TWI742731B - Strengthened glass structure and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A strengthened glass structure and a manufacturing thereof are provided. The manufacturing method of the strengthened glass structure includes providing a mother glass, chemically strengthening the mother glass to form a first strengthened layer in an outer surface of the mother glass, forming an anti-reflection layer on a first surface of the mother glass, forming a stress buffer layer on a second surface of the mother glass, so as to form a coated glass substrate, wherein the first surface and the second surface are on two opposite sides of the mother glass, cutting the coated glass substrate into a plurality of substrate units to expose a lateral surface that is not chemically strengthened of each substrate unit, and chemically strengthening the substrate units to form a second strengthened layer in the lateral surface of each substrate unit.

Description

Strengthened glass structure and manufacturing method thereof

The invention relates to a strengthened glass structure and a manufacturing method thereof, in particular to a strengthened glass structure with an anti-reflection layer and a manufacturing method thereof.

Tempered glass is commonly used in various electronic products. For example, in display devices or touch devices, such as smartphones, tablets, notebooks, or e-readers, chemically strengthened coatings can be used Tempered glass serves as the glass cover.

In the prior art, the production method of the coated strengthened glass cover plate is generally to first cut a large-sized glass substrate into small-sized glass plates, and then chemically strengthen and coat each glass plate. However, since the small-sized glass plate is coated in this production method, the production operation is time-consuming and labor-intensive, resulting in high cost.

In addition, the above-mentioned glass plate will have the problem of residual stress after coating, which makes the coating surface and non-coated surface stress unbalanced, and the glass plate is prone to warping due to this, which affects the assembly tolerance of the subsequent process and causes structural extrusion Or the problem of damage.

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a strengthened glass structure and a manufacturing method thereof, so as to reduce the time and labor required for manufacturing, reduce costs, and balance the residual stress generated by the film layer to avoid the problem of warpage.

To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure, including: (a) providing a mother glass plate; (b) chemically strengthening the mother glass plate to form a first strengthening layer on the outer surface of the glass mother plate ; (C) Form an anti-reflection layer on the first surface of the mother glass plate; (d) Form a stress buffer layer on the second surface of the mother glass plate to form a coated glass plate, wherein the first surface and the second surface Located on the opposite sides of the mother glass plate; (e) cutting the coated glass plate into a plurality of substrate units, exposing the side surface of each substrate unit that has not been chemically strengthened; and (f) chemically strengthening the substrate unit to A second reinforcement layer is formed on the side surface of each substrate unit.

To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a strengthened glass structure. The strengthened glass structure includes a glass body, an anti-reflection layer and a stress buffer layer. The glass body includes an upper surface, a lower surface opposite to the upper surface, and a side surface, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface respectively have a first strengthening layer, and the side surface has a second strengthening layer. The anti-reflection layer is formed on the upper surface of the glass body. The stress buffer layer is formed on the lower surface of the glass body, so that the stress buffer layer and the anti-reflection layer are in stress balance.

According to the strengthened glass structure and the manufacturing method of the present invention, by forming the anti-reflection layer on the glass mother board first, and then cutting it, the production cost can be reduced and the production capacity is relatively high. In addition, a stress buffer layer is formed on the other surface of the anti-reflection layer to balance the residual stress generated by the anti-reflection layer. In addition, the anti-reflection layer and the stress buffer layer can block the effect of chemical strengthening, so as to avoid warping caused by stress imbalance during chemical strengthening again.

The present invention can be understood by referring to the following detailed description and combined with the drawings. It should be noted that, in order to make the readers easy to understand and concise the drawings, the drawings of the present invention only draw at least a part of the strengthened glass structure or manufacture strengthening At least a part of the structure in the steps of the glass structure, and the specific elements in the drawings are not drawn according to the actual scale. In addition, the number and size of each element in the drawings are only for illustration, and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention.

Throughout the specification of the present invention and the scope of the appended patent applications, certain terms will be used to refer to specific elements. Those skilled in the art should understand that tempered glass manufacturers may refer to the same components by different names. This article does not intend to distinguish those elements with the same function but different names. In the following description and the scope of patent application, the words "containing" and "including" are open-ended words, so they should be interpreted as meaning "containing but not limited to...". When the terms "include", "include" and/or "have" are used in this specification, they specify the existence of the described features, regions, steps, operations and/or elements, but do not exclude one or more other The existence or addition of features, regions, steps, operations, elements, and/or combinations thereof.

When an element or film layer is said to be "on" or "connected" to another element or film layer, it can be directly on this other element or film layer or directly connected to this other element or film layer. Element or film layer, or there is an intervening element or film layer in between. Conversely, when an element is said to be "directly" on or "directly connected" to another element or film layer, there is no intervening element or film layer between the two.

It should be noted that the following embodiments can replace, reorganize, and mix the technical features of several different embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention to complete other embodiments.

Please refer to Figure 1, Figure 2 to Figure 7, and Figure 8. Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method of manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figures 2 to 7 are schematic diagrams of the manufacturing process of a method of manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the strengthened glass structure shown in Figure 7 along the tangent line A-A'. The manufacturing method of the packaging structure strengthened glass structure 100 of the present embodiment will be described below in conjunction with FIGS. 1 to 8, but is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, steps can be added or deleted according to requirements.

As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, first, step S100 is performed to provide a mother glass substrate 110. The mother glass substrate 110 may be, for example, a large-sized glass substrate, and the length by the width thereof may be, for example, greater than or equal to 620 millimeters (mm)×750 millimeters, but is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the size of the mother glass substrate 110 may range from 620 mm×750 mm to 2880 mm×3130 mm. The size of the mother glass plate 110 of the present invention is 730 mm×920 mm as an example, but is not limited to this.

Next, after step S100, step S110 is performed to chemically strengthen the mother glass plate 110 to form a first strengthening layer 120 on the outer surface 110S of the mother glass plate 110. In some embodiments, the outer surface 110S includes a first surface 112, a second surface 114, and a side surface 116. The first surface 112 and the second surface 114 are located on opposite sides of the mother glass plate 110, and the first surface 112 and The side surface 116 other than the second surface 114 is the side surface 116, wherein the upper and lower sides of the side surface 116 are connected to the first surface 112 and the second surface 114. In addition, in step S110, the first strengthening layer 120 can be formed on the first surface 112, the second surface 114, and the side surface 116 at the same time. It is shown in Figure 3, but it is not limited to this.

For example, in step S110, an ion exchange method may be used for chemical strengthening, so that the six faces of the glass mother board 110 are subjected to ion exchange to generate surface stress, that is, the first strengthening layer 120 is formed, thereby improving the glass The strength of the motherboard 110 is not limited to this. Among them, the ion exchange method can be, for example, a sodium or potassium ion exchange method. Specifically, for example, the glass mother plate 110 can be immersed in a potassium nitrate solution, so that the sodium ions on the outer surface 112 of the glass mother plate 110 are in the potassium nitrate solution. The potassium ion exchanges the potassium ions, thereby generating surface stress, thereby forming the first strengthening layer 120 on the outer surface 112, but it is not limited to this.

As shown in Figures 1 and 4, after step S110, step S120 is performed to form an anti-reflection layer 130 on the first surface 112 of the mother glass substrate 110, for example, through sputtering, evaporation, or coating. The anti-reflection layer 130 is formed on the first surface 112 of the mother glass substrate 110. The anti-reflective layer 130 may be, for example, a composite film structure. For example, the anti-reflection layer 130 is a composite film structure formed by stacking high, low refractive index materials or high, medium, and low refractive index materials, but is not limited thereto. Table 1 exemplarily shows the above-mentioned high, medium, and low refractive index materials and their corresponding refractive index n (at a wavelength of 550 nm), but is not limited thereto.

[Table 1] Anti-reflective layer material Refractive index n (wavelength is 550nm) High refractive index TiO ₂ 2.4 ~ 2.7 Nb ₂ O ₅ 2.2 ~ 2.4 Ta ₂ O ₅ 2.0 ~ 2.1 ZrO ₂ 2.1 ~ 2.2 Si ₃ N ₄ 1.9 ~ 2.0 AlN 2.0 ~ 2.1 Medium refractive index AlO _x N _y 1.6 ~ 2.1 SiO _x N _y 1.46 ~ 2.0 Si _u Al _v O _x N _y 1.8 ~ 2.0 Al ₂ O ₃ 1.6 ~ 1.7 MoO ₃ 1.8 ~ 2.0 Low refractive index SiO ₂ 1.46 ~ 1.48

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, after step S120, step S130 is performed to form a stress buffer layer 140 on the second surface 114 of the mother glass plate 110 to form a coated glass plate 150, wherein the first surface 112 The second surface 114 is located on the opposite sides of the glass mother board 110, that is, the stress buffer layer 140 is formed on the side opposite to the anti-reflection layer 130 to balance the residual stress generated by the anti-reflection layer 130. The stress buffer layer 140 may include silicon oxide (SiO _x , silicon oxide), silicon nitride (SiN _x , silicon nitride), or silicon oxynitride (SiO _x N _y ).

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, after step S130, step S140 is performed to cut the coated glass plate 150 into a plurality of substrate units 160. For example, the large-sized coated glass plate 150 can be cut into a plurality of small-sized substrate units 160 along the dotted line DL through a cutting process (such as a knife wheel cutting process or a laser cutting process). The cut substrate unit 160 may be, for example, square, rectangular, or circular in the top view direction, but is not limited thereto. In this embodiment, a square is taken as an example. Each substrate unit 160 formed after cutting includes a glass body 162, an anti-reflection layer 130, and a stress buffer layer 140. The glass body 162 includes an upper surface 164, a lower surface 166 opposite to the upper surface 164, and an upper surface 164 and a lower surface 166 Outside the side surface 168, the upper and lower sides of the side surface 168 are respectively connected to the upper surface 164 and the lower surface 166. The anti-reflection layer 130 is located on the upper surface 164 of the glass body 162, and the stress buffer layer 140 is located on the lower surface 166 of the glass body 162. When the coated glass plate 150 is cut into the substrate unit 160, the non-chemically strengthened portion of the side end thereof is exposed, that is, the non-chemically strengthened side surface 168 of the glass body 162 of the substrate unit 160 is exposed. In contrast, the upper surface 164 covered by the anti-reflective layer 130 and the lower surface 166 covered by the stress buffer layer 140 still have the first strengthening layer 120, and its chemical strengthening effect has not been removed.

As shown in Figure 1, Figure 7, and Figure 8, after step S140, step S150 is performed to chemically strengthen the substrate unit 160 to form a second strengthening layer 170 on the side surface 168 of each substrate unit 160, thereby The strengthened glass structure 100 is made. Since the side surface 168 of the glass body 162 of the substrate unit 160 exposed after cutting is a part that is not chemically strengthened, the side surface 168 needs to be chemically strengthened to form the second strengthening layer 170. That is to say, the manufacturing method of the strengthened glass structure 100 of the present invention includes two chemical strengthening steps. In the finally manufactured strengthened glass structure 100, the first strengthening layer 120 formed by the first chemical strengthening in step S110 It is located on the upper surface 164 and the lower surface 166 of the glass body 162; and the second strengthening layer 170 formed by the second chemical strengthening in step S150 is located on the side surface 168 of the glass body 162.

For example, in step S150, an ion exchange method may be used for chemical strengthening, so that the side surface 168 of the glass body 162 of the substrate unit 160 generates surface stress through ion exchange to form the second strengthening layer 170, thereby Increase the strength of the glass. Among them, the ion exchange method may be, for example, a sodium or potassium ion exchange method. Specifically, for example, the substrate unit 160 may be immersed in a potassium nitrate solution to exchange sodium ions on the side surface 168 with potassium ions in the potassium nitrate solution. This generates surface stress, thereby forming the second strengthening layer 170 on the side surface 168, but not limited to this.

In addition, in the substrate unit 160, the anti-reflection layer 130 may be an ion exchange insulating layer to block the chemical strengthening effect in step S150. For example, the anti-reflection layer 130 may be a composite film structure composed of 4 to 10 layers or more than 10 layers stacked in a specific film thickness range, but it is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the anti-reflection layer 130 is a Nb ₂ O ₅ layer (optical thickness of 200 to 450 Å), SiO ₂ layer (400 to 600 Å), Nb ₂ O ₅ layer (2300 to 2800 Å), SiO ₂ layer ( 1100 to 1300 Å) are stacked in order from bottom to top along the direction D. The above optical thickness is calculated by multiplying the physical film thickness by the refractive index n (that is, optical thickness = physical film thickness x refractive index), However, the material and thickness of each film layer are not limited to this. In other embodiments, the anti-reflection layer 130 is a SiO _x N _y layer (optical thickness of 300 to 400 Å), SiO ₂ layer (400 to 500 Å), SiO _x N _y layer (2300 to 2800 Å), SiO ₂ layer (1100 to 1350 Å) stacked in order from bottom to top along direction D, but not limited to this. Therefore, through the arrangement of the anti-reflective layer 130 and the design of the film structure, the chemically strengthened ion exchange in step S150 can be effectively isolated, so as to avoid warping caused by stress imbalance, and it can also prevent the anti-reflective layer 130 from being damaged during the insulator exchange. The influence of the spectrum. It should be noted that the composition of the anti-reflective layer 130 in the above-mentioned embodiment is not used to limit the thickness and material of each layer of the anti-reflective layer 130 and the number of stacked layers, but is only an exemplary example of the present invention.

Furthermore, in the substrate unit 160, the stress buffer layer 140 may be an ion exchange isolation layer to block the chemical strengthening effect in step S150. _{For example, the stress buffer layer 140 may be a SiO x} N _y layer with a refractive index n of 1.85 (at a wavelength of 550 nm) and an optical thickness of 90 to 350 Å, but it is not limited thereto. Therefore, through the arrangement of the stress buffer layer 140 and its structural design, the chemically strengthened ion exchange in step S150 can be effectively isolated to avoid warping caused by stress imbalance, and the overall optical design of the manufactured strengthened glass structure 100 The impact may be less obvious.

In some embodiments, the manufacturing method of the strengthened glass structure 100 of the present invention further includes: after step S140, selectively edging or polishing the side surface 168 of each substrate unit 140. For example, the side surface 168 of the substrate unit 160 can be edged or polished through a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to remove cracks or defects caused by the cutting process, and enhance the strength of the glass. In some embodiments, it is also possible to chamfer the substrate unit 160 through CNC according to design requirements, such as chamfering the R-angle or C-angle, but it is not limited to this.

Please refer to Figures 7 and 8 again. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the strengthened glass structure is manufactured through the aforementioned manufacturing method. The strengthened glass structure 100 of an embodiment of the present invention may include a glass body 162, an anti-reflection layer 130, and a stress buffer layer 140 . The glass body 162 includes an upper surface 164, a lower surface 166 opposite to the upper surface 164, and a side surface 168. The upper surface 164 and the lower surface 166 respectively have a first strengthening layer 120, and the side surface 168 has a second strengthening layer 170. Wherein, the first strengthening layer 120 and the second strengthening layer 170 are sequentially formed by different ion exchange processes. The anti-reflection layer 130 is formed on the upper surface 164 of the glass body 162, wherein the anti-reflection layer 130 can contact the first strengthening layer 120 on the upper surface 164 and a part of the second strengthening layer 170. The stress buffer layer 140 is formed on the lower surface 166 of the glass body 162, so that the stress buffer layer 140 and the anti-reflection layer 130 are in stress balance. The anti-reflection layer 130 can contact the first strengthening layer 120 on the lower surface 166 and a part of the first strengthening layer 120 Two strengthening layer 170. In this embodiment, the strengthened glass structure 100 is a hexahedral structure, that is, it includes a top surface (for example, the upper surface 164), a bottom surface (for example, the lower surface 166), and four side surfaces (for example, side surfaces 168, respectively). The second strengthening layer 170 is formed in the side surface 168 of the glass body 162 on the four sides, but it is not limited to this.

Please refer to FIG. 9, which is a schematic diagram of a strengthened glass structure according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 9, the strengthened glass structure 100' is a cylindrical structure or a round cake structure, that is, it includes a top surface (for example, the upper surface 164), a bottom surface (for example, the lower surface 166) and a side surface (for example, Is the side surface 168), wherein the top surface and the bottom surface respectively have a first strengthening layer (not shown), the top surface and the bottom surface are respectively formed with an anti-reflective layer 130 and a stress buffer layer 140, and the second strengthening layer 170 is formed on the In the side surface 168 of the glass body 162, but not limited to this. The elements, structures, and materials included in the strengthened glass structure 100 and the strengthened glass structure 100' of the present invention have been described in detail in the foregoing embodiments, so they will not be repeated here.

In summary, the strengthened glass structure and manufacturing method of the present invention is to first form an anti-reflective layer on a large-area glass mother board, and then perform cutting, so as to reduce the production cost and have higher mass productivity. In addition, a stress buffer layer is formed on the other surface of the anti-reflection layer to balance the residual stress generated by the anti-reflection layer. In addition, the anti-reflection layer and the stress buffer layer can block the effect of chemical strengthening, so as to avoid warping caused by stress imbalance during chemical strengthening again. The foregoing descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of the patent application of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

100,100’: Strengthened glass structure 110: glass mother board 110S: Outer surface 112: first surface 114: second surface 116: side 120: The first reinforcement layer 130: Anti-reflective layer 140: Stress buffer layer 150: Coated glass plate 160: base unit 162: Glass body 164: upper surface 166: lower surface 168: side surface 170: Second Strengthening Layer D: direction S100, S110, S120, S130, S140, S150: steps

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method of manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figures 2 to 7 are schematic diagrams of the manufacturing process of a method of manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the strengthened glass structure shown in Figure 7 along the tangent line A-A'. Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a strengthened glass structure according to another embodiment of the present invention.

100: Tempered glass structure

120: The first reinforcement layer

130: Anti-reflective layer

140: Stress buffer layer

162: Glass body

164: upper surface

166: lower surface

168: side surface

170: Second Strengthening Layer

Claims (11)

A method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure includes: (a) providing a mother glass plate; (b) chemically strengthening the mother glass plate to form a first strengthening layer on the outer surface of the mother glass plate; (c) An anti-reflection layer is formed on a first surface of the mother glass plate; (d) a stress buffer layer is formed on a second surface of the mother glass plate to form a coated glass plate, wherein the first surface And the second surface are located on opposite sides of the mother glass plate; (e) cutting the coated glass plate into a plurality of substrate units, so that the side surfaces of the substrate units that are not chemically strengthened are exposed; and (f) The substrate units are chemically strengthened to form a second strengthening layer on the side surface of each substrate unit. The method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to claim 1, wherein the outer surface of the mother glass plate includes the first surface, the second surface and the side surface, and in the step (b), the first strengthened layer Simultaneously formed on the first surface, the second surface and the side surface. The method of manufacturing a reinforced glass configuration request entries, wherein the stress buffer layer comprises a silicon oxide (SiO _x, silicon oxide), silicon nitride (SiN _x, silicon nitride) or silicon oxynitride (silicon oxynitride, SiO _x N _y ). The method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to claim 1, further comprising after the step (e), edging or polishing the side surface of each substrate unit. The method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to claim 1, wherein in the step (b), chemical strengthening is performed by an ion exchange method to form the first strengthening layer. The method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to claim 1, wherein in the step (f), chemical strengthening is performed by an ion exchange method to form the second strengthening layer, and the anti-reflection layer and the stress buffer layer Each is an ion exchange isolation layer. The method for manufacturing a strengthened glass structure according to claim 1, wherein the size of the mother glass plate is greater than or equal to 620 millimeters (mm) x 750 millimeters. A strengthened glass structure includes: a glass body, including an upper surface, a lower surface opposite to the upper surface, and a side surface, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface each have a first strengthening layer, and the side surface has a second Strengthening layer; an anti-reflection layer formed on the upper surface of the glass body; and a stress buffer layer formed on the lower surface of the glass body, so that the stress buffer layer and the anti-reflection layer are in stress balance. The strengthened glass structure according to claim 8, wherein the stress buffer layer includes silicon oxide, silicon nitride, or silicon oxynitride. The strengthened glass structure according to claim 8, wherein the first strengthened layer and the second strengthened layer are sequentially formed by different ion exchange processes. The strengthened glass structure according to claim 8, wherein the anti-reflection layer is a composite film layer structure.

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