in the liquid crystal liquid by maintaining the vacuum state between the two substrates bonded by the seal material, the liquid crystal is injected between the two substrates by an osmotic phenomenon.

When the liquid crystal is injected as described above, the liquid crystal injection hole is sealed with a sealing material.

However, there existed the following problems in the manufacturing method of such a common liquid crystal injection type liquid crystal display device.

First, after cutting into a unit panel, the liquid crystal injection hole is immersed in the liquid crystal liquid by maintaining the vacuum state between the two substrates, so that the liquid crystal injection takes a lot of time to reduce the productivity.

Second, in the case of manufacturing a large-area liquid crystal display device, when the liquid crystal is injected by the liquid crystal injection method, the liquid crystal is not completely injected into the panel, which may cause a defect.

Third, since the process is complicated and time-consuming as described above, several liquid crystal injection equipment and a lot of space are required.

Therefore, in recent years, the manufacturing method of the liquid crystal display device using the method of dripping liquid crystal is researched.

The liquid crystal dropping method does not inject the liquid crystal by the pressure difference between the inside and the outside, but directly drops and dispenses the liquid crystal onto the substrate, and drops the liquid crystal dropped by the bonding pressure of the panel. The liquid crystal layer is formed by uniformly distributing the whole panel.

Since the liquid crystal dropping method directly drops the liquid crystal onto the substrate for a short time, not only can the liquid crystal layer formation of a large area liquid crystal display device proceed very quickly, but also only the required amount of liquid crystal is directly dropped onto the substrate. Since it is possible to minimize the consumption of the liquid crystal display device has the advantage that can significantly reduce the manufacturing cost.

However, since the liquid crystal is dropped before the process of bonding the liquid crystal display device, it is difficult to adjust the amount of liquid crystal required.

Therefore, when the liquid crystal is excessively loaded, the substrate is bulging after the bonding of the substrate, which causes a problem of non-uniform device characteristics since the cell gap of the liquid crystal layer is different in the entire substrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal panel for easily repairing a liquid crystal panel defect due to an overload of liquid crystal and a defect repair method thereof when forming a liquid crystal layer by a liquid crystal dropping method in a liquid crystal display device.

In order to achieve the above object, a liquid crystal panel according to the present invention comprises: a first substrate and a second substrate; A seal line formed to bond the first substrate and the second substrate; A liquid crystal layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; A through hole formed in at least one of the first and second substrates in the seal line; And a sealant filled in the through hole.

At least one through hole may be formed.

The through hole is formed in the inactive region.

In addition, the defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel according to the first embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of preparing a first substrate and a second substrate; Forming a seal line on any one of the first and second substrates; Dropping liquid crystal onto any one of the first and second substrates; Bonding the first and second substrates together; Forming a through hole in a seal line of at least one of the first and second substrates; Extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole; And sealing the through hole with a sealant.

In the extracting of the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole, pressure is applied to the first substrate and the second substrate.

In the forming of the through-holes in the seal line of at least one of the first and second substrates, the through-holes may be formed using micro drilling or laser.

At least one through hole may be formed.

In addition, the defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel according to the second embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of preparing by forming a through hole in the first substrate and the second substrate; Forming a seal line on any one of the first and second substrates; Dropping liquid crystal onto any one of the first and second substrates; Bonding the first and second substrates together;

Extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole; And sealing the through hole with a sealant.

The through hole may be formed in an inactive region inside the seal line.

In the extracting of the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole, pressure is applied to the first substrate and the second substrate.

The through hole may be formed using micro drilling or laser.

At least one through hole may be formed.

Hereinafter, a liquid crystal panel and a defective repair method thereof according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a process flowchart of a liquid crystal panel using a liquid crystal dropping method according to the present invention.

The liquid crystal display device of the liquid crystal dropping method according to the present invention will be briefly described and each unit process will be described in detail later.

As shown in FIG. 1, a TFT array including a gate line, a data line, a thin film transistor, and a pixel electrode is formed on a first substrate (S1), and a black matrix layer, a color filter layer, and a common electrode are formed on a second substrate. The provided color filter array is formed (S6). In this case, a plurality of panels may be arranged according to the size of the liquid crystal panel rather than one panel formed on each substrate.

The common electrode may be formed in the TFT array.

Subsequently, in order to apply | coat an oriented film to each board | substrate, the 1st board | substrate and the 2nd board | substrate which were formed as mentioned above are wash | cleaned with a washing | cleaning apparatus, respectively (S2, S7).                     

An alignment layer is coated on each of the cleaned first and second substrates, and a rubbing process is performed to determine the alignment direction (S3 and S8).

At this time, instead of the rubbing process, an alignment layer may be formed using the alignment layer and may be photoaligned using unpolarized light, polarized light, or partially polarized light.

In addition, the first substrate and the second substrate are cleaned in order to remove particles generated during the alignment process (S4 and S9).

The liquid crystal is dripped onto the active area of each panel on the first substrate (S5), and a seal material is printed on the edge portion of each panel of the second substrate (S10). Here, the seal material uses a UV curable resin, because when the thermosetting resin is used as the seal material during the seal material curing process, which is a post-process, the seal material flows out during heating and contaminates the liquid crystal.

Here, the seal material may be formed on the first substrate.

When the common electrode is formed on the second substrate, Ag dots for electrically connecting the first substrate and the second substrate are formed.

After the seal material or Ag dot is formed as described above, in order to remove particles generated during the seal material or Ag dot process, the second substrate is cleaned using a USC (Ultra sonic cleaning) cleaning equipment (S11). That is, since liquid crystal is not dripped on the said 2nd board | substrate, washing | cleaning is possible, and the occurrence of the defect by the said particle can be prevented beforehand.

In order to bond the first substrate and the second substrate as described above, one of the two substrates is inverted (S12).

Then, the first substrate and the second substrate is loaded in the vacuum bonding apparatus to bond the two substrates (S13).

At this time, in the case of using the UV and thermosetting resin as the seal material, after the bonded substrate is first cured the seal material using UV (S14), the seal material is completely cured using the heat again ( S15).

In addition, the seal material may be cured using only UV. During the UV curing, the dropped liquid crystal does not come into contact with the sealing material, and after the heat curing is performed (that is, after the sealing material is completely cured), the liquid crystal spreads between the bonded substrates to the portion where the sealing material is applied. That is, the liquid crystal spreads about 70 to 80% during UV curing, and spreads about 20 to 30% during thermal curing, and is evenly distributed between the substrates to which the liquid crystal is bonded.

The two bonded and completely cured substrates are cut for each unit panel (S16). At this time, the scribing and breaking process are performed at the same time.

Then, the substrate is cut and divided into unit panels (S17), and finally inspected and shipped (S18).

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for repairing a defect of a liquid crystal panel manufactured as shown in FIG. 1.

In the inspection process of the liquid crystal panel, when the liquid crystal is over-injected into the liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal panel rises convexly so that the cell gap is not uniform.                     

A hole penetrating the first and second substrates is formed outside the defective liquid crystal panel as described above (S21).

A hole is formed in the substrate using laser or micro drilling.

Then, the liquid crystal is extracted through the holes formed as described above. As the liquid crystal extraction method, the liquid crystal extractor is injected into the hole using a liquid crystal extractor, and the like, or the liquid crystal is overinjected by using a pressure difference or the like. The liquid crystal is extracted through the holes by applying pressure to the convexly raised substrate due to the liquid crystals (S22).

After extracting the liquid crystal over-injected using the method described above, the liquid crystal panel is inspected to determine whether an appropriate amount of liquid crystal is filled.

The hole formed for liquid crystal extraction seals the liquid crystal panel by filling a sealant (S23).

The sealant filled in the hole is cured using heat or UV.

As described above, the liquid crystal panel in which the liquid crystal is formed by the liquid crystal dropping method may cause the liquid crystal to be over-injected since the substrate is bonded after the liquid crystal dropping. Can be.

Therefore, there is no need to disassemble the liquid crystal panel again to re-form the liquid crystal, so that the manufacturing yield is improved and the cost is reduced.

In addition, since the liquid crystal of the liquid crystal panel can be formed appropriately, there is an advantage that the quality is improved.                     

3A to 3G are cross-sectional views of a liquid crystal panel sequentially showing a defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3A, first, upper and lower plates 102 and 101 of the liquid crystal panel 100 are manufactured, respectively.

An array element 111 is formed on the lower plate 101. Although not shown, a gate line and a data line are formed on the transparent substrate to cross each other, and the gate electrode extending from the gate line and the gate electrode are included. A thin film transistor (TFT) including a gate insulating film formed on the entire surface, a semiconductor layer formed on the gate insulating film, and a source / drain electrode formed on the semiconductor layer is formed, and a drain of the thin film transistor is formed through a contact hole formed in the passivation layer. A pixel electrode connected to the electrode is formed.

A color filter element 112 is formed on the upper plate 102. Although not shown, a black matrix is formed on the transparent substrate to block light from being transmitted to an area except the pixel electrode of the lower plate. Red, green, and blue color filter patterns are formed on the color filter, and a common electrode is formed on the color filter pattern.

In addition, alignment layers 132 and 131 are formed on the upper and lower plates 102 and 101.

The liquid crystal is dropped into the active area of each liquid crystal panel 100 on the lower plate 101, and a seal line 150 is printed on a non-active area which is an edge portion of each panel of the upper or lower plate. .

As shown in the drawing, in the liquid crystal dropping method, the liquid crystal 140 is dropped on the lower plate 101 before the lower plate 101 and the upper plate 102 on which the driving array element and the color filter are formed, respectively.

The liquid crystal 140 may be dropped on the upper plate 102 on which the color filter is formed.

Then, the upper plate 102 and the lower plate 101 are loaded in a vacuum bonding device to bond the two substrates.

At this time, when the substrate is bonded, the substrate on which the liquid crystal 140 is dropped should be placed on the lower portion.

At the same time, the droplets of the liquid crystal 140 spread out by the pressure, and a liquid crystal layer having a uniform thickness is formed between the upper plate 102 and the lower plate 101.

As shown in FIG. 3B, when the liquid crystal 140 formed by the liquid crystal dropping method is over-injected, the substrate of the bonded liquid crystal panel 100 is raised convexly.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 3C, a hole 161 is formed in an inactive region inside the seal line 150 of the liquid crystal panel 100.

The hole 161 may be formed to penetrate both the upper and lower plates 102 and 101, or may be formed only on one of the upper and lower plates 102 and 101.

The hole 161 may be formed using a laser or micro drilling.

Thereafter, as illustrated in FIG. 3D, the liquid crystal 140 overinjected is extracted through the hole 161 formed in the liquid crystal panel 100.                     

The liquid crystal extraction method may be performed by injecting a liquid crystal extractor into the hole 161 using a liquid crystal extractor or the like, and extracting the overinjected liquid crystal 140 using a pressure difference or the like. Pressure is applied to the convexly raised substrate so that the liquid crystal 140 is extracted through the hole 161.

As shown in FIG. 3E, the liquid crystal panel 100 is inspected to determine whether an appropriate amount of liquid crystal 140 is filled.

As shown in FIG. 3F, the hole 161 formed for liquid crystal extraction seals the liquid crystal panel 100 by filling a sealant 165.

The sealant 165 filled in the hole 161 is cured by using heat or UV to repair the defect of the liquid crystal panel 100 as shown in FIG. 3G.

4 is a plan view showing a position where a repair hole is formed in the liquid crystal panel according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the liquid crystal panel 100 includes an active region in which an array is formed to actually represent an image, and a non-active region, which is an image non-display region, and is inactive of the liquid crystal panel 100. The seal line 150 is formed in the area.

In addition, a gate pad 181 and a data pad 182 for applying various signals to the array of the liquid crystal panel 100 are formed outside the liquid crystal panel 100.

A liquid crystal is formed in the seal line.

In this case, a hole for repairing a defect due to liquid crystal overfill is formed in the inactive region in the seal line 150.                     

In addition, at least one hole 161 is formed.

The hole 161 is formed to penetrate through pads, signal lines, and various circuits formed in the inactive region so as not to cause defects.

The hole 161 may be formed in any one of the upper plate 102 and the lower plate 101, or may be formed to penetrate both the upper plate 102 and the lower plate 101.

On the other hand, the hole 161 may be formed in the inactive area before the upper and lower plates 102 and 101 are bonded.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

The present invention can easily repair defects caused by liquid crystal overinjection of the liquid crystal panel even after the liquid crystal panel is bonded, and thus the production yield is improved.

In addition, the present invention has an effect of making the image quality uniform and improving the quality and reliability of the liquid crystal panel by making the cell gap of the liquid crystal panel constant.

Claims (12)

A first substrate and a second substrate; A seal line formed to bond the first substrate and the second substrate; A liquid crystal layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; A through hole formed in at least one of the first and second substrates in the seal line; And a sealant filled in the through hole. The method of claim 1, At least one through hole is formed in the liquid crystal panel. The method of claim 1, And the through hole is formed in an inactive region. Preparing a first substrate and a second substrate; Forming a seal line on any one of the first and second substrates; Dropping liquid crystal onto any one of the first and second substrates; Bonding the first and second substrates together; Forming a through hole in a seal line of at least one of the first and second substrates; Extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole; And sealing the through hole with a sealant. The method of claim 4, wherein In the step of extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole, And applying pressure to the first and second substrates. The method of claim 4, wherein In the step of forming a through hole in the seal line of at least one of the first and second substrates, The through hole is a defective repair method of a liquid crystal panel, characterized in that formed by using micro drilling (laser). The method of claim 4, wherein At least one through-hole is formed in the defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel. Forming a through hole in the first substrate and the second substrate and preparing the through hole; Forming a seal line on any one of the first and second substrates; Dropping liquid crystal onto any one of the first and second substrates; Bonding the first and second substrates together; Extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole; And sealing the through hole with a sealant. The method of claim 8, And the through hole is formed in an inactive region inside the seal line. The method of claim 8, In the step of extracting the liquid crystal over-injected through the through hole, And applying pressure to the first and second substrates. The method of claim 8, The through hole is a defective repair method of a liquid crystal panel, characterized in that formed by using micro drilling (laser). The method of claim 8, At least one through-hole is formed in the defective repair method of the liquid crystal panel.

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