TWI781189B - Polarized light irradiation device and polarized light irradiation method - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a polarized light irradiation device and a polarized light irradiation method capable of irradiating a workpiece with polarized light from an oblique direction without enlarging the device. [Solution] Polarized light irradiation device (100), has: light source (11); to configure and emit the light from the incident end (23) into the output end (22); the lens unit (30), which has a polarizing element (34), polarized light to form a linear shape along the above-mentioned one direction The polarized light is emitted from the light irradiation area (34), the polarized light is formed by polarizing the light emitted from the output end (22) of the light guide fiber (20) by the polarizing element (34); and obliquely irradiated A mechanism (40) for fixing a lens unit (30) at an arbitrary angle so that polarized light is irradiated obliquely to a light irradiation surface of an object to be processed (work (W)).

Description

Polarized light irradiation device and polarized light irradiation method

The present invention relates to a polarized light irradiation device and a polarized light irradiation method for irradiating a workpiece with polarized light.

In recent years, regarding the photo-alignment treatment of the alignment film of the liquid crystal display element including the liquid crystal panel, or the alignment layer of the viewing angle compensation film, etc., it is a technology called photo-alignment that uses polarized light of a predetermined wavelength to perform alignment.

As an apparatus for performing the above-mentioned photo-alignment treatment, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses an exposure apparatus that tilts a light irradiation section to irradiate light to a workpiece (substrate) that is a processing object from an oblique direction. In addition, Patent Document 2 discloses a method of irradiating oblique light to the object by tilting a holder that supports the object to be processed (substrate) by inclining the object to be processed.

[Prior Art Literature] [Patent Document]

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-154658

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-107731

As described in each of the above patent documents, conventionally, in the manufacturing process of a liquid crystal panel (liquid crystal substrate), a process of irradiating a substrate with light from an oblique direction has been performed. In addition, in recent years, it is also desired to irradiate a substrate with polarized light from an oblique direction.

However, in recent years, the liquid crystal substrate has a side length of 2 m or more, and a device for irradiating polarized light on such a large substrate has a light irradiation part or a platform for supporting the substrate. The upsizing becomes large and heavy. Then, as in the techniques described in each of the above-mentioned patent documents, in the structure for inclining the light irradiation part or the stage, the inclination mechanism used therefor will be enlarged. Therefore, the size of the entire device increases, and the cost of the device also increases.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a polarized light irradiation device and a polarized light irradiation method capable of irradiating a workpiece with polarized light from an oblique direction without enlarging the device.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an aspect of the polarized light irradiation device of the present invention includes: a lamp provided with a light source; and a light guide fiber having an incident end through which light from the light source enters and arranged along one direction. And the output end that emits the light injected from the aforementioned input end; the lens unit, which is arranged separately from the aforementioned lamp, has a polarizing element, and polarizes the light so as to form a linear light irradiation area along the aforementioned one direction to shoot, The polarized light is formed by polarizing the light emitted from the aforementioned output end of the aforementioned light guide fiber by the aforementioned polarizing element; Light way to fix the aforementioned lens unit at any angle.

As mentioned above, the lens unit is fixed at an arbitrary angle, whereby polarized light is irradiated obliquely to the light irradiation surface of the object to be processed, so it is not necessary to incline the entire light irradiation part including the light source, or to hold the object to be processed. The platform is tilted. Therefore, the polarized light can be irradiated obliquely to the light irradiation surface of the object without enlarging the apparatus.

In addition, in the above-mentioned polarized light irradiation device, the light guide fiber is composed of a plurality of fiber bundles formed by bundling a plurality of fiber wires in a predetermined number, and the light-emitting side ends of the plurality of fiber bundles are located at The above-mentioned one direction may be arranged side by side to constitute the above-mentioned ejection end. In this case, the ejection end extending in one direction can be easily and appropriately formed.

In addition, in the above-mentioned polarized light irradiation device, the lamp is provided with a plurality of the light sources, and the light-exiting end portions of the plurality of fiber bundles composed of the light guide fibers respectively provided corresponding to the plurality of light sources are formed by A predetermined number may be arranged side by side sequentially in the aforementioned one direction to form the aforementioned ejection end. In this case, even if there is a difference in illuminance among a plurality of light sources, the difference in illuminance in the light irradiation area can be suppressed, and uniform light can be irradiated to the object to be processed.

In addition, in the above-mentioned polarized light irradiation device, the aforementioned light guide fiber is constituted by a fiber bundle that bundles a plurality of fiber lines into one fiber bundle, and the light-emitting side end portion of the aforementioned one fiber bundle is the conventional one. direction extension It is also possible to be bundled in an extended manner to form the aforementioned ejection end. In this case, the ejection end extending in one direction can be easily and appropriately formed.

In addition, in the polarized light irradiation device described above, the lens unit further includes: an optical system that regards the light emitted from the emitting end of the light guide fiber as incident light, and makes the illuminance of the incident light uniform. and a condensing lens that condenses the emitted light from the aforementioned optical system, and the aforementioned polarizing element may polarize the light that is condensed by the aforementioned condensing lens.

In this case, it is possible to appropriately form a light irradiation region whose illuminance is uniform and along one direction. In addition, since no other optical elements are installed on the output side of the polarizer, the polarized light polarized by the polarizer is directly irradiated to the object to be processed, so that the unexpected rotation of the polarization axis can be suppressed, and the target can be properly irradiated. desired polarized light.

In addition, in the polarized light irradiation device described above, the optical system may be a glass plate having a long side arranged along the one direction. In this case, the illuminance of incident light can be made uniform with a simple structure.

In addition, in the polarized light irradiation device described above, the condenser lens may be a cylindrical lens. In this case, linear light along one direction can be appropriately formed with a simple structure.

In addition, in the polarized light irradiation device described above, the oblique irradiation mechanism may be configured to be able to adjust an angle of the lens unit to the light irradiation surface. In this case, the incident angle of the light emitted from the lens unit to the light-irradiated surface of the object to be processed can be adjusted.

In addition, an aspect of the polarized light irradiation method of the present invention, It includes: injecting the light emitted from the light source of the lamp into the input end of the light guide fiber, and emitting it from the output end arranged along one direction; The emitted light enters a lens unit that is separately disposed from the lamp and has a polarizing element, and the incident light is polarized by the polarizing element to form a line along the aforementioned one direction. The step of emitting the light in the form of a shaped light irradiation area; the step of fixing the lens unit at an arbitrary angle, and irradiating the polarized light from an oblique direction to the light irradiation surface of the object to be processed.

As mentioned above, the lens unit is fixed at an arbitrary angle, whereby polarized light is irradiated obliquely to the light irradiation surface of the object to be processed, so it is not necessary to incline the entire light irradiation part including the light source, or to hold the object to be processed. The platform is tilted. Therefore, the polarized light can be irradiated obliquely to the light irradiation surface of the object without enlarging the apparatus.

According to the present invention, it is possible to irradiate a workpiece with polarized light from an oblique direction without enlarging the apparatus.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

(first embodiment)

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a polarized light irradiation device 100 according to the present embodiment.

The polarized light irradiation device 100 is provided with: a light irradiation unit composed of a first lamp (lampshade) 10A, a second lamp (lampshade) 10B, a light guide fiber 20 and a lens unit 30, an oblique irradiation mechanism 40, and a workpiece platform 50. . The workpiece W, which is the object to be processed by the polarized light irradiation device 100 , is, for example, a rectangular substrate on which a photoalignment film is formed on a light irradiation surface.

The polarized light irradiation device 100 moves the workpiece stage 50 linearly by a conveying part not shown while emitting polarized light (polarized light), and the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W conveyed by the workpiece stage 50 The formed photo-alignment film is subjected to photo-alignment treatment by irradiating the polarized light. In the present embodiment, the polarized light irradiation device 100 can perform an optical alignment process of irradiating polarized light to the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W from an oblique direction.

The first lamp 10A includes, as shown in FIG. 2 , a light source 11 for emitting ultraviolet rays, and a mirror 12 . The second lamp 10B has the same structure as the first lamp 10A, so only the structure of the first lamp 10A will be described here.

As the light source 11, for example, a short-arc ultra-high pressure mercury lamp or a metal halide lamp can be used, and emits ultraviolet light having a wavelength corresponding to the internal light source. In addition, the light source 11 is not limited to a lamp, For example, LED or LD can also be used. The type of light source 11 can be appropriately selected according to the necessary wavelength.

The mirror 12 reflects the ultraviolet light from the light source 11 and focuses it on the incident end 23 of the light guide fiber 20 . For example, the mirror 12 is a bowl (basin)-shaped converging mirror whose section is an ellipse, and when the light source 11 is a lamp, its light-emitting point is arranged to coincide with the first focal point of the ellipse. Also, when the light source 11 is a lamp, the light source 11 may be lit horizontally or lit vertically. In addition, in this embodiment, although the case where the light irradiation part is provided with two lamps 10A, 10B is described, the number of lamps is not limited to the above. The number of lamps is appropriately set according to the size and illuminance of the light irradiation area 34 to be described later.

The light guide fibers 20 are respectively provided corresponding to the lamps 10A and 10B. The light guide fiber 20 guides the light from the lamps 10A, 10B to the lens unit 30 . The light guide fiber 20 is composed of many thin fiber threads 21 and can be flexed softly (has flexibility). One end of the light guide fiber 20 is an output end 22 for emitting the guided light in a dot shape, and the other end is an input end 23 for receiving light from the first lamp 10A and the second lamp 10B. The fiber line 21 of the light guide fiber 20 is at the incident end 23 of the light guide fiber 20, matching the shape of the light collected by the above-mentioned mirror 12, such as converging into a circle. On the other hand, the fiber strands 21 are bundled in a linear shape (including a ribbon shape) along one direction at the output end 22 of the light guide fiber 20 .

In the present embodiment, the light guide fiber 20 is composed of a plurality of fiber bundles formed by bundling the fiber wires 21 in a predetermined number, and the light-emitting side ends of the plurality of fiber bundles have a direction in the direction of conveyance of the workpiece W. (Substrate conveyance direction) Arranged side by side in the orthogonal direction in a linear structure. That is, in the present embodiment, the light-emitting end portions of the plurality of fiber bundles are arranged side by side in one direction (substrate conveying direction) to form the emitting end 22 . Also, in FIG. 1, only one fiber bundle is shown, but in reality, the light guide fibers 20 are branched into plural numbers as described above.

Fig. 3 is a structural example of the optical fiber 20 of this embodiment. In FIG. 3 , the direction perpendicular to the drawing (the direction toward the back of the drawing) is the substrate transfer direction. As shown in FIG. 3 , the light-emitting end portions of the plurality of fiber bundles constituting the light guide fiber 20 connected to the first lamp 10A and the plurality of fiber bundles constituting the light guide fiber 20 connected to the second lamp 10B are The end portions on the light emitting side may be alternately arranged one by one. In this case, there is randomness, and even if there is a difference in illuminance among a plurality of lamps, the difference in illuminance in the light irradiation area can be suppressed.

Also, in FIG. 3 , although each light guide fiber 20 has 12 fiber bundles, and the output ends 22 of a total of 24 fiber bundles are shown in a row in one direction, the arrangement of the output ends 22 is not limited. above. The output terminals 22 may be arranged along one direction, for example, they may be arranged in plural rows in the substrate conveying direction. In addition, although FIG. 3 shows the case where the light-emitting-side end portions of the fiber bundles are arranged alternately one by one, they may be arranged alternately for every plural number. And, in the case where there are three or more lamps, similarly, the light-emitting side ends of the plurality of fiber bundles formed by the light guide fibers 20 respectively provided corresponding to the respective lamps can be arranged side by side with each other. configured in one direction.

In addition, in this embodiment, although the case where the light guide fiber 20 is comprised by several fiber bundles was demonstrated, the light guide fiber 20 may also be comprised by one fiber bundle. That is, all the fiber strands 21 constituting the light guide fiber 20 are bundled into, for example, a single rectangular shape at the output end 22, and arranged so that the long side coincides with the direction perpendicular to the substrate conveying direction.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the structure of the lens unit 30 . This FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the lens unit 30 with the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 removed from FIG. 1 . The lens unit 30 includes: a rectangular parallelepiped glass plate 31 , a cylindrical lens 32 , and a polarizing plate (polarizing element) 33 . These members are made of a material that allows ultraviolet rays irradiated to the object to be processed, that is, the workpiece W, to pass through, and are made of, for example, quartz.

The glass plate 31 is a uniform illumination optical system that emits the incident light injected by the light guide fiber 20 as uniformized light, and is also a rectangular parallelepiped quartz plate. The configuration of 22 corresponds to the rectangular shape. That is, the glass plate 31 is arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the upper surface coincides with the direction perpendicular to the substrate conveyance direction. The light incident from the upper surface of the glass plate 31 is repeatedly reflected on the inner surface of the side wall of the glass plate 31 to make the illuminance distribution uniform and then output from the lower surface of the glass surface 31 . Also, the uniform illumination optical system is not limited to the rectangular parallelepiped glass plate 31, for example, it may also be composed of a plurality of cylindrical lenses arranged side by side in a cylindrical shape. In addition, the uniform irradiation optical system may be a cylindrical member whose inner surface is formed of a mirror.

The light emitted from the glass plate 31 enters the cylindrical lens 32 . The cylindrical lens 32 is a condensing lens for condensing the light emitted from the glass plate 31 and for shaping the light irradiated on the workpiece W into a linear shape. In this embodiment, the case where two cylindrical lenses 32 are used will be described. The cylindrical lens 32 of this embodiment is a plano-convex lens in which a flat surface and a convex surface are arranged to face each other. Furthermore, the two cylindrical lenses 32 are arranged so that their convex surfaces face each other in the vertical direction, and the longitudinal direction thereof is arranged along the above-mentioned longitudinal direction of the glass plate 31 in the horizontal plane. Also, the shape, arrangement, and number of cylindrical lenses 32 are not limited to the above, and can be appropriately set according to the shape of the light irradiation area 34 irradiated to the workpiece W, and the like. In addition, the condensing lens is not limited to a cylindrical lens, and a cylindrical lens in a cylindrical shape may be applied.

The light emitted from the cylindrical lens 32 enters the polarizing plate (polarizing element) 33 and is emitted as polarized light. The polarizing plate 33 is, for example, a wire grid type polarizing element. The polarizing plate 33 is arranged along the above-mentioned longitudinal direction of the cylindrical lens 32, and the polarized light polarized by the polarizing plate 33 is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the substrate conveying direction as shown in FIG. The light is emitted so as to form a linear light irradiation area 34 . When polarized light enters an optical element or is reflected by an optical element, the direction of the polarization axis will deviate from the desired direction (the polarization axis will rotate). Therefore, it is preferable not to provide an optical element on the output side of the polarizing plate 33 . That is to say, the lens unit 30 is equipped with a glass plate 31, a cylindrical lens 32, and a polarizing plate (polarizing element) 33 in order from the side where the light from the light guide fiber 20 is incident. The polarized light polarized by the polarizing element) 33 is preferably directly irradiated to the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W without passing through the optical element.

Returning to FIG. 1 , the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 includes: a bracket 41 , a rotating shaft 42 , and a rotating pull rod 43 . The bracket 41 fixes the exit end 22 of the optical fiber 20 and the lens unit 30 so that the relative position between the exit end 22 and the glass plate 31 of the lens unit 30 does not change (the positions of the two do not shift). The bracket 41 is attached to the rotating shaft 42 . The rotation shaft 42 is an axis perpendicular to the substrate transfer direction. By rotating the rotation shaft 42, the holder 41 is rotated around the rotation shaft 42, and the lens unit 30 fixed to the holder 41 is rotated. The shaft 42 rotates around the center.

When the lens unit 30 rotates around the rotation shaft 42 , the incident angle of the light emitted from the lens unit 30 to the workpiece W changes. The rotation shaft 42 can be fixed at any rotation angle by the rotation shaft pull rod 43 . That is to say, the angle of the lens unit 30 relative to the workpiece W can be adjusted to any angle through the operation of the rotating shaft pull rod 43 , so that the angle of the light incident on the workpiece W can be adjusted to any angle. Also, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 , the rotation shaft 42 is provided near the center of the lens unit 30 . Then, when the lens unit 30 rotates around the rotation axis 42 , the position of the lower end of the lens unit 30 moves in an arc around the rotation axis 42 . Therefore, the position of the light irradiation region 34 moves in the substrate conveyance direction.

Furthermore, when the lens unit 30 rotates around the rotation axis 42 , the position of the upper end of the lens unit 30 also moves in an arc around the rotation axis 42 . That is to say, the position of the output end 22 of the light guide fiber 20 connected to the lens unit 30 is moved in a circular arc with the rotation axis 42 as the center, so that the relative positions of the lamps 10A, 10B and the output end 22 are changed. . In this embodiment, the lamps 10A, 10B and the lens unit 30 are connected by a flexible light guide fiber 20 . Therefore, the movement of the output end 22 generated by the rotational movement of the lens unit 30 is absorbed by the bending of the light guide fiber 20 . The light guide fiber 20 can be bent from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction as long as the angle is not sharp.

As described above, the polarized light irradiation device 100 of this embodiment uses the light guide fiber 20 as the light guide means for guiding the light from the lamps 10A and 10B to the lens unit 30, and the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W from the lens unit 30 is By fixing at an arbitrary angle, the workpiece W is irradiated with polarized light from an oblique direction. According to this structure, it is not necessary to tilt the lamps 10A, 10B, and it is not necessary to tilt the workpiece platform 50 holding the workpiece W, and the workpiece W can be irradiated with polarized light from an oblique direction. For example, when the workpiece W is a substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) on which a photoalignment film is formed, a pretilt angle can be given to the photoalignment film by irradiating the substrate with polarized light from an oblique direction.

Also, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 , the rotating shaft 42 is set near the central portion of the lens unit 30, and the lens unit 30 is rotated around the central portion of the lens unit 30. For the sake of description, the rotation center of the lens unit 30 is not limited to the above. For example, a structure may be employed in which the lens unit 30 is rotated around the position of the light irradiation region 34 on the workpiece W when the inclination of the lens unit 30 is zero (perpendicular to the workpiece W). In this case, even if the lens unit 30 rotates, the position of the light irradiation area 34 can be kept unchanged. However, in this case, an arcuate guide or the like for rotatably supporting the lens unit 30 is necessary, which complicates the structure of the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 .

The workpiece platform 50 is a flat platform on which the workpiece W can be sucked and held by means of vacuum suction or the like. In addition, in the present embodiment, although the workpiece platform 50 and the workpiece W have a rectangular shape, they are not limited thereto, and may have any shape. In addition, the structure is not limited to the structure in which the workpiece W is sucked and held on a flat plate, but may be a structure in which the workpiece W is sucked and held by a plurality of pins.

The conveying unit (not shown) for linearly moving the workpiece stage 50 is provided with a driving mechanism for moving the workpiece stage 50 in the substrate conveying direction. The driving mechanism can be, for example, a linear motor driving mechanism. In addition, the drive mechanism may be, for example, a mechanism using a ball screw. That is, as for the structure of the drive mechanism, any structure can be adopted as long as it can move the workpiece stage 50 in the substrate conveyance direction. The movement path of the work stage 50 is designed to pass through the light irradiation area 34 formed by the polarized light emitted from the lens unit 30 .

As described above, the polarized light irradiation device 100 of the present embodiment includes a plurality of lamps 10A, 10B each having a light source 11 . Moreover, the polarized light irradiation device 100 is provided with a light guide fiber 20 having an incident end 23 into which light from the light source 11 enters, arranged along one direction, and extending from the incident end 23 The output end 22 from which the incident light exits. In addition, the polarized light irradiation device 100 is provided with a lens unit 30 having a polarizing plate (polarizing element) 33, and the polarized light obtained by polarizing the light emitted from the output end 22 of the light guide fiber 20, It is emitted so as to form a linear light irradiation region 34 along the above-mentioned one direction. In addition, the polarized light irradiation device 100 is provided with an oblique irradiation mechanism 40. The oblique irradiation mechanism 40 fixes the lens unit 30 at an arbitrary angle so that the polarized light emitted from the lens unit 30 is directed to the object to be processed. The workpiece W is irradiated from an oblique direction.

As described above, by fixing the lens unit 30 at an arbitrary angle, the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W is irradiated with polarized light from an oblique direction, so it is not necessary to incline the entire light irradiation part including the light source 11, or to make the workpiece stage 50 tilt. For example, when the light source 11 is an arc lamp, in the case of a structure in which the entire light irradiation part is inclined, the movement of the lamp is limited by the lighting conditions of the arc lamp. In other words, if the arc lamp is tilted, the shape of the arc may be deformed, which may cause trouble. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the posture of the arc lamp vertically or horizontally during lighting. Therefore, when moving the entire light irradiation unit for oblique irradiation, it is necessary to move the lamp while maintaining the posture of the arc lamp. Then, the tilting mechanism of the light irradiation part becomes complicated and large.

Furthermore, when the workpiece W is a large-sized liquid crystal substrate or the like, the workpiece stage 50 holding the workpiece W is also increased in size. Therefore, when tilting the workpiece table, the tilting mechanism for this will become a large one. On the other hand, in this embodiment, there is no need to move the lamp, so the structure of the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 can be simplified. Furthermore, in this embodiment, there is no need to incline the workpiece table 50, so the state in which the workpiece W is stably held can be maintained. As described above, the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W can be irradiated with polarized light from an oblique direction without enlarging the apparatus.

In addition, the polarized light irradiation device 100 uses a flexible light guide fiber 20 as means for guiding the light from the light source 11 to the lens unit 30 . Thereby, when the lens unit 30 is moved for oblique irradiation, the light guide fiber 20 can easily absorb the movement of the lens unit 30 . That is to say, the light guide fiber 20 deforms softly with respect to the angle change of the lens unit 30 , and can properly guide the light from the light source 11 to the lens unit 30 . For example, it is considered to use an optical system to guide the light from the light source 11 to the lens unit 30, but in this case, it is necessary to adjust the detailed position of the optical system in accordance with the operation of the lens unit 30. In the present embodiment, the angle setting of the lens unit 30 can be easily performed by using the light guide fiber 20 as described above.

In addition, the light guide fiber 20 of the present embodiment is constituted by a plurality of fiber bundles formed by bundling a plurality of fiber wires 21 in a predetermined number, and the light-emitting-side end portions of the plurality of fiber bundles are aligned in the substrate conveying direction. They are arranged side by side in a direction perpendicular to each other to constitute the emission end 22 . As described above, the optical fiber 20 is constituted by a plurality of fiber bundles, thereby easily and appropriately forming the output ends arranged in a desired size along one direction.

And, the lens unit 30 of the present embodiment is provided with: a glass plate 31 as an optical system, which regards the light emitted from the output end 22 of the light guide fiber 20 as incident light, and makes the illuminance of the incident light uniform. a cylindrical lens 32 as a condensing lens that condenses the emitted light from the glass plate 31 ; and a polarizer (polarizer) 33 that polarizes the light condensed by the cylindrical lens 32 . Thus, the lens unit 30 emits linear light with uniform illuminance and directivity, so that the linear light irradiation area 34 can be appropriately formed on the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W. Furthermore, by designing the optical system of the lens unit 30, the shape (width or length) of the light irradiation area 34 can be easily made into a desired shape. Moreover, no optical element is provided on the output side of the polarizing element, thereby effectively suppressing the dispersion of the polarization performance and obtaining a higher extinction ratio.

As described above, the polarized light irradiation device 100 of this embodiment can irradiate the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W, which is the object to be processed, with directional light at any angle without increasing the size of the device.

(Modification) In the above-mentioned embodiment, the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 is manually operated to rotate the lever 43, whereby the irradiation angle of the polarized light on the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W can be adjusted. Although the case of this structure has been described , but the above angle adjustment is not limited to manual adjustment. For example, the angle adjustment may be automatically performed by using a motor or the like. In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the oblique irradiation mechanism 40 has been described as a structure capable of adjusting the irradiation angle of the polarized light on the light irradiation surface of the workpiece W, but the irradiation angle can also be fixed at any angle.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the polarized light irradiation device has been described, but the light irradiated to the workpiece W is not limited to the polarized light. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a light irradiation device such as an exposure device that irradiates a workpiece with light containing ultraviolet rays to expose it, or an ultraviolet irradiation device that performs thermosetting treatment with ultraviolet rays. In the case of such a light irradiation device, light can be irradiated to the workpiece from an oblique direction, thereby enabling efficient irradiation of light to, for example, the height difference portion of the workpiece, and appropriate light irradiation processing can be performed.

10A, 10B‧‧‧lamp 11‧‧‧light source 12‧‧‧mirror 20‧‧‧light guide fiber 21‧‧‧fiber line 22‧‧‧exit end 23‧‧‧injection end 30‧‧‧lens unit 31 . 50‧‧‧workpiece platform 100‧‧‧polarized light irradiation device

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a polarized light irradiation device according to this embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a structural example of a lamp (lampshade).

Fig. 3 is a structural example of an optical fiber.

Fig. 4 is a structural example of a lens unit.

10A, 10B‧‧‧lamps

20‧‧‧optical fiber

21‧‧‧Fiber thread

22‧‧‧Injection end

23‧‧‧injection end

30‧‧‧lens unit

34‧‧‧light irradiation area

40‧‧‧Oblique irradiation mechanism

41‧‧‧Stent

42‧‧‧rotation axis

43‧‧‧rotating tie rod

50‧‧‧workpiece platform

100‧‧‧polarized light irradiation device

W‧‧‧workpiece

Claims (9)

A polarized light irradiation device, characterized by comprising: a lamp provided with a light source; a light guide fiber, which has an incident end for the light from the light source to enter, is arranged along one direction, and emits light from the incident end. The output end from which the incoming light is emitted; the lens unit is arranged separately from the aforementioned lamp, has a polarizing element, and emits polarized light in a manner to form a linear light irradiation area along the aforementioned one direction. The light emitted from the aforementioned output end of the aforementioned optical fiber is polarized by the aforementioned polarizing element; The aforementioned lens unit is fixed at an arbitrary angle. The polarized light irradiation device according to claim 1, wherein the light guide fiber is composed of a plurality of fiber bundles formed by bundling a plurality of fiber lines in a predetermined number, and the light emitting side of the plurality of fiber bundles is The end portions are arranged side by side in the aforementioned one direction to constitute the aforementioned ejection end. The polarized light irradiation device as described in claim 2, wherein a plurality of the above-mentioned lamps are provided with the above-mentioned light source, The light emitting end portions of the plurality of fiber bundles composed of the light guide fibers respectively provided corresponding to the plurality of light sources are arranged side by side in the one direction with a predetermined number to constitute the emitting end. The polarized light irradiation device according to claim 1, wherein the light guide fiber is composed of a fiber bundle that bundles a plurality of fiber lines into one fiber bundle, and the light-emitting side end of the fiber bundle is Conventionally, they are bundled so as to extend in the aforementioned one direction to constitute the aforementioned ejection end. The polarized light irradiation device according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the lens unit further includes: an optical system that regards the light emitted from the emitting end of the light guide fiber as incident light, and uniformize the illuminance of the incident light; and a condensing lens that condenses the outgoing light from the aforementioned optical system, and the aforementioned polarizing element that polarizes the light condensed by the aforementioned condensing lens. The polarized light irradiation device according to claim 5, wherein the optical system is a glass plate having long sides arranged along the one direction. The polarized light irradiation device as described in claim 5, wherein the light concentrating The lens is a cylindrical lens. The polarized light irradiation device according to claim 1, wherein the oblique irradiation mechanism is configured to be able to adjust the angle of the lens unit to the light irradiation surface. A method for irradiating polarized light, characterized by comprising: injecting light emitted from a light source of a lamp into an input end of a light guide fiber, and emitting it from an output end arranged along one direction; The light emitted from the emitting end of the light guide fiber enters into a lens unit provided separately from the lamp and has a polarizing element, and the incident light is polarized by the polarizing element into polarized light, It is a step of emitting in such a way that a linear light irradiation area is formed along the aforementioned one direction; the aforementioned lens unit is fixed at an arbitrary angle, and the aforementioned polarized light is irradiated obliquely to the light irradiation surface of the object to be processed. .

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