KR20140079668A

KR20140079668A - Vibration Assisted Contact-type printing machine

Info

Publication number: KR20140079668A
Application number: KR1020120148847A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 최영만; 이승현; 이택민; 최병오; 장윤석
Original assignee: 한국기계연구원
Priority date: 2012-12-18
Filing date: 2012-12-18
Publication date: 2014-06-27

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vibration-contact-type printing apparatus, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vibration-contact-type printing apparatus which improves the transfer efficiency of ink by applying vibration in a contact-type printing apparatus using a printing technique such as gravure printing, Device.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a Vibration Assisted Contact-type printing machine,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a vibration-

Lithography techniques have been widely used in conventional electronic device fabrication techniques. However, in order to constitute an actual process using the lithography technique, various complicated processes such as vacuum deposition, exposure, development, plating or etching are required, and the process design and device configuration are complicated. In addition, due to the development of micro-technologies in various fields, a method has been sought for making an integrated circuit differently from photolithography.

Electronic printing is a technique of manufacturing an electronic device by simply performing a printing process. Since electronic printing can fundamentally eliminate the process complexity inherent in the photolithography process by replacing the photolithography process described above, researches have been actively conducted in recent years, such that the application range is expanded to various fields. Non-contact printing technologies include inkjet, spray, and slot die coating. Contact-type printing technologies include gravure, gravure offset, reverse offset, and screen printing.

On the other hand, in recent semiconductor manufacturing technology, a flexible substrate made of film rather than a rigid substrate has been used. When such a film type substrate is used, the process speed is increased and mass production is possible. The combination of the roll-to-roll production method and the electronic printing technology is very active in that the production efficiency can be further increased by combining the electronic printing technology as described above ought.

In the non-contact type printing method, it is suitable to perform printing in which a large area is uniformly coated, whereas in the case of forming a fine pattern, contact type printing techniques such as gravure and reverse offset are mainly used. In this contact printing technique, rolls are generally used for continuous processing. That is, a pattern to be printed is formed on the roll, and the pattern on the roll is transferred to the substrate to perform printing. Such a contact printing technique can be applied to both rigid substrates and flexible substrates. In the case of a rigid substrate, the roll and the substrate placed on the stage come in contact. In the case of a flexible substrate, Or a flexible substrate supported by another plate-like support is brought into contact. In the former case, the roll and the stage contact each other. In the latter case, the roll, the roll or the roll and the plate-like support come into contact.

In the contact type electronic printing using such a roll, there are various ways in which the printing material, that is, the ink, is transferred. 1 (A) and 1 (B) illustrate various ink transferring principles. FIG. 1 (A) shows a transfer by a flat plate-shaped relief plate, FIG. 1 1 (D) shows the transfer by the roll-shaped concave plate, respectively. 1B is a transfer principle of a printing technique which is substantially called flexo printing. The transfer principle of this embodiment is that the printing speed is fast and the printing precision is intermediate to medium of about 40 탆 or more, However, there is a disadvantage in that there are many limitations on usable ink materials. 1 (D) is a transfer principle of a printing technique called gravure printing, which has a great advantage in that the printing speed is very fast and the printing precision is very high as about 15 탆 or more, but the drawback is that the equipment cost is relatively high have. In recent years, however, integration of circuits has become more sophisticated, and a finer pattern printing is required. Therefore, there is a tendency that an improvement in printing precision is required, and a gravure printing method capable of achieving high printing precision is widely used in electronic printing today.

1 (C) or Fig. 1 (D), it is ideal that the transfer member is accommodated in a pocket as shown in Fig. 1 (C) or Fig. 1 (D) The ink contained in the accommodating portion is not completely transferred to the transfer target, but only a part of the ink is transferred to the transfer target and the remaining portion remains in the accommodating portion It is known that there are many cases of As a result, there has been a problem that the thickness of the printing is uneven or the formation of a thick film is difficult.

Various studies have been made on various printing apparatuses in order to improve the quality of printing. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2012-0091354 ("Screen Print Head, Screen Printing Method and Printing Blade", Aug. 17, 2012), U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120042795 ("METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON A SUBSTRATE" A technique for applying vibration to a printing blade or a stencil plate to better fill ink in a hole in the stencil plate in a stencil-like screen printing technique is disclosed. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-153319 ("Screen Printing Apparatus and Bump Forming Method", Jul. 3, 2008), vibration is applied to the mask in the formation of the bump electrode so that the soldering ball (to be a bump electrode) To be disposed in a well-known manner. In Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2007-0040521 ("Inkjet Printer Head Suitable for FPD Substrate Printing ", Apr. 17, 2007), in a printing apparatus of the ink jet principle, vibration is applied to a sub- Thereby smoothly discharging the ink.

Various studies have been conducted on various printing techniques to improve the print quality by using vibration. However, since the printing principle and the configuration of the printing apparatus are completely different from each other according to the printing technique, it is not easy to apply the vibration using principle used in any printing technique directly to other printing techniques. It is of no technical significance to apply the principles of the prior art to gravure printing techniques as described above in particular. In other words, in the printing technique such as gravure printing, there is no technology to completely transfer the ink accommodated in the receiving portion so that the ink does not remain at the time of transfer.

1. Korean Patent Publication No. 2012-0091354 ("Screen Print Head, Screen Printing Method and Printing Blade ", Aug. 17, 2012) 2. US Patent Publication No. 20120042795 ("METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON A SUBSTRATE ", Feb. 23, 2012) 3. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-153319 ("Screen Printing Apparatus and Bump Forming Method ", Jul.07, 2008) 4. Korean Patent Publication No. 2007-0040521 ("Inkjet printer head suitable for FPD substrate printing ", 2007.04.17)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a contact type printing apparatus using a printing technique such as gravure printing, And a vibration-contact-type printing apparatus which improves the performance of the apparatus.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vibration-contact-type printing apparatus, including: a transfer unit 110 having a plurality of receiving portions 115 for receiving ink 500 on a surface thereof; A nascent portion 120 in contact with the transfer portion 110 to transfer the ink 500; At least one selected from the transfer unit 110 or the transfer unit 120 is provided so that the kinetic energy of the ink 500 is increased and the ink 500 is separated from the inner wall of the receiving unit 115 A vibration unit 130 for applying vibration; And a control unit.

In this case, the transfer unit 110 may be a transfer roll 110A in the form of a roll or a transfer plate 110B in the form of a flat plate. Also, the navel 120 may be a substrate 120A in the form of a flat plate or a film, or a blanket roll 120B in the form of a roll.

In addition, the vibration unit 130 may include a first direction in which the transfer direction of the transfer unit 110 and the nonspecular unit 120 are in a first direction, a direction perpendicular to the first direction in a second direction, a first direction and a second direction The vibration may be applied in at least one direction selected from the first direction to the third direction when the direction perpendicular to the first direction is a third direction.

Also, the vibration unit 130 may be configured so that the amplitude of the applied vibration is in the range of 0.1 to 100 mu m. Alternatively, the vibration unit 130 may be configured such that the amplitude of the applied vibration is in the range of 1% to 100% of the line width of the shape printed by the printing apparatus 100.

Also, the vibration unit 130 may be configured such that the frequency of the applied vibration is in the range of several Hz to several tens kHz. Alternatively, the vibration unit 130 may be configured such that the frequency of the applied vibration is lower than the frequency of the vibration applied to the transfer unit 110, the nip 120, the transfer unit 110, May be in the range of 0.5 to 1.5 times of at least one resonance frequency selected from the combinations of the pair of arcs 120.

The ink 500 may be formed of a conductive material such as silver, copper, aluminum, carbon nanotubes, organic conductive polymer, ITO, IZO, carbon and graphene, or a conductive material such as polythiophene, pentacene derivatives, May be the same semiconductor material.

According to the present invention, there is a great effect of improving the transfer efficiency of ink by applying vibration in a contact type printing apparatus using a printing technique such as gravure printing or the like. More specifically, it is as follows. In the printing technique such as gravure printing, transfer is performed in such a manner that the ink contained in the pocket is transferred to the transfer target. At this time, the ink in the receiving portion can not be completely transferred to the transfer target, There are many cases in which they remain. In other words, not only the originally designed ink is transferred to the object to be transferred (printed matter), but only a part of the ink is transferred, which affects the print quality, such as uneven thickness of printing or difficulty of forming thick film. Particularly in the case where an integrated circuit or the like is to be formed through a printing technique such as an electronic printing technique, such a problem causes a deterioration in the performance of the product.

According to the present invention, vibration of an appropriate frequency and amplitude is applied to ink at the time of transferring the ink accommodated in the accommodating portion to the transfer object, so that the kinetic energy of the ink in the accommodating portion is increased, By further strengthening the property to be separated from the inner wall of the sub-part, there is a great effect that ink can be completely separated from the receiving part and completely transferred to the transfer target. That is, according to the present invention, the ink remaining ratio in the accommodating portion can be greatly reduced compared to the conventional art, and ultimately, the transfer efficiency can be dramatically improved.

Of course, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the performance of a product manufactured through electronic printing, and to obtain a variety of effects that may significantly reduce the defect rate in terms of mass production.

Figure 1 illustrates the principles of various printing techniques.
2 illustrates the phenomenon of transfer efficiency deterioration.
3 is a principle of improving the transfer efficiency of the printing apparatus of the present invention.
Figures 4 and 5 illustrate various embodiments of the printing apparatus of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a vibration-contact-type printing apparatus according to the present invention having the above-described structure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the phenomenon in which the transfer efficiency is lowered in more detail. In the example of FIG. 2, ink is transferred onto a flat substrate using a transfer roll having a pocket formed on the surface thereof. As shown in Fig. 2 (A), ink is contained in the receiving portion of the surface of the transfer roll, and when the ink contacts the substrate, ideally, the ink in the receiving portion must be transferred to the substrate. 2 (B), a part of the ink adheres to the inner wall of the accommodating portion and can not completely separate from the accommodating portion during the process of transferring (i.e., transferring) the ink to the substrate. As a result, The ink in the receiving portion can not be completely transferred onto the substrate, and a part of the ink remains in the receiving portion, thus completing the transfer process.

If ink is not completely transferred, it will not be a problem in the case of general printed matter, but it may be a problem in electronic printing technology. As described above, the electronic printing technique is a technique for forming a pattern of an integrated circuit or the like using a printing technique, that is, a circuit is made by printing. The ink used for electronic printing is a conductive material such as silver nano-particle ink, silver nanowire, etc., and the amount of current flowing depending on the line width, thickness, etc. of the printed pattern may be changed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the transfer is not completely performed in the printing process, the thickness of the printed pattern may be different from that of the design, or quality control may not be performed to uniform the pattern thickness, And a condition in which a smooth operation is difficult to be performed when the same post-process is performed is formed. Therefore, it is very important that the ink in the accommodating portion is completely released without being left in the accommodating portion so as to be completely transferred to the transfer subject.

Fig. 3 shows the principle of improving the transfer efficiency of the printing apparatus of the present invention. A vibration-contact-type printing apparatus (100) of the present invention is a structure in which a basic form is applied to a gravure printing principle, and basically includes a plurality of receiving portions (115) (110), and a transfer part (120) in contact with the transfer part (110) to transfer the ink (500). The transfer unit 110 and the transfer unit 120 may have various shapes, which will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.

As described above, in the printing apparatus 100 of the present invention, in a state where the ink 500 is received in the receiving portion 115 formed on the transfer portion 110, the transfer portion 110 And the ink 500 contained in the accommodating portion 115 is transferred to the nip portion 120 by being brought into contact with the nip portion 120. (There are gravure printing techniques and the like as a typical printing technique that uses this principle.) At this time, there is a problem that the ink in the accommodating portion is not completely transferred to the transfer sleeve in the contact type printing apparatus as described with reference to FIG.

3 (A), in order that the ink 500 in the accommodating portion 115 can be completely transferred to the nip portion 120, that is, the transfer efficiency is maximized, The vibrating part 130 may be provided on at least one of the first part 110 and the second part 120 to apply vibration. 3 (A) is merely a conceptual illustration, and the vibration unit 130 is shown as being provided in the transfer unit 110. However, the present invention is not limited thereto at all, Will be described later in more detail with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. FIG.

The principle of how the transfer efficiency is improved by the vibration unit 130 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 (B). 3 (B) is a state as shown in Fig. 2 (A). In the state where the ink 500 is received in the receiving portion 115, the transfer portion 110 is positioned at the receiving portion 115, Is brought into contact with the nipping portion (120). At this time, the exposed portion of the ink 500 comes into contact with the surface of the nascent portion 120 and sticks to the nascent portion 120. Since the ink 500 is still attached to the inner wall of the receiving part 115, the ink 500 is completely transferred to the nipping part 120 as shown in FIG. 2B There was a problem that I could not go through. However, in the present invention, vibration is applied to the transfer unit 110 or the transfer unit 120 using the vibration unit 130. The applied vibration is transmitted to the ink 500 accommodated in the accommodating portion 115, so that the kinetic energy of the ink 500 is increased. When the kinetic energy of the ink 500 is increased, the ink 500 can be easily separated from the inner wall of the receiving part 115 as shown in the middle diagram of FIG. 3 (B). 3 (B), when the transfer unit 110 moves as in the state in which the ink 500 is separated from the inner wall of the receiving unit 115, The entire amount can be completely transferred to the desired position on the nip portion 120 since the entire amount is completely separated from the nip portion 115. That is, the present invention can solve the problem that a part of the ink remains in the accommodating portion in the past so that the entire amount of ink can not be transferred to the nip portion, and only part of the ink is transferred.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the contact type printing apparatus using the principle that the ink in the receiving portion is transferred to the transfer object as in the gravure printing technique, by applying appropriate vibration at the time of transfer, the kinetic energy of the ink is increased, So that the entire amount of the ink in the accommodating portion can be perfectly transferred. Therefore, it is possible to produce high-quality products that meet the expected performance exactly as designed, especially in the electronic printing technology, and of course, even in the work of performing post-processing, there is a problem And so on.

In order to effectively isolate the ink 500 from the inner wall of the receiving part 115 by the vibration of the vibration part 130 as described above, The amplitude or the frequency can be appropriately designed.

As described above, the printing apparatus 100 of the present invention is particularly useful in electronic printing technology. In recent years, electronic printing technology has required printing accuracy from the line width to the unit of micro to nano. In view of this point, it is preferable that the vibration applied by the vibration unit 130 is set to an amplitude within a range that does not affect the print pattern due to vibration. Specifically, the amplitude of the vibration applied by the vibration unit 130 can be set within the range of 0.1 to 100 mu m. The amplitude of the vibration applied by the vibration unit 130 may be within the range of 1% to 100% of the line width of the shape printed by the printing apparatus 100, depending on the pattern to be printed.

In order for the ink 500 to be effectively separated from the inner wall of the receiving part 115 by the vibration applied by the vibration part 130, the frequency of the applied vibration must also be considered important. Specifically, the vibration frequency applied by the vibration unit 130 can be set within a range of several Hz to several tens kHz. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frequency of the vibration applied by the vibration unit (130) is greater than a frequency of the transfer unit (100) applied with vibration by the vibration unit (130) The resonance frequency of the at least one resonance frequency selected from the resonance frequency of the resonance frequency of the resonance frequency of the resonance frequency,

The amplitude or frequency of the vibration may be determined in consideration of the physical properties of the ink 500. As described above, in particular, when the printing apparatus 100 of the present invention is applied to electronic printing, the ink 500 may be formed of silver, copper, aluminum, carbon nanotubes, organic conductive polymers, ITO, IZO, carbon, The same conductive material or a semiconductor material such as a polythiophene, a pentacene derivative, or the like. The amplitude or frequency of the vibration can be determined according to the properties of these materials.

4 and 5, various embodiments of the printing apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail. In Figs. 4 and 5, various forms of the transfer portion 110 and the nip portion 120 are exemplarily shown.

4A and 5A show a case in which the transfer unit 110 is a transfer roll 110A in the form of a roll and the transfer unit 120 is a substrate 120A in the form of a flat plate . 4 and 5 illustrate a case where the substrate 120A is in the form of a flat plate. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. Of course, the substrate 120A may be a flexible substrate in the form of a film, Of course, this is possible. 4A and 5A, the transfer portion 110 is a transfer roll 110A, and a plurality of receiving portions 115A are formed on the surface of the transfer roll 110A . In the above embodiments, the nipping portion 120 is the substrate 120A, and the ink 500 contained in the receiving portion 115A is conveyed from the receiving portion 115A to the transfer roll 110A And when the substrate 120A contacts the substrate 120A.

4A is a case where the vibration unit 130 applies vibration to the transfer roll 110A (i.e., the transfer unit 110), and the embodiment of FIG. And the eccentric portion 130 applies vibration to the substrate 120A (i.e., the nascent portion 120). As shown in the figure, the vibration applied by the vibration unit 130 may be in any direction. More specifically, the vibration direction of the transfer unit 110 and the nonspeed unit 120 may be a first direction, And a direction perpendicular to one direction is referred to as a second direction, and a direction perpendicular to the first direction and a second direction is referred to as a third direction, the vibration unit 130 may include at least one selected from a first direction to a third direction The vibration can be applied in the direction of FIG. Whether or not the vibration is most effectively applied in which direction can be variously determined depending on the configuration of the printing apparatus itself, the physical properties such as viscosity and density of the ink, the shape characteristic such as the line width and the thickness of the pattern to be printed,

4B and 5B show a case where the transfer part 110 is a transfer plate 110B having a flat plate shape and the transfer part 120 is a roll type blanket roll 120B to be. 4B and 5B, the transfer portion 110 is formed as a transfer plate 110B, and a plurality of receiving portions 115B are formed on the surface of the transfer plate 110B . In the above embodiments, the nip portion 120 is the blanket roll 120B, and the ink 500 contained in the receiving portion 115B is transferred from the receiving portion 115B to the transfer plate 110B) and the blanket roll 120B are in contact with each other.

4B is a case where the vibration unit 130 applies vibration to the transfer plate 110B (i.e., the transfer unit 110), and the embodiment of FIG. And the eccentric portion 130 applies vibration to the blanket roll 120B (i.e., the nipping portion 120). Of course, it is needless to say that the direction of the vibration to be applied can be appropriately determined in accordance with the circumstances and conditions similarly to the case of Fig. 4 (A) or Fig. 5 (A).

The following table summarizes the configuration of the embodiments.

It is needless to say that the printing apparatus 100 of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and that the vibrating unit 130 is configured to apply vibration to both the transferring unit 110 and the transferring unit 120 Or the transfer unit 110 and the transfer unit 120 may be formed in a form other than the transfer roll 110A / transfer plate 110B / substrate 120A / blanket roll 120B, The specific configuration of the printing apparatus 100 may be variously changed without departing from the technical idea of the present invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It goes without saying that various modifications can be made.

100: Printing device (of the present invention)
110: transfer unit 120:
110A: transfer roll 120A: substrate
110B: Transcription plate 120B: Blanket roll
130: Vibrating part 500: Ink

Claims

A transfer portion 110 on which a plurality of receiving portions 115 for receiving the ink 500 are formed;
A nascent portion 120 in contact with the transfer portion 110 to transfer the ink 500;
At least one selected from the transfer unit 110 or the transfer unit 120 is provided so that the kinetic energy of the ink 500 is increased and the ink 500 is separated from the inner wall of the receiving unit 115 A vibration unit 130 for applying vibration;
Wherein the vibration-contact-type printing apparatus comprises:

The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit (110)
Is a transfer roll (110A) in the form of a roll or a transfer plate (110B) in the form of a flat plate.

[2] The apparatus according to claim 1,
Is a substrate (120A) in the form of a plate or film, or a blanket roll (120B) in the form of a roll.

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vibration unit (130)
The direction in which the transfer unit 110 and the nip portion 120 are contacted is referred to as a first direction, a direction perpendicular to the first direction is referred to as a second direction, a direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction is referred to as a third direction when doing,
Wherein the vibration is applied in at least one direction selected from the first direction to the third direction.

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vibration unit (130)
Wherein the amplitude of the applied vibration is within the range of 0.1 to 100 mu m.

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vibration unit (130)
Wherein the amplitude of the applied vibration is within a range of 1% to 100% of the line width of the shape printed by the printing apparatus (100).

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vibration unit (130)
Wherein the frequency of the applied vibration is in the range of several to several tens of kHz.

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vibration unit (130)
The frequency of the vibration to be applied is selected from the combination of the transfer portion 110, the nip portion 120, the transfer portion 110 and the nip portion 120 to which vibration is applied by the vibration unit 130 Is within a range of 0.5 to 1.5 times of at least one resonance frequency.

The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink (500)
Is a conductive material selected from the group consisting of copper, aluminum, carbon nanotubes, organic conductive polymers, ITO, IZO, carbon, and graphene.

The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink (500)
Wherein the at least one semiconductor material is at least one semiconductor material selected from the group consisting of polythiophene and pentacene derivatives.