KR20070042730A - Method for manufacturing color-filter - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a color filter manufacturing method, and more particularly, to a color filter manufacturing method of increasing productivity using infrared light.

The present invention,

1) preparing a dye photoresist in response to an infrared wavelength and to which a UV absorber is added;

2) coating the dye photoresist to a predetermined thickness on a glass substrate having a black matrix pattern formed thereon;

3) irradiating a laser of an infrared wavelength to a portion of the dye photoresist where a color filter pattern is to be formed or to be unnecessarily removed so that the ionic crosslinking reaction can proceed or be suppressed;

4) forming a color filter pattern by developing and removing unnecessary portions.

LCD, color filter, laser, color filter manufacturing method, infrared

Description

Color filter manufacturing method {METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING COLOR-FILTER}

1 is a schematic diagram of a general liquid crystal display device.

2 is a process chart of the color filter manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 to 7 are views illustrating each step of the color filter manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a color filter manufacturing method, and more particularly to a color filter manufacturing method for improving the productivity by using infrared rays, and manufacturing a color filter with increased lifespan by adding a UV absorber to the dye.

Among the screen display devices that display image information on the screen, the CRT (CRT), which has been widely used so far, is rapidly being replaced by a thin flat panel display. This is because the thin flat panel display is thin and light so that it can be easily used in any place. In particular, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are the most popular because they have superior display resolution than other flat panel displays and are advantageous for realizing moving images.

The driving principle of the liquid crystal display device is to use the optical anisotropy and polarization property of the liquid crystal. Since the structure is thin and long, the direction of the molecular arrangement can be controlled by artificially applying an electromagnetic field to liquid crystal molecules having directionality and polarization in the molecular arrangement. Accordingly, if the orientation direction is arbitrarily adjusted, light may be transmitted or blocked according to the arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules by the optical anisotropy of the liquid crystal, and thus it is applied to a screen display device. Currently, an active matrix liquid crystal display in which thin film transistors and pixel electrodes connected thereto are arranged in a matrix manner is attracting the most attention because it provides excellent image quality and natural color. A structure of a general liquid crystal display will be described with reference to FIG. 1. 1 is an enlarged view of a schematic liquid crystal display device.

The LCD has a form in which two panels provided with various elements and functional layers face each other and a liquid crystal layer is sandwiched therebetween. As shown in FIG. 1A, one panel of the liquid crystal display includes elements that implement color. This is often called a color filter panel. In the color filter panel, red (R), green (R), and blue (B) color filters 3R, 3G, and 3B are sequentially arranged along the positions of pixels designed in a matrix arrangement on the transparent substrate 1. . Between these color filters, a lattice-shaped black matrix 5 is formed of a material having good light shielding properties. This prevents the appearance of mixed colors between each color. And the common electrode 7 is formed on the color filter whole surface. The common electrode 7 serves as one electrode for forming an electric field applied to the liquid crystal.

On the other panel of the liquid crystal display, as shown in FIG. 1B, switch elements and wirings for generating an electric field for driving the liquid crystal are formed. This is often called an active panel. In the active panel, the pixel electrode 13 is formed along the positions of the pixels designed in a matrix manner on the transparent substrate 11. The pixel electrode 13 faces the common electrode 7 formed on the color filter panel and serves as the other electrode for forming an electric field applied to the liquid crystal. The signal line 15 is formed along the horizontal array direction of the pixel electrodes 13, and the data line 17 is formed along the vertical array direction. In one corner of the pixel electrode 13, a thin film transistor 19 for applying an electric field signal to the pixel electrode is formed. The gate electrode 21 of the thin film transistor 19 is connected to the signal line 15, and the source electrode 23 is connected to the data line 17. The drain electrode 25 of the thin film transistor 19 is connected to the pixel electrode 13. Although not shown in the drawings, gate pads and source pads, which are terminal terminals for receiving electrical signals applied from the outside, are formed at ends of the gate wiring and the source wiring, respectively.

The two panels thus made are attached to each other at regular intervals, and the liquid crystal material is filled therebetween. A polarizer is attached to both outer surfaces of the bonded panel to complete the liquid crystal panel, which is a part of the liquid crystal display.

Hereinafter, a conventional general manufacturing method for manufacturing a color filter panel used in such a liquid crystal display will be described.

First, a photoresist of a polymer resin material sprayed with a pigment of a predetermined color is applied to a substrate on which a black matrix pattern is formed. The photoresist is then exposed using a photomask, and the photoresist is developed along the exposure pattern. That is, the photoresist is partially removed. This photolithography process is repeated for each color to form a plurality of color filters. And a protective film and a transparent conductive film are formed into a film on top, and it is completed.

However, the conventional color filter manufacturing method has a problem in manufacturing cost and productivity since the coating, exposure, and developing processes have to be repeated three times. In addition, in the conventional color filter manufacturing method, a photo mask is necessarily used, but in recent years, since a variety of models have to be manufactured due to frequent model changes, there is a significant increase in manufacturing cost.

On the other hand, in the case of the conventional color filter manufacturing method using a photopolymerization reaction without using a photo mask, UV photopolymerization reaction is used. However, in the case of using UV photopolymerization, there is a problem in that it consumes more exposure than necessary because of the screening phenomenon, and there is also a problem in that the life of the color filter is shortened because the UV absorber cannot be added to the dye.

An object of the present invention to add a UV absorber to the dye using an infrared ray during the exposure process, to provide a method for producing a color filter with increased productivity.

According to the present invention for achieving the above object,

1) preparing a dye photoresist in response to an infrared wavelength and to which a UV absorber is added;

2) coating the dye photoresist to a predetermined thickness on a glass substrate having a black matrix pattern formed thereon;

3) irradiating a laser of an infrared wavelength to a portion of the dye photoresist where a color filter pattern is to be formed or to be unnecessarily removed so that the ionic crosslinking reaction can proceed or be suppressed;

4) forming a color filter pattern by developing and removing unnecessary portions.

In addition, the present invention provides a color filter manufactured by the above-described color filter manufacturing method.

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

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of the method for manufacturing a color filter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the color filter manufacturing method according to the present embodiment, first, a step (S10) of manufacturing a dye photoresist is performed. In this embodiment, when light of a specific wavelength is irradiated, an ionic polymerization reaction is performed, and a dye photoresist having a specific color is used. In this embodiment, the dye photoresist is prepared by mixing a UV absorber with a photoresist composed of a highly hygroscopic advertisement molecular material and a near infrared dye for forming an LCD color filter. That is, ionic vinyl-based advertising molecule materials such as PVA-SbQ (Poly Vinyl Alcohol-stilbazole quaternized), PVA (Poly Vinyl Alcohol) -co-PVBA (Poly Vinyl Butylene Alcohol), or peptide (peptide) and ester (ester) are combined After the photoresist is composed of at least one of Kasein, gelatin, and acryl resin, which are polymerized resins, one of the benzotriazole-based, benzophenone-based, triazin-based, and stillbene-based compounds is added to the UV absorbing material. In general, in the case of using UV light, the UV absorber does not add to the photoresist because it causes the screening phenomenon, but in this embodiment, since the infrared laser is used, it is not a problem even if the UV absorber is added.

And it is preferable that the solvent used in a present Example is a polar solvent. In the present embodiment, as described above, since the surface of the glass substrate is hydrophilic, it is preferable to make the dye photoresist using a polar solvent because it enhances the substrate bonding force of the dye photoresist.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, a step (S20) of coating the dye photoresist 130 to a predetermined thickness on the glass substrate 110 on which the black matrix pattern 120 is formed is performed. . In this step (S20), it is important to coat the dye photoresist 130 with a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the glass substrate 110.

Next, a step (S30) of irradiating a laser in a predetermined pattern on the dye photoresist 130 to allow the ionic crosslinking reaction to proceed in a predetermined pattern is performed. In this embodiment, the pattern of the dye photoresist is formed only by laser irradiation without using a mask. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the laser 140 is irradiated along a specific pattern without a mask. In this embodiment, both the positive photoresist and the negative photoresist may be used as the photoresist.

In the present embodiment, the first laser 140a is irradiated onto a square pattern between the black matrices 120 formed on the glass substrate 110 in order to uniformly form three color filters on the substrate. Then, the laser 140b is irradiated to the pattern where it is 3 pitches away from this pattern. The two pitches between each pattern are coated with dye photoresists of different colors by a repeating process.

In this embodiment, IR thermal laser is used as the laser 140. In this embodiment, since the dye photoresist 130 reacts by near infrared rays or infrared rays, an IR laser is used. In this case, the use of the IR laser can be added to the UV light absorber further has a number of advantages.

Therefore, the laser according to the present embodiment preferably irradiates a laser having a wavelength in the near infrared or infrared region.

Next, a step (S40) of forming a color filter pattern by developing and removing a portion where the crosslinking reaction does not proceed or a portion where the crosslinking reaction proceeds is performed. In this step (S40), the development of the dye photoresist 130B, in which the reaction has not progressed, is removed by laser irradiation using water. In the color filter manufacturing method according to the present embodiment, since it is developed using water as described above, there is an advantage that an environmental problem does not occur. In this manner, as shown in FIG. 7, one color filter pattern is formed in one pixel formed by the black matrix 120.

Each of the above-described steps is then repeated to form a color filter pattern representing various colors on one glass substrate. Since the color filter manufacturing method according to the present embodiment manufactures the color filter used in the LCD, color filters having three colors of red, green, and blue must be continuously formed. Therefore, the above-described steps must be repeated two more times to obtain a desired color filter.

According to the present invention, since the infrared ray is used in the exposure process, there is no covering phenomenon. Therefore, since there is no possibility of irradiating more than necessary exposure amount, there exists an advantage that productivity improves.

In addition, in the present invention, since the UV absorber is added to the dye, it is possible to effectively block the UV irradiated from the backlight during the use of the liquid crystal display to prevent discoloration of the color filter. Therefore, the color filter manufactured by the present invention has the advantage that its life is extended than conventional.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that the mask does not need to be newly manufactured in accordance with the change of the specification because the photo mask is not used.

Claims (3)

1) preparing a dye photoresist in response to an infrared wavelength and to which a UV absorber is added; 2) coating the dye photoresist to a predetermined thickness on a glass substrate having a black matrix pattern formed thereon; 3) irradiating a laser of an infrared wavelength to a portion of the dye photoresist where a color filter pattern is to be formed or to be unnecessarily removed so that the ionic crosslinking reaction can proceed or be suppressed; 4) forming a color filter pattern by developing and removing unnecessary portions. The method of claim 1, Repeating the above steps to form a color filter pattern representing a variety of colors on one glass substrate. The color filter manufactured by the color filter manufacturing method of Claims 1-2.

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