KR20080056821A - Method for leveling substarte in substrates bonding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for leveling a substrate in a substrate bonding apparatus is provided to adjust the leveling degree of a substrate automatically, thereby preventing the production loss. In a process, an upper substrate(130) is attached to an upper electrostatic chuck and a lower substrate(131) is attached to a lower electrostatic chuck. An upper chamber part and a lower chamber part are combined. Thereafter, the upper substrate and lower substrate are placed in a closed and vacuum space. The upper substrate and lower substrate are arranged and bonded. A measured value of the gap between the upper and lower substrates is delivered to a control device. Thereafter, the above processes are performed by n times and the correction value of the gap is calculated from the control device. Thereafter, a linear actuator is controlled automatically to adjust the gap to reflect the correction value.

Description

Method for adjusting the parallelism of substrates in substrate bonding apparatus {Method for leveling substarte in substrates bonding apparatus}

1 is a schematic view of a substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention

2A to 2H are views illustrating a bonding method using a substrate bonding apparatus according to the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the alignment mark of the upper substrate and the lower substrate according to the present invention

4a and 4b is a simplified view of the parallelism of the bonded substrate according to the present invention

5 is a flow chart of the bonding process according to the present invention

Figure 6 is a gap measurement of the upper substrate and the lower substrate according to the present invention

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: substrate bonding device 101: lower frame

102: upper frame 103: lower chamber portion

104: upper chamber portion 105: lower stage

106: upper stage 107: sealing means

109: cam unit 110: linear actuator

The present invention relates to a method for adjusting the parallelism of a substrate in a substrate bonding apparatus, and more particularly, in a substrate bonding apparatus, a substrate is repeatedly adjusted to perform a bonding process several times, and an optimum correction value is calculated to automatically adjust the parallelism of the substrate. It relates to a method of adjusting the parallelism of the substrate in the bonding apparatus.

As the information society develops, the demand for display devices is increasing in various forms. Recently, LCD (Lipuid Crystal Display Device), PDP (Plasma Display Panel), ELD (Electro Luminescent Display), VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display), etc. Various flat panel display devices have been studied, and nowadays, liquid crystal display devices having excellent image quality, light weight, thinness, and low power consumption are most commonly used. Liquid crystal display devices have been developed in various ways such as monitors of televisions and desktop computers in addition to applications such as monitors of notebook computers.

Although the liquid crystal display device has various technical advances in order to perform a function as a display device in various fields, there are aspects in which the operation of improving the image quality is inconsistent with the above-described features. Solving the problems of high definition, high brightness, and large area while maintaining the advantages of light weight, thinness, and low power consumption has been a key to the development of liquid crystal display devices.

As a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a conventional liquid crystal injection method in which a liquid crystal is injected through a sealing hole, and a liquid crystal is dripped, after bonding a substrate in a vacuum by patterning a sealant so as to form an injection hole on one substrate. A second substrate drawn in a pattern in which a sealant was cut off was prepared so that the first substrate and the injection hole were not provided, the first substrate was placed on the second substrate, and the first substrate and the second substrate were brought into close contact in a vacuum. It can be divided into a liquid crystal drop method. However, the liquid crystal integration method has a number of processes compared to the liquid crystal injection method, for example, each equipment according to the additional process by shortening the process for forming the liquid crystal inlet, injection of the liquid crystal, sealing of the liquid crystal inlet, etc. It has the advantage of not needing more. In recent years, researches have been made on various equipments for using the liquid crystal integration method.

In the substrate bonding apparatus using the liquid crystal dropping method, the upper substrate on which the sealant is formed is attached on the upper electrostatic chuck, and the lower substrate on which the liquid crystal is dropped is attached on the lower electrostatic chuck, and then between the upper chamber portion and the lower chamber portion. Create a closed space in the vacuum to evacuate, close the upper substrate and the lower substrate and perform a rough alignment, and drive the four linear actuators installed in the lower portion of the lower substrate to close the upper substrate and the lower substrate for final alignment After the operation, the power of the upper electrostatic chuck is turned off, and the upper substrate is freely dropped to the lower substrate, and the sealing space is made to atmospheric pressure to generate a bonding pressure to bond the upper substrate and the lower substrate.

When the upper chamber part and the lower chamber part are combined, the vacuum of the enclosed space in which the upper substrate and the lower substrate are located is vacuumed, and four linear actuators finely adjust the gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate at each corner. Function. Large gaps between the minimum and maximum gaps at the four corners of the upper and lower substrates can cause problems such as poor adhesion of the bonded substrates, unfilled liquid crystals, bubble inflow, etc. In this case, the linear bonding apparatus is changed to manual operation, a test substrate is inserted, and a linear actuator with deviation occurs by referring to the camera focus data at four axes corresponding to the edge of the substrate. Adjust to reflect appropriate correction.

However, since the camera focus data is not an actual value of the gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, but a relative value, it is not solved by simply raising or lowering the linear actuator by reflecting the correction value. The test substrate should be repeatedly loaded and the alignment process of the substrate may be performed repeatedly.

In order to ensure the parallelism of the upper substrate and the lower substrate, it is only possible for an experienced worker to calibrate the linear actuator by manual operation, which is difficult for any operator to perform, and in the absence of the skilled worker, the board cannot be adjusted. Since the process cannot be carried out in the cementation equipment, there is a possibility of production loss, foreign substances can flow into the substrate bonding equipment, and the deviation is minimized through repeated trials and errors by repetitive work rather than corrected by accurate calculations. In other words, there is a problem that immediate response is not possible with a substrate having a different gap depending on the model.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method for adjusting the parallelism of a substrate in a substrate bonding apparatus which performs a bonding process several times in the substrate bonding apparatus and calculates an optimal correction value to adjust the parallelism of the substrate.

In particular, the substrate parallelism of the substrate bonding apparatus for repeating the bonding process of the substrate in a set number of times, calculating a correction value for the substrate parallelism, and automatically reflecting and adjusting the respective linear actuators corresponding to the four corner portions of the substrate. The purpose is to provide a method of adjustment.

In order to achieve the above object, the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the upper substrate and the lower substrate is attached to the upper electrostatic chuck and the lower electrostatic chuck, respectively, the upper chamber portion and the lower chamber portion A first step of combining the upper substrate and the lower substrate to form a sealed space in a vacuum state; Aligning the upper substrate and the lower substrate, bonding the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and transferring a measurement value of a gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate to a control device; A third step of performing the first step and the second step n times and calculating a correction value of the gap in the control device; And a fourth step of automatically adjusting the linear actuator for adjusting the gap by reflecting the correction value.

In the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, the first step and the second step are repeated, the correction value of the gap is calculated at the multiple of n, and the linear actuator is automatically adjusted. It is done.

In the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, the correction value is the average value of the gaps of the four corners of the upper substrate and the lower substrate when the first step and the second step is performed n times. It is characterized by.

In the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, the gap of the corner portion is characterized in that the measured value by the focus data of the camera for aligning the upper substrate and the lower substrate.

In the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, the linear actuator is characterized in that to adjust the height of the lower substrate.

In the method of adjusting the substrate parallelism of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, a setting value for the gap is input to the controller, and the first and second steps are performed n times, and in the controller, the gap The linear actuator may be automatically adjusted by comparing the set value of and the average value of the gaps, calculating the correction value of the gaps.

In the substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus as described above, a sealant is formed on the upper substrate, and liquid crystal is dropped on the lower substrate.

A method of adjusting the parallelism of a substrate in the substrate bonding apparatus, the method comprising: performing jaw mark alignment to move the lower substrate to roughly align the upper substrate and the lower substrate; Narrowing the distance between the upper substrate and the lower substrate by driving the linear actuator; And performing a mi mark align to finely align the upper substrate and the lower substrate.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic diagram of a substrate bonding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The substrate bonding apparatus 100 is fixed to the lower surface to form a lower appearance of the substrate bonding apparatus 100 and the lower frame 101 connected to the lower frame 101 at the upper portion of the substrate bonding apparatus ( An upper frame 102 forming an upper appearance of the upper surface 100, a lower chamber part 103 on which a lower stage 105 on which a lower substrate is loaded, and an upper stage 106 on which an upper substrate is loaded are disposed. And an upper chamber portion 104, and a sealing means 107 for sealing the lower stage 105 and the upper stage 106 to form a sealed space therein.

Inside the lower frame 101 is a lower support 111 for supporting the lower stage 105, and is formed in a square, four Z-axis moving means for moving the lower stage 105 up and down at each corner portion ( 108, a cam unit 109 for finely moving the lower stage 105 in the X and Y axes, and finely moved in the Z axis at the four corner portions of the lower stage 105, A linear actuator 110 for adjusting a gap between the substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 and lower vacuum means (not shown) for forming a vacuum of the lower chamber part 103 are provided. An upper support 112 for supporting the upper stage 105 and an upper vacuum means (not shown) for forming a vacuum of the upper chamber part 104 are installed in the upper frame 102. At the end of the lower support 111, a sealing means 107 is provided between the upper stage 106 and the lower stage 105 to provide a space for joining the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131. An O-ring is used as the sealing means 107.

The lower stage 105 is provided on the lower plate 113 and the lower plate 113 supported by the four linear actuators 110 and consists of aluminum, the lower base 114, the lower plate 113 and the lower plate. Moving means 115 for finely moving the lower base 114 on the X and Y axes by the cam unit 109 between the base 114 and the lower substrate 131 on the lower base 114 are provided. A lower electrostatic chuck 116 seated. The upper stage 106 is provided on the upper plate 117 supported by the upper support 112 and the lower surface of the upper plate 117, and the upper base 119 and the upper base 119 made of aluminum. The upper electrostatic chuck 120 is provided at the lower portion.

Although not shown in the figure, a control device (not shown) for controlling the substrate bonding apparatus 100 is installed, and the control device has four identical corners for each corner of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131. After the gap setting is input and the gap adjustment of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is completed by the four linear actuators 110, a camera (not shown) used in alignment is used. After passing the measurements for the four gaps to the control unit as the focus data and repeating the bonding process n times, the control unit calculates each average value for the four gaps, and each gap based on the average value. The correction value is reflected on each linear actuator 110 and adjusted automatically.

Alignment apparatus including a jo mark align to perform a rough alignment to align the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131, and a camera to perform a mi mark align to perform a fine alignment (not shown) ) Is included. In addition, a vacuum pump for evacuating the lower chamber 103 and the upper chamber 104 is installed.

2a to 2h is a view showing a bonding method using a substrate bonding apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the upper substrate 130 having the sealant 170 formed thereon is transferred between the lower chamber 103 and the upper chamber 104 using the transfer robot 132. As in 2b, the upper substrate 130 is attached to the upper electrostatic chuck 120 by vacuum adsorption and electrostatic adsorption. The process of attaching the upper substrate 130 to the upper electrostatic chuck 120 may be performed by vacuum adsorption and electrostatic adsorption at the same time, electrostatic adsorption after vacuum adsorption is performed first, or electrostatic adsorption may be performed later after electrostatic adsorption. Can be. However, if electrostatic adsorption is performed first, since spark may occur between the upper substrate 130 and the upper electrostatic chuck 120, it is preferable to perform vacuum adsorption first.

As shown in FIG. 2C, when the lower substrate 131 into which the liquid crystal 171 is dotting using the transfer robot 132 is carried between the lower chamber 103 and the upper chamber 104, the lower stage The plurality of lift pins 133 provided on the 105 are raised, the lower substrate 131 is positioned on the plurality of lift pins 133, and the plurality of lift pins 133 are lowered, thereby lowering the substrate 131. ) Seats on the lower electrostatic chuck 116. The lower substrate 131 is fixed on the lower electrostatic chuck 116 by vacuum adsorption and electrostatic adsorption.

As shown in FIG. 2D, the upper moving means (not shown) respectively provided at the four corner portions of the rectangular upper stage 106 descends, and the upper stage 105 is disposed between the upper stage 106 and the upper stage 106. It forms a space in which the substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is located, the sealing means 107 consisting of O-rings provided on the lower stage 105 is in contact with the upper stage 106, the outside Seal the space by blocking the inflow of air.

As shown in FIG. 2E, a vacuum pump (not shown) is formed between the upper stage 106 and the lower stage 105 to make a space in which the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are located in a vacuum state. Vacuum evacuation. Since the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 attached to the upper electrostatic chuck 120 and the lower electrostatic chuck 116 respectively in the vacuum space cannot be fixed by vacuum adsorption, the upper electrostatic chuck 120 Static electricity is generated from the lower electrostatic chuck 116 to allow electrostatic adsorption.

As shown in FIG. 2F, in order to keep the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 at about 3,000 μm, the lower substrate 131 is roughly aligned with the upper substrate 130. Joe is aligned by moving the lower table by the lower plate 113. In addition, the four linear actuators 110 installed at the lower portion of the lower plate 113 are driven to narrow the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 to achieve final alignment at approximately 100 to 300 μm. Conduct.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the alignment mark of the upper substrate and the lower substrate according to the present invention. A seal drawing glass mark 141 is provided at four corners of the upper substrate 130 where the sealant is formed, and a liquid crystal glass mark is provided on the lower substrate 131. 140 is provided, and the alignment is completed by matching the seal forming substrate mark 141 of the upper substrate 130 with the liquid crystal dropping substrate mark 140 of the lower substrate 131.

In FIG. 2F, linear actuators 110 are respectively provided at four corners of the lower plate 113, and the gaps of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are the same in four axes. The liquid crystal dropping substrate mark 140 and the seal forming substrate mark 141 for setting the upper and lower substrates 131 and the lower substrate 131 to the degree of difference between the setting box and the setting box are set to a value. This can be seen by the relative value of the camera's focus gap.

4A and 4B are simplified views of the parallelism of the bonded substrate according to the present invention.

For example, the setting value of the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is 200 μm, the gap of the first axis 134 is 90 μm, and the gap of the second axis 135 is 300 μm. If measured, the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 may not be parallel to each other due to the gap between the first shaft 134 and the second shaft 135, and finally, the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate ( 131 does not normally fit. FIG. 6A illustrates a shape in which the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 maintain a normal parallel state when the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is 200 μm, which is the same as the setting value. FIG. 6B illustrates the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131. In this case, the gap of the first axis 134 is 90 μm, and the gap of the second axis 135 is 300 μm, and the shape is not maintained in parallel.

When the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 do not maintain parallelism as shown in FIG. 4B, the upper substrate 130 is raised or lowered by four linear actuators 110 at the lower portion of the lower square 113. The degree of parallelism between the lower substrate 131 and the lower substrate 131 should be adjusted. In general, the first axis 134 should be directly raised to 200 μm and the second axis 135 should be lowered to 200 μm. However, the offset value for each linear actuator 110 is adjusted by repetitive work according to the experience value.

As shown in FIG. 2G, after the alignment of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is completed, when the power supplied to the upper electrostatic chuck 120 is turned off, the upper substrate 130 that has been electrostatically adsorbed is turned off. ) Freely falls to the upper portion of the lower substrate 131, stops the vacuum exhaust, and makes the space formed between the lower stage 105 and the upper stage 106 to an atmospheric pressure state, and the upper substrate 130 and the lower portion. Between the substrate 131 is a vacuum, a pressure is generated due to a difference with the external atmospheric pressure, and a bonding pressure is generated on the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 by the pressure difference.

As shown in FIG. 2H, the space between the upper stage 106 and the lower stage 105 is completely raised by raising the upper stage 106, and the unbonded substrate 136 is unloaded to move to the next process. Let's do it.

5 is a flow chart of the bonding process according to the present invention.

As in step S01, the upper substrate 130 having the sealant formed therein is carried between the lower chamber 103 and the upper chamber 104, and the upper substrate 130 is upper by vacuum and electrostatic adsorption. Attached to the electrostatic chuck 120, as in step S02, the lower substrate 131, the liquid crystal is dropped into the lower chamber 103 and the upper chamber 104, the lower electrostatic chuck 116 on the The upper stage 106 is lowered to form a sealed space in which the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are positioned between the lower stage 105 and the upper stage 106, and step S04. As shown in step S05, the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are roughly evacuated by a vacuum pump in order to make the sealed space in which the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are located in a vacuum state. In order to align the direction, Joe Mark Earl moves the lower substrate 131 by the lower plate 113. Subjected to the.

As in step S06, by driving the four linear actuators 110 installed on the lower plate 113, the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is narrowed, and as in step S07, the upper substrate ( 130 and the lower substrate 131 are finely aligned to finally fine-align, wherein the measured values of the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 measured by the four linear actuators 110. To the control device (not shown), and after completing the alignment of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 as in step S08, the power supplied to the upper electrostatic chuck 120 is turned off (off). The upper substrate 130, which has been electrostatically absorbed, freely falls to the upper portion of the lower substrate 131.

As in step S09, the vacuum exhaust is stopped, and the space formed between the lower stage 105 and the upper stage 106 is made into an atmospheric pressure state, and the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 are bonded to each other to form a bonded substrate. 136 is formed, and as in step S10, the upper surface plate 117 is raised, and in step S11, the lower substrate 103 and the cemented substrate 136 of the upper chamber 104 is unloaded.

Then, in step S12, in the substrate bonding apparatus 100, steps S01 to S11 are repeatedly performed for a predetermined number of times, suitably, five times, and in step S13, the bottom plate 113 is installed below. The correction value obtained by averaging the measured values of the four linear actuators 110 is calculated, and as in step S14, the correction values are applied to adjust each linear actuator 110 by raising or lowering it. Therefore, the optimum parallelism is maintained by continuously correcting the average value of the gaps of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 measured by the linear actuator 110 repeated in the SO1 to S12 steps by the set number of times. Can be.

6 is a gap measurement diagram of an upper substrate and a lower substrate according to the present invention.

The gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is measured by four linear actuators 110 positioned below the lower square 113, and the first shaft 160 is measured by the four linear actuators 110. The gap between the second axis 161, the third axis 163, and the fourth axis 164 is measured. The gap may be known as a relative value due to the focus gap of the camera, and the gap is corrected close to the setting value based on the average value measured on the first axis 160 or the fourth axis 164 for the set number of times.

Table 1 is an example, when the setting value for the gap between the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131 is 200㎛, by applying the average value of the five bonding processes to the linear actuator 110, Then, the content of moving the actuator 110 is displayed.

Table 1

Buy / axis 1 axis 2 axis 3 axis 4 axis 1 piece 180 250 210 320 2 sheets 130 220 203 315 3 sheets 142 235 199 324 4 sheets 156 280 201 309 5 sheets 110 290 206 316 Average 143.6 255 203.8 316.8 Correction 56.4 -55 -3.8 -116.8 Original LA shift 26000 26500 27100 25000 Change LA shift 26056.4 26445 27096.2 24883.2

As can be seen in Table 1, each of the existing linear actuators 110 are adjusted with different moving values to maintain the parallelism of the upper substrate 130 and the lower substrate 131, and the bonding process is performed five times. The linear actuator 110 is adjusted by raising or lowering the correction value based on the average value.

An auto probe device for inspecting a liquid crystal panel according to an embodiment of the present invention has the following effects.

The controller inputs the setting value of the gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and after the gap adjustment of the upper substrate and the lower substrate is completed by the linear actuator, the measurement value for the gap is controlled by the focus data by the camera used in the alignment. After transferring to the device and repeating the bonding process n times, the controller calculates the average value for the gap and automatically adjusts the correction value based on the average value to the linear actuator to stop the production of the substrate bonding device. The gap can be corrected without preventing production loss and preventing foreign substances from entering the inside of the substrate bonding device, thereby producing high quality products and enabling immediate response to products with different gaps. have.

And most importantly, in adjusting the gap, in the prior art, the gap is adjusted by repetition of trial and error by a manual worker's manual operation, which is absolutely dependent on the skilled worker, but in the present invention, regardless of the skilled worker Since the linear actuator is automatically calibrated, it is possible to efficiently operate the substrate bonding device.

Claims (8)

Attaching an upper substrate and a lower substrate to the upper electrostatic chuck and the lower electrostatic chuck, respectively, and coupling the upper chamber portion and the lower chamber portion to position the upper substrate and the lower substrate and to form a vacuum sealed space; Aligning the upper substrate and the lower substrate, bonding the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and transferring a measurement value of a gap between the upper substrate and the lower substrate to a control device; A third step of performing the first step and the second step n times and calculating a correction value of the gap in the control device; A fourth step of automatically adjusting a linear actuator for adjusting the gap by reflecting the correction value; Substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1, And repeating the first and second steps, calculating a correction value of the gap at a multiple of n, and automatically adjusting the linear actuator. The method of claim 1, And the correction value is an average value of the gaps of four corner portions of the upper substrate and the lower substrate when the first step and the second step are performed n times. The method of claim 3, wherein And said gap is measured by focusing data of a camera for aligning said upper substrate and said lower substrate. The method of claim 1, The linear actuator is a substrate parallelism adjusting method of the substrate bonding apparatus, characterized in that for adjusting the height of the lower substrate. The method of claim 1, The control device is input with a setting value for the gap, and performs the first step and the second step n times, and in the control device, compares the setting value of the gap with the average value of the gap, And adjusting the linear actuator automatically to calculate a correction value. The method of claim 1, A sealant is formed on the upper substrate, and a liquid crystal is dropped on the lower substrate. The method of claim 1, Performing jaw mark alignment to move the lower substrate to roughly align the upper substrate and the lower substrate; Narrowing the distance between the upper substrate and the lower substrate by driving the linear actuator; Performing a mi mark align to finely align the upper substrate and the lower substrate; Method of adjusting the parallelism of the substrate in the substrate bonding apparatus comprising a.

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